A team of six Ball State University students is $1,500 richer after winning second place at a national sales competition.
Team adviser Scott Inks said the tobacco company Philip Morris USA sponsored the competition, which was Friday at Indiana University.
Competitor Chris Naffziger said Ball State competed against six other schools in the competition.
Four team members competed in the event and two were substitutes, Naffziger said. None of the team members had competed in a sales competition before this, Naffziger said.
Competitor Tyler Clemens said the $1,500 reward was divided among the six team members.
Inks said the competition consisted of a role-playing scenario in which team members were required to make two sales calls. Teams represented an imaginary wine distributor and had to sell the product to a grocery store chain, he said.
Naffziger said the first mock-sales call was an information-gathering session in which the competitors assessed the buyer's needs. The second sales call was a presentation where competitors pitched their ideas to sell their product, he said.
"First, we asked questions to get deeper into the clients' challenges that they're having," he said. "Once we can figure those challenges out, we try to come up with a solution that will provide value for them."
Clemens said the team spent about a week preparing for the event. Teammates read through material about the imaginary wine brand, practicing their sales calls and organizing presentation materials, he said.
Naffziger said Ball State was the only team in the competition that did not use PowerPoint to give a presentation. Instead, the team prepared folders with information to give to buyers, he said.
The team also designed a label and placed it on a bottle of grape juice to present to the buyers during the competition, Naffziger said.
Naffziger said Inks helped the team prepare for the event.
"It was a great competition, and Dr. Inks was the real reason why we did so well," Naffziger said. "I'm just proud to hopefully bring some notoriety to the sales department at Ball State."
Inks said Ball State will have a regional sales competition Friday in Whitinger Business Building.
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