MASMI hosts competitors from 38 universities
SALISBURY, Md – In Salisbury Friday, over 120 of the nation’s top sales and marketing students gathered to compete at SU’s 4th national sales challenge. As the third-largest event of its kind, and the largest in the Northeast, students from 38 universities from across the country came to the eastern shore to compete in the National Shore Sales Challenge, hosted by Salisbury’s Mid-Atlantic Sales and Marketing Institute (MASMI).
Isabella Hodiste, an SU student and MASMI ambassador said it’s something they take very seriously: “This is something that students train for for a very long time. Students, coaches, everybody is working very hard to make sure that we can do this, and this program is setting us up for an actual meeting in the future where we can do something like this and do it well.”
At the NSSC, students will have the chance to compete in a simulated sales environment and give employers their own version of an elevator pitch. As Maxwell Bour from the University of Akron put it, “It’s literally 90 seconds about the best things about you. So you’re going around to about 6 different companies, making your pitch, making a good connection and hopefully securing a job after, as well.”
Students are given 12 minutes in a role-play sales meeting, monitored by judges via camera. Hodiste said that while the sales might not be real, the benefits certainly are: “Having this experience, it gives you an edge when you’re interviewing and going for different jobs, you have this experience under your belt and that’s what you can offer to potential employers.”
Students had plenty to gain–including a $1,000 check for first place–but MASMI director Dr. Amit Poddar said that students aren’t the only ones who benefit from the NSSC: “More than just Salisbury university, this is a great event for the city of Salisbury itself. There are very few events where a national event takes place here…So all these students from around the country are here, it’s also a great recruiting tool for local companies.
But at the end of the day, the spotlight shines brightest on these students who traveled to the Eastern Shore from every corner of the US, because there is no substitute for quality competition.
“It’s a great learning experience, you just can’t do this in a classroom. It’s one thing to learn it in a classroom, it’s another thing to do it in person,” said Dr. Poddar.
