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Department of Marketing

News from for the National Strategic Selling Institute

The National Strategic Selling Institute (NSSI) at K-State has had a busy fall semester!  Between sales competitions, program growth, and curriculum changes, we have had an eventful fall.

Program Growth and New Curriculum:

Our sales program continues to grow at an amazing rate.  We recently accepted 55 new students into the Certificate for Professional Strategic Selling Program, bringing our overall number to 183 students.  Including both May and December 2017 graduates, we will have 68 sales students completing the sales certificate program – by far, our largest graduating class ever!  We are thrilled with the increased interest in the sales program and continued growth of the sales program.

We expect to see even more growth in the future as a result of our new major in Professional Strategic Selling, which was just approved by the Kansas Board of Regents on November 15.  We are now one of only 18 universities in the country that offer a sales major, further distinguishing our program as one of the top programs in the country.  Students entering the College of Business can choose to major in Professional Strategic Selling, beginning in the fall semester of 2018.

Sales Competitions:

The K-State Sales Team has performed extraordinarily well this fall.  On October 6, sophomore Lanessa Aurand won the inaugural E.J. Gallo Sales Competition hosted by the University of Missouri in Columbia, and the team of Lanessa and senior Rachel Kipper won the overall team championship, based on the combined results of the sales role plays and a marketing case competition.

Next up was the International Collegiate Sales Competition (ICSC) which is the largest sales competition in the world, hosted in Orlando by Florida State University. Rachel Kipper and Lanessa Aurand dominated the competition, winning the overall ICSC Team Champion trophy out of a field of 70 universities.  Individually, Rachel Kipper was awarded 1st place, and Lanessa Aurand 3rd runner up, out of 140 student competitors.

Internationa Collegiate Sales competition

Finally, two team members brought home awards from the Schlumberger Competition in Houston. Competing against three other top sales programs, juniors Hannah Holland and Ethan Meyers won second place team in a very tough field of sales team students.