KU Professional Selling Program/King’s Hawaiian Sales Competition

Overview
The KU Professional Selling Program/King’s Hawaiian Sales Competition will be hosted by the KU School of Business March 24-25, 2023, on campus in Lawrence, Kansas.
Sponsored and judged exclusively by King’s Hawaiian, the competition is open to all universities, with four undergraduate students and one sales coach representing each university. Components of the competition include:
- Individual Speed Selling Round: 90-second elevator pitch to get King’s Hawaiian a meeting with a potential grocery store chain buyer
- Team Case Competition: Three-round tournament-style case competition on a real-life business situation for King’s Hawaiian
- Round 1: Uncover additional information to make solid recommendations
- Round 2: Present recommendations via formal presentation
- Round 3: Finals
Stipends and prizes
The following cash stipends and prizes will be provided.
Travel stipend for each university:
- $1,000 per university
Cash prizes for Individual Speed Selling Round:
- 1st place — $600
- 2nd place — $500
- 3rd place — $400
- 4th place — $300
- 5th place — $200
- 6th place — $100
Cash prizes for each winning Team Case Competition:
- 1st place — $4,000
- 2nd place — $3,000
- 3rd place — $2,000
Please send all questions to Kristen Helling at khelling@ku.edu.
Sponsored by King’s Hawaiian
The second KU Professional Selling Program/King’s Hawaiian Sales Competition was hosted at the KU School of Business Friday, April 8, and Saturday, April 9, 2022.
Competition winners
Speed selling
- First place (tie): Hannah Besedin, University of Arizona ($300); and Thanh Tan Nguyen, KU ($300)
- Third place: Brenna McCarthy, University of Minnesota ($100)
Case study
- First place: University of Central Missouri ($3,000)
- Second place: University of Nebraska ($2,000)
- Third place: KU ($1,000)
Competition materials
- Competition schedule
- Case Competition cover letter
- Case Competition
- Case Competition judging rubric
- Speed Selling Round intro and one-pager
- Speed Selling Round judging rubric
Participating schools
- University of Arizona
- University of Central Missouri
- Emory University
- University of Iowa
- University of Kansas
- Kansas State University
- Loyola Marymount University
- Marshall University
- University of Minnesota
- University of Nebraska
- University of North Dakota
- Texas Tech University
The first KU Professional Selling Program/King’s Hawaiian Sales Competition was hosted virtually by the KU School of Business Friday, April 9, and Saturday, April 10, 2021.
Competition winners
Speed selling
1st place: William Sullivan, University of Missouri
2nd place: Yarizette Sequeria, Villanova University
3rd place: Elijah Morris, University of Georgia
Case study
1st place: University of Kansas (Watch the presentation)
2nd place: University of Georgia (Watch the presentation)
3rd place: University of Minnesota (Watch the presentation)
Competition materials
General information
Competition schedule (Passcode for all sessions is 1950)
Case competition
Speed selling round
Participating schools:
- University of Central Missouri
- University of Georgia
- University of Kansas
- University of Minnesota
- University of Missouri
- Oklahoma State University
- Texas Tech University
- Villanova University