The Catholic University of America Sales Program recently hosted the finals of its annual University-Wide Sales Competition, marking one of the strongest and most competitive years to date. More than 80 students from across campus participated in the competition, representing a wide range of majors, including biochemistry, philosophy, and other non-business disciplines. The competition was held in two rounds.
Round 1 - Benefits & Features Pitch
In Round One, students submitted a 60–90 second personalized video pitch, taking on the role of a Varonis sales representative. Participants were tasked with positioning Varonis’ AI Security Platform to an IT security leader within a K–12 school district, with the goal of securing a meeting at a national education cybersecurity conference. From this round, the top 12 students advanced to the live finals.
Finalists:
- Ryan Kuegler
- Miranda Calderon
- Katie Guerra Bonilla
- Jonathan Forrest
- Luke McNabb
- Xander Johnson
- Kate Hautau
Round 2 - Live Role-Play Final Round
The Live Final Round was sponsored by Paycom. Students competed in a 10-minute role play where they acted as a new Paycom sales representative meeting with the CEO of Clyde’s Restaurant Group, a multi-location hospitality organization focused on modernizing payroll, HR, and workforce management for its large hourly employee base.Paycom flew in team members to run the live role plays with our finalists. The level of preparation from the students was outstanding. Many finalists spent a plethora of hours preparing by learning Paycom’s products, practicing with current Paycom sales reps, including CUA alumni, and interviewing Paycom customers.
The Paycom team was extremely impressed with the quality of the role plays. The competition continues to reinforce what we see every day in the Sales Program. When students are given real experiences and strong corporate exposure, they rise to the occasion.
The top 5 scoring competitors from the Live Role-Play Round were as follows:
- First Place: Brigid Murray
- Second Place: Ryan Kearney
- Third Place: Isabel Doherty
- Fourth Place: Sam Burman
- Fifth Place: Nicholas Chang