Two Busch School students, Michael Marie and Bridget Beck, participated in the Collegiate World Cup of Sales. Michael is a Junior Finance and Sales major from Medfield, MA. Bridget is a Senior Strategy, Management, and Operations major from Collegeville, PA. Below, they share their experiences of the event, and how this year's world cup was different than year's past.
What is the Collegiate World Cup of Sales?
Michael: "ICSC is the #1 Sales Competition in the world, there were 180 students who participated in an event that put to the test all of our Sales teachings and revenue-generating skills."
Bridget: "The Collegiate World Cup of Sales is where schools all over the US are invited to participate in a sales competition but also have the opportunity to meet new companies and connect with them. During the sales role-play competition, there are several rounds where I had to learn about a company and read the role-play to try and sell the product the best. This was all based off of a score sheet as well as tallied up points from weeks before."
How were you selected to participate?
Bridget: "I was selected to participate because last semester. I took Professor Weber’s class and was encouraged to submit a video for the school wide sales competition. I ended up coming in second place and was eligible to participate in the Collegiate World Cup of Sales last spring. Since the pandemic had hit, the competition was cancelled last spring, but Professor Weber reached out and presented the opportunity for me to participate this semester all online."
Michael: "Professor Weber asked me to participate based on my competitive attitude during class."
What kind of activities did you participate in?
Bridget: "About two weeks leading up to the competition weekend, I participated in a Kahoot competition every night with questions about all of the companies that would be present at the competition. After that, I signed up to meet with 10 companies in one day and talked to each of them for 10 minutes. That was supposed to be more like a 'Career Fair,' but all online. From there we reached the weekend of the role-play competition and I was able to complete my sales pitch for about 15 minutes."
Michael: "We participated in Kahoots for a few weeks leading up to the main event based on the Sponsor Companies. We were given a chance the day before the main event to meet with 7 companies and do a quick interview. Thursday we were tasked with a role-play selling Reliaquest software which was named GreyMatter, a security platform designed to automate the process and save manual effort to DLL, a consulting company that was seeing an account with a high number of intrusions."
This year was a virtual World Cup. How did you prepare for that kind of environment?
Michael: "The event typically takes place in Orlando. While we were bummed not to have the opportunity to be in person, we prepared a few different ways. We made a few phone calls to active employees of Reliaquest to get their sales pitch and more insight into the types of aids they use. Finally, we met with Professor Weber, Nick Toroella, Emma Dodson, and Bridget Buckley a few times to practice the Roleplay and get some advice from students who crushed their Sales internships."
Bridget: "Although most situations this year looked different, I believe I was well prepared to do this competition online. From being online for classes for a while now, I feel comfortable speaking and presenting through a screen. There were plenty of set-backs (not being able to share sales aids, not being able to see the receiver’s body language, frozen screens, etc.), but also lots of perks. I was able to talk to a lot people in a short amount of time and was also able to receive feedback fairly quickly. I am sure there were lots of adjustments that had to be made to ensure that the competition ran smoothly, and I am thankful for all of FSU’s hard work. Luckily, we were able to prepare by having meetings and practicing the role-plays and getting direct feedback from other sales students. We went through all the different scenarios and what the best way was to present online. I learned a lot through this experience and I am lucky that I was picked out of all the sales students."
How did you originally get interested in sales?
Bridget: "Since freshman year of college, I was convinced that my dream job was to be a business lawyer. I had this dream because at the end of the day, I just wanted to help people. I was introduced to Professor Weber and took his class last spring. This is when I really found what I was supposed to do and enjoyed doing sales so much. I knew this was my new dream job and the best part was that I am still going to be helping people."
Michael: "I became very interested in hearing about all the CUA alumni in Sales and how much Professor Weber cares about placing students into top-tier internships and jobs."
What advice do you have for students who want to participate next year?
Michael: "Be active inside the Sales Program, attend events, and make sure you participate in Sales Classes. It was a large time commitment on top of Classes and extracurricular activities, so make sure you are fully invested in the preparation for the event. My last piece of advice is to have fun with the competition, it is a unique opportunity to compete but also get your names in front of companies."
Bridget: "For the students who want to participate next year, the main piece of advice I would give them is to really listen and learn as much as you can. During the three-week time, there is so much information and lots of opportunities to learn and grow as a sales person. As for the role-play, my best piece of advice would be to follow the score sheet as best as possible. If there is something skipped over, they will not give you the points and therefore, the score will go down. I had a great experience doing the Collegiate World Cup of Sales and I encourage anyone interested to give it a shot."