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FIU Business\u2019 2021 Global Bilingual Sales Competition attracted participants from a record 20 universities, including those in Mexico, Spain, Peru and Puerto Rico. FIU marketing majors Marianna Araujo and Claudia Guaremas took top spots in the English, Spanish and Bilingual categories.<\/p>\n
The growing participation from international universities and their students has made the bilingual competition the only one of its kind worldwide, explained Nicolo Alaimo, assistant teaching professor of marketing and logistics.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are aware of the reality – Spanish is spoken by more than 50 million U.S. residents in addition to Spain and most countries in Latin America,\u201d said Alaimo, co-director of the Global Sales Lab. \u201cThe need for bilingual professional sales representatives and managers by local, national, and worldwide organizations is rapidly increasing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The case study for this year\u2019s competition was sponsored by HubSpot, a customer relationship management platform. For the English-language track it was centered on SunSail Yacht Charters facing challenges in sales or marketing. The Spanish-language track focused on selling HubSpot\u2019s to ClearSale,\u00a0a fraud management and chargeback protection services company with plans to grow and expand in Latin America. Although both companies are real HubSpot customers, the cases were altered for the purpose of the competition.<\/p>\n
Using role-playing techniques, students were required to build a rapport with the buyer, identify his needs and show HubSpot\u2019s products and services as the best solution in series of 15- and 20-minute virtual meetings conducted via Zoom.<\/p>\n
In the final round each student had to deliver the HubSpot-focused proposal and its positive value-added impact to the customer business, address any objections from the buyer and ultimately close the sale.<\/p>\n
The most challenging part, recalled Araujo, was pricing and calculating the customer\u2019s ROI. \u201cI had to tell the customer \u2018you\u2019re going to pay a lot, but here\u2019s your return on investment.\u2019 The numbers had to be right,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Among the competitors, Araujo and Guaremas stood out by their level of preparation and understanding of the benefits HubSpot could deliver in each case study. Alaimo explained that they developed detailed questions to ask when interacting with the customer in order to identify the problem and determine the business consequences of those issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were able to show the value in a more efficient way and in a more convincing way to the buyer and to the judges,\u201d said Alaimo.<\/p>\n
The \u201ccherry on top\u201d of the competition, said Alaimo: the four students who excelled in the English and Spanish tracks were invited to participate to the final bilingual challenge.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany students have come to the realization that being bilingual is an asset to any profession and if they have the opportunity to participate in a competition like ours before going into the workforce, they should take it,\u201d said Alaimo. \u201cThat\u2019s a challenge most universities cannot ignore.\u201d<\/p>\n