Finalized Plans for Fall 2020 FSU Sales Institute Events
Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, most fall classes at FSU will be online and many universities have severe travel restrictions, as do many partners of the FSU Sales Institute and sponsors of the International Collegiate Sales Competition (ICSC). As a result, all FSU Sales Institute events will be online this fall including the Seminole Sales Showcase (SSS), class speaking engagements, Seminole Sales Club presentations and ICSC.
The following plan is based on discussions with almost all FSU Sales Institute partners and with faculty from other universities who participate in or manage other major university sales competitions. Our two-fold goal is to provide an enjoyable experiential learning experience for university student participants and to maximize the return from the financial and personal time investments of FSU Sales Institute partners.
The following is an outline of each planned online event. The first two are exclusively for FSU. Seminole Sales Showcase occurs at FSU but all of the events are mirrored at ICSC. There is one unique ICSC event, the Sales Management Case competition. Available on the ICSC web site under the Sponsors tab is a document, “Maximizing Your Partnership ROI” which fully describes the operation of each event for both ICSC and SSS including sample judging forms. Please note it is critical for the success of each event and the maximizing of your investment that the primary logistics person for either or both ICSC and SSS complete the survey at the end of this document.
Class Presentations
- There are a limited number of class speaking opportunities and priority for scheduling a class speaking day is defined in the “2020 Special Covid-19 Partnership Description” document you have been provided.
- All engagements will be via Zoom and take up the last 20 minutes of all classes on a single day. Presentations should be about career opportunities, culture and career growth with the presenting organization. For the Professional Selling class, this material is part of course content and test questions based on the material presented are part of quizzes or exams.
Sales Club Presentations
- There are 4 scheduled sales club meetings, each scheduled for a Wednesday evening starting at 7 PM.
- These are professional development events. Some possible topics are professional dress, managing online business meetings, navigating a job market during a pandemic, potential growth industries versus declining industries, etc.
- Because students will be engaged in online class activities all day, attracting an audience will require creativity. Suggestions from students include interesting topical subjects of value that are not part of course content as well as fun activities such as interactive games, puzzles or quizzes, all with prizes of interest.
- Send an email to ppallentino@fsu.edu to be connected to club officers.
Seminole Sales Showcase (click on the link for the full agenda)
- The Seminole Sales Showcase consists of several events where you will meet all students in this semester’s sales courses. All events are online.
- There are students from every business major and occasionally students from other university programs.
- The events are:
- Role-play competition (Round 1) among the Fall 2020 sales team, competing for scholarships and the honor of representing the university at one of several national competitions. Buyers and judges are needed for this event which occurs Wednesday, October 7 between 8:00 AM and 11:00 AM. All partners receive access to the competition videos.
- A two-part career fair, “Set Sail on Your Career”
- Part A will start approximately 3 weeks before Part B. Part B occurs all day, Thursday, October 8.
- In Part A all students will watch the 2-3-minute video about your opportunity and organization. Then students earn points towards prizes by competing in quiz competition about each video.
- In Part B, students will select and set 7-minute individual meetings with a minimum of 10 companies via Zoom.
- Meetings are scheduled 10-minutes apart starting at 8:30 AM with a last scheduled meeting at 3:50 PM. This allows for a maximum of 45 7-minute meetings in each Zoom online meeting room. Chief partners are allocated 5 such Zoom rooms, Warriors 3 and Renegades 2.
- Meetings are spaced 10 minutes apart. Company representatives will receive a spreadsheet with a list of their appointments, links to resumes and a column where they record a simple evaluation. Company representatives are given a basic metric by which to judge the interactions as “Professional” or “Not Professional” Students receive a grade for achieving the minimum of 10 professional evaluations and also more points towards prizes. In the competition for prizes, most students will do many more than the 10 minimum interactions.
- Speed selling competition (Round 1) for sales majors, starting at 4:30 PM on October 8th.
- Online, this event will be operationally similar to an in-person event.
- There will be four rounds with five competitors logging into a Zoom waiting room for their first chosen company, then second, etc.
- The company speed selling judge will admit one competitor at a time, listen and evaluate the competitor’s presentation, submit the Qualtrics judging form and then move to the next competitor in the round.
- There will be time at the end of each round to confirm that all judging forms were submitted and then the next round will begin.
- Role-play competition Round 2 and Speed Selling competition Round 2.
- The Role-play Round 2 competition will be among the top four from each of the 4 Zoom rooms in Round 1. It will occur on October 9th starting at 8:30 AM.
- The awards ceremony will be broadcast live via Zoom starting at 11:30 AM and will begin with Round 2 of speed selling among the top 3 from Round 1.
International Collegiate Sales Competition (ICSC) (click on the link for the agenda)
The events at ICSC all mirror the events at Seminole Sales Showcase (SSS), plus there is one unique ICSC event, the Sales Management Case competition. There will be approximately the same number of student competitors at ICSC as at SSS. Do note that at ICSC you are meeting the top 2 to 6 students from each of the 90 participating universities from the U.S., Canada, and Finland.
In the week following SSS, all participating partners will be asked for suggestions on improving all of the event processes for ICSC.
The Sales Management Case at ICSC
- The 32 participating universities are winners of the Sales Management Simulation elimination pre-event which occurred in March and April.
- Competitors will present their solution for the case to judges via a Zoom meeting.
- Judges for this event need to be experienced sales representatives, sales managers or senior executives.
See “Maximizing Your Partnership ROI” on the ICSC web site for complete details and procedures for each event.
Click on this link for complete details and procedures in the “Sponsors Guide to Successful Recruiting”.