Earlier this month, more than 20 students took part in a pressure-filled educational exercise in selling. They were each given a product one would find in the supermarket – cereal, pasta, cat food – and had an hour to develop a pitch that would convince someone to buy.
Then they had five minutes to make their sell.
The inaugural “Selling by the Bay” quick-pitch competition provided real-world sales experience for students from a variety of majors, such as marketing, health sciences and finance. The event provided students the opportunity to apply skills learned in and out of the classroom in a fast-paced selling environment.
“Sometimes you will need to come up with a quick pitch, to convey everything of value to a customer in a short period of time. That skill is what this competition really hones for students,” said Dr. Ed Hoeppner, an instructor of Marketing and leader of the Professional Sales Program at USF St. Petersburg. “Students also learn many things about themselves, such as how they present information, what their body language is like and their ability to read non-verbal communication from a buyer.”
The project begins with a drawing from a hat. Each student picked the name of a product, which started their adventure of developing the best story and determining the key elements to highlight for their pitch.
“It was an interesting shopping spree for me because I had to make sure every product I chose had enough content so the students could create features, benefits and customer value to pitch,” said Hoeppner, who has more than 30 years of sales management and leadership experience with Nestle.
Students presented their short pitches to five different judges, alternating around the room and polishing their sell with each delivery. At the end of the competition, the judges, who were Kate Tiedemann College of Business faculty and Northwestern Mutual employees, came together and ranked the best pitches.
The top performers moved onto a customer presentation pitch competition the following week, this time acting as Northwestern Mutual sales representatives trying to pitch their services over other competitors. Students had a week to prepare and were judged by staff from Northwestern Mutual, which sponsored both events. The effort was spearheaded by managing partner Kevin O’Connell.
“We think that the art of selling is very important in our firm, and is an important skill set for many careers, even those outside of marketing and business,” said David Hood, wealth advisor with Northwestern Mutual. “It’s a skill set one should be taught and that should be tested.”
One of the students involved in “Selling by the Bay” was McKenna Chefaro, a senior Entrepreneurship major.
“I had never done a sales competition before and thought it would be a great opportunity to try something new and to have on my resume,” she said.
Chefaro was randomly assigned Quaker Oat Bran, and quickly got to work observing all facets of the product. She used the health value, the price, the taste and other characteristics in her pitch to judges.
“It was really a positive experience. I got a ton of feedback on things I didn’t realize I was doing when presenting, like using too many filler words,” said Chefaro. “After the event, I got an internship interview with Northwestern Mutual, so getting involved gave me a chance I wouldn’t have had.”
“Selling by the Bay” was the first time USF St. Petersburg hosted a quick-pitch and customer presentation competition for its students. A similar competition titled “Selling with the Bulls” takes place at USF Tampa.
In the future, organizers of the event hope to have even more faculty engagement along with local sales leaders from throughout the region acting as judges and providing their expertise.
“The USF System does a great job of working with local companies and incorporating their knowledge and expertise into the classroom and at events like this,” said Hood. “We try to add value by bringing real life experiences into the learning environment of college.”
Hoeppner also hopes to record pitches and presentations so students can better learn from their delivery, open the competition up to students throughout the USF System and hold the event over two nights, to allow more students to participate.
USF St Petersburg will offer three sales-related courses next semester, allowing students to build fundamental and advanced selling skills.
“Everyone sells,” explained Hoeppner. “Regardless of what industry and position students obtain in the workforce, they will be selling a product to a customer, an idea to their boss, a program to their team or service benefits to a client.”