Key Accounts Wrapped

New York City became a temporary campus for sales students in the Houston-based C. T. Bauer College of Business recently as they met with some of the biggest media groups headquartered in the Big Apple.

While Houston is a major corporate player, students enrolled in Bauer College's Key Accounts course within the Program for Excellence in Selling have the opportunity each semester to travel to a different business epicenter to meet with high-ranking executives. The learning doesn't start with the flight, though — participating students are required to book all in-person meetings, often through cold calls.

This spring, student teams met with several NYC-based media powerhouses, including Spotify, Disney, the NFL, Hearst, Roku, TikTok, Paramount, Penguin Random House and more.

One student team, said they reached out to companies that aligned with their interests. After first landing a meeting with Paramount, they concentrated on securing appointments with neighboring companies. After overcoming initial nerves, the group said the meetings opened their eyes to new networking possibilities.

“I would never have thought that I would go to New York to meet with top executives to get a better understanding of their industry and processes,” marketing senior Charles Valma said. “I’ve never been in that position before, so it was great to lead the meeting and impress them.”

During the meetings, students provided perspectives as users and as training sales professionals. Supply chain management senior Anthony Smith said they now understand more about some of the companies that they interact with daily.

“It was interesting to learn how Roku specifically does their ad placement on their platform,” Smith said. “They broke down like how ads go on the home screen after companies buy the space.”

Finance senior Oshin Campos booked their team’s meeting with TikTok and was curious about the nuances of TikTok Shop.

“It was insightful to learn how TikTok works with small to mid-sized businesses in e-commerce to help build their sales,” Campos said. “We often see products on the app and buy them, but we don't realize what happens on the back end of things.”

While the trip was only a few days long, the students said the impact of it was transformational.

“The most formative part of the experience was the confidence gained,” marketing senior Bitanya G-Mariam said. “I don't think we've ever gotten the chance to watch ourselves grow so much in such a short span of time.”