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TCNJ Marketing Students Place Fourth of Seventeen Universities in National Sales Competition
Press Release: November 27, 2007
TCNJ students placed fourth of seventeen university teams competing at William Paterson University’s Russ Berrie Institute National Sales Challenge. The TCNJ students competing were marketing majors Allen Soriano (right), Stephanie Cwynar (2nd from left), and Jacqui Town (left). Allen and Stephanie are juniors and Jacqui is a senior. Jacqui Town placed sixth overall of forty six students competing in the event. The team was coached by Dr. Al Pelham, Associate Professor of Management and Marketing (2nd from right). The TCNJ students were competing large sales programs where the top 1 percent of 175 to 350 sales majors are selected to compete. Two of the TCNJ students had completed only one sales course, and Jacqui is in the middle of her first sales courses. Their competitors typically had completed four to six sales courses.
The competition was held from November 8 through 10 in Wayne, N.J. Students competed in three events and were judged by sales professionals and sales professors. Corporate sponsors of the competition included firms such as McKesson, News America Marketing, AT&T, DHL, Hilti, BD Medical Equipment, Enterprise, and Mariott Vacation Club. These firms and others were available to talk to student at a career fair.
The three events included an in-basket competition, where each student had to sort through, prioritize, and decide on the order of attending to twenty tasks calling for their attention. Allen Soriano of TCNJ placed eighth among the forty six students in this event. The second event consisted of a speed selling competition where the student was required to explain to a series of executives, one after another in two minutes, the reasons why he or she should be hired by that firm. Jacqui Town of TCNJ placed sixth among the forty six students in this event. The last event was a sales role play competition where each student completed a fifteen minute sales call on a business executive playing the role of an independent drugstore owner. Jacqui Town of TCNJ placed sixth among the forty six students in this event. In the role play event students were selling the services of McKesson Inc, the nation’s largest wholesale drug distributor.
The team rankings in the competition were:
- University of Toledo, with 300 sales majors
- William Paterson University, with 85 sales majors
- Western Michigan University, with 300 sales majors
- The College of New Jersey, with fifteen professional selling minors
- University of Louisville, with 25 sales emphasis majors
- Purdue University
- Ball State University, with 350 sales majors
- Middle Tennessee State University
- Illinois State University, with 225 sales majors
- Northern Illinois University, with 175 sales majors.
Other universities competing were Widener University, Western Carolina University, Central Michigan University, Minnesota State University, University of San Francisco, University of New Orleans, and Western Kentucky University, with 75 sales majors.
When asked about her experience at the William Paterson sales competition, Stephanie Cwynar said: “The RBI National Sales Challenge was truly an amazing experience. Not only did we participate in a great hands-on experience, we were able to meet employers and students from all around the country. I learned how to participate in some of the various areas of a sales call such as identifying the needs of a customer and presenting solutions. The speed selling exercise really helped me to learn some qualities about myself and helped me to prepare for interviewing for jobs. The in-basket exercise was pretty useful as well since it required making decisions and prioritizing tasks under pressure. The event was also an amazing networking opportunity. On one of the days, we were able to have "table talks" with representatives from the sponsoring companies. This was an amazing opportunity because we were able to talk to experienced sales managers about several topics such as "Acing the Sales Interview," "Handling objections," and "The transition from college to a new job." Overall, it was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience. It was truly an amazing experience, and we definitely would not have been so successful without the help of our dedicated professor, Dr. Pelham -- he was the definition of an amazing coach.”
Jacqui Town had these comments about the competition: “The decision to compete in the RBI National Sales Competition was the smartest one I've ever made! The opportunity to compete in three real-world business situations was invaluable; I learned so much about myself as a salesperson than I ever could have in a classroom. The speed selling event not only made me realize my strongest skills, but how to effectively communicate those skills to an employer. The role-play was by far the most difficult event. It was very challenging to discover the needs of my buyer, create a personalized solution and convince him that McKesson was the best company to fulfill all of his needs. I learned so much more about my strengths and weakness as a sales representative through this event than I ever would have in class.”
TCNJ began a Professional Selling minor program three years ago with a Professional Selling course, and Advanced Professional Selling course, and a Sales Management course. TCNJ’s program is one of only twenty seven Chally-Verified university sales programs nationally. To date, fifteen students have enrolled in the program or indicated intent to enroll. A small number of Marketing Majors have chosen sales courses for their emphasis area. View information about Professional Selling Minor here.
See William Paterson University’s Russ Berrie Institute National Sales Challenge for information about this program.
