School of Business Administration
Talarico Center for Professional Selling
Students in the School of Business Administration have been busy on the sales competition circuit. A team represented the Fiore Talarico Center for Professional Selling (Sales Center) during Spring Break in the Inaugural Redbird Regional Sales Competition (RRSC) held at Illinois State University. Their 2nd place finish against 12 other teams earned them a spot at the National Collegiate Sales Competition in Atlanta.
This term the Sales Competition Team members are Aaron Bennett, Molly Crabtree, Claire Dinan, Billy Gorman, Meaghan Horey, Courtney Kotoch, Sara Leahy, Tara Perillo, and Sarah Warbis. Head coach Tony Krystofik, who is also Director of the Talarico Sales Center, credits the team’s success as an outcome of extreme commitment and work ethic. “Over the past three months, he said, “each of these students has spent 150+ hours practicing and developing the skills to apply classroom knowledge to a real-life selling situation.”
Junior Molly Crabtree admitted, “After 35 training sessions, the sales cycle technique had become muscle memory.” Crabtree feels one of the most valuable elements of being a member of the Sales Team is the feedback received on performances. “After a sales pitch, we receive not only internal feedback from our coaches, but also feedback directly from the company representatives.” The scenarios presented during competitions involve situations that particular companies have already experienced. Company reps then observe and engage with students as they role-play real-life action and decisions.
According to junior Tara Perilo, “Most college graduates start in sales without prior experience, and can soon realize that being a sales rep is very different from what they expected. Competing with the UD-SBA Sales Team provided me with opportunities to gain valuable experience and tools that will help me successfully begin my future career.” Perilo used her competition experience to help her land a summer internship position as a Sales Representative with Crown Equipment. “Practicing and competing on the Sales Team,” she feels, “helps develop my professional skills.”
During this academic year, 24 sales students participated in an additional 100-120+ hours each of sales training as members of one of the UD Sales Teams. Each of these students has a signed job offer and are ready to start their full-time sales careers or summer sales internships!
When the Talarico Center was dedicated in October 2013, there were fewer than 40 such centers in the US, and UD was only the 4th privately-held university in the country with a physical sales lab. Today the number of labs has grown to 85 (among the 127 US universities with sales programs). Our innovative learning environment, staffed with students and faculty and boasting state-of-the-art technology, has been recognized as a 2018 Top University for Sales Education by the Sales Education Foundation.
Contact Tony Krystofik for more information at akrystofik1@udayton.edu.
By Madelyn Allor, '19 and Jeanne Zeek