Kaitlin Beier and Sara Trax placed third at the International Collegiate Sales Competition in Orlando, Florida, outscoring sales teams from 57 of the 60 participating schools. The students are also representing Nicholls at the National Sales Challenge at the Russ Berrie Institute for Professional Sales at William Paterson University’s Cotsakos College of Business in Wayne, New Jersey. Pictured (from left) are Trax; Dr. Chuck Viosca, Nicholls professor of marketing; and Beier.
Photo by Misty Leigh McElroy/Nicholls State University
THIBODAUX — Two Nicholls State University marketing seniors placed third out of 60 collegiate sales teams at the three-day International Collegiate Sales Competition hosted by Florida State University earlier this month in Orlando, Florida.
Nicholls marketing seniors Kaitlin Beier and Sara Trax outscored teams from 57 of the 60 participating schools including Louisiana State University, Auburn University, Texas A&M University, Kansas State University and Indiana University. Florida State University and the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire were the only teams to finish ahead of Nicholls. Beier also finished fourth overall in the individual sales competition.
“For Nicholls College of Business students to compete at this high level of competition showcases the quality of our professional sales concentration in marketing,” said Dr. Marilyn Macik-Frey, interim dean of the Nicholls College of Business Administration. “These students are performing at the highest levels and are getting noticed by top businesses. In the professional sales field, certain universities have a reputation for turning out the best in the country. Finishing third overall, Nicholls now shares that notoriety as a top-tier university in the area of professional sales.”
The International Collegiate Sales Competition combines challenges in the three most sought-after selling skills: business to business, direct to consumer and using the latest video conferencing technology to present solutions to international decision-makers. The event also includes a job fair sponsored by over 25 Fortune 500 companies along with mini educational seminars.
“These national and international sales competitions provide Nicholls marketing students with a valuable opportunity to experience real-world sales scenarios with some of the nation’s top businesses,” said Dr. Chuck Viosca, professor of marketing at Nicholls. “Perhaps more importantly, these competitions allow our students to network with and demonstrate their skills to prospective employers.”
Beier and Trax hope to achieve similar success at the National Sales Challenge currently being held at the Russ Berrie Institute for Professional Sales at William Paterson University’s Cotsakos College of Business in Wayne, New Jersey.
The National Sales Challenge, an intense series of selling competitions and workshops, brings together more than 100 students from 36 universities as well as 90 business executives who will host workshops and judge the sales competitions.
The Nicholls College of Business Administration hosts its own sales competition — the Bayou Sales Challenge — in the spring. The Bayou Sales Challenge is open to all Louisiana college students and features individual and team competitions held in the university’s Sales and Interactive Training Laboratory.
