Center for Sales Excellence

The mission of the Center for Sales Excellence is to prepare students to have a sales mindset as adaptive problem-solvers and relationship builders.

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With the collaboration of sponsors, the center provides premier sales education, a linkage between the sales profession and academia, and a resource to companies and sales professionals. The Sales Education Foundation has named RMU to its Top Universities for Professional Sales Education.

The Center for Sales Excellence in the School of Business at RMU is a stand-alone entity that focuses on initiatives such as:

Development and constant improvement of Sales Curriculum
Cultivating sales learning partner relationships
Awarding student sales excellence
Supporting student travel to sales competitions
Developing industry supported student workshop series
Conducting student sales simulations
Hosting sales symposiums and competitions

Sales Certificate Program

View Program

The Sales Certificate program was developed to meet the needs of industry. It is a cutting edge 15 credit program designed to provide students with the necessary skill sets to be successful in a sales and/or sales management positions. The certificate program specifically exposes students to various aspects of sales terminology, the psychology behind sales and its impact on sales personnel, management of brands/categories of products, sales analytics, consultation and relationship building, and entrepreneurial thinking. This certificate is for anyone who wants to develop specialized knowledge and skills in sales and can provide

There are additional employment opportunities when combined with many different majors. Upon completion of the program, students will be prepared for entry-level sales positions in a B2C or B2B industry equipped with the tools necessary for success.

Upcoming Events

Past Events

Spring 2024 Events

WinS Event

RMU Sales Challenge - March 23, 2024
Contact Jill Kurp, Director for more information.

Fall 2023 Events

"Ask Me Anything" Lunch - October 31, 2023
Tuesday, October 31, 2023 | 12:30-1:45pm | Ferry Room
More Information
Open House With Bunzl - Wednesday, November 8, 2023
Sales Center, Massey Hall
3:00pm - 4:00pm
Learn about career opportunities
Network with Zach Watchous
More Information

AACSB

Celebration of Sales Week - Spring 2023

Monday: March 20, 2023
Nicole Barkey, Sales Director Pitt Ohio, 12pm-1:30pm
“A Career in Logistics Sales: What you Need to Know

Tuesday: March 21, 2023
Luke Mohamed, Senior Director of Partnership Sales, Pittsburgh Penguins – 11am-12:30pm

Wednesday: March 22, 2023 Amy Baudino, Vice President, Portfolio Management, Fisher Scientific North America “Science to Sales” 11:45-1:30 John Jay #280

Wednesday: March 22, 2023
Skylar Riddle, CFP®, and Cory Phillips, CFP®, CRPC™, Fort Pitt Capital
“Consultative Selling in Financial and Professional Services Firms”
11:45-1:30
Ferry Room Massey Hall

Thursday: March 23, 2023
“WinS: Women in Sales: Why the Shoe Fits Panel Discussion and Luncheon” 12-2pm

Susan Kinser, Executive Revenue Enablement Manager, Net Health
Samantha Blandina, FSOP Area Sales Manager, ABARTA Coca-Cola
Christina Sepic, Senior Sales Development Representative, Roadrunner Recycling
Kara Delewski, Customer Solutions Consultant, Fastenal,
Mackenzie Varga, Executive Sales Leader Thermo Fisher Scientific,
Ginny Ennis, Group Car Sales Manager, Enterprise Holdings

Annual Sales Recognition Dinner 5:30pm - 8:00pm
(by invitation only)

Friday: March 24, 2023
NetHealth Breakfast with Scholarship Winners and Interns 8am-9am

Career 1:1 Meetings with Industry Partners
Saturday, March 25, 2023 8am-3pm Fourth Annual RMU Sales Challenge

Participating Universities:

Robert Morris University
Point Park University
Charleston University
Duquesne University
West Virginia University
Pace University

Our sales challenge is a one-day, two-round role-play competition with cash prizes for the top three students (1st place $1,500.0, 2nd place $1,000.0, and 3rd place $500.0). The competition is tournament-style and the top-scoring participants advance to the final round. Students assume the role of a salesperson interacting with a potential buyer to uncover the needs and offer an appropriate solution.

Registered coaches and students will receive a case that provides general information about the prospect, company (and individual), current business situation, and other relevant information for the "sales encounter."

This is an in-person competition, and it will be held at RMU on Saturday, March 25, For more information, contact Dr. Jill Kurp at kurp@rmu.edu

2022 Events

Thursday, February 17, 2022 - Join us for a company information session as we welcome Alicia Berruti, National Speaker at BombBomb. BombBomb is the #1 provider of video email software. Come learn about the technological tools necessary for virtual selling. The first 20 attendees will be gifted a hot cocoa bomb, courtesy of the Center for Sales Excellence. Learn more about BombBomb.

