Baylor Places Fourth at UT Invitational
Baylor’s Professional Selling program earned top honors at the University of Toledo Invitational Sales Competition (UTISC) in Toledo, Ohio on February 24-25, 2017. Baylor’s team placed 4th overall from a field of 30 universities. Chad Brown placed 3rd as an individual competitor in the sophomore division, and Reed Mitteness and Madison Floyd placed seventh and eighth place, respectively, as individual competitors in the junior and sophomore divisions. Dr. Andrea Dixon served as faculty coach and ProSales Program Manager Brianna Hensley and ProSales junior KC Fox coached the team at the competition site. The student coaching team also included ProSales seniors, Brooke Brady, Branden MacKinnon and Austin Newberry.
“Participating in the UTISC was an extremely valuable learning experience. Entering as an alternate at the beginning of the competition, I was able to compete last-minute and was very happy with my performance in my first sales competition. Not only did competing teach me better ways to approach a sales call, but also allowed me to improve my networking skills at the career fair and with executives,” said Chad Brown, sophomore in Baylor’s professional selling program. Baylor’s other sophomore participant, Madison Floyd, echoed Chad’s comments, “UTISC gave me the opportunity to grow in my selling style, professional network, and competition experience. The competition was well organized and supportive, creating a fun atmosphere for all students.”
Competing as a sophomore is a challenge as the student is pre-curriculum and must learn about the sales process from ground zero. However, students in the sophomore bracket are typically experiencing this new terrain together. In the junior category of the competition, student competitors are at very different background levels. Representing Baylor in this junior category, Reed Mitteness felt the challenge to focus on the value message as he engages that content area in his advanced sales class, “The UTISC was one of the most valuable learning experiences in my collegiate career so far. Everything from the practice, planning, and execution of the role plays was an opportunity to grow as a sales professional.”
“The beauty of this competition for Baylor is two-fold,” said Dr. Andrea Dixon, Executive Director of Baylor’s Center for Professional Selling. “First, the UTISC is the only competition in the country which provides a sophomore competition bracket. That’s helpful for our student development process. Second, the fact that 3M sponsors this competition means that our students get to grapple with a strong innovative (differentiated) product in which the seller must truly communicate value-in-use. We are grateful to the University of Toledo and the 3M Corporation for providing this learning experience.”
About the Center for Professional Selling
Dedicated to excellence in sales education and based in the university’s Hankamer School of Business, the Center for Professional Selling is recognized as one of the premier global information resources for the sales profession. For more information on the Center for Professional Selling, visit https://hankamer.baylor.edu/prosales.