TAMPA – As another semester closed on the student sales competition season, business students finished with sharpened skills in networking, prospecting, and completing the sale.
This semester’s competitions included four events — two on the Tampa campus at the Muma College of Business and two away contests that saw student sales teams compete in Orlando and Rhode Island.
The in-house competitions marked the 14th and 15th competitions hosted by USF’s Center for Marketing and Sales Innovation. October’s Selling with the Bulls session was sponsored by ReliaQuest and the American Marketing Association’s Regional Conference Sales Competition was sponsored by Sun State International.
Overall, it was a busy competition season for students in USF’s Business Development Club and more than 30 business leaders volunteered their time and insights as judges for the competitions.
At the Selling with the Bulls event, sales scholarships totaling $3,000 were awarded. Scholarship winners included Charlie Olliff, Olivia Stimpson, Ahmad Beran, Austin Jenkins, Dennis Iglesias, Camryn Huet, and Makenna Bader.
A USF team traveled to Orlando in early November and competed against 82 schools at the International Collegiate Sales Competition. The event is the largest collegiate sales competition that included competitions in role play, speed selling, and sales management. Ed Hoeppner, an assistant professor of instruction at the Muma College of Business, coached the team.
The sales competition season ended at Bryant University in Smithfield, Rhode Island. Jay Civitillo, an adjunct professor, coached the USF team at the 11th annual Northeast Intercollegiate Sales Competition.
More than 46 colleges and universities attended the two-day event where participants battled in a tournament-style sales competition as well as attend skill and leadership-building sessions.
To get prepared for the sales face off, students spent several weeks developing and practicing key skill sets including approach and rapport building, needs identification, presentation, handling of objections, closing, and communications skills.
Over the two days, students competed in multiple sales situations with representatives from the corporate sponsors who acted as the buyers, prospects of the students’ sales pitch, and judges during the role play. Students also participated in mock sales calls and then received immediate feedback and coaching on their performance and advice on how to improve for the next round.
During breaks in the competition sessions, they met one-on-one with representatives from over 15 local and national companies to discuss internships while in school and possible careers after graduation.