Members of the Campbell University Sales Team competed at the Northeast Intercollegiate Sales Competition in November. The team members included Landon Clifton, Claire Taylor and Colin Nation, led by Associate Professor Dr. Michael Rodriguez.
The Northeast Intercollegiate Sales Competition provides an opportunity for students to compete in a multi-round tournament-style sales competition. The competitions include role play, speed selling, multilingual speed selling and social media.
The role play competition consists of rounds each having a 10-minute sales meeting with a fictional company. There are then corporate sponsors who act as buyers and judge the students as they pitch their company. The speed selling competition involves the competitors pitching themselves on why they should be hired as part of the company, and they are judged based on their 60-second elevator pitch.
The Campbell Sales Team placed in its first-ever competition, with Clifton and Taylor finishing as semi-finalists in the role play competition, and Nation as finalist in speed selling.
“The sales competition is a great opportunity to not only showcase our students’ sales skills, but also find job opportunities,” said Rodriguez. “It was the first time Campbell has competed in this event, [so] to have all of our students place is evidence of their hard work and dedication to the sales profession. Many had never heard of Campbell before this competition. The sales community knows now.”
Taylor, a senior who will graduate in December with a degree in business management, said being a part of the team got her out of her comfort zone, strengthened her professional selling skills and allowed her to meet like-minded students from other schools.
“Advancing past the first round was really exciting, especially because I got to go back and tell all the people who helped me prepare about my accomplishment,” she said.