Eagles Sales Championship (Final Viewing) will be on Nov. 20 at 9 to 11 a.m. in the Walt and Rowena Shaw Collaborative Learning Center.
After several years of attending sales competitions at other colleges, Dr. George Allen and other faculty wanted to be able to offer more Asbury students the opportunity to develop their sales skills by participating in an event run by the university. The Eagles Sales Competition originated in 2022 with the hope that this opportunity would develop these skills.
The Eagles Sales Competition is a tournament-style sales role play competition. In the competition, students learn about a product and the sales process, then do roleplays with guests, such as alumni and faculty, who serve as their customers. Other guests, including a variety of local or area business people and staff, will serve as judges and rate the students’ performance.
Students advance through as many as five rounds ending on the last day with a Final Four event. Each of the Final Four are awarded trophies and win cash prizes. The final round takes place via Zoom to give students experience selling in a virtual environment. Their role plays are livestreamed into classrooms across the hall where judges watch them live and rate their performance.
“Role playing is one of the most realistic ways to develop sales skills because students have to not only have a plan for what they want to discuss with a customer, but must also learn how to ‘think on their feet,’ responding to what a customer says on the spot,” said Allen. “It can be stressful, but also very satisfying to learn how to communicate in this way, and learning sales skills can be of help in virtually any future career.”Students from all schools in the university, regardless of major, are both eligible and encouraged to participate in this event in future years. While all students who take Fundamentals of Professional Selling are automatically entered into the competition, other students can apply by contacting Dr. Allen at george.allen@asbury.edu.
Photo courtesy of Eleanor Asbury.
