By Courtney Wirths
News Assistant
The sales and marketing fraternity, Pi Sigma Epsilon, travelled to San Diego, Calif, earlier this April to compete in a series of business and chapter related competitions.
Students from the College’s Zeta Zeta chapter brought home the award for the best chapter in the competition’s Amethyst division.
PSE is a business fraternity on campus. The organization is open to students of all majors that are looking for networking opportunities and have an interest in business.
“To me, anybody can use skills that you use in business,” said sophomore marketing major and member of PSE Rachael Scott. “If you want to get a job, networking is very important. You need to be able to talk to somebody.”
The College has had a chapter of PSE for five years, and there are currently 35 members.
At the San Diego national competition, the chapter’s executive board presented their successes over the past two semesters, including their community service projects. What really set the College’s chapter apart was their volunteer work for the victims of Superstorm Sandy.
“Right after Sandy hit, we immediately contacted someone so we could help out at the shores,” Scott said. “That was very special for us as a chapter because New Jersey was hit very hard both emotionally and physically.”
In addition to the chapter competition, students had the option to compete in individual events.
Scott participated in a marketing case study as well as a sales competition.
For the marketing case study, Scott’s team was given a day to develop a marketing campaign for Pepsi Max and present the campaign to judges the next morning.
They unfortunately did not move on to the second level of this competition.
“Participating in that was a really good experience because now we know what to expect and we realized that the financials are something that they really look for. They look for the long-term and short-term goals,” Scott said.
The sales competition, the Pro-Am-Sellathon, simulated the experience of a sales person making a pitch to a company or buyer.
Students are given a company to represent, a product to sell, and then must pitch the product to the buyers and the judges.
Scott said that she felt more prepared than many other chapters competing because of the hours of practice she had with professor and faculty advisor to PSE, Al Pelham.
“I had never considered a career in sales, and after this competition I am reconsidering,” Scott said.
Above all, Scott values the people she met while at the competition and the relationships she formed with students from all over the country.
Scott described the students that participate in PSE as being hungry for success.
“It is always good to put yourself in a room with people who are just as motivated as you are,” she said.
