Baylor Scores A Sales Contest 'Double'

March 19, 2001

by Alan Hunt

Baylor University pulled off a double triumph -- winning the individual championship award and the team award -- at the third annual National Collegiate Sales Competition held on campus March 15-17. Kimberly Stafford, a marketing and human resources major, was named top sales champion.
Stafford, a senior from Shreveport, La., was honored at an awards banquet Saturday evening at the conclusion of the two-day contest, which attracted about 50 students from 19 universities across the nation.
Stafford and her fellow team members from Baylor also won the team award. Other team members were Holly Snyder, a senior marketing major from Overland Park, Kan., and alternate Blanca Silva, a Houston junior who is majoring in marketing and international business. Snyder also placed second in the product sales category award.
Believed to be the only tournament of its kind in the nation, the contest is sponsored by Baylor's Center for Professional Selling and generates plenty of "spirited competition" among the top collegiate sales programs, said Dr. Terry Loe, Baylor marketing professor and contest director. He said it presented the students with "the most challenging sales call they'll ever make." Judging the effectiveness of their performance at the Hankamer School of Business were sales professionals who watched the "sales call" on video screens in an adjoining room.
In second place in the team category was the University of Alabama at Birmingham; third, the University of Houston; fourth, Middle Tennessee State University; and in fifth place, the University of Northern Illinois.
Tatiana Chavanelle of the University of Houston won the product sales category award, and winner of the service sales category was Matthew Bellamy of the University of Toledo. Runner-up in the service sales category was Scott Hancock of Middle Tennessee State University.
Second in the overall championship placings was Jodi Burrus of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and in third place was Brian Apgar of the University of Northern Illinois.
Corporate sponsors of the contest include Arrow Electronics; Carlton-Bates; ELK Corporation; Office Depot; Novartis Animal Health; Belo Corporation; Edward Jones; Lexmark International; New England Financial; Datamax of Texas; David Weekley Homes; Fed Ex; IBM; Kimberly-Clark; Loomis, Fargo & Company; Wallace; and Wilsonart International Inc.
Keynote speaker at the awards banquet was former Baylor wide receiver Jeff Reeter, a representative for Northwestern Mutual Financial Network and president of the Reeter Financial Group. The trophies were presented by David Doherty, national corporate staffing manager of Arrow Electronics.
For more information, contact Loe at (254) 710-4244 or Terry_Loe@baylor.edu.