In just its second appearance in a national sales competition, the College of Business at Florida International University (FIU) placed 23rd. Representing the college at the National Collegiate Sales Competition (NCSC) were Jessica Carbajal, Joseph Mendola, Juan Mugica, Jose Nunez and Daniel Torrens.
The rigorous competition puts students through a number of elimination rounds. Using role-playing techniques, the participants conduct 20-minute sales calls with corporate buyers—represented by more than 30 different organizations. Students must build rapport, identify each buyer’s needs, make a product presentation, handle objections and close the sale.
The college’s finish in the top 50 will enable an FIU team to compete in 2014.
Career fair proves valuable.
In addition to the competition, the students had formal interviews, and received invitations to second interviews and job offers from top Fortune 500 companies attending the NCSC Career Fair.
For Carbajal, the experience, along with the college’s Sales Club and its Sales and CRM Certificate offering, yielded “a major advantage over other college grads,” she said.
“After competing in the National Collegiate Sales Competition, I received calls from TEKsystems, ADP, Whirlpool, Gartner, Bank of America and Reynolds & Reynolds—companies that look for students involved in sales programs,” she said.
Nancy Rauseo, Department of Marketing faculty coach and Sales Club advisor, accompanied the team to the event, which took place in March at Kennesaw State University, in Kennesaw, Georgia.