For the fifth consecutive year, West Virginia University’s John Chambers College of Business and Economics held their annual Sales Competition on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2019.
Sponsored by Fastenal–the largest fastener distributor in North America–the WVU sales competition is a tournament-style sales competition where students compete for cash prizes.
Our students competed against students from five other universities: Duquesne, Pittsburgh, Dayton, Ball State and Robert Morris.
Universities competing with at least three students were eligible for the team competition, where team scores equal the sum of the top three students in each event.
All participants received individual feedback and coaching, networking opportunities and a chance to hone critical sales skills.
“I think that strategizing as a team prior to the competition was what helped us the best,” said Brooke Harlow, senior marketing major with an emphasis in professional sales. “We were able to collaborate with each other and help each other succeed.”
This year’s competition featured some new twists, including holding the competition in our building and using new video capture technology.
However, at the end of the day, the John Chambers College of Business and Economics team took top honors in the Sales Competition:
- Brooke Harlow won with the highest combined role play and walking pitch score;
- Madison Gray won best role play;
- and our entire team of four young ladies (Madison Gray, Brooke Harlow, Dominique Villasenor and Marissa McCoy) turned in the highest team score.
“This was a remarkable performance in face of some very tough competition from Ball State, University of Dayton, Robert Morris, Duquesne and University of Pittsburgh. The judges mentioned how impressed they were with our students–how they "brought their A game to the competition” this year,” said Mike Walsh, Department Chair and Associate Professor of Marketing.
In total, the competition consisted of 28 contestants, 16 judges and four buyers.
“Taking home three out of the four awards was so awesome because we were able to represent our sales school to every school that came, as well as all of the judges who came to judge as well,” said Harlow.
Special thanks to Emily Tanner, Suzanne Bal and Xinchun Wang who helped prepare our students.
“Every day I see examples of how we help the John Chambers College of Business and Economics fulfill its mission and Saturday was especially paradigmatic,” said Walsh.
Both WVU and non-WVU students who are interested in learning more about our next Sales Competition should contact Emily Tanner at emily.tanner@mail.wvu.edu.
