PRO-AM SELL-A-THON® – FOR Coaches and Buyers

OVERVIEW | FOR COACHES & EDUCATORS  | STUDENT COMPETITION RESOURCES

PSE Pro-Am Key Objectives

  • Emphasize the importance of selling skills play in everyday life.
  • Dispel negative perceptions associated with selling.
  • Many students enter the workforce in a sales capacity; therefore provide a program that demonstrates real-life selling situations.
  • Provide a vehicle to teach students about selling in a logical, process-oriented approach.
  • Involve professional salespeople in the program to mentor and coach these students during the program to provide real-life sales experiences.
  • Provide a program that allows students to compete in real-life selling situations with all of the variables of a real-life situation.

What is the role of the Coach/Judges? 

PRIOR TO COMPETITION
  • Review case
  • Familiarize self with Carew & LAER principles
  • Ensure communication with Pro-Am Team / PSE HQ team if any prep questions need answering
PRO-AM DAY, PREP PERIOD
  • Attend coach / judge training
  • Take note of key points, topics, and information for sellers to uncover (if applicable)
  • Review scoring criteria sheet
DURING SALES CALL
  • Watch and take notes regarding how student performed against criteria and what they did well or could have done better
  • Post-call, provide student constructive feedback – not just positive or negative, but a combination of what they did well and areas of improvement
  • Note: finalists are based on pen-to-paper scoring, so do not sway the group via groupthink, and maintain consistency in your scoring from first student to last
AFTER COMPETITION ROUND
  • Please feel free to connect with the student competitors, but we ask you do not discuss how a student did compare to other students in the room until after awards are announced.
Online Judging Form

What is the role of the Buyer?

PRIOR TO COMPETITION
  • Review case
  • Familiarize self with Carew & LAER principles
  • Ensure communication with Pro-Am Team / PSE HQ team and ask any prep questions
PRO-AM DAY, PREP PERIOD
  • Attend buyer training
  • Take note of key points, topics, and information for sellers to uncover
BEFORE SALES CALLS BEGIN
  • Remind all judges that scoring is to be done pen to paper and that all scoring is about each judge’s consistency
  • Remind judges of importance of time for feedback. Depending on number of judges, determine length of feedback time and/or how many judges to give feedback after each call
  • Remind judges that scoring discussions should not take place amongst one another so as to not encourage groupthink or bias
AFTER COMPETITION ROUND
  • Do not discuss how student did compared to other students in the room
  • Quarterback your room. Take control, and keep reminding judges on items above.

THE 2021 PRO-AM SELL-A-THON® NATIONAL CONVENTION PRODUCT SPONSOR

Thank you to all the PRO-AM SELL-A-THON® SPONSORS:

Get a job with Carew through Pi Sigma EpsilonGet a job with UPS through Pi Sigma Epsilon

  • “The Pro-Am competition provides a competitive learning environment for aspiring sales professionals. Participants receive coaching from real sales professionals before the role play, and then receive instant feedback once the role play is completed--what could be better than that! You can read as many sales books as you want, but the Pro-Am sales competition is the best way to learn how to perform a sales call, identify your strengths, work on your weaknesses, connect with employers, and showcase your talent!"

    Pat Delehanty, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire

  • "The Pro-Am Sales competition provides students the ability to strategically approach each situation within a real world business and leverage key features and attributes of a brand and gain knowledge of applications that can be utilized in a sales call."

    Donna Wertalik, Instuctor of Marketing, Virginia Polytechnic Institute And State University

  • "The benefits of the PSE Pro Am are incredible for my students. The Pro Am gives them the opportunity to practice and apply their professional selling skills in a real world scenario including call preparation, client research, understanding client needs, handling objections and making the sale. It builds their confidence in their selling skills. Two of our students placed first and second in Regionals and one of them in the top 5 at Nationals. This experience put these students positions where they had lined up sales careers long before the end of their senior years, despite the economy. All four of the students that went to Nationals had positions lined up before we arrived-a lot of their success was due to the Pro Am experience. Three of them said that the National conference was the best experience of their college career."

    Kenneth Cherry, Assistant Professor-Marketing & Professional Sales, Central Michigan University

  • "From our very first experience with PSE’s Pro-Am Sellathon more than 15 years ago, I was impressed with the impact of this unusual sales competition. By combining strong sales training with coaching from active sales professionals, the Pro-Am, and its realistic role-playing scenarios, stands out among other student sales competitions. Vector Marketing Corporation is so proud to have been the initial sponsor of the Pro-Am Sell-a-thon and looks forward to the continued growth and success of this valuable program."

    Sarah Baker Andrus, Vector Marketing Corporation

  • “The Pro-Am is the one place where you can see sales done right! PSE put academics, street knowledge, and passion into sales like no other organization I’ve ever seen."

    Tony Parinello, award-winning salesman, sales trainer for Fortune 500 companies, and best selling author of Selling to Vito, Getting the Second Appointment and Think and Sell Like a CEO
Katapult Marketing2020 Pro-Am Sell-A-Thon Partner Page