{"id":20456,"date":"2012-11-15T17:58:07","date_gmt":"2012-11-15T17:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/?p=20456"},"modified":"2012-11-15T17:58:07","modified_gmt":"2012-11-15T17:58:07","slug":"birth-of-a-salesperson-business-students-shine-at-international-collegiate-sales-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/2012\/11\/birth-of-a-salesperson-business-students-shine-at-international-collegiate-sales-competition\/","title":{"rendered":"Birth of a salesperson: business students shine at International Collegiate Sales Competition."},"content":{"rendered":"

Neither Ashley Castillo nor Joseph Mendola had ever done anything like this before. But both students turned their keen interest in business sales into winning performances, making a name for themselves and the College of Business at the recent International Collegiate Sales Competition<\/a> (ICSC).<\/p>\n

The competition focuses on developing the critical skills today\u2019s collegiate sales graduates need. This marked the first time that Florida International University (FIU) business students participated in this kind of sales competition.<\/p>\n

The new kids on the block learn a lot—and get noticed for their effort.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI knew I had a passion for sales but prepping for this competition taught me that winning a sale involves much more than showing up on a sales call,\u201d said Mendola, director of the college\u2019s American Marketing Association sales club. \u201cYou have to do a lot of homework before you can close the deal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Ashley Castillo, Nancy Rauseo and Joseph Mendola<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mendola made it all the way to the semi-final round of the four-round competition, as 70 students—many representing schools that have been participating in national sales competitions for years—were whittled down to 16.<\/p>\n

Along with the competition, 29 companies from various industries participated in the related job fair and scouting for sales talent.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have never been so aggressively recruited,\u201d Mendola said. \u201cThe exposure was amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Castillo agrees.<\/p>\n

\u201cPreparing for the competition was challenging,\u201d she said. \u201cBut I learned a lot about myself, my strengths and best selling techniques.\u201d<\/p>\n

The effort truly paid off for her. Not only did she win the Netsuite Challenge at the event, but she also had the opportunity to interview with one of the sponsors, Johnson & Johnson.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing part of this competition provided exposure to the company and allowed me to stand out from the typical college graduate,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Nancy Rauseo, who teaches Personal Selling<\/em>, coached the students and traveled with them to Tallahassee for the weekend competition, hosted by Florida State University. Two FIU sponsors, ADP and City Furniture, also attended, providing much-appreciated feedback and encouragement.<\/p>\n

Next steps? The eight-student sales team is preparing for more national sales competitions in spring 2013, including the most prestigious of all: National Collegiate Sales Competition (NCSC) at Kennesaw State.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Neither Ashley Castillo nor Joseph Mendola had ever done anything like this before. But both students turned their keen interest in business sales into winning performances, making a name for themselves and the College of Business at the recent International Collegiate Sales Competition (ICSC). The competition focuses on developing the critical skills today\u2019s collegiate sales […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":20460,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[68,2729,2730,1973],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20456"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20456"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20456\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20461,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20456\/revisions\/20461"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}