April 6, 2021
K-State Sales Team finishes season with another win
The Kansas State University Sales Team finished its 2020-2021 season with a first-place finish at the Twin Cities Collegiate Sales Team Competition. The competition, hosted by the University of Minnesota on March 30-April 1, had 22 universities competing in the event.
The team consisted of Hunter Hartner, a freshman in professional strategic selling and marketing, Belleville, Lucas Johnson, senior in professional strategic selling, Shawnee, Lydia Johnson, a sophomore in professional strategic selling and Spanish, Prior Lake, Minnesota, Cecilia Nancarrow, senior in professional strategic selling, Overland Park, and Colton Williams, a sophomore in professional strategic selling, Osage City.
The event was a team-based competition with more than 120 students competing. In this structured team event, each student competed individually in four role-play rounds. In the fictitious case, each student acted as a risk management consultant for the role-play sponsor Marsh & McLennan Agency meeting with prospects in the senior living space. Each round built off of the previous round and the end objective was to close the deal for their prospect by bringing on Marsh & McLennan Agency as their preferred broker of choice. Individual scores from each round were calculated into the team score, with each student advancing throughout the competition and representing K-State in the final round of six universities and 34 students competing.
"With this being our last competition of the academic year, I couldn't have asked for a better performance," said Kellie Jackson, managing director of the National Strategic Selling Institute and sales team coach. "As one of the only competitions we have participated in this year that is solely team-based, it was great to have two seniors and three younger members collaborate on this competition and bring home another win for our team. The senior leadership stepped up to the challenge, and the younger members learned so much over the last few weeks preparing for the event that will help them tremendously in their years to come."
The K-State Sales Team is part of the College of Business Administration's National Strategic Selling Institute, which has been named one of the top sales programs in the country for nine straight years by the Sales Education Foundation. The team consists of students who are enrolled in the certificate or major in professional strategic selling. In fall 2018, Kansas State became just the 19th university in the U.S. to offer a major in professional strategic selling. Students can also earn a certificate in professional strategic selling, which is open to all majors at the university. The professional strategic selling program introduces students to the fundamentals of sales and its innovative curriculum and sales labs allow students to develop the skills needed to be successful.
For more information on the National Strategic Selling Institute or the K-State Sales Team, please contact kstatesalesprogram@k-state.edu.