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UCM Team Claims Top Team Award at Annual State Farm Marketing and Sales Competition

By Mike Greife, November 2, 2017

WARRENSBURG, MO – A team of two marketing students from the University of Central Missouri claimed the  Team Award for the highest combined scores in all three categories of competition at the 2017 State Farm Marketing and Sales Competition Friday, Oct. 20 at UCM.

Team members Tara Hansen, left, and Ashlee Eastman, right, with team coach Tyler Hirlinger, display their winnings from the State Farm Marketing and Sales Competition recently held on the UCM campus.

Tara Hansen, a marketing major from Platte City, and Ashlee Eastman, a marketing major from Albuquerque, N.M., earned the recognition, competing against teams from 12 schools from across the county.

In addition to the overall Team Award, Hansen and Eastman, as a team, claimed the Platinum first place award in Marketing Presentation. Hansen claimed the Platinum first place award in Customer Service Role Play and the Gold second place award in the Sales Role Play competition. Eastman finished fourth in both Customer Service Role Play and Sales Role Play.

Hansen and Eastman claimed cash awards totaling $11,500, including $1,000 individual participation awards.

The annual competition is hosted by the UCM Harmon College of Business and Professional Studies in cooperation with State Farm. Tyler Hirlinger, assistant professor of marketing who participated in the State Farm competition as a UCM undergraduate student, is adviser for the team.

“The State Farm Marketing and Sales Competition provides an opportunity for students to further hone their marketing and sales skills, which enables them to better compete in the marketplace,” said Charlie Schwepker, Rand and Kelly Harbert professor of marketing at UCM.   “The competition instills in students the confidence that they can compete with the best and brightest students from across the nation and provides them with an opportunity to network with State Farm executives and employees, opening the door to potential future employment with State Farm.”

The Marketing Presentation category of the competition showcases student creativity as a team, entrepreneurial spirit and presentation skills. Individual team members also participate in the categories of Sales Role Play, which showcases at student’s personal selling skills in a real world scenario with young adult prospective auto insurance buyers, and Customer Service Role Play, which demonstrates a student’s ability to display skills in handling a challenging customer service scenario after the sale. The team with the highest combined score in all three categories receives the Team Award.

In addition to UCM, teams participating in the completion included Arizona State University, Ball State University, Duquesne University, Georgia State University, University of Georgia, University of Houston, Middle Tennessee State University, University of Minnesota, University of Missouri, University of Oregon, Texas State University and Western Michigan University.

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