From March 29 to April 1, Asbury University’s sales team attended the 2019 National Collegiate Sales Competition (NCSC) at Kennesaw State University in Georgia. According to Dr. George Allen, associate professor of marketing and the team’s coach, Asbury tied for seventh place out of 72 universities.
Allen added that Asbury made it to seventh place in part because of juniors Michael Secen, who was one of the top 16 contestants in the semifinals, and Jackson Thomas, who advanced to the quarterfinals and was part of the top 54 of 144 competitors.
“The NCSC is a tournament-style competition in which students meet with business people playing the role of a customer,” Allen explained. “In 20-minute sales calls, the salesperson builds rapport, seeks to uncover business needs, presents product benefits and tries to close the sale. A team of business people and professors rate the salesperson’s performance, and the ones with the highest scores advance to future rounds.”
Secen, who’s majoring in marketing, said that he was pleased to achieve his goal of advancing to the semifinals, as he had made it into the quarterfinals at the 2018 competition. He also said that he enjoyed getting to practice selling at NCSC and interacting with professional salespeople from different businesses that sponsored the tournament. He added that the most challenging part of the tournament was the roleplays.
“Many months of preparation boil down to just 20 minutes in which you must do your absolute best, or you could be eliminated,” Secen said. “It was wonderful being challenged and being forced outside my comfort zone, though, as I am beginning to develop the skills required for such a job.”
Secen and Allen both noted that NCSC is a great place for students to meet potential employers.
“Students have the opportunity to meet with sponsors at a big job fair to discuss opportunities in sales at their companies,” Allen said. “Students can also compete in a speed-selling competition where they present a 90-second ‘elevator pitch’ explaining what they have to offer a company as an intern or employee.”
He also stated that Asbury’s sales team attends three competitions: the University of Toledo Invitational in February, NCSC in the spring and the International Collegiate Sales Competition in Florida in the fall. The team prepares for these events by learning information about the products they’ll sell and attending weekly practices coached by Allen.
“I’m very proud of these competitors who have worked so hard to get ready for these fun but intense competitions,” Allen said. “They represented the Lord and Asbury well, competing against much larger universities. Asbury was the smallest of the 72 universities competing.”
