By Molly Packer
Reporter
Eight Baylor students used their spring break to develop their careers by attending the 13th Annual National Collegiate Sales Competition hosted by Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw, Ga.
While two of the eight Baylor students competed, all of the eight students had the opportunity to refine their selling, interviewing and networking skills by attending a career fair at the competition with 35 national corporations, including Verizon, Xerox and FedEx.
Colleyville senior Will May and Irving senior Chris Cude competed for the title of one of four top salespeople at the competition.
May and Cude were given a product to sell in a one-on-one call to real business executives in a role-play situation.
The executives participating in the role-play judged the competitors and eventually chose the top seller at the competition. Baylor did not take the top spot in this year’s competition.
Fort Collins, Colo., junior Hannah Kroening, a member of Baylor’s Professional Sales team, did not participate in the competition this year but traveled to Georgia to encourage May and Cude and participate in the career fair.
“I didn’t really compete in hopes that next year I’ll be able to know what it takes to do well,” Kroening said. “I spent my time talking up Baylor and the sales team and looking for internships for myself.”
Baylor students met with top executives of the 35 corporate sponsors.
“It was good for me just getting a chance to talk to the companies and have face time,” Highlands Ranch, Colo., senior Ben Kessler said. “It was so nice to finally get a chance to talk to companies about interviews and jobs.”
Austin senior Dave Games said he also appreciated the benefits of the career fair.
“The career fair and networking involved was nice because it was so targeted towards professional sales,” he said.
Kroening said another benefit of the competition was learning how to adapt to people and their situations. The role-playing aspect of the competition required students to sell different benefits of a product to different people.
The competition drew some of the most talented students from 60 schools nationwide.
“One man told me that the worst person at the competition was a better salesperson than the best salesperson in his company,” Kroening said.