USCA Competition Certification

Application and Administration of USCA Sales Competition Certification Process:

Universities holding sales competitions may apply for USCA certification by submitting an application that provides evidence that your university and sales competition meets USCA best practices criteria
1. Applications must address each of the eleven criteria identified in Table 1.
Once completed, the application is submitted to the Sales Competition Committee Chair for review.
1. The Sales Competition Committee Chair will review the application in consideration of established criteria within thirty days of receipt
2. The Sales Competition Chair will provide the results to the full committee for a vote.
3. The university represented in the application will be recused from the vote, if applicable.
After the review process, the Sales Competition Committee Chair will notify the applicant of approval or disapproval of the application.
Approved USCA-member applicants and non-USCA-member applicants will receive permission to display the official USCA Certified Sales Competition logo..
1. Certification is valid for five years.
2. The USCA Sales Competition Chair will notify universities within one year of expiration.
3. After five years, universities must reapply for USCA certification
Unapproved applicants can reapply in 6 months.
The USCA Sales Competition Committee reserves the right to review a university’s competition within five years to ensure that standards remain met.

USCA Sales Competition Standards to be Assessed
Category	Criterion	Points for Assessment	Evidence of Meeting Criterion
Competition	Goals and Standards	Goals and standards for the competition are published on the competition website	Applicant provides website link or text copy.
	Professional Code of Conduct	A Professional Code of Conduct is established The professional Code of Conduct is distributed to all participants before the competition.The professional Code of Conduct is reviewed during the opening ceremony of the competition.	Applicant provides website link or text copyApplicant provides a brief paragraph describing how the Professional Code of Conduct was distributed and reviewed.
	Format	Competition modality is published (in person, virtual). Competition rules, scoring procedures, and logistics are published at least 1-month in advance. Round 1 competition schedule is provided to all participants two weeks in advance.	Applicant provides website link or text copy of schedule and competition rules. Applicant provides a brief paragraph describing how the competition schedule was distributed and reviewed.
	Case	Case needs and objections are kept confidential with the exclusion of those playing the buyer roles The case author(s) cannot be coaching students.	Applicant describes the steps taken to keep the case confidential.
	Scoring Rubric	Scoring rubrics must focus on uncovering customer needs and presenting solutions based on the benefits of satisfying uncovered needs. Scores must be based on the execution of individual steps in the selling process rather than a single subjective judgment. The scoring rubric must be published at least 1-moth before the competition	Applicant provides a website link or PDF copy of the competition scoring rubric. Applicant provides a brief description of how scores are calculated.
Judges	Selection	Faculty judges cannot judge students from their universities.	Applicant provides a brief description of how faculty judges are assigned.
	Preparation	Before the competition: Share the case with judges at least one week before the competition. Review judging criteria with judges.Stress the need for consistency across competitors.Review appropriate judges’ behavior during role-plays.	Applicant provides a description and examples of the information/materials provided to judges.
Buyers	Preparation	Before the competition: Share the case and objections with buyers at least one week before the competition. Review the competition case with buyers. Review specific objections. Stress the need for consistency across competitors.	Applicant provides a description and examples of the information/materials provided to buyers.
Competitors	Identification of Competitors’ Universities	Competitors’ university affiliations are not posted in the judging rooms.	Applicant provides a brief description of the steps taken to ensure that judging is “blind” to university affiliation or describes why “blind” affiliation is not feasible.
	Preparation	The case must be shared with all competitors at the same time and at least one month prior to the competition	Applicant provides a brief paragraph describing how the training materials were created and distributed.
Allocation/Seeding Method	How Universities are seeded	Competition makes a reasonable effort to make sure a suitable seeding method is followed. Seeding criteria are made available to all participants.	Applicant provides evidence of seeding criteria.

Find the full list of USCA Sales Competitions here. Read our stance on company-ran competitions here.