As UW-Whitewater senior Casey Klauck begins interviewing for jobs, one thing will set her apart from other applicants: sales experience.

Klauck has held multiple directorship titles for the UW-Whitewater American Marketing Association chapter and placed in the top four in the recent Worldwide Collegiate Sales Open.

Starting last September, Klauck, along with nine other UW-Whitewater students, began preparing for the Worldwide Collegiate Sales Open, a multi-level competition between 196 students enrolled in 28 different universities around the world.

Given the task of selling Adobe Pro Connect through various means, six of the 10 students made it to round two. Klauck, along with junior Aaron Brandenburg, made it to the top 20 and were invited to Northern Illinois University to compete for the top prize.

Dan Herlache, an AMA external adviser who acted as a mentor to students throughout the competition, said only two other schools had more finalists than UW-Whitewater, even though most schools have had sales programs in place for much longer.

Klauck went home with a fourth place finish in the competition, earning a $500 scholarship. Additionaly, she took first place in the “Elevator Pitch” competition.

“When I made the final four, people were asking me, ‘Where is UW-Whitewater?’ because they were curious to know how my school had prepared me to be one of the finalists,” Klauck said.

UW-Whitewater AMA adviser and marketing professor Jimmy Peltier said this competition is only one of many outlets offered to students looking to gain experience in sales, and there are many more opportunities to come with the opening of the newly approved UW-Whitewater Institute for Sales Excellence.

Peltier, who will direct the Sales Institute, said he felt students needed a more effectual outlet on campus to meet employers and gain sales experience that will make them better suited to land jobs right out of college.

“It’s an opportunity for kids from the moment they enter campus to start interacting and making touch points with employers,” Peltier said.

The Sales Institute, which will be fully launched next fall, will expose students to the principles of selling in the form of job shadowing, internship programs, sales mentor programs, speaker and workshop series and many others.

In April, the Sales Institute will host its first sales advisory board, comprised of 20 business employers, to help develop the events and programs the Sales Institute hopes to create.

Peltier, along with UW-Whitewater sales faculty members Rob Boostrom, Sharon Roy and Dennis Kopf, will be involved in leading the programs.

“The mission is all about students and helping businesses find students,” Peltier said.

Herlache, who will represent Federated Insurance on the advisory board, said Klauck’s individual achievement in the Sales Open is a representation of the kind of success the Sales Institute hopes to find in years to come.

“Having a winning tradition at UW-Whitewater in just about every kind of competition there is, I am confident that as the Sales Institute grows and we gain more experience competing, UW-Whitewater will be a force to contend with at these type of sales competitions for years to come,” Herlache said.