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Industry News

 

Huthwaite-Sponsored Collegiate Competition Promotes Sales Skills

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Sterling, Va.
Huthwaite, a sales performance improvement company, announced its sponsorship and continued participation in Pi Sigma Epsilon’s (PSE’s) Pro-Am Sell-A-Thon scheduled for March 28 at PSE’s national convention in Dallas. This is the fourth year Huthwaite has been involved in the Sell-A-Thon, a national competition for collegiate students of sales and marketing.

This year, Huthwaite expands their support of the Sell-A-Thon, by offering a paid internship to one of the competitors. The summer internship will span eight weeks. The candidate selected for the position will have the opportunity to work alongside Huthwaite professionals, attend a SPIN Selling public workshop, receive a library of Huthwaite books and travel to client training sites. Candidates will be evaluated on their performance during the Sell-A-Thon, as well as their resume, cover letter, references and interview.

To prepare the students for the Sell-A-Thon, Huthwaite has provided them self-paced prework and will deliver classroom training on competition day. The training content includes SPIN Selling, a consultative sales methodology derived from genuine behavioral field research. Participants will then pair up with coaches to practice new skills as they plan for the competition. Coaches are seasoned sellers and sales managers provided by Huthwaite and other PSE sponsors.

In the afternoon, each student will serve as a seller in a business-to-business sales role-play developed by Huthwaite. This year’s role-play, whose content was provided by Kodak, will focus on “the value of print.” Each call will be videotaped and judged by a team of sales professionals and faculty, including an expected 10 judges from Huthwaite.

“The PSE Sell-A-Thon is extremely important to the vision and mission of our company,” said Tom Snyder, Huthwaite’s CEO. “Each year we have increased our commitment to the PSE and this competition as we seek to play a crucial role in nurturing, educating and developing the next generation of sales professionals and give them what every salesperson needs, a leg up on the competition.”

Students that participated in the Sell-A-Thon in past years have gone on to careers in professional sales positions throughout the country, many making important connections with potential employers during the competition. “It’s gratifying to know that we are playing a part in honing these students’ skills, and that they are using Huthwaite’s lessons, not only to sell services and products, but also as life lessons,” said Anne Devine, executive director of the ProAm. “I’m even told several students have used these learned sales techniques to obtain jobs in the industry following graduation.”

More than 150 people are expected to participate in the competition, including 80 students from universities such as Purdue University, Carthage College, Louisiana State University, The Ohio State University, Southern Illinois University, Virginia Tech and the University of North Carolina Wilmington. The winners of the ProAm Sell-A-Thon will receive trophies, cash prizes and unrivaled experience in competitive sales.

“I’m proud of our role with Pi Sigma Epsilon and the Sell-A-Thon,” said Snyder. “PSE students are earnest and hardworking, and they take these competitions very seriously — exactly the professional behavior we need to be encouraging in tomorrow’s salespeople.”

For more info: http:// www.huthwaite.com

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