Business Students Excel in California Collegiate Sales Competition
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 17, 2006
Kathleen McPartland
530-898-4260
Bill McGowan, Dept. of Finance and Marketing
530-898-4182
Business Students Excel in California Collegiate Sales Competition
California State University, Chico marketing students Nicole Furtado and Brian T. O'Neill won top awards at the 2nd Annual California Collegiate Sales Competition, held on the Sacramento State campus, April 7.
Nineteen marketing students from six CSU universities, including CSU, Chico, and Arizona competed in the competition sponsored by ADP Payroll Services, Liberty Mutual Insurance, J&L Marketing, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Ferguson Enterprises and Federated Business Insurance.
Furtado, O'Neill and Ramsey Barnette made up the CSU, Chico team. Students were required to participate in two 15-minute role-playing exercises during the day and were judged by a panel of three made up of two business leaders and one faculty advisor. The judges evaluated the students on the following main sales components: approach, needs identification, presentation, overcoming objections, closing and overall presentation.
Students were given a buying profile early in the semester to familiarize themselves with the hypothetical buyer of ADP payroll services and Federated Insurance.
The ADP 1st Place winner was O'Neill from Chico. He received a $500 prize for his strong performance.
The Overall Winner of the competition was Furtado, who accumulated the highest point total in both the 15-minute ADP sales presentation and the 15-minute Federated presentation. Furtado received $1,500 for her superiority in both presentations.
"I am extremely proud of the whole team. Nicole, Brian and Ramsey put a tremendous amount of work into preparing for the competition," said Bill McGowan, advisor to the team. "It was a job well done, not just for them, but for CSU, Chico."
###