SU student places 2nd in Bayou Sales Challenge

Southern University senior, Jean-Michel Moise placed second at the 8th Annual Bayou Sales Challenge recently held at Nicholls State University.

Moise, a 30-year-old, marketing major with a professional sales concentration, from Brooklyn, New York and Miami, Florida, and fellow Southern student Cameron Henderson, a 23-year-old senior Business Marketing major from Fort Worth, Texas, participated in the event against students from Nicholls State, Xavier, LSU, and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

Moise and Henderson said George Kirk, assistant professor in the Department of Management and Marketing, discussed the challenge in his marketing professionals class and they felt they could meet the challenge.

In the challenge, the student competitors pretended to be salesman and their clients were representatives from the business and industry field.

"You pretend to be a sales representative for a potential business. They (the challenge) provide the information and when you enter the challenge," said Moise. "Judges watch you on hidden cameras and critique you on anything on the sale, the greeting, problem solving, everything to close the sale."

Both Moise and Henderson advanced to the semi-finals.

"To make it to the semi-finals, I read of the material several times to become familiar with the information," said Henderson. "From there I tried to simulate every situation and provide a solution; as well as creating dialogs with my co-partner. So when it was time for the sales call, I was prepared for whatever was thrown my way."

Henderson placed within the top five overall.

Moise advanced to the final round and placed second in the challenge. Nicholls State placed first. Awards were given only to the first and second place winners.

Moise said he has interviewed with several companies since the challenge and plans to have an internship setup for the summer and several job offers by the time he graduates in Fall 2011.

"It (the sales challenge) validated the learning that we get in the classroom and the feedback I received from the companies was invaluable. To showcase want Southern is teaching us is really good," said Moise who is a transfer student from Howard University and Florida International University.

Moise said he came to Southern University because of the professional sales concentration and the fact that he is more prone to the HBCU System. He also liked the fact that Southern is not as large as LSU and offers smaller classes.