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Students from Edinburgh, Scotland and Zwolle, The Netherlands, will join students from 18 states to participate in William Paterson University’s National Sales Challenge, an intense series of selling competitions and workshops to be held at the Cotsakos College of Business on the University’s campus in Wayne, N.J., from November 9 to 11.
The competition has been designed by the University’s Russ Berrie Institute for Professional Sales to strengthen the students’ sales skills and offer them an opportunity to network with business executives from companies around the country who will judge the events and serve as sponsors.
One of the few such competitions in the country, the event is hosted by the University’s Russ Berrie Institute for Professional Sales. William Paterson offers a bachelor of science degree in professional sales through the Department of Professional Sales, and provides training programs for sales professionals. In recent years, despite a depressed economy, students in the program have boasted approximately 80 percent employment rates by graduation day, according to P.K. Kothandaraman, Ph.D., executive director the Institute. Now in its fifth year, the competition attracts aspiring sales managers from colleges and universities that offer courses in professional sales as an academic discipline. Prior to the event, students compete on their own campuses in order to win the opportunity to compete in the National Sales Challenge at William Paterson.
Competitions include the speed-selling competition, which requires participants to sell themselves to an employer in under two minutes; and a sales-role play competition, in which students compete in a 15-minute sales call with a real business executive. The competition also features “table-talk,” where students in small groups have 20 minutes of in-depth interaction with business executives from the sales profession. The top four sellers will compete in a final championship round on the final day of the competition.
The National Sales Challenge will be held in the Russ Berrie Professional Sales Laboratory, a unique computerized multimedia facility that simulates business office environments, and other locations in the University’s 1600 Valley Road building.
The Russ Berrie Institute for Professional Sales was created in 2002 when the late Russ Berrie, the founder and chief executive officer of Russ Berrie and Company, Inc., donated funds to establish the program at William Paterson University. Housed in the University’s Cotsakos College of Business, the Institute represents a unique partnership between the private sector and higher education designed to advance the field of professional sales.
