McCoy College Center for Professional Sales earns honors at the 2021 National Collegiate Sales Competition

More than 130 top sales students from 68 universities across the United States and Canada participated in the 23rd annual National Collegiate Sales Competition hosted by Kennesaw State University’s Michael J. Coles College of Business. Held March 6-8, the all-digital event featured two students from each university putting their skills to the test in 20 minute one-on-one sales call simulations. Each role play student sold Gartner’s services to a Chief Information Officer. The four individual role play winners were 1st Pooja Chafekar, Bradley University; 2nd Natalie Zito, Bradley University; 3rd Adam Sticker, Kennesaw State University; and 4th Kalila Jeffrey, Asbury University. McCoy College students, Emily Lucas and Richard Price, both placed in the quarterfinals of the competition.

In addition to the role play competition, another important part of each year’s NCSC is the career fair. Fortune 500 companies such as Aflac, Becton Dickinson, Henry Schein, and Gartner headlined a career fair that connected them with 492 qualified candidates from collegiate sales programs around the world. The Speed Selling competition is a 90-second sale from each student to eleven different platinum, gold, and silver sponsors. The students have to sell why they would be a good employee of that company. Texas State won three of the eleven speed selling awards. The speed selling team included Kamryn Allen, Caden Mays, and Izabelle Walter. Kamryn Allen won all three individual awards. The faculty coach for both sales teams was Vicki West, Director of the Center for Professional Sales.

The National Collegiate Sales Competition worked with lead sponsor Gartner, a leading research and advisory firm, to implement the technology to run an all-virtual NCSC. Gartner sent out more than 600 unique WebEx invitations to more than 400 participants worldwide, provided 20 members of their corporate team to act as buyers in the sales roleplays, and maintained the back-end technology running the competition. 

“The 2021 virtual National Collegiate Sales Competition was a great success given the current environment,” said Terry Loe, executive director of the NCSC and co-director of Kennesaw State’s Center for Professional Selling. “Although the value to the students, hiring sponsors, and faculty that is provided in a face-to-face event cannot be fully replicated virtually, we worked with our volunteers and sponsors to create career-advancing opportunities for all the students involved.”

Started in 1999, the NCSC is the world’s oldest and largest collegiate sales competition. Kennesaw State University has hosted the event since 2003. Students assume the role of sales professionals and compete in three rounds of 20-minute mock sales calls with representatives from the event’s corporate sponsors portraying the prospective buyers. Judges include corporate partners and faculty from participating schools.