Thursday, Nov 19, 2015
Two ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½¹ÙÍø students will join more than 100 college students representing 36 universities from across the country, as well as from Edinburgh Napier University in Scotland, to participate in the 9th annual Russ Berrie Institute for Professional Sales Challenge at William Paterson University.
The competition is designed to strengthen students’ sales skills and offer them an opportunity to network with business executives from companies around the country who will judge the events and serve as sponsors.
Representing ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½¹ÙÍø will be Michael Cong '16, who is majoring in global supply chain management, and John Lisowski '17, who is majoring in biochemistry. Cong also placed third at the Pi Sigma Epsilon Northeast Regional Competition held earlier in the fall.
The National Sales Challenge is one of only a few select such competitions in the country. Prior to the event, students compete on their own campuses in order to win the opportunity to compete in the National Sales Challenge at William Paterson.
Competitions include the sales-roleplay event, which will use a selling situation from sponsor ADP, and a speed-selling competition, which requires students to rotate through tables seated with company executives to pitch themselves for two minutes for a generic job.
Students from all 36 schools will participate in the speed-sell competition on Wednesday, Nov. 18, and the roleplay competition on Thursday, Nov. 19. Finalists will compete on Friday, Nov. 20.
In conjunction with the competition, participating students will attend the RBI Sales Career Boot Camp on Nov. 18, 2015. The camp, which is designed to provide students with information about the everyday realities of the workplace, will focus on the job hunt, job negotiation, the first year on the job, and long-term career planning. Panelists are drawn from ADP, Paycom, Pentax Medical, Michelin, UPS, Laird Plastics, Lennox Industries, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, CBRE, First Data and Liberty Mutual.