Client Acquisition Specialist

Company: NorthOps LLC
Location: In-Person — San Jose, California or Santa Cruz, California
Employment Type: Internship (5 Weeks)
Schedule: Approximately 8 hours per week
About Us:
We help restaurants and local businesses grow through short-form social media content and digital marketing.
Our team has generated millions of views for businesses across platforms like Instagram and TikTok, helping local brands reach significantly larger audiences and turn online attention into real-world customers.
We're looking for motivated students and early-career professionals who want practical experience in marketing, sales, content strategy, and entrepreneurship.
About the Internship:
This is a structured five-week, in-person internship designed to teach interns how a modern social media marketing business actually acquires and grows clients.
Interns will work directly alongside the founders and receive hands-on mentorship throughout the program.
Rather than only learning sales through scripts or training videos, interns will shadow the founders during real restaurant outreach, observe conversations with owners and managers, learn how we pitch our services, and see how cold conversations turn into clients.
As the internship progresses, interns will begin conducting outreach themselves with direct coaching and feedback.
You'll also learn the marketing side of the business, including how we develop content strategies, create short-form videos, build compelling hooks and offers, and produce content capable of generating hundreds of thousands or millions of views.
The goal is to expose interns to the entire process:
Finding a restaurant → meeting the owner → pitching the business → signing the client → creating content → generating views → helping the restaurant grow.
This internship requires approximately 8 hours per week over five weeks.
Responsibilities:
Shadow founders during in-person restaurant outreach and sales conversations.
Visit local restaurants and introduce our social media marketing services to owners and managers.
Identify restaurants and local businesses that could benefit from stronger social media marketing.
Learn how to confidently approach and communicate with business owners.
Conduct in-person outreach and help schedule meetings with prospective clients.
Learn how to pitch marketing services, handle objections, and communicate value.
Maintain accurate records of outreach activity and prospect conversations.
Participate in regular training, mentorship, and sales debrief sessions.
Learn how restaurant content is planned, filmed, edited, and distributed.
Collaborate with the team on marketing campaigns and client acquisition strategies.
Qualifications:
Current college student, recent graduate, or early-career professional.
Strong verbal communication skills.
Comfortable speaking with new people or motivated to become more confident doing so.
Coachable, self-motivated, and dependable.
Comfortable stepping outside your comfort zone and hearing “no.”
Interest in marketing, entrepreneurship, sales, social media, content creation, or business.
Willing to participate in in-person outreach throughout the Santa Cruz area.
Prior marketing or sales experience is not required.
We care more about attitude, coachability, and willingness to learn.
What You'll Gain:
Direct mentorship from founders who have generated millions of social media views for businesses.
Hands-on experience selling marketing services to real business owners.
Experience shadowing founders during real sales conversations and negotiations.
Training on in-person sales, prospecting, pitching, objection handling, and closing.
An understanding of how marketing agencies acquire clients.
Exposure to TikTok, Instagram Reels, and short-form content strategy.
Training on hooks, offers, content concepts, filming, and distribution.
An understanding of what makes certain restaurant content reach hundreds of thousands or millions of people.
Experience connecting social media attention to measurable business growth.
Practical experience in entrepreneurship and building a service business.
Resume-building experience working on real marketing and customer acquisition initiatives.
Unlike many internships, you'll have the opportunity to see the entire business process firsthand from walking into a restaurant for the first time to potentially watching content created for that business reach thousands or even millions of people.
Compensation:
This internship offers commission-based compensation based on successful client acquisition and/or qualified opportunities generated.
There is no hourly wage or salary associated with this position. Full compensation details and commission structure will be discussed during the interview process.
Application
Please submit:
Your resume.
A short introduction about yourself.
Why you're interested in marketing, sales, or entrepreneurship.
Your availability over the next five weeks.

Work arrangement
Yes