Student Coach of the Year: Dillon Fontaine

Baylor’s Center for Professional Selling sponsors student involvement in 4 internal and 5-6 external sales competitions each year. In addition to competing, ProSales students serve as student coaches for competitions. Using a student coach strategy provides rich learning opportunities for both student competitors and student coaches, while building student-peer relationships and the collaborative ProSales culture. The ProSales program is pleased to announce that Dillon Fontaine is the 2019-2020 Student Coach of the Year.

Dillon’s peers nominated him based on his coaching for the University of Toledo Invitational Sales Competition (UTISC) team as well as for several internal competitions. His colleague and peer, Victoria Venable noted, “With this being my first full year in the ProSales program, I didn’t have sales competition experience. During the Baylor Business Selling Outside (BBSO) and Baylor Business Value Analysis (BBVA) competitions, Dillon lent a hand and his support to ensure I knew what was asked of me and that I could do it with confidence.”

Beyond helping others learn how to compete, Dillon coached an external sales team to win, according to Jake Morrow, “Dillon presented fantastic criticism and challenged the UTISC competitors to stretch themselves in ways that they didn’t even know that they were capable of. It was a pleasure to watch Dillon’s influence and experience impact the competitors from our team which eventually resulted in a first-place finish!”

Being nominated as an outstanding student coach by another student coach demonstrates the sheer impact that Fontaine had on everyone around him. “I was also a coach for this UTISC competition. Though everyone involved did an amazing job, it was clear to see that Dillon really had a passion for it. He was very involved in every step of the process, he led the team often, and he always tried his best. He was caring for the others involved and he always made our meeting a little bit more fun,” shared his peer coach Sam Whitaker.

Victoria Whitworth earned the top honor at the UTISC competition and credits Dillon for her success, “Dillon did so much industry and product research that, up until the day I was competing, I learned something new from him every time we spoke. He called to check in after each round when we were in Toledo and never stopped giving valuable advice for the next round! I could not have placed first, if not for the whole team, but Dillon truly went above and beyond.”

In congratulating Dillon Fontaine as the 2019-2020 Student Coach of the Year, the ProSales program also congratulates two additional student coaches for their Honorable Mentions: Clark Parr and Josh Rocconi. Parr coached the National Team Selling Competition (NTSC) at Indiana University while Rocconi was acknowledged for his efforts on behalf of the National Collegiate Sales Competition (NCSC) team as well as coaching students for internal competitions (BBSO and BBEC).

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.