The competition began with the Speed Sell event, giving students two minutes to introduce themselves to judges in an interview-like setting before getting one minute for feedback.
Emily Gonzalez, a business administration senior who has interned at PwC and is slated to intern for them again this summer, said she was given the advice to watch her speed of delivery.
“They just emphasized not racing through and I incorporated that right away and I became much more comfortable from that,” she said.
Garrett Imler, a junior majoring in marketing with a professional sales track, tried to focus on partly offering personal anecdotes to give judges a sense of him in addition to his skills.
“I received good tips on how I can say something to better get my point across,” he said. “It gave me confidence to get their opinions and I did so much better by the time it was done.”
A judge, Tyler Elsberry, campus recruiter at memoryBlue, was impressed by how prepared the students were.
“I’m at career fairs and judging competitions and I’ve never seen something like this,” he said. “The quick sell and interview format — I love that. I noticed the students were really taking the coaching from the recruiters. They were ready to improve.”
Steven Eismont, a judge and senior recruiter at Spectrum Enterprise, emphasized to students to remember their audience.
“They have to understand the audience is mainly corporate recruiters,” he said. “Talk about how your skill set is going to apply, bridging that gap and communicating at that corporate level.”
Overcoming Rejection: Sales Students Hone Skills in Role-Play Event
The afternoon saw the students in the role-play event, where they had an introductory meeting with a “potential client,” selling a sales product from xiQ and honing their skills to try and garner a second meeting.
The winner of role play gets their name on a coveted cup, joining past winners.
The first day of role play would be easier than the second, though challenges in the opening round could possibly include being asked for a price when the student participant can’t give it. Robbin Boyd, a judge for role play and a senior manager of early career talent at Southern Glazer’s Wine and Spirits, thought that specific challenge was a good teaching moment.
“It’s a great chance to learn about overcoming rejections,” she said. “What I saw for the first round is that the students who did well were listening as much as they were talking. Most of what you do is listening and you need to adjust to your audience. Other students will learn from it and do better. Some of them maybe weren’t quite there but you see the potential is clearly there.”
Sanj Gherani, marketing account management specialist at Gartner who graduated from the Jindal School last year with a Bachelor’s in Marketing, took a moment just before the second round to reflect on having been a participant and now a judge.
“You want to come in prepared, but you want to remember to connect,” she said. “This is an event that I was recruited from (to work at Gartner) so it was a big deal for me. I feel you build a lot of skills…to talk with executives and be in a professional setting…The program gives you so much face time in professional settings like these. So I feel going into my job I had a leg up on how to act and have an established professional brand.”
Hitting Curve Balls: Sales Students Stay Focused
Round two of role play had challenges from the “prospective client” coming sometimes seemingly in a flurry. From the prospective client talking on their phone to telling the participant that the CEO they had been in contact with was let go — ostensibly starting the participant over at square one in the selling relationship. Students needed to stay focused as much as possible, no matter the curveball thrown.
“I didn’t see the CEO being let go coming and it definitely took me a second,” said David Cantu, an information technology and systems senior. “But I just told myself to stay at it and keep going. I’ve gone door-to-door for solar panels so I know a thing or two about being ready for any kind of response.”
Cantu later reflected on the amount of preparation that goes into the role-play competition.
“It’s really going over your training and I found myself going over examples on YouTube,” he said. “Even though it was different on YouTube, the examples give you a sense of the cadence and the tone and calmness needed. Don’t rush, don’t be robotic, try to focus on questions you’ll be asked and the wording without losing a good flow. I kept going over what I might say in front of the mirror, speaking with enough volume and just putting myself in the right frame of mind.”
Becc Holland, CEO and Founder of Flip the Script who played the “potential client” role of being a consultant for RealPage and is a consultant for them, thought the role-play challenge was truly valuable experience for the real world and a “heated way” to learn.
“It’s a very good way to go about it,” she said. “They’re thinking, ‘Was that discovery effective? Should I have asked that question?’”
Student Sell Their Personal Brands at Reverse Job Fair
Then it was off to the reverse job fair event, where students set up presentations that told corporate representatives about them, concentrating on the personal and not just the professional. Leonardo Castro Guerrero, a global business senior, divided his board into three subjects: soccer, journey and family. Finding his childhood taking him to many destinations, including Monterrey, Miami and San Diego, he told his story through pictures of relocation and resilience, partly with the help of soccer.
“There was always a team to play for,” he said. “And it reinforced working together and community.”
Jordan Williams, a marketing junior, used her poster as a starting point to explain her experience in and out of academics. Whether pointing out a moment of graduation or a snapshot of the New York City subway, she was all smiles.
“Starting in Professor (Semiramis) Amirpour’s class here, it really spoke to me and opened up a world of sales,” she shared as the impetus of moving to the sales track. “You learn that sales is about research and reaching out to potentially help people and there are better methods to it.”
Williams also shared pictures of her beloved dogs, including one of whom is with her for college, an 8-month-old mini goldendoodle named Koda.
“I remember when I had a chance to be a volunteer at a sales competition and learn from listening to judges,” she said. “Now I’m a part of this one!”
Hannah Chancey, a healthcare management junior, set up Hannah’s Boardgame Bonanza in which booth visitors rolled dice to land on spots which allowed them to learn everything from her love of travel to why she changed her major.
“I was premed and I just didn’t find my passion there,” she said. “But then sales really has me ready to go and excited to learn more.”
Just a few tables down and with the Academy Awards about a month away, Inshal Khawaja, a marketing junior, was literally handing out awards that looked like Oscars, a movie theme explaining her own philosophy.
“I wanted to express that we are all stars of our own movie, telling our story and going forward, taking on challenges,” she said.
Ariana Farokhnia, a marketing junior marketing major, was in a smock, paints at the ready for corporate representatives to combine their paintbrush strokes for a combined picture.
“I did a giant paint palette and I have each color represent something about me that I then share,” she said, with choices ranging from retail experience to why she should be hired.
Now, with presentations packed up, it was nearing the moment of truth.
Students Win by Becoming Wiser
Students were eating lunch and relaxing post-competition when Dr. Howard Dover, director of the Center for Professional Sales, made announcements, including the winners for each of the three events and the overall competition winner, which also took into account a fourth category, social selling acumen.
For role-play, marketing senior Natalia Garza took first place and her place on the role play winner’s cup.
“I think you need to be very clear in what you say when competing in this event and find confidence,” she said. “The experience of this just really helps me moving forward.”
Khawaja may have given out awards but she was the one who went home as the overall winner, also taking first place in speed sell and the reverse job fair.
“It’s a great feeling and encouraging,” she said. “As Dover said, it all starts over again and we’re going to be challenged in other ways in real situations. I just want to keep on improving my skills.”
One goal of the Pro Sales was to have every participant walk away a winner — by being a little wiser. As an example, role play. Dover, a clinical professor in the Jindal School’s Marketing Area, explained the first round focused on the method of gap selling, which points out to a prospect that here is your current state and here is where you want to go. The second round, he said, focused on a method the school has taught for years, SPIN, which stands for situation, problem, implication and need payoff, though gap can still naturally come into it as well.
“Sales is evolving and we’re seeing more ways to go about it,” Dover said. “There used to be more of a focus on the client telling you what they thought their problem was through asking them questions, but now there is a shift to thinking, ‘Well, what if they don’t know what their problem is?’ A patient goes to the doctor to find out what’s wrong, they might not necessarily know themselves. We have a chance to analyze, show them a way they may not consider and sell in a different way…We’re out to make it a better way.”
