Marketing major Anh Nguyen makes her sales pitch during the Professional Selling Competition.
Kendal Palony, a marketing major from Rosemount took first in the Speed Selling 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.
Sales professionals from area, regional and national firms participated as judges and buyers during the competition and interacted with students at the event’s corresponding career fair.
Among the judges was Ted Robinson, owner of Educational Marketing Connections. He has decades of experience in teaching K-12 educational technology firms and brought that experience to the competition to help advise the next generation of sales professionals.
It was an exhilarating experience,” Robinson said. “I enjoy it every time I’ve been here.”
An experience of this type is invaluable to students because it allows them to interact with professionals in the field and practice their selling skills in a friendly environment where the consequences are minimal, he said.
Ted Robinson, of Educational Marketing Connections, speaks with a student during the sales competition.
“It allows us as professionals who have been in this business for a while to give them some good consultation and advice on how to move forward,” he said, adding that he was encouraged by the diversity of skill sets and approaches among the participants.
He was also encouraged by seeing the number of women participating in the competition and excelling in the sales field, which has historically been male dominated.
“To see the young women come with their plans, their thoughts, how they articulated their value propositions I thought was excellent,” Robinson said.
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.
Students make their pitches during the Speed Selling Competition.
Second place in the Professional Selling Competition went to Michael Fisher, a real estate major from Brooklyn Park. Andrew Clark, a marketing major from Ramsey, took third.
Taking second in the Speed Selling Competition was Alexandra Determan, a marketing major from St. Cloud, and taking third was Courtney Wooters, a marketing major from St. Michael.
In the Speed Selling Competition, each student selected a minimum of five firms participating in the competition or career fair. They researched the firms and then had 90 seconds to promote themselves to the firms’ representatives.
In turn, representatives from the firms had 90 seconds to “sell” their organization to the students by talking about internship and career opportunities or about the firm itself.
During this fast-paced event, the firm representatives judged the Speed Selling participants on their knowledge of the firm, application of their selling skills, verbal and non-verbal communication skills and upon their creativity.
