The momentum didn’t falter, and the competition intensified in the final round of the annual Panther Sales Tournament (PST) as students pitched Breakthru Now, a web platform that allows restaurants to manage their beverage inventory developed by Breakthru Beverage Group.
Competitors edged each other out within fractions of a point. Hosted by the Global Sales Center at FIU Business, the event was held on December 6, rescheduled due to Hurricane Milton.
“We're looking for the students to sell the benefits of the product, but also discover the needs of the buyer,” said Luisa Moreno (BBA ‘24) development representative for Breakthru Beverage and judge at PST.
The tournament is open to students from any major and gives them a chance to earn scholarships, find internships, practice their techniques and even land a new job. Judges include former PST participants and FIU alumni.
Professor Nicolo Alaimo announces winners of the speed selling competition.
“It was one of the best things that I did while I was at FIU,” said Luis Perez (BBA ‘24), account manager at TK Elevators. “I was not only able to get the know-how and the experience of how to sell in certain situations, but I was also able to network with a bunch of different companies, and that led me to be able to get my job where I'm at now.”
After the morning’s tense sales tournament, the judges compiled the scores and announced the winners during the lunch award ceremony.
In the speed selling portion of the PST, five students scored high enough to win runner-up prizes of $100 scholarships, another seven, dubbed champions, received $200 scholarships.
The Spanish-language role-play champion was Sara Landaeta, who won a $500 scholarship, while Jose Osorio won the English-language role-play competition and a $500 scholarship.
The annual FIU Business event has inspired previous contestants to return as judges, eager to encourage current students on their journeys.
Jose Diaz graduated from FIU in 1999 with a degree in hospitality and is now the director of retail sales at Breakthru. He’s been a PST judge three times and is eager to connect with potential new hires.
“We've had a few success stories with students from this program,” said Diaz. “We have a gentleman who is now a director of trade development, he manages a whole region in our company, and he’s very young and he came from this program.”
Diaz also noted that sales isn’t just a career path, but a personal skill that all students should learn in order to sell themselves during interviews or as they climb the career ladder in a company.
“I originally didn't want to be in sales, because I’m studying marketing, but I found that having sales skills will really help me have a competitive edge against other marketers in the field,” said senior Valerie Cardenas.