About this event
Professional Selling (event code PSE) is an individual event that tests whether you can run a real sales presentation from opening to close. DECA publishes a new scenario every year. For 2026-27 you are a sales representative for a company whose platform combines AI-powered customer service tools with retail