Sales Never Fails Competition
The 2026 date is TBD.
SUU students are invited to join us for the annual Sales Never Fails competition! There are two tracks, or competitions, to compete in, sales and negotiation. In sales, participants will compete March Madness style in front of a panel of judges for their chance to win first place. The negotiation track will feature students competing to acquire the best contract for their case. The top winners of each track receive CASH prizes from our sponsoring judges!
Anyone and any major can participate and attend. ALL competitors will be served dinner and be able to network and receive mentorship from our judges. Don't miss your chance to win and practice your sales and negotiation skills, skills needed for life!
Schedule
The 2026 schedule is TBD.
Details
The annual Sales Never Fails competition has two components, the Negotiation Competition and the Sales Competition. In Negotiation, students compete for the title of SUU’s top negotiator. Students will be judged based on what they can negotiate within the provided case study and evaluated by a judge. Each predetermined negotiated item will be worth certain points and the student who collects the most points wins! An overview is provided below.
The Sales Competition is completed in a March Madness bracket style where students compete against each other through various stages of the sales process in order to win. There will be 4 different rounds: the qualifier round (prospecting), the first round (discovery), the second round (presentation/proposal), and the third and final round (negotiation/closing). The product/service being sold will be chosen by the program director and given to students when they register.
Sales Never Fails takes students through every stage of the sales process as if it were a real world scenario and provides a place for students to practice their sales skills, skills needed for every career. Any SUU student from any major/college can compete and attend. Dinner will be served to students and judges in attendance on November 20.
Competition prizes will be awarded as follows:
Negotiation Competition - prizes will be awarded to the top negotiator in each of the 4 groups students will be assigned to
- The top 4 students will earn $200 each
Sales Competition
- 1st - $500
- 2nd - $250
For further details, please review the competition rules and for a description and breakdown of each round, please see the information below.
- Spots are limited! We only have 24 seats available. Those who register first will be allowed to compete.
- Competitors are given a case study prior to the competition date to negotiate a contract for one thing or multiple things. Whether they act as the buyer or seller will vary from year to year. And whether it’s an individual negotiation or multiparty negotiation will vary from year to year. Register and view the case study for more details.
- Students will be judged based on what items or conditions they can negotiate. Each predetermined negotiated item will be worth certain points and the student who collects the most points wins!
- All necessary details are provided in the case study.
- Students are to prepare and submit a PDF document fulfilling the requirements found in the case study. The first section should be an ICP dossier that includes Demographics, Psychographics, and Behavioral Characteristics on your prospect. The second section should include completed drafts of your LinkedIn prospecting message, email prospecting message, and your planned phone prospecting call. Finally, this document should also include a video invitation embedded within up to 5-minutes in length sharing your message.
- Upon submission, the document will then be uploaded to a shared Google folder which judges will be able to access and evaluate.
- The Qualifier Round is open to any and all students. There’s no limit as to how many can enter.
- Judges will review the documents and pick 7 students to go on to compete in the next round, in person.
- The qualifier round will be due 2 weeks before the event date and judges will have 1 week to narrow down the participants. The 7 qualifiers moving on will be notified promptly and have the remainder of the week to make their preparations.
- To fill the 8th seat in the first round, those who do not make it through the qualifiers are invited to compete in the LCQ on November 20th. You will have 3 minutes to present your Qualifier or prospecting pitch in person to a few of our judges. Score sheets will be the same as for your original submission. *Hint: use your phone call messaging as a starting point. For assistance on creating your pitch, we encourage you to reach out to our ProSales Ambassadors.
- The 8 qualifying students will have 7-10 minutes each to meet with their assigned judges and complete the discovery process
- The judges will choose 4 students to advance to the next round based on performance
- The 4 students moving on to this round will be given 7-10 minutes each to give a presentation or proposal to the judges based off of the information collected in the first round
- Students will stay and compete in their originally assigned brackets and with their original judges, but more judges will be added to view the round
- The judge’s scores will determine the 2 students to advance to the third and final round
- Students will be given 15 minutes each to meet with their assigned judge to negotiate and close the deal
- As before, more judges will be added to view the round
- The judge’s scores will determine who receives first place and who receives second
Sponsors
To become a sponsor for this year’s competition, please contact mareebeach1@suu.edu. Thank you!
