Cottingham & Butler is the 3rd largest privately and independently held insurance brokerage firm. Simply put, we are professional buyers of insurance. As we continue to grow, Cottingham & Butler is actively looking for ambitious and driven sales-minded individuals for our 2027 Summer Sales Internship Program.
What You’ll Do: As a Sales Intern, you will be immersed in various aspects of the sales process, gaining hands-on experience and developing essential skills. Your responsibilities will include:
- Cold Calling Prospects: Learn to effectively cold call potential clients, introducing them to our services and identifying their insurance needs.
- Client Meetings: Travel to client meetings with experienced sales professionals, observing and participating in discussions to understand client requirements and how to address them.
- Industry Knowledge: Dive into industry knowledge by researching market trends, competitor activities, and emerging opportunities. This will help you understand the landscape and better serve our clients.
- Sales Strategies: Collaborate with team members to develop and implement sales strategies, learning how to tailor approaches to different clients and situations.
- Training Sessions: Participate in training sessions and workshops designed to enhance your sales skills, product knowledge, and understanding of the insurance industry.
- Networking: Build connections with clients, industry professionals, C&B executives, and fellow interns through networking events and social activities.
People We Hire: Your major doesn’t matter to us. We know people don’t usually major in insurance, so we focus on personality and character; we can teach you the rest. Our sales team is filled with individuals who are competitive, resilient, and influential. Strong candidates display the following:
- History of academic and/or extracurricular excellence.
- Self-motivated with a drive to succeed.
- Ability to work well in a team-oriented environment.
- Willingness to learn and adapt to new challenges.
- Strong communication and interpersonal skills.
What You'll Get: This program is intended to provide impactful real-life experience that goes beyond the 10-week experience. Program details are listed below:
- Start date: Tuesday, May 18th. 2027
- End date: Friday, July 23rd, 2027
- Duration: 10 weeks in a culture unlike any other
- $6,500 paid internship with bonus opportunity
- Apartment-style housing provided
- Learn from and work with experts of the business
- Mentorship
- Develop your skills and knowledge through real work
- Grow your network of like-minded interns and professionals
- Intern social and networking activities
- Returning intern or full-time placement after graduation for successful interns
About Cottingham & Butler:
At Cottingham & Butler, we sell a promise to help our clients through life’s toughest moments. To deliver on that promise, we aim to hire, train, and grow the best professionals in the industry. We look for people with an insatiable desire to succeed, are committed to growing, and thrive on challenges. Our culture is guided by the theme of “better every day” constantly pushing ourselves to be better than yesterday – that’s who we are and what we believe in.
As an organization, we are tremendously optimistic about the future and have incredibly high expectations for our people and our performance. Our ability to grow as a company, fuels investments in new resources to better serve our clients and provide the amazing career opportunities our employees want and deserve. This is why we are a growth company and why we are committed to being better every day.
Want to learn more? Follow us on www.CottinghamButler.com | LinkedIn | Facebook
Skills Required
- History of academic and/or extracurricular excellence
- Self-motivated with a drive to succeed
- Ability to work well in a team-oriented environment
- Willingness to learn and adapt to new challenges
- Strong communication and interpersonal skills
- Competitive, resilient, and influential personality
Cottingham & Butler Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Cottingham & Butler and has not been reviewed or approved by Cottingham & Butler.
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Strong & Reliable Incentives — Variable pay elements—such as commissions, bonuses, and profit sharing—create meaningful earning upside in certain roles. Feedback suggests these incentives contribute to stronger satisfaction where performance pay is prominent.
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Retirement Support — A 401(k) with company match and profit sharing strengthens long‑term savings potential. Feedback suggests tax‑advantaged accounts and, in some roles, day‑one eligibility add tangible value.
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Parental & Family Support — Priority access and discounted rates at the Dubuque HQ onsite childcare center directly support working parents. Family‑oriented perks complement the broader health and time‑off offerings.
Cottingham & Butler Insights
What We Do
Cottingham & Butler is the 31st largest insurance broker in the U.S. and a recognized leader in offering innovative property & casualty and employee benefit insurance solutions. The company is headquartered in Dubuque, Iowa, and employs over 1,200 employees across the U.S. Better Every Day. That's our promise to our clients. We deliver better advice, better service, and better ideas than our competitors. Every Day. It's a commitment to challenging conventional wisdom, innovating, improving how we serve our clients and growing as industry professionals. This approach has produced superior results for our clients, and a growth track record that has propelled us forward since 1887
