Ryan Keating has been selected to lead the team in the International Collegiate Sales Competition for the Sales Management Simulation. His team is made up of Ross Artale, Brooke Falvey, Mark Cheffers, and Tommy Antonucci. Below, Ryan details the competition and how he got interested in the world of sales.
What is the ICSC?
"It is the International Collegiate Sales Competition in my case for the sales management competition. It is hosted by Florida State University and there are over 61 universities that participate in the sales management competition ranging from Purdue University to University of Texas.
The sales management competition I will participate in is a pre-event elimination competition using the Wessex Learning Sales Management Simulation (SMS), originally created by Dr. Douglas J. Dalrymple and redesigned for current technology by Harish Sujan, Michael Ahearne and Noel Capon. This simulation is designed to teach important principles of sales management through an evaluation of the effectiveness of decisions relating to:
(a) selecting and recruiting salespeople,
(b) assigning salespeople to territories,
(c) compensating salespeople,
(d) setting time management policies, and
(e) choosing prices for products.
For this competition, points will be awarded for cumulative profit and total market share at the end of a simulated two-year period."
How was your team selected to participate?
"Catholic University has been blessed enough through our Director of Sales help Mark Weber. We have been picked for the last couple years to participate in the Sales Role play competition and Sales Management competitions. The members of my team going into competition barring one possible addition of another junior girl is: Mark Cheffers, Tommy Antonucci, Brooke Falvey, and Ross Artale."
How were you selected to lead your team?
"I was lucky enough to have been asked by Mark Weber to lead Catholic University’s team and accepted because it is a great opportunity to better myself in sales."
What kind of activities will you participate in and how will you be judged?
"We will be given a 2-year simulation in which we will be:
(a) selecting and recruiting salespeople,
(b) assigning salespeople to territories,
(c) compensating salespeople,
(d) setting time management policies, and
(e) choosing prices for products.
This two year and 8 quarter period will be condensed into a few weeks by the simulation. We will make management decisions based on the simulated material."
How did you originally get interested in sales?
"I originally got interested in sales after my former teammates on the football team told me I had to minor or at least take Professor Weber’s sales class. In the fall semester of this year, I took Weber’s class on personal selling and thoroughly enjoyed it. After taking his class, I was set on a career in high tech sales."
What advice do you have for students who want to participate next year?
"Be open to the opportunity to learn. It may seem like a lot at first but any experience competing against other schools and universities in a national sales competition is good experience to help strengthen your own sales skill set."