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Winners Announced at Russ Berrie Institute’s 10th Annual National Sales Challenge at William Paterson University’s Cotsakos College of Business

University of Wisconsin-Parkside takes top honors among professional sales teams and Victoria Reyes, a senior at William Paterson University, is first place overall individual winner

The Russ Berrie Institute for Professional Sales (RBI) at William Paterson University’s Cotsakos College of Business hosted the 10th Annual National Sales Challenge, an intense series of selling competitions and workshops held at the University’s campus in Wayne, N.J., from November 16 to 18, 2016.

More than 100 college students representing 31 universities from across the country, as well as from Edinburgh Napier University in Scotland, participated in the competition. This year, 113 executives from 16 sponsor companies participated in the National Sales Challenge, the largest executive attendance in its history.

The competition is designed by the University’s Russ Berrie Institute for Professional Sales to strengthen students’ sales skills and offer them an opportunity to network with business executives from companies around the country who will judge the events and serve as sponsors. (Photo at left: Victoria Reyes of William Paterson, Sales Challenge individual winner, and team member Brian Potoczak of William Paterson, which took third place as a sales team.)

Competitions included the sales role-play event, which used a selling situation from sponsor ADP, and a speed-selling competition, which requires students to rotate through tables seated with company executives to pitch themselves for two minutes for a generic job.

Winners are as follows:

UNIVERSITY SALES TEAM
1^st Place – University of Wisconsin-Parkside; team members are Nicole Thomsen and Jack Nickeas
2^nd Place – University of Louisiana-Lafayette; team members are Caeleb Young and Salvadore Crifasi
3^rd Place – William Paterson University; team members are Brian Potoczak and Victoria Reyes
4^th Place – Utah State University; team members are Karlie Arave and Jeremy Bowe

SALES CHALLENGE CHAMPION–INDIVIDUAL WINNERS
1^st Place – Victoria Reyes of William Paterson University
2^nd Place – Jack Rickeas of the University of Wisconsin-Parkside
3^rd Place – Nicole Thomsen of the University of Wisconsin-Parkside
4^th Place – Caeleb Young of the University of Louisiana-Lafayette

SALES ROLE-PLAY COMPETITION
1^st Place – Nicole Thomsen of the University of Wisconsin-Parkside
2^nd Place – Salvadore Crifasi of the University of Louisiana-Lafayette
3^rd Place – Victoria Reyes of William Paterson University
4^th Place – Caeleb Young of the University of Louisiana-Lafayette

SPEED-SELLING COMPETITION
1^st Place –Margaret Newton of Baylor University
2^nd Place –Jack Nickeas of the University of Wisconsin-Parkside
3^rd Place –Caleb Ellison of Baylor University
4^th Place –Sam Garwood of Clarkson University

Participating schools for 2016 were:
Ball State University
Baylor University
Bloomsburg University
Clarkson University
Edinburgh Napier University
Georgia Southern University
High Point University
James Madison University
Kansas State University
Metropolitan University of Denver
Nicholls State University
Penn State Harrisburg
Plymouth State University
Purdue University
Siena College
Southern New Hampshire University
St. Catherine University
State University of New York at New Paltz
Temple University
The Citadel
The College of New Jersey
University of Arkansas (Little Rock)
University of Central Oklahoma
University of Louisiana-Lafayette
University of Texas (Arlington)
University of Wisconsin (Parkside)
University of Wisconsin (White Water)
Utah State University
Western Michigan University
Widener University
William Paterson University

The National Sales Challenge was held in University Commons and the Russ Berrie Professional Sales Laboratory, a unique computerized multimedia facility that simulates business office environments in the University’s 1600 Valley Road building. William Paterson offers a bachelor of science degree in professional sales through the Department of Professional Sales, and provides training programs for sales professionals in the Laboratory.

 11-21-16

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