Frequently Asked Questions:
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What is a role-play competition?
As a business student, one of the most important skills you can learn while in school is: How to convey added value. In this competition, you will participate as a “seller” and practice explaining to a “buyer” how their company would benefit from your product.
You will be interacting 1-1 with your buyer in Study Rooms. All buyers are students who understand how to play the role of the buyer.
Your roleplays will be live streamed to judges via zoom. These judges are from the same companies that will be attending the Career Mixer for this event and they are looking to recruit students. This method of judging rounds is how most sales competitions work, and it serves as a way for students to showcase their soft skills outside of an interview dynamic.
At these types of events where you are showcasing your soft skills, it’s common for students to gain positive recognition from recruiters and for these types of competitions to lead to job offers.
Who do I present to, and how will I be scored?
Leading up to the competition days, you will be required to send us: (1) an email where you’re following up with a lead and asking to schedule a conversation, and (2) a prerecorded voicemail of you trying to secure/schedule a meeting with your buyer. You will be “in character” according to the case given. Both of these activities will be scored.
During the three competition rounds, participants will interact with the “buyers” for a 10 to 20 minute conversation (depending on the round). These conversations will be live streamed via zoom for judging/scoring by recruiters from companies that partner with the UF Sales Program. These recruiters will be scoring based on your ability to (1) build rapport, (2) conduct a needs assessment analysis, and (3) effectively convey value and close the sale.
The networking/career fair event is also an opportunity to earn overall points.
You compete in rooms only. The first and second round rooms seeding is random. Third round rooms are based on your prior performance. Scoring In each room works as follows:
- First place: 100pts
- Second place: 90 pts
- Third Place: 80 pts
- Forth, Fifth, Sixth: 70, 60, 50.
Who is eligible?
All undergraduates and individuals from our specialized master’s programs (or any other 5-year combined degree program) are welcome!
Who cannot compete: The following individuals are respectfully considered to be a bit too advanced for the competition:
- Those with a year or more of full-time selling experience
- Individuals in graduate programs such as JD, PhD, MBA or similar advanced degrees. Please contact us if you’re not sure or don’t want to accidentally disqualify yourself. We do want this to be an inclusive competition, but we want folks to know they have a chance of winning
- Former first-place overall or individual award recipients from the immediately prior semester may not compete except in an exhibition division. We want to spread the money around. Teams may defend their titles, but not with the first place winners.
How is this different from a case competition?
Case competitions focus on the deep analysis of a problem, and then task you with crafting the unique solution. In this role-play competition, we provide you with a scenario about a business, and your task is to effectively convey the benefit of your product based on how it suits the company’s needs.
Your focus is on helping the buyer recognize the value of your product, and the benefit it would bring to their company. In the sales environment we call this “benefit selling”. All competitors are given the same: scenario, objective, and buyer profile.
Why should I participate?
Now more than ever, many companies are prioritizing an applicant’s soft skills. In your preparation for this competition, you will have the ability to learn about and explore key elements of the sales cycle, and experience in-depth business conversations.
And more than that:
- Rounds are judged by recruiters – Many past competitors have been invited to interview as a result of participating in this event.
- Network with students and create those connections! As a business student, you know the concept: “Your network is your net worth!” Multiple socializing opportunities are built into the competition schedule.
- Have you seen these prizes? They range from $100-$1000! Where else on campus can you earn up to $1000 in less than 2 days?
- Refreshments will be provided both days of the event.
How do I prepare myself?
The first time we held this competition, just one person showed up to our live info session. Because this student was so well prepared by attending that session – he won the first place prize of $1000. Coincidence? We don’t think so. We want you to feel prepared to succeed after attending one of our info sessions, so all competitors are now required to attend one of our info sessions live by zoom.
There are numerous books that UF Sales classes encourage students to read. The two most popular titles: SPIN Selling and GAP Selling. Learning about these methods in-depth is encouraged, as focusing on your ability to effectively convey value and emphasize benefits is the true goal.
Finally, our UF Sales Program Sponsor, Gartner, who also sponsors the National Collegiate Sales Competition, the gold standard of sales competitions, has put together this page so you can see how a business conversation might look.
You can also reference that site to help you prepare. (While these resources are valuable, they are for a different product. We will work with Gartner to find some of their resources relative to what you’ll be selling as the competition approaches)