Western Michigan University seniors Erin Rogers and Trenton Sands were awarded second place at the national State Farm Marketing and Sales Competition. This is the tenth consecutive year that WMU has participated.

The competition was composed of three categories that teams of two undergraduate students representing 12 universities across the country competed in, including an auto sales roleplay, a life insurance roleplay, and a marketing presentation.

Rogers took first place and a winning prize of $3,000 in the life insurance roleplay, which was an individual event. The team tackled the marketing presentation as a unit, which prompted students to answer the question of how State Farm can connect with the younger generations.

Each competing student was awarded $1,000 for being selected to participate in the sales competition, in addition to State Farm covering travel and lodging fees for all participants.

Coach and faculty specialist Mary Nielsen chose Rogers and Sands, both sales and business marketing majors, for her team due to their proficiency in their business marketing courses at WMU.

Nielsen practiced with her team for weeks, coaching them through potential hurdles and how they could stand out from the competition using the skills they have learned in the Robert S. Kaiser Sales, Negotiation and Leadership Lab at WMU.

Rogers will be graduating in December with a job as a full-time marketing associate with Stryker, and Sands has prospects in the sales and marketing field after his graduation from WMU Haworth in the spring 2023 semester.

Those interested in learning more about the competition can visit WMU News for more information.