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.
