My Experience with Skill Training for Young Sales Professionals

By: Ed Albertson Partner, Carew International

I have seen the future of sales and it is very BRIGHT! For one week this spring, the Hyatt Hotel in downtown Houston became the center of the sales universe for over six hundred collegiate Pi Sigma Epsilon (PSE) members, as they held their annual national convention and Pro-Am Sell-A-Thon competition. PSE is the only national, professional, fraternity for men and women in the fields of sales, marketing and management. PSE gives its collegiate members a unique opportunity to gain hands-on experience, participate in conferences both regionally and nationally, and network with top executives through PSE’s corporate partners. Currently, PSE has more than 60 active chapters at universities nationwide, and each spring they gather the brightest of these chapters for the national conference and sales competition.

This past year, PSE selected Carew International to provide the skill training materials for the Pro-Am Sell-a-Thon. Each student was given selling skills training resources to study and use in the competition, as well as sales skill trainers and coaches for the year-long competition. It was in this capacity that I had the opportunity to witness firsthand the exceptional opportunity afforded by PSE in its Pro-Am Sell-a-Thon, as well as the impressive talent among the participants. This competition gives students interface with real-world sales professionals, allows them to receive professional selling skills training and coaching on current sales concepts, and participate in a hands-on application to sell a product in a professional setting.

At the outset of our engagement with PSE, Carew team members viewed our contribution as a means to support an exemplary organization and cultivate sales excellence in these young, committed students about to embark on a professional sales career by providing them with skill training.¬† We came away from the experience truly inspired and feeling as though we were the benefactors. From the quality of the sales presentations, it was clear that this year’s crop of business and sales professionals are ready to take the business world by storm as soon as they are unleashed from their academic surroundings. The student sales people were prepared, organized and focused on developing their buyers’ needs and offering solutions that created value for their buyers.

Carew will once again support the PSE National Convention and Pro-Am Sell-A-Thon regional and national competitions, and we encourage our clients to consider becoming involved as sponsors in this worthwhile event. The Pro-Am competitions are also a terrific recruiting opportunity for young sales talent demonstrating sales effectiveness and capabilities. All of us at Carew International are proud to be associated with Pi Sigma Epsilon (PSE) and to be actively involved in the development of sales talent for our future!

For further information regarding the PSE National Convention and Pro-Am Sell-A-Thon, please contact Ann Devine at 800-761-9350, or visit the PSE website at https://www.pse.org/.