Celebration of Sales Week - 2022

Celebration of Sales Week - 2022

Tuesday, March 22, 2022 - Luncheon and Keynote Speaker - sales student and members of the Society of Marketing Professional Services will hear about prospecting and lead generation using the latest technologies with our very own Dr. Gabriel Moreno. Specifically his talk titled "Strategic Business Development: Leveraging Data and Technology to Generate Predictable Revenue Growth" will address how market volatility, shifts in customer buying behavior, and shortages of top talent and resources are some of the challenges impacting the AEC industry today, undermining the ability to predict performance in a highly competitive environment.Consistent business growth through an effective business development strategy is a vital success factor for firms in the AEC industry that rely on strong professional relationships to expand. In the digital era, there are numerous opportunities to work smarter and improve the results of our business development practices by leveraging available data and technology to create a strategy that ensures predictable revenue growth.
Tuesday, March 22, 2022 (5:00pm-6:00pm): Jim Ettamarna, Partner at SBI Growth Advisory will present “How to Sell: Best Practices from World-class Closers” sponsored by Pi Sigma Epsilon
Wednesday March 23, 2022 (5:00pm-6:00pm) "Pay Day or Pay Dirt?: What you Need to Know about Sales Compensation" Hear about the ins and outs of sales compensation and the art of negotiation with Mike Fuchs, Vice President Commercial, Americas Thermo Fisher Scientific, and Dan Quinn, Director of Sales Compensation, Thermo Fisher Scientific
Thursday, March 24, 2022 (5:00pm-6:00pm) - Net Health, Center for Sales Excellence Platinum Sponsor will host a panel discussion, "Think Differently, Win Differently: A Panel on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Sales Industry." Panelists will explore topics related to race, gender, ally-ship, and advocacy. " Colonial Theatre 5-6pm.
Thursday, March 24, 2022 - Celebration Dinner, honoring our top students, our sales center sponsors, and board of advisors.
Saturday, March 26, 2022 - Third Annual Sales Challenge - multi-university sales competition, hosted by Net Health. For more information, contact Dr. Jill Kurp, Director, kurp@rmu.edu

Celebration of Sales Week - 2021

Celebration of Sales Week at RMU

Professional Selling is an exciting and dynamic field. The Center for Sales Excellence is happy to celebrate this field with the first annual Celebration of Sales Week, March 22-27, 2021.

The week’s virtual events include:

Tuesday, March 23: Shared Experiences: What to Expect from Internships and Mentorships
6pm-7pm

Dave Miller (’02 RMU Grad), W.K. Merriman
Caitlyn Boring, AWS
Mentee Zackary Kutchma, AWS Mentee

Wednesday, March 24: Shared Professional Experiences: What We’ve Learned in Sales
5pm-6pm

Fred Byer- National Sales Manager Eastern US Gorilla Glue Company
Joe Mannix- National Sales Manager Western US Gorilla Glue Company
Al Pasquarelli- Direct Public Sector Waste Management (‘87 RMU Grad)

Saturday, March 27: Center for Sales Excellence Annual Collegiate Sales Competition, sponsored by PITT OHIO

Reasons to Celebrate

Hannah Migyanko, a 2023 graduate of the RMU Sales Certificate Program shares her thoughts on how the Center for Sales Excellence assisted her in landing her first job!

Hannah Migyanko '23

The RMU Center for Sales Excellence connected me with Curbell Plastics, a nationwide performance plastic distributor. Being able to attend the presentation on “Sustainability: the Positives of Plastics” event, sponsored by the Center sparked my curiosity and passion for the performance plastics industry while allowing me to connect with professionals from various companies to find the company that was the best cultural fit for me. I am employed full time in Inside Sales supporting Region 2 based out of Cranberry, PA for Curbell. Being able to participate in the Sales Program set me up for success in and outside of the classroom with experiences and connections I could bridge into my career right out of college.

Mackenna Dragojevich finishes 6th nationally at the National Collegiate Sports Sales Competition

Mackenna Dragojevich finishes 6th nationally at the National Collegiate Sports Sales Competition, standing out among 160+ students from 48 universities.

RMU at the University of Toledo's Invitational Sales Competition Feb 22-24, 2024

RMU Sales students, Mackenna Dragojevich, Chris Kowalski, and Aaron Frier proudly represented RMU at the University of Toledo's Invitational Sales Competition Feb 22-24, 2024.

Aaron Frier, who secured third place in the Junior Bronze division and overall, RMU placed 17th out of 39 universities, a commendable feat for our first competition entry.

