Sixteen students participated in a scholarship sales competition, hosted by Northwestern Mutual, at the University of Montana last month. Business School Professor Justin Angle explains.

“When you say sales competition, what that means is students who are interested participate in this kind of two round role play,” said Angle. “They do this sort of prospecting type of interview with a potential sales client. They come back after digesting the information from that first interview and they try to make a sales pitch.”

A panel of alumni, professors, and people interested in the community judged the competition and gave each student detailed feedback and a score.

“This year it was a technology oriented product,” Angle said. “The student doesn’t have to do a lot of research in a particular product domain. What they do have to do is read the case carefully and get any external information that might enhance their knowledge of the potential interaction to prepare.”

The top two winners, Aerionna Hardesty and Tatem Hoehn, will represent UM in the National Collegiate Sales Competition and will compete against students from over 70 universities across the country.

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