NIAGARA COLLEGE (Jan. 2, 2019)

Second year business – sales and marketing student Lucas Holtvluwer has won a free flight, courtesy of Air Canada, as part of the first round of the three-part Great Canadian Sales Competition, open to all Canadian college and university students.

The competition is designed to educate students about the possibilities of sales as a career and the importance of sales as a skill-set. In round one of the competition, students submit a 30-90 second sales video pitch about a topic they’re passionate about.

Holtvluwer, of Vineland, ON, submitted his video, “Why you should move to Canada” as part of a second year course at NC, and was awarded a free flight anywhere in North America by a panel of judges at Air Canada, a GCSC sponsor. His video was selected out of 540 entries.

In his 80-second video pitch, Holtvluwer lists the many reasons to live in Canada. He cites Canada's beautiful and diverse scenery, high quality of life and welcoming people. Holtvluwer also makes reference to beavers, maple syrup, hockey, beer, and subtly slips in Canadian-isms like 'eh.'

“I love Canada and I thought it would be an easy sell since most Canadians, including contest judges and my professor, love Canada too,” said Holtvluwer. “Through NC’s Sales and Marketing program, I learned the importance of clearly laying out your pitch, presenting some of the key value statements and finishing with a clear and concise close. Those things all came in handy for the making of the video.”

“For the second year in a row, we've embedded the first round of the GCSC into the MKTG 1420 Professional Selling II course,” said Terri Champion, professor and coordinator of the Sales and Marketing program. “Lucas did an exceptional job, demonstrating the importance of sales as a skill-set and how valuable it is to be able to effectively pitch an idea within a short time-frame. Lucas demonstrated so well what we're trying to provide graduates of our program.”

The Great Canadian Sales Competition will continue into 2019 with the semi-finals in February and final round in April. Students who make it to round two will work on another video pitch based on a sponsor product or service.

“We've partnered with the GCSC for the last few years and have had numerous students make it to round two. Fingers crossed that we'll see one of our students in the final this year,” said Champion.

Holtvluwer is looking forward to redeeming his free flight in the summer after the school year has come to a close.