Professional sales students from more than 30 universities across the United States will visit The University of Toledo College of Business and Innovation this weekend to compete in the inaugural University of Toledo Invitational Sales Competition.

The sales competition will take place Friday and Saturday, Feb. 26 and 27, in classrooms and meeting rooms throughout the Savage & Associates Business Complex on the UT Main Campus.

The first rounds of the competition will take place from 9:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. Friday, followed by the second round from 1:45 to 3 p.m. and quarterfinals will be from 4 to 5:40 p.m. The competition will conclude Saturday with the semifinals from 8:30 to 9:20 a.m. followed by the finals from 10:15 a.m. to 12:20 p.m.

The winners of the competition will be recognized at an awards luncheon at 1 p.m. Saturday in the Student Union Auditorium.

“The Edward Schmidt School of Professional Sales is widely recognized as one of the top educational sales programs in the nation, and we regularly send teams to other universities to participate in major sales competitions,” said Deirdre Jones, director of the Edward Schmidt School of Professional Sales. “Most sales competitions are intended for senior sales students, so we decided to establish a unique competition for freshmen, sophomore and junior sales students. This allows the students to practice and sharpen their sales skills earlier in their sales studies while also allowing employers to be the first to interact with the developing sales professionals of tomorrow.”

The event also will feature a career fair for participating students from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday and from 8:30 a.m. to noon Saturday in the Student Union Ingman Room.

“We are extremely pleased by the participation of so many respected sales schools from universities such as Missouri, Florida State, Purdue, Tuskegee, Oregon State, Wisconsin, Georgia State and more,” Jones said. “Furthermore, we are excited that major companies such as our product sponsor 3M, our rocket sponsor Quicken Loans, and other major companies including Goodyear, Liberty Mutual Insurance, Reynolds & Reynolds will be interacting with these students in role plays, as coaches, at our career fair and more.”

Tags: College of Business and Innovation