MBA Program

MIT Sloan Sales Club

The club reports on the competition ...

A student makes his pitch as part of the first annual MBA Sales Competition, which was conceived and organized by the MIT Sloan Sales Club.

It's Dec. 15, and your venture-backed start up's funding is about to run dry. The product has been built and is finally working. You've got everything you need, save one thing: the first major customer. Can you close the big deal to finish the year off with a bang? Will you be handing out the bonus checks that your team deserves or will you be handing out layoff notices?

The first MBA Sales Competition, held on Saturday, Nov. 3, 2007, and organized by the MIT Sloan Sales Club, gave 21 MBA students from leading business schools a chance to answer that question for themselves. Students came from HBS, Wharton, Yale, Kellogg, Babson, and MIT Sloan to compete for bragging rights and shiny trophies.

The students competed by selling products from three different local startup companies (Xconomy.com, Evergreen Solar, and Virtual Iron Software). A panel of twelve distinguished judges, including many MIT Sloan alumni and sales professionals, evaluated the entrants on their presentation skills, as well as on their ability to engage the customer, overcome the buyer's objections, and tailor the presentation to the customer's purchase inclination. For these presentations, the contestants had to quickly adjust their pitches when they received last minute information right before the pitch and the buyers projected different customer behaviors.

At the final gala event, held at the Marriot in Kendall Square, the organizers announced the winners and the competitors were given the chance to network with the judges, sponsors, and the other students. First prize went to Tim Nicolette, HBS '08, second to Julie Yoo, MIT Sloan BEP '09, and third prize to Ajay Kulkarni, MIT Sloan MBA '08.

The competition was the brainchild of Nathan Williams MBA '08. He first thought of organizing the event after reading about a sales competition held for undergraduates. Williams called and convinced the director of the National Collegiate Sales Competition (NCSC) to launch the first graduate division then set out to create the MBA Sales Competition at MIT Sloan to find the best students to send to the NCSC.

Says Williams: “I decided to launch the first MBA sales competition to give top business school students a chance to test their sales skills and an opportunity to further develop their capabilities through direct and real time feedback. People got feedback from their morning session that they were able to constructively use in their afternoon sales. It was a positive learning experience for everyone involved.”

A committed group of Sloan Sales Club leaders made the competition a success. The team included: Managing Directors Nathan Williams, MBA '08, and Felipe Castro, MBA '09, Operations Director Varun Dhanuka, MBA '09, Marketing/Sponsorship Director Nishi Das, MBA '09, and Competition Strategy Director Thais Felipelli, MBA '09.

With their creativity, ingenuity and resilience tested, the competitors demonstrated the skills needed to ensure that when they find themselves facing that critical make or break December sales call for their own companies, they will be able to close the deal.