Four students from the Haslam College of Business at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, traveled to Florida State University earlier in the semester to take part in the International Collegiate Sales Competition (ICSC). Some 70 universities participated in both sales role play and sales management case competitions.
Wiley Stidham, Madison Barton, Will Carter and Haley Anderson comprised Haslam’s team. It was the students’ first time participating in a national-level sales competition and the first national sales competition in 14 years for the college.
The Professional Sales Forum, founded just this year, helped train and select the student team through an internal sales competition earlier in the semester. Students said they took part in the event as a learning and networking experience and as an opportunity to test their skills in a potential career field.
“I gained a lot of insight about myself as I enter into my early career stages that I would not of learned otherwise,” said Haley Anderson, a senior marketing major. “I also really enjoyed the incredible networking opportunities provided through the competition.”
Wiley Stidham, a supply chain major, said that taking part in a business case competition outside her major broadened her future career opportunities.
“Getting to compete against 70 other schools and meet other peers from around the country was a valuable experience,” Stidham said. “Being a part of the inaugural sales case competition team has given me a good foundation for the future if the opportunity to get into sales comes about.”
Given a single day to master material, the students created a 30-minute presentation judged by a panel of five faculty and business professionals.
“These students train incredibly hard for these competitions like any national sport,” said Dan Flint, Regal Entertainment Group Professor in the Department of Marketing and Supply Chain Management and the team’s faculty advisor. “These are the very best of the best around the country. We as a team were noted as one of the top novice teams competing.”
