BGSU Academy of Marketing Association adds value for students interested in sales careers

Chapter members benefit from corporate partners and selling competition

By Sophia Fonte '21

Bowling Green State University students in the Allen W. and Carol M. Schmidthorst College of Business interested in sales careers gain experience outside the classroom through the Academy of Professional Selling student organization.

The organization, a division of the BGSU American Marketing Association chapter, focuses exclusively on sales. Students have the opportunity to learn from corporate partners that share some of their company training programs to help prepare APS students for sales careers. The corporate partners also recruit APS members for internships, co-ops and also full-time jobs upon graduation. APS members typically have more than one internship while they are students and have their first career position secured an average of about six and a half months before graduation.

During the spring semester, APS competed in and placed second overall in the University of Toledo Invitational Sales Competition. Thirty-six universities participated in the competition, including noteworthy schools such as Baylor, Clemson, Purdue, Temple, James Madison, and Kansas State.

The competition is comprised of multiple 15-minute segments where participants attempt to sell a 3M product to a potential buyer. The rounds become progressively more difficult as participants advance. BGSU’s Sophia Barnes finished fourth out of 36 students in the junior division and Alex Raffel placed seventh out of 36 students in the sophomore/freshman division. Michael Quarcoopome was an alternate.

Months before the competition, Barnes and Raffel met with their coaches Dr. Greg Rich, faculty; Davida Frick; and Collin Levandowski and Hayden Chase Kuzma, student coaches.

Mearl Sutton, a teaching professor of marketing and the founder and faculty advisor for the organization, said "Our members are consistently competing and often winning against schools that have had sales programs for much longer than BGSU. I’m extremely proud of the progress this program has made in such a short period of time.” 

The BGSU chapter of the American Marketing Association received a Top 25 ranking for their work throughout the year, an extraordinary accomplishment considering they are in competition with 370 other chapters around the world.

“BGSU’s Schmidthorst College of Business has never had a problem attracting high caliber students,” Sutton said. “APS has given these high achievers a vehicle to drive them to an even higher level of success.”