Students From The University of Louisiana at Lafayette Compete at the National Collegiate Sales Competition

Kim Abrahams and Joseph Labauve, marketing majors from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, traveled to Georgia with their marketing instructor Duleep Delpechitre for a chance to compete at the 12th Annual National Collegiate Sales Competition (NCSC), hosted by the Coles College of Business (Kennesaw State University) March 5-8, 2010. The NCSC, the world’s largest collegiate sales competition, pits top sales students in a test of live role-play, one-on-one sales call challenges. Each sales call is broadcast live to locations on campus where college faculty from across the country and recruiters from sponsoring companies participate as judges and evaluate each student’s performance.

Approximately 350 college students from 61 universities participated in this year’s competition, along with nearly 30 companies, including Liberty Mutual, ADP, Tom James, Owens Corning, AT&T, Hewlett Packard, Dow Jones, NCR and Reynolds and Reynolds. NCSC sponsor resources provide funding to defray the expenses of competing students and participating faculty. Many of the best and brightest sales students would be unable to attend without the help of corporate sponsors.  Additionally, Lafayette business professionals Chuck Wood with Citadel Broadcasting Company and Stuart Cestia of Northwestern Mutual sponsored the registration fees for Abrahams and Labauve.

“It says a lot about the caliber of the students competing when you have companies that are willing to travel across the country to recruit them, even in a down market when very few companies are hiring,” said Dr. Terry Loe, director of the NCSC, as well as director of the Center for Professional Selling at Kennesaw State’s Coles College of Business. “These students are a solid investment for sponsoring companies who want to fill entry-level sales positions with graduates who already have sales training or a degree in professional selling. The extensive sales training these students receive prior to graduating translates to lower turnover and reduced training time and cost for companies.”

“This is Henry Schein’s seventh year to attend this event. As a veteran manager who has been hiring sales talent for 35 years, I believe that the NCSC is the best collection of sales talent that you will find under one roof, all competing for the top sales position in the collegiate realm,” said Dean Kyle, zone general manager for Henry Schein. “Not only do you get to meet these young people, but you also get to watch many of them in actual competition. It is the kind of experience you wish you could have with every sales candidate you interview.”

Since this was the first year the University of Louisiana at Lafayette (UL) participated, the UL student team started out ranked 61st out of 61 colleges and universities across the US.  After a stellar performance by Abrahams and Labauve, the UL team ranked 14th out of the 61 colleges and universities.  Abrahams advanced to the semi-final round, an unusual accomplishment by any school competing for the first time, and finished 16th out of 122 competitors.  Labauve also had an extraordinary performance and advanced to the quarter final round.

Abrahams and Labauve were trained by Duleep Delepchitre, an Assistant Professor at UL.  Mr. Delepchitre teaches Personal Selling and Sales Management course in the Marketing and Hospitality Department at UL.  Mr. Delepchitre also led the team to the State Sales Competition held at Nicholls State last October where Abrahams won the competition and the UL team took top honors.

Some of the colleges and universities in the NCSC competition include:

Florida State University

Baylor University

University of Toledo

University of Washington

Bowling Green State University

Kennesaw State University

Bradley University

University of Houston

Michigan State University

University of Georgia

Ohio University

Texas State University

Nicholls State University

Kimberly Abrahams:

Abrahams is a Marketing major who will be graduating in May of this year.  She is the current President of Pi Sigma Epsilon, (PSE) the professional sales/marketing fraternity at UL.  She has worked her way through college and paid 100% of her college expenses.  However, working has not kept her from being active with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, being a volunteer for the Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and working with Delta-Delta-Delta.  As if she has not accomplished enough, Abrahams spent two summers working and traveling across Europe. She also won the Bayou Sales Competition held at Nicholls State last October.

Joseph Labauve:

Labauve is a Marketing major at UL and will be graduating in December of 2010.  Like Abrahams, Labauve is active in Pi Sigma Epsilon and is the Vice President of Human Resources of the organization.  He has been active working for Toys for Tots in the past.  He has maintained a sales job for a large part of his college career as well as working in retail businesses in Lafayette.

For more information about the NCSC, visit www.ncsc-ksu.org.

About

Inaugurated in 1999, the National Collegiate Sales Competition (NCSC) is the largest and oldest sales role-play competition in existence. Its mission is to enhance the practice and professionalism of the sales profession. Each year, the NCSC hosts the top collegiate sales talent and sales faculty from the most elite university sales programs in North America. Sales students are provided a venue for sharpening their sales skills in a highly competitive environment and networking with their peers and sales faculty from across the United States. NCSC corporate sponsors have the opportunity to network with and preview the elite talent and greatly contribute to their education and careers and in turn make a great investment in the future of the sales profession. For more information, visit www.ncsc-ksu.org.