With team buses disgorging students from visiting schools into the MAC, and teammates huddled for warmups, the 2025 Northeast Intercollegiate Sales Competition (NISC) kicked off very much like a sporting event — and that’s even before the school cheers rang out during prep time.
“You show up as a team, everybody's prepared, everybody's cheering each other on,” explained Justin Pileggi, a senior and captain of the 10-member national sales team from West Chester University competing at NISC. “We all have nerves; this means a lot to all of us. We want to come out here and win.”
Channeling her inner cheerleader, NISC Executive Director Stefanie Boyer, Ph.D., led teams from 43 schools — including the 10-person Bryant team — in a pumped-up countdown to open the program. “We got our cardio taken care of,” she joked before turning the stage over to Bryant University President Ross Gittell, Ph.D., who reflected upon his own early career participation in a similar sales competition.
“That experience gave me confidence and helped contribute to my career success, and I hope this weekend does the same for you,” he told the more than 500 students gathered for NISC, now in its 14th year.
“This year’s theme, ‘Challenge Accepted,’ is both a mindset and a call to action,” Gittell emphasized. “By being here today, you’ve already accepted a challenge that sets you apart. You’ve chosen to step outside the classroom to test your abilities and compete on the national stage. That takes courage, preparation, and a willingness to take on a challenge which you can learn and grow from.”
“This year’s theme, ‘Challenge Accepted,’ is both a mindset and a call to action. By being here today, you’ve already accepted a challenge that sets you apart."
Over the course of the two-day competition, students and teams vied for cash prizes and bragging rights in two distinctive events: a “speed sell” where personal sales pitches are delivered in just a few, pressure-filled minutes; and a role-play event where students take part in a 10-minute simulated sales pitch in front of judges playing the role of buyers.
For 2025, students were tasked with selling Spotlogic, an AI-centric sales enablement platform, in step with Bryant’s systemic commitment to integrating AI into every facet of education. Unlike in past years, volunteers were trained to be Spotlogic buyers since the tech company had too few employees to fill those roles for a competition the size of NISC, explained Boyer, a professor of Marketing and head of the Bryant University Sales Institute.
Much of the role-play competition took place in the Business Entrepreneurship Leadership Center’s Frank ’81 and Marion ’81 Hauck Sales Performance Lab at Bryant’s Business Entrepreneurship Leadership Center, and some students presented their pitches directly to namesake Frank Hauck, president and general manager of banking at NCR Corporation, who was among the dozens of volunteers helping to run NISC.
Hauck said he viewed his role as supporter as well as judge. “Sometimes I'll talk to undergrads before they go in and calm their nerves a little bit,” he said, “but all these students have so much poise, confidence and maturity.”
“I hope that [participants] learn some really strong skills that will help them throughout their careers,” he added. “Sales skills are in every profession, so whatever they go into, it's going to give them the ability to influence, to convey, and also how to be an active listener.”
Marketing major Allison Carra ’26 didn’t just learn to listen at NISC: she put her minor in Spanish to the test by entering both the English and Spanish language speed-sell competitions, finishing in second place in her second language.
“I challenged myself to not only memorize my 60-second pitch in English but also deliver it in Spanish as a non-native speaker,” she said. “Learning a second language is never easy, and even reaching the point where I could compete in the Spanish speed sell was an accomplishment. Receiving first runner-up at a national level in a second language as a first-time sales student was truly surreal.”
Carra, who said she only discovered her passion for sales as a senior, also made the quarterfinals (in English) in the role-play competition.
“Our Marketing and Spanish faculty gave me the skills, guidance, and confidence to perform at a national level, and earning a top placement made me even prouder to be a Bulldog,” she said. “It showed that Bryant not only teaches the material, but equips students to succeed in real-world, competitive situations.”
“Our Marketing and Spanish faculty gave me the skills, guidance, and confidence to perform at a national level, and earning a top placement made me even prouder to be a Bulldog."
Like Hauck, William Behr, CEO of RNMKRS, the AI-enabled sales training tool co-founded by Boyer and used in the Bryant sales lab, volunteered as a speed-sale judge at NISC. While he has extensive experience as a salesperson, this was the first live sales competition Behr ever attended.
“I'm just impressed that there's so many students and people that are here to support a career that I've made my living in,” Behr said, “and that it's become something that you can actually learn how to do coming out of college and make a life out of it.”
Behr added that students’ performance under pressure reveals how much preparation has gone into presentations and pitches, many of which included personal stories and anecdotes. “I come from a background where you follow a process or a methodology, so it's interesting to see that they're learning different ways of storytelling,” he said.
Observing firsthand how students handle the challenges presented by NISC is also valuable from a recruiting perspective, said Daniel Hall, district general manager at TK Elevator, who has served as a volunteer judge at the competition for the past three years.
“We sell elevator products, and in order to get our product out on the market we need highly engaged energetic sales folks that can manage sales cycles and can navigate sales conversations and sell our values,” he said. “What Bryant is doing really pulls those people forward, and with NISC you're getting to see universities across the U.S. come together and compete. You get to see real sales people in simulated environments put forward what they've learned, and what these kids bring to the table is the kind of talent pool that I want to hire from.”