News Archive
Fall Selling with the Bulls Competition Held on Virtual Platform
By Keith Morelli
TAMPA (October 26, 2020) -- The fall 2020 version of Selling with the Bulls, a popular Muma College of Business competition open to all USF students, happened this month, with outside business partners serving as mentors and judges and students vying for salesmanship bragging rights.
The whirlwind event took place Oct. 15-16, said organizer Rob Hammond, an instructor in the School of Marketing and Innovation and director of the Center for Marketing and Sales Innovation.
鈥淭hursday night, 14 business professionals from 10 companies networked with students in over 80 networking conversations,鈥� he said. 鈥淥n Friday, we held three rounds of sales role plays. In total, we had more than 50 sales role plays.
鈥淪tudents competed in multiple events,鈥� he said, 鈥渋ncluding networking, prospecting with email, web discovery meeting and web sales meeting.鈥�
ReliaQuest, a global cybersecurity company headquartered in Tampa, was the event sponsor. Students 鈥渟old鈥� ReliaQuest鈥檚 Greymatter product to representatives from ReliaQuest who were the buyers. Other business professionals were judges.
鈥淪elling with the Bulls is such a great competition to be a part of because all the students are eager to learn, receptive to feedback, motivated, and sharp,鈥� said Taylor Jacobs, a senior recruiter at ReliaQuest, which has sponsored the last two fall events. 鈥淚 was super impressed after our first time sponsoring but this second time around was a whole other ball game.
鈥淭he students really buckled down and had a much better understanding of the product, even with the challenge of being remote,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t was amazing to see the improvement. We have some great potential hires out of this mix and I am excited to see what they accomplish next.
鈥淚 am grateful for this partnership,鈥� she said, 鈥渁nd the people we have met through it.鈥�
The entire event was virtual, due to the threat of COVID-19.
Taylor Torres, president of the Professional Sales Club Tampa Chapter, and Natalie Pollock, vice president of the chapter, served as the student competition directors. They were responsible for preparing students by teaching the cases and role-play processes along with helping run the event.
鈥淪tudents teaching students is a unique part of our program,鈥� Hammond said. 鈥淚t provides scale and development opportunities.鈥�
Bill Marquis, a marketing student in the Muma College of Business, was the 鈥淭op Bull鈥� or overall winner, pulling in enough points in various rounds to best the other students. Sidney Ihejirika took second place. Ihejirika is president of the Professional Sales Club St. Petersburg Chapter. Lucas Boney, Avi Wolf and Anthony Hopkins finished out the top five finishers.