UH is the only school to have won three national championships in NCSC history. Two of the titles were received back-to-back. | Courtesy of UH.edu
A team of four students faced pressure and anticipation as they went to Kennesaw State University in Georgia to represent the most recognized school in the 2013 National Collegiate Sales Competition.
Competitors from the Program for Excellence in Selling at the C.T. Bauer College of Business were Nicole Pinkelman, who placed fifth overall, and Ricardo Guerra, who placed in the top 15. With their team alternates, Raul Giron and Juan Rueda, they represented UH at the competition and claimed third runner-up out of 67 schools from the U.S. and Canada.
UH holds the title of being the only school to have won three national championships in NCSC history, and two of the titles were received consecutively, Marketing lecturer Amy Vandaveer, who has been coaching PES teams for the past five years, said in a press release.
“It is a great thing to be able to compete at a national level to represent the program that has given me so much,” Pinkelman said. “The experience not only gave us sales experience and personal branding, it gave us the chance to defend the title that we have the best sales program in the nation.”
The 134 students participating were required to individually prepare a sales presentation on the mobile app powered by ADP, RUN, for a client whose profile they had been given prior to the competition. Each competitor was recorded and then judged by a panel on needs identification, approach and communication skills among other sales criteria.
Several companies attended the event to meet talented sales students and potential recruitment.
“This was more than just a school competition,” Pinkelman said. “What we learn here is real life. It shows that if we can do it here then we can sell anything to anyone. It shows that we have the knowledge and skills to be successful.”
Vandaveer said students and the school receive an exceptional amount of exposure from the competition.
“Students are the ones that go under the microscope. They are the ones that compete and do all the hard work,” Vandaveer said. “They show the caliber of the students we have in our program to other schools and potential employers.”
The competitors o Pinkelman n this year’s team are full-time students who have full-time jobs. said they put in all the time and hard work into this extra curricular activity to represent UH and PES.
“We have the best sales program around the nation,” Pinkelman said. “To see that so many coaches and so many schools model their programs around ours reinforces our pride. We have the best coaches. None of this would have been possible without the constant hard work, time and effort they put into this to help us succeed.”
