Fall Sales Competition Experience

It was through practicing for these competitions that I learned skills that I can utilize in the real world. The first competition that our sales class competed in was the Northeast Intercollegiate Sales Competition (NISC) where we had to compete in different roleplays. One of my favorite ways to prepare for this competition was working in groups to help each other practice some of the role plays. We pushed ourselves and each other to do better and held one another accountable when completing the roleplays. During preparation for the competition, we had to review different material regarding a hospital and its cybersecurity system and how we can improve the current one in place with our product. Although we were not an expert entirely on what the product was, we were still able to use the sales process that we learned to successfully be able to lead the meeting. While I was unable to move past the first round it was still a good learning experience as well as a good way to network with all the different companies.?

One of the skills that I learned was how to market myself to a potential customer or employer. By using the sales process that was learned in our course I can then apply it to different situations in real life. I also learned how to confidently talk with different employers who were part of the competition that I had not previously been exposed to. During this two-day competition, we had various breakout sessions where I got to learn more about the employers and the company they were representing. It was interesting hearing what they had to say about the experiences that had within the company they were at as well as the journey they took to get there. By chatting with them I learned about potential paths that I may want to pursue after graduation in the spring. I loved how I got the opportunity to work with my classmates and chat with different employers to make for an overall great experience competing in the NISC competition.?

The RNMKRs sales competition was the other one that our Personal Selling class competed in. This competition involved having to sell a laptop to a bot named Alex who worked for a fire department. While it can be frustrating talking to an AI with limited responses it was still a good way to better practice the sales process. To prepare for this competition we had to do different parts of the full role play and eventually do a full practice role play. I worked with the same group to practice for this competition to try and reach the 100 role-plays club. I am glad to say that I was able to achieve that goal and I was one of the top twenty-five students who completed the practice roleplays preparing for the competition. It was incredible to be top 5% when we had over 3200 students compete!?

I feel better prepared to enter the real world and apply the different strategies that I gained throughout this course and after competing in both sales competitions. I am thankful for the different network opportunities that were granted to me by competing and look forward to keeping in touch with all of my new connections.