Students win top honors in national sales competition

SAN MARCOS – Cortney DuPriest, a senior marketing major at Texas State University-San Marcos, beat out 63 other students from 32 universities to finish with the no. 1 national ranking at the National Collegiate Sales Competition in Atlanta, Ga.

Alian Johnson, also a senior marketing major, paired with DuPriest to take third place in the team award category.

“ The national competition was a great opportunity to showcase the sales skills we had learned at Texas State University. Plus, we had the chance to meet other students with the same interests,” DuPriest said. “We feel that our involvement with the corporate sponsors will open doors for future Texas State students.”

The competition consisted of two rounds: the first for the sale of a product, ACT!6 customer relationship management software; and the second for the sale of a service, which was United Parcel Service (UPS). Individual scores for all 64 students were tallied at the end of the Product and Service Categories, and DuPriest ranked #1 in the nation. DuPriest was named to the top three students eligible under the point system to compete in the Championship Round.

“ The National Collegiate Sales Competition was valuable because it is not something you can learn in a textbook,” Johnson said.

Participating universities included Purdue University, the University of Houston, Georgia State University, Florida State University and the University of Georgia. Sponsors of the competition often recruit the top students, and the exposure the competition provides excellent career opportunities for the students. Both DuPriest and Johnson received multiple job offers from sponsoring firms, including Liberty Mutual, Yamaha, Federated Insurance, Belo, Novartis, Edward Jones, Kimberly-Clark, IBM and Glasco-Smith-Kline.