Georgia Southern Reigns as the Overall Champion of the Fall 2025 RNMKRS Role-Play Sales Competition
Top student honors and high-performing universities celebrated at the Fall 2025 RNMKRS Results Reveal Ceremony.
STATESBORO, GA (November 23, 2025) – Among nearly 4,000 student competitors across the U.S. and Canada, Georgia Southern University prevailed as the Fall 2025 Role-Play Overall Champion for the RNMRKS Standard Competition. The students of Georgia Southern’s Parker College of Business once again proved to be a dominant presence in the RNMKRS competition, working diligently to beat the bot in the AI-powered RNMKRS sales role-play challenge. Five Professional Selling courses, across two Georgia Southern campuses, participated in the RNMKRS competition this fall semester, led by the faculty of the Center for Sales Excellence, including Dr. Lindsay Levine, Dr. Billy Jones, Dr. John Galvan, and the Executive Director of the Sales Center, Prof. Travis Brickey.
In the Fall 2025 rendition of the Standard Role-Play competition, RNMKRS hosted 2,039 student competitors. With 36 different universities represented, students from Georgia Southern’s Parker College of Business competed against some of North America’s top collegiate sales programs, including Boston College, University of Arkansas, Auburn University, University of Illinois, University of Nebraska, Wilfrid Laurier University, and University of Mississippi. Known as a program for producing students with grit and perseverance, Georgia Southern’s sales students went to work in maintaining its reputation as a perennial RNMKRS powerhouse, proving to be one of North America’s top-performing sales programs!
“The students this fall in our professional sales program went above and beyond, exceeding expectations and refusing to lose in the Fall 2025 RNMRKS Role-Play competition,” exclaimed Travis Brickey, senior lecturer and the executive director of the Center for Sales Excellence at Georgia Southern University. “Since 2007, the Center for Sales Excellence has produced some of the nation’s best prepared and most resilient young sales professionals in the industry. I am extremely proud of this group for demonstrating the grit and determination needed to succeed. Thank you, RNMKRS for challenging our sales students, continually pushing the bar higher in the field of professional sales education.”
Notable honors earned in the RNMKRS Pro Role-Play sales competition include:
- RNMKRS Standard Roleplay Overall Champion – Georgia Southern University (#1 overall) amongst 36 competing universities
- RNMKRS Top School by Number of High-Achieving Competitors – Georgia Southern University (#1 overall)
- RNMKRS Top School by Percentage of High-Achieving Competitors – Georgia Southern University (#6 overall)
- RNMKRS Standard # 1 Role-Play Sales Competitor – Rylee Martin (#1 overall, score of 9,665) amongst 2,039 competitors
- Students recognized in the top 20 of the RNMKRS Standard Competition – R. Martin (#1), C. Hood (#8), B. Smallwood (#13), C. Dornellas (#15), M. Anton (#16), T. Coleman (#20)
- RNMKRS Standard Elite 130+ Club with the most role-play attempts – R. Martin (139 total attempts, #3 overall), J. Atkins (132 total attempts, #4 overall), S. Beck (131 total attempts, #5 overall)
- RNMKRS Standard Top Coach Recognition – Travis Brickey (#1 coach)
“The RNMKRS sales competition has truly been one of the most beneficial and rewarding parts of my college career. Not only does RNMKRS allow you to learn and grow in all areas of sales, but it also trains you for real-life scenarios,” explained Rylee Martin, a senior marketing major graduating in May 2026. “The competition has taught me patience, as well as a greater understanding of the importance of the sales process. While participating in this competition, I have since discovered my love for professional selling. I will be forever grateful to my sales professor, Travis Brickey, for allowing me the opportunity to step out of my comfort zone, challenging myself beyond my own expectations!”
Alex, the AI bot, is programmed to respond to students as they lead a mock sales meeting. Developed and continually enhanced by an alliance of university faculty advisors, the RNMKRS competition scenario has students representing Dell Technologies as they sell the company’s Dell Latitude Rugged laptop computer line to a police or fire department. Students virtually ‘meet’ with Alex, going through the steps of a sales call. RNMKRS evaluates each student based on their performance, and the institutions are then ranked based on their students’ results. RNMKRS currently consists of four competitions, Elevator Pitch, Speed Sell, RNMKRS Role-Play Pro, and the largest of all competitions, RNMKRS Role-Play Standard.
“RNMKRS made such a significant impact on me both as a student and as a future sales professional. Thanks to the highly effective practice role-play learning system, I now know all aspects of a sales call like the back of my hand,” noted Cody Hood, a junior marketing major with an emphasis in sales & sales management. “RNMKRS will definitely be one of the most valuable things I take from college, so much so, I recently added an emphasis in sales and sales management to my major! I’m grateful to Georgia Southern for introducing me to such an incredible learning resource.”
Center for Sales Excellence, Georgia Southern University
Located within Georgia Southern University’s Parker College of Business, the Center for Sales Excellence is recognized by the University Sales Alliance as one of the nation’s top sales programs. Established in 2007, it is the mission of the Center to have a positive impact on the sales profession through education, research, and service. The B.B.A. in Marketing offers the students of Georgia Southern University an emphasis in Sales and Sales Management.
Through the Center, students gain experience with sales role-play in our dedicated labs, with many going on to compete in some of the nation’s most prestigious sales competitions. The Center also works to bring students together with companies in the industry looking to hire the best and brightest minds. It is the goal of the Center to be the preeminent sales program in the nation.
RNMKRS Virtual Sales Competition
Launched in 2018, RNMKRS empowers students to communicate and influence decisions using bias-free interactive technology. The student competitors compete in role-play challenges that aid in helping them hone their selling skills by speaking with Alex, an artificially intelligent customer bot that listens, adapts, and responds while scoring students and giving them feedback. Students improve their selling skills and refine their communication and empathy skills along the way. All of this activity takes place on their personal digital device.
RNMKRS is utilized in sales classes taught at Georgia Southern University as a means to provide students with an ample amount of sales role-play experience.
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