I am a member of the UND Sales Team, and we returned from a competition in Lawrence, Kansas, a couple of weeks ago. I decided to connect with the team’s President, Taylor Lemmerman, to share about UND’s new and growing sales team.
Webber: “Tell me a little bit about yourself.”
Lemmerman: “I am a Marketing major with a minor in Professional Sales. Currently a senior, I am very excited to graduate in a few weeks and use all the skills I’ve learned in my career. As a student, I’ve wanted to be involved with the campus, so I’ve worked at Study Abroad since my freshman year doing digital marketing and event planning. In this role, I saw the importance of experiential learning and wanted to do more, so I joined the UND Sales Team and have been an advocate on campus for providing students with opportunities and resources to do experiential learning while in college.”
Webber: “What is the UND Sales Team, and what do you do on the team?”
Lemmerman: “The UND Sales Team is a student-run organization on campus open to all majors. We have weekly meetings that consist of roleplaying to prepare us for sales competitions, having guest speakers and working on our sales skills to continue to improve. Each semester, we travel across the country to various sales competitions to compete against other universities and present our knowledge of the case study through meeting with a ‘buyer’ as we sell the product or service and try to close a deal at the end. This year, I am the team President, and my role consists of planning every meeting, picking competitions, including traveling and logistics and then the most fun part is working with the students who are going to prepare them and work on the case study to guide and ensure they are ready. This is an entire team effort. It helps to have a great executive team, including Evan Wocken as Treasurer, Macy Hietala as Communications Chair and Whitney Mumm as Social Media Chair. Any members not competing play the role of the buyer in roleplays, asking us questions, giving objections and making us prepared for any buyer.”
Webber: “What have you learned or improved upon from being on the UND Sales Team?”
Lemmerman: “I have learned so much since joining the team. I have learned to be quick on my feet during objections and to understand the difference between want and need from a buyer, which helps close a sale. I have improved immensely in my public speaking and confidence.”
Webber: “What is your favorite part about being on the UND Sales Team?”
Lemmerman: “My favorite part about being on the UND Sales Team is meeting new people on campus and networking opportunities at competitions. It’s not every day you meet the CEO & CMO of a 2-billion-dollar company asking if you are interested in pursuing a career at their company.”
Webber: “Who can join, how can they meet, and when do you meet?”
Lemmerman: “Anyone can join. Follow us on Instagram @undsalesteam where we post about upcoming meetings, show students at competitions and meet the team members. You can DM us on Instagram if you are interested and want to learn more or email our new President for the 2024-2025 academic year at [email protected]. We will announce the new weekly meeting days and times in late summer.”
Garrett Webber is a Dakota Student Section Editor. He can be reached at [email protected].