Jasmine Grant-Bentroudi, left, Cyril Johnson and Mike Wegstrom were the top three finishers in the fall 2016 Professional Sales Competition.
The sales competition is designed to provide a venue for St. Cloud State sales students to showcase their selling skills, knowledge and abilities and receive feedback from local sales professionals. It is put on by the Department of Marketing and sponsored by Northwestern Mutual, Anderson Trucking Services, Capital One, Marco and Penske.
The students participated in the competition held Dec. 2 in the Northwestern Mutual Sales Lab. About 50 sales professionals representing nearly 30 area, regional and national firms participated as judges and buyers. These professionals also interacted with students at the event’s corresponding career fair.
Jasmine Grant took second place in the competition Mike Wegstrom took third.
The students were judged on their ability to develop strategic sales openings, ask probing questions to determine the buyer’s needs and develop a strategic needs-based professional selling presentation. They were also judged on their visual aids and ability to handle buyer objections and close the sale.
“I have been involved in the St. Cloud State Sales Competition for the last four semesters. I have enjoyed watching the program grow and improve each year,” said Kayla Pederson,’09 Viking Coca-Cola key account manager. “The Sales Competition has begun to truly mirror real-life sales calls. Anything can happen and this experience allows the students to see just that by determining the best way to react to each situation presented to them by the ‘buyers’.”
Pederson added that she believes she would have benefited from participating in a program like the sales competition when she was a student at St. Cloud State.
Grant said that the sales competition is a highlight of the Professional Selling Specialization program.
“When I first started the sales program I had a negative idea of sales, and a bad perception of salespeople. I had no idea that my opinion would completely change throughout the program, and that I would gain valuable experience that would benefit me in my future,” she said. “The program has given me a solid skills base to understand how to professionally sell products and services as well as how to sell myself, and my ideas in any situation. The combination of learning in class and getting hands-on experience from the Sales Competition has allowed me to apply the knowledge I’ve gained in a real-world situation.”
Having sales skills will benefit your career no matter what field you go into, she said.
The top eight finishers in the first round went on to compete for the top honors. Alexandra Vara, Chelsea Kanduth, Vanessa Lund, Zachary Stodolka and Korey Zetah advanced to the second round, along with the top three finishers.
The top eight finishers show off their plaques together with professionals who acted as buyers and judges in the competition.
The spring 2017 Competition and Career Fair will be April 21 in Centennial Hall. More than 90 students are registered for the competition, which will again feature several dozen sales professionals as competition buyers and judges.
The spring competition will include a new Speed Selling Competition in which students have 90 seconds to make a “job candidate” sales presentation to up to 10 specific firms. Those brief presentations will be judged on the students’ knowledge of the firm, application of their selling skills, verbal and non-verbal communication skills and upon their creativity.
