The National Collegiate Sales Competition (NCSC) will feature the BG Sales Competition first and second place winners, Derwin Pritchett and Sara Scacchi March 31 through April 3.

These finalists will travel to NCSC to show off their role-playing skills in the largest and oldest sales competition to exist, according to the NCSC website. Contestants role-play a sale while actual sponsors observe and look for possible future employees.

NCSC has about 120 people involved, according to Pritchett, a junior Business Administration major specializing in Marketing. “Participants will be split into groups and then into time slots, and will compete with the students in other time slots,” he said.

To travel to NCSC, contestants must first participate in the BG Sales Competition advised by Dr. Greg Rich and Mearl Sutton. The entry for the BG Sales Competition is first come first serve, and they typically allow around 50 students of all majors to compete in Round One.

In fact, all majors are encouraged to compete.

“Almost every job is a sales job, and this competition teaches you the sales process, which is applicable to every part of life,” Rich said.

Round One of the BG Sales Competition has competitors role-play like they are talking to a potential student of BGSU and must identify and meet the needs of the student. Competitors are graded on approach, identifying needs, product presentation and overcoming objections. Close and overall communication skills are also used to grade competitors. There are six to eight alumni on the judging panel as well as advisor Rich.

From there, around 10 competitors are chosen to move on to Round Two, where participants will role-play as if they worked for a company. This year the sponsor was Marathon. This round is graded the same way as Round One.

Pritchett was the winner of this years BG Sales Competition. He has done the competition a few times, and it has “opened a lot of doors for him.” Sponsors watch a live-stream of the participants role-playing and look for potential employees. After the competition there is a job fair available for all competitors.

Even in years when he did not win, Pritchett said he was offered internships. Pritchett also mentioned it is a great place to network. He, along with Dr. Rich, pushed the competition as something for all majors, not just business majors.

Pritchett and Scacchi are preparing by meeting weekly with Rich and Sutton by practicing role-playing. They also recently went to the University of Toledo’s Sales Competition and placed sixth out of 30 schools.

There is a cash prize for winner of both the BG Sales Competition and NCSC. The next BG Sales Competition will be in the fall.