Tew Investments LLC
Previous Events
1st: Luke Perkins
2nd: Quinn Hagerman
3rd: Carlos Barron
This year's winners in the sales track were Luke Perkins in first, Quinn Hagerman in second, and Carlos Barron in third. Cash prizes for the sales track were awarded as $500 for first, $250 for second, and $100 for third. The negotiation track named Alice Annaccarato as first, Mason Richins as second, and Drew Higbee as third. Cash prizes for the negotiation track were awarded as $250 for first, $100 for second, and $50 for third.
For more information about the 2024 competition view the competition press release.
1st: Marlee Ressler
2nd: Chandler White
3rd: Jakob Harrison Stock
This year, the prompt was to sell SalesForce (a Customer Relationship Management Software– to a fictional medical device manufacturing company named MedTech with a small market cap. Contestants were instructed to pretend they were marketing specialists for SalesForce selling the software to MedTech employees.
The first-place winner, Marlee Ressler, also competed in last year's competition and took first again from the prompt surrounding wedding planning services. Ressler is a graduate student in SUU’s MBA Program with an emphasis in leadership. This year, Ressler walked away with the first-place prize of 500$.
“This is my sixth sales competition, but every time, I have the opportunity to refine my selling skills and be more comfortable with public speaking.”
-Marlee Ressler, first place competition winner.
"Sales Never Fails was a showcase of the improving quality of our sales students and the expanding reach of our academic and experiential learning activities. The contest attracted industry leaders and mentors who contributed time and prize money to reward our amazing students for their efforts. I am continuously reminded of the quality of our students. I would put our students up head-to-head with any university in the world. They are first-class, gritty and determined individuals from all cultures who prove that SUU is a magnet for the best of the best."
-Kurt Wankier, director of Professional Sales.
To learn more about the 2023 competition view the original competition press release.
1st: Marlee Ressler
2nd: Kevin Gonzalez
3rd: Alexa Evans
Similar to the first competition in March, only now with a different prompt, each participant offered a three-minute pitch to a client, explaining what they would do for their wedding as their hypothetical planner. Each pitch took place in front of a diverse panel of judges who offered feedback after each and chose three winners at the end.
First-place winner Marlee Ressler chose to participate to take advantage of both networking opportunities and a new learning experience, gaining a better understanding of what comes from sales. The SUU senior is double majoring in management and marketing rather than pursuing a sales-focused career, yet she has found this competition very beneficial to further practicing the skill that could help with her career plans of marketing management or in another upper management position.
“I had never written a sales pitch before, so it was a learning opportunity, and I wanted to see how it went. It was only three minutes of my life, so I just decided I might as well try and see what happens.”
-Marlee Ressler, first place competition winner.
One of the biggest reasons students of all majors are encouraged to participate is due to the fact that sales is a highly transferable skill that can and often is utilized throughout businesses and several business careers.
“Entering the workforce without quality experiences that stretch students is a real risk.”
-Kurt Wankier, Director of Professional Sales.
To find out more about the details of the Fall 2022 competition, check out the SUU News article covering the event.
1st: Spencer Christensen
2nd: Matthew Matheson
3rd: Jessica Cuthbert
SUU's first ever Sales Never Fails event! 13 students had minutes to convince the judges to buy the product they were selling, and only 3 came out on top.
“The inaugural sales pitch competition exceeded our expectations. Students from a variety of majors and backgrounds breathed life into an exciting new era of opportunity for Thunderbirds. Interest in our Professional Sales Minor continues to grow and this is evidence of how valuable this minor will be to future T-birds from all academic disciplines.”
-Kurt Wankier, director of Professional Sales.
The fast-paced atmosphere of the event offers students an example of what selling is like in the real world. More than that, Sales Never Fails gives participants a valuable experience by helping them have the courage to learn and better prepare themselves for the workforce.
Learn more about SUU's first Sales Never Fails competition.
Contact
For more information, general competition questions, concerns, etc, please contact Maree Beach at (435) 865-8433 or mareebeach1@suu.edu. For questions regarding the case study and pitches contact Kurt Wankier at kurtiswankier@suu.edu.