Marketing students help take annual sales competition by storm
 |
| Sales competition winners |
A group of Broad School marketing students and MSU communications students led by Assistant Professor Doug Hughes recently took first place at the National Team Selling Competition held at Indiana University. Team members were Marketing Seniors Jen Rhee and Kacey Prior, Communications Junior Darcy Dittrich and Communications Senior Matt Bishop.
Sponsored by Philip Morris USA, the case involved selling a new bottled-water brand to a major regional convenience store chain, probing to assess the customer’s needs and concerns, and presenting an overall category strategy to the chain’s senior leadership. They addressed key issues that are preventing category growth and offered a strategic plan that would benefit both the customer and company. For their efforts, the MSU team will split a $2,000 award. Ball State University and the University of Houston won second and third respectively.
"All of the country’s strong sales schools were at this event, so I think it really says something about our students that they were able to take part in the competition for the first time and then win it," says Hughes. "I’m really proud of them… they put in a lot of work and it paid off."
This second-annual competition attracts top teams of undergraduate sales students from America's leading universities who wish to pursue high-level, complex sales in an opportunity to practice team selling simulations.
"The most important lesson that I learned from the competition is that collaborative teamwork is crucial in order to be successful," says Rhee. "Everyone on our team contributed something different, and we were able to utilize everyone's unique skills and that is what helped us to earn our win."