THIBODAUX, La. — Seven universities will send 44 students to test their salesmanship at the 16th annual Bayou Sales Challenge on Feb. 27 to March 1 at Nicholls State University.
Joining Nicholls in the competition are Florida State University, Louisiana State University, Southeastern Louisiana University, Southern University, University of Louisiana-Lafayette and Xavier University.
Team and individual students will compete in high-pressure sales simulations in Nicholls’ state-of-the-art Sales and Interactive Training Lab, with the top two students facing off head-to-head. New this year will be a Team Selling challenge, which will give team members serving as alternate salespeople an expanded role in the competition. The event will also include a career expo and two discussion panels, one from the perspective of professional salespeople and the other from judges and customers.
“The Bayou Sales Challenge provides students with an experience that instills in them the confidence that they can compete in the marketplace,” said Dr. Laura Valenti, director of the Bayou Sales Challenge and assistant professor of marketing. “The competition also gives students an opportunity to network with top businesses.”
This year’s premier sponsors are Northwestern Mutual of Louisiana, Northwestern Mutual Foundation, Regions Bank, Republic Finance and UniFirst. Additional sponsors include A.J. Gallagher, First American Bank, Meyer Financial and Synergy Bank.
Several of the sponsors will also participate in the career expo, along with Postlethwaite & Netterville, Edward Jones, Pearson Education, Nicholls MBA, Gartner, Louisiana CAT and Lofton Staffing Services.
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CONTACT: Jacob Batte, Media Relations and Publications Coordinator, 985.448.4141 or jacob.batte@www.nicholls.edu
