Sales in the Swamp

Sunday, March 30, 11:59 p.m. – Deadline to register 

Sunday, March 30, 8 p.m. – Case sent to competitors. 

Monday, March 31, 7 p.m. – Information Session 1

Tuesday, April 1, 7 p.m. – Information Session 2 

Wednesday, April 2, 11:59 p.m. – Cold email and voicemails due (Rubric)

All competitors or a representative must attend one information session. Info sessions will be held over zoom but not recorded. 

Failure to show up for information sessions or send email/voicemails by the deadlines without notice will result in disqualification and you will be removed and replaced with someone on the waiting list. Additionally, you will be unable to compete in future sales program events. If you need to cancel, please notify us as soon as is reasonable. 

3:30-4 p.m. – Arrival at Bryan Hall 130 (center of the north wing of Bryan Hall)

4-4:30 p.m. – Welcome and announcements – Bryan Hall 130 

5-8 p.m. – Round One – Bryan 232 (Refreshments provided while you wait.)

*Students will actively participate in one 20 minute session per round.

9-10:30 a.m. – Speed sell / networking (Zoom)

11-11:30 a.m. – Arrive, Bryan Hall 130 

11:30 a.m.-noon – Announcements, lunch, Heavener 230

Noon-2 p.m. – Round Two, Heavener 230

2-3 p.m. – Break (scoring, sorting)

3-5 p.m. – Round Three, Heavener 230

6-8 p.m. – Awards dinner (The Swamp Restaurant)

As a business student, one of the most important skills you can learn while in school is how to convey added value. In this competition, you will participate as a “seller” and practice explaining to a “buyer” how their company would benefit from your product.

You will be interacting 1:1 with your buyer in study rooms. All buyers are students who understand how to play the role of the buyer.

Your roleplays will be live streamed to judges via zoom. This method of judging rounds is how most sales competitions work, and it serves as a way for students to showcase their soft skills outside of an interview dynamic.These judges are from the same companies that will be attending the career mixer for this event and they are looking to recruit students.

At these types of events where you are showcasing your soft skills, it’s common for students to gain positive recognition from recruiters and for these types of competitions to lead to job offers.

Leading up to the competition days, you will be required to send us: (1) an email where you’re following up with a lead and asking to schedule a conversation, and (2) a pre- recorded voicemail of you trying to secure/schedule a meeting with your buyer. You will be “in character” according to the case given. Both of these activities will be scored.

During the three competition rounds, participants will interact with the “buyers” for a 10 to 20 minute conversation (depending on the round.) These conversations will be live streamed via zoom for judging/scoring by recruiters from companies that partner with the UF Sales Program. These recruiters will be scoring based on your ability to (1) build rapport, (2) conduct a needs assessment analysis, and (3) effectively convey value and close the sale.

The networking/career fair event is also an opportunity to earn overall points.

You compete in rooms only. The first and second round rooms seeding is random. Third round rooms are based on your prior performance. Scoring In each room works as follows:

• First place: 100 points
• Second place: 90 points
• Third place: 80 points
• Forth, fifth, sixth places: 70, 60, 50 points 

All undergraduates and individuals from our specialized master’s programs (or any other 5-year combined degree program) are welcome!

The following individuals are respectfully considered to be ineligible for the competition:

• Past individual division winners
• Past team division winners may not compete in the team division, but the organization may field a team with new members
• Past first place overall
• Those who’ve competed in intercollegiate role play competitions
• MBA students
• Those with more than a year of B2B professional sales experience
• Students who have failed to show for a previous Sales in the Swamp without contacting ushose with a year or more of full-time selling experience
• Individuals in certain graduate programs, such as JD, PhD, MBA or similar advanced degrees.

Case competitions focus on the deep analysis of a problem, and then task you with crafting the unique solution. In this role-play competition, we provide you with a scenario about a business, and your task is to effectively convey the benefit of your product based on how it suits the company’s needs.

Your focus is on helping the buyer recognize the value of your product, and the benefit it would bring to their company. In the sales environment we call this “benefit selling”. All competitors are given the same: scenario, objective, and buyer profile.

There are numerous books that the Warrington College of Business sales classes encourage students to read. The two most popular titles: SPIN Selling and GAP Selling. Learning about these methods in-depth is encouraged, as focusing on your ability to effectively convey value and emphasize benefits is the true goal.

Finally, our UF Sales Program Sponsor, Gartner, who also sponsors the National Collegiate Sales Competition, the gold standard of sales competitions, has put together a competitor resources page so you can see how a business conversation might look.

Register for Sales in the Swamp.

Space is limited to 36 spots.

All UF Students are welcome to compete. However, this is billed as a beginner’s competition, thus the following are not eligible:

• Past individual division winners
• Past team division winners may not compete in the team division, but the organization may field a team with new members
• Past first place overall
• Those who’ve competed in intercollegiate role play competitions
• MBA Students
• Those with more than a year of B2B professional sales experience
• Students who have failed to show for a previous Sales in the Swamp without contacting us

Please contact us before assuming you are or are not eligible.