Local student top in UL marketing competition

Megan Martin, a junior marketing major from St. Martinville, took top honors in the 4th Annual UL Collegiate Sales Competition winning the final round against first runner-up Michelle Menard of New Iberia and second runner-up Jenna Mseis from Amman, Jordan.
Martin and Menard will represent the UL Lafayette sales program at the Russ Berry Institute National Sales Challenge in New Jersey in November. Each of the three finalists also received scholarships.
The competition was held Oct. 18 at the Northwestern Mutual Sales and Research Lab in the B. I. Moody College of Business’ Moody Hall. It featured nine students enrolled in the Advanced Professional Sales course offered through the Department of Marketing and Hospitality at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. The students were judged by over 30 representatives from more than 20 companies from Lafayette, Broussard, Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Austin and Houston.
The students were challenged with selling accounting software to a small landscape company’s employees and owner in a two-round competition. In the first round, three sets of three students competed against each other with the winner in each room advancing to the final round. Students had 15 minutes in each round to identify the customer’s needs, make a sales presentation and attempt to sell their product or obtain a follow-up appointment.
The event, awards, and scholarships were made possible by the Platinum sponsor State Farm, Gold sponsors Capital One, Republic Finance, and Service Chevrolet, and Silver sponsors Home Furniture, Safety Management Systems, Stuller, and TEKsystems.