2023 WVU Sales Competition

Kudos to our RMU sales team for their stellar performance in the 2023 WVU Sales Competition. Congratulations to Senior, Caleigh McGowan for advancing through phases one and two. Applause for Senior, Mackenna Dragojevich and Junior, John Betz for ranking in the top ten out of 48 students, and a special cheer for John’s award-winning LinkedIn Message in phase one. Your accomplishments make us very proud. Well done, team!

Congratulations to our Sales Graduates!

Andrew Arrigo New Business Consultant Arizona Diamondbacks	Danny Ritchie Inside Sales Representative ADP
Alyssa Hudak Salesforce and Program Data Associate BUILD	Jared Delauter Financial Representative Lifetime Financial Growth
Anthony Locante SDR Net Health	Noah Meyer Sales Associate Fastenal
Tyler Gierl Producer Associate Gallagher	Jeffrey Remark Federal Sales Specialist Wesco
Joshua Dahl Sales Representative Thermo Fisher Scientific	Luke Hansberry Business Development Representative MiCORE Solutions
Isaac Dechant Financial Representative Northwestern Mutual	Chase Jacobs Sales Representative State Farm
Parker Johnson Golf Club Sales TaylorMade Golf Company	Adrianna Juergen Digital Sales Representative FedEx
Mia Laurenzi Digital Sales Representative ADP	Miyu Kojima International Sales Representative Wismettac Asian Foods, Inc.
Brandon West Account Executive PLS Logistics

Reasons To Celebrate 2022-2023

Congratulations to the winners of the 2023 RMU Center for Sales Excellence Challenge, sponsored by Thermo Fisher Scientific

1srt Place - Andrew Arrigo, RMU 2nd Place - Abby Mele, Duquesne 3rd Place - Candance Moses, RMU

Wishing Andrew Arrigo, (Senior Sales student) the best of luck in the 2023 NCSSM Sales Competition.

Congratulations to our first Net Health Scholarship Winners

Aaron Frier Natalie Pinchok Sarah Parry Lauren Chappell

Reasons To Celebrate 2021-2022

Congratulations to Keaton Jennings, 2021-2022 Sales Student of the Year

Keaton Jennings

Keaton Jennings, a Marketing and Sales Certificate student represented RMU's sales program extraordinarily well during the 2021 WVU Sales Challenge on October 16, 2021. He placed 2nd out of 28 students who competed in the event.

Keaton was the best in his group in round one and advanced to round two as one of the four finalists.

We are very proud of Keaton. We also want to also thank and congratulate Dr. Gabriel Moreno who coached three RMU students in total and helped them prepare for the competition. His guidance and expertise were invaluable to our RMU participants. Thank you so much Dr. Moreno!

Madison Heidenreich

RMU Student Madison Heidenreich Wins Second Annual Sales Challenge

The Second Annual Sales Challenge, sponsored by the Center for Sales Excellence at Robert Morris University and PITT-OHIO was held on March 27, 2021

The Second Annual Sales Challenge was a one-day, two-round sales role-play competition open to undergraduate students from universities in the region. The schools that participated in the challenge were Robert Morris University, The University of Dayton, Slippery Rock University, West Virginia University, and Old Dominion University.

Pi Sigma Epsilon

Congratulations to Pi Sigma Epsilon, national co-ed professional fraternity in sales and marketing. The RMU Chapter of Pi Sigma Epsilon was recognized as the Marvin D. Loos Top New Chapter for 2022 at the National Convention in Minneapolis. Lauren Chappell, Jeffrey Remark, and Anthony Locante represented RMU. The top new chapter award recognizes outstanding development of a chapter in the areas of chapter operations, programming, recruitment, and communication during its charter year.

Congratulations to Jeffrey Remark, the RMU Pi Sigma Epsilon Chapter President competed in the Mutual of Omaha Interview Competition and finished in the top 15 at the National 2022 National Convention.

Congratulations to Lauren Chappell, rising Senior was named to the National Council of Pi Sigma Epsilon as the Collegiate Vice President, the highest-level PSE student position within the fraternity.

Meet the Director

Meet Jill A. Kurp (Maher), Ph.D., Director of the Center for Sales Excellence

Jill is a University Professor of Marketing and received her Ph.D. in marketing from Kent State University. She worked in sales as a Sales Manager for Bank One, Akron, NA where she managed the sales process for over 60 bank branches for traditional retail bank products and investments. She developed promotional sales programs and incentive packages and initiated marketing and advertising plans to promote market presence and increased sales. She implemented a sales investment program resulting in a 37.5% growth rate within the first eight months. She has experience conducting direct marketing and sales training courses.

