Terry College of Business - Fall 2008 - (Page 44) The National Coilegiate Sales Competition pitted 103 people from 53 schools against each other in high-pressure, one-on-one sales situations. The judges threw killips a curve by having his would-be sales target get up and briefly leave the room in the middle of his sales pitch. A closed-circuit TV audience of 500 eavesdropped on the proceedings and was impressed with killips’ composure. most world-renowned ad campaigns — Volkswagen’s ‘Think Small’ campaign,” says Killips, who first enrolled in Ellis’ Consumer Behavior course as a junior. Later, he took Ellis’ Professional Selling class. “He has all this knowledge and experience to impart. He’s worked with business people from other countries, and he can give you a perspective on every single angle that you could be interested in.” Ellis is a strong proponent of action-based learning. He began his Terry career in 1987, teaching the evening program in marketing and giving seminars on team building to small businesses for the institute for business. “The more I did all this kind of stuff, the more I realized how critical the sales function was,” says Ellis. “My objective is to get as many of our students acclimated to this process as possible so we can dramatically increase their employment probabilities and capabilities.” Ellis had a hand in creating the new Terry Sales Competition, a corporatesponsored, campus-wide event that models the structure of the National Collegiate Sales Competition and serves as a qualifying tournament for the NCSC. “We put them through a pretty extensive, unsettling test,” says Ellis, who believes that, for many students, their greatest fear is the unknown. “The buyer will throw all kind of things at them, such as, ‘You’re late!’ when they’re not really late, or ‘What are you doing here? I never agreed to any appointments,’ or ‘You’re awfully young, why should I be talking to you?’ or ‘Do you even know what you’re talking about?’” This aspect of the NCSC competition didn’t faze Killips, who, as a member of the UGA Arch Society, is no stranger to dealing 44 • Fall 2008 with important people and thinking on his feet. “A lot of our students walk into assignments pretty blind. They could be doing anything from passing out programs to leading around guests of the president or the provost,” says T.W. Cauthen, assistant director for the Center for Leadership and Service and advisor to the Arch Society. “We worked the Carter conference and that was a huge example of being flexible and doing anything that was needed at the drop of the hat. (Students) really have to be composed and on point with handling situations and being flexible.” Killips acquired a good bit of his confidence, composure, and ambition long before arriving in Athens. “I had to stick up for myself amongst an older crowd,” says Killips. The youngest of four siblings, he and his brothers Brian and Aaron were all self-described gym rats and the playing field was their babysitter — the natural result of having a former college basketball coach and athletic director for a father. Killips’ family encouraged him to be smart and independent. “My parents took the stance that they would help me out when needed, but that I would provide for myself in college,” says Killips, a HOPE scholarship recipient, who originally wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps and forge a career in athletics. But he noticed how well his sister and brother in-law were doing in media sales, so he got involved in a side venture of theirs called Ad Mobile that employs tri-fold billboard technology. Killips was soon making sales to bring Ad Mobile to UGA home football games. After Ad Mobile, Killips took an insurance sales internship with Northwestern Mutual Life. He enjoyed the experience enough to switch to a sales-oriented track in the Terry College’s marketing department. It was in Ellis’ class that he gained additional sales experience and practice. “The actual lessons and slides Terry College oF Business
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