Making the pitch: Trine seniors take part in national sports sales competition

Four Trine University seniors pitted their sales skills against collegiate teams from around the nation in the 2021 National Collegiate Sports Sales Championship, held Feb. 24-March 10.

Competitors in the event, which was held virtually, were given a sales scenario and played the role of salesperson, with hiring managers from a wide variety of professional sports teams playing the role of buyer. Students were judged on areas that included building rapport, agenda statement delivery, probing questions, sales process questions, active listening, recommendation, overcoming objections, asking for the sale and keeping integrity.

The top three scores from each school combined to create an overall team score, with Texas A&M winning the overall competition. Trine, competing for the first time, placed 12^tt out of 30 total teams.

Two Trine students, Kacie Galloway, an exercise science major from Towson, Maryland, and Kyle Sumner, a sport management major from Granger, Indiana, advanced out of the first round with 28 other competitors.

Sumner finished 16th overall out of the event’s 120 participants. Galloway and Jackson Billings, a sport management major from Churubusco, Indiana, were named to the event’s All-Integrity team, meaning they scored 100% on keeping integrity through all rounds of the tournament.

Christian Wirth-Karbler, a sport and recreation major from Livonia, Michigan, rounded out the Trine team.

“This was a great opportunity for the students because the professionals they role-played with are actively looking to hire, and they gave our team some great feedback,” said Brandon Podgorski, assistant professor of sport management.

Podgorski said the finals for the competition are usually held in Atlanta, hosted by the Atlanta Hawks, but the event was entirely virtual this year due to COVID-19 concerns.