Jill publishes consumer-oriented research in peer reviewed journals and presents her research at academic conferences both nationally and internationally. As Director of the Sales Center, she oversees sales curriculum, manages industry partner outreach and organizes sales events. Her goal is to insure the integration of state-of-the-art sales curriculum with real-life experiences for in order to develop students both personally and professionally, while producing sales talent for industry partners and the community.

Meet the Faculty

The teaching faculty consists of the director and two other full-time faculty members.

James R Shock, DBA

Dr. Shock brings a wide variety of business experience to RMU. Early on in his marketing career, he was responsible for OEM sales of medical products. Throughout his marketing career, selling was an integral part of his everyday business, selling new product ideas to management, going through a selling situation with customers on new products, or as part of a team selling situation to large buyers.

His corporate experience was also global in nature, dealing with selling situations in other cultures. As part of his multi-cultural background, Dr. Shock lived in Switzerland for a few years and received his doctorate in business administration from the Grenoble Ḗcole de Management in Grenoble, France.

Dr. Shock currently teaches two courses as part of the Certificate in Sales: Managing and Selling of Brands, and Consultative Selling.

Gabriel Moreno, Ph.D.

Dr. Gabriel Moreno joins the faculty for the 2021-22 academic year. He earned his BS in Electrical Engineering, MBA, and Ph.D. in Marketing from The University of Texas at El Paso. He worked in the high-tech industry in several functional areas, including operations, project management, and sales. His research focuses on salespeople’s behaviors, sales performance and efficiency, and marketing strategy in the business-to-business segment. He holds a secondary research interest that revolves around measurement theory, multivariate data analyses, and research methods.

Artemisia Apostolopoulou, Ph.D.

Artemisia Apostolopoulou is a University Professor in the Departments of Sport Management and Marketing at Robert Morris University. She holds a Ph.D. in Sport Studies from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Her research focuses on brand extension strategies of sport organizations, sport sponsorship, and the consumption and value of licensed products. Dr. Apostolopoulou’s work has been published in a number of peer-reviewed journals including European Sport Management Quarterly, Journal of Brand Management, Journal of Marketing Communications and Sport Marketing Quarterly. She also served as research analyst for the NBA’s developmental league (2001-2003) and as consultant in the e-marketing department of the Atlanta Hawks and Atlanta Thrashers (2005). In her Sport Marketing courses, Dr. Apostolopoulou teaches fundamentals of sport sales including most commonly used sales approaches and concepts like relationship marketing, benefit selling, and customer lifetime value. In addition, she coordinates an annual professional development and networking event for undergraduate Sport Management students that includes sales executives from sport properties from around the United States.

Advisory Board

The external advisory board has 14 members, a number of whom are alumni of the university.

Sharjeel Farooq
Regional Vice President
Oracle Cloud Sales

Kevin F. Bove
Financial Advisor
HB Retirement

Paul Trunzo
Senior VP Sales
Hussey Copper

Chris D. Manna
Account Executive West PA/NY
Konica Minolta Healthcare
DR/US Imaging

Charlie Foy
President/Sales Director
Hytorc Penn Ohio

Mike Cunningham
Customer Solutions Manager
Fastenal Co.

Scott King
District Manager; Western PA/Eastern OH
Fastenal

Samantha Blandina
FSOP Area Sales Manager
ABARTA Coca-Cola Beverages

Rachel Rzymek
Business Development Associate
AE Works

Natalie Miller
Group Talent Acquisition Manager
Enterprise Holdings

Michael J. Ceravolo
Chief Commercial Officer
Beemac Logistics, LLC

Gregory McDonald
Sales Director
Business Sales
FedEx Services

Mark Carlisle
Industry Marketing Manager – Construction Products
United States Steel Corporation

Dean Manna, Ph.D.
Robert Morris University, Retired
Former Director, RMU Center for Sales Excellence

Sponsors

Gold Plus Sponsor: All the benefits of a Gold Sponsor plus Sales Competition Sponsorship. Limited to one.

Gold Sponsor: A highly visible and attractive level of sponsorship with opportunities for sales program involvement and sales student interaction. Limited to two.

Silver Sponsor: An attractive level of sponsorship with involvement in sales classes and sales student interaction. Limited to five.

Bronze Sponsor: Sponsorship providing sales student interaction. Limited to eight.

Research and Sales Training Sponsorship:

Event Sponsors:

For more information on sponsorship opportunities, contact Dr. Jill Kurp 412-397-6365.

For more information, contact:

Dr. Jill Kurp
Director
kurp@rmu.edu
412-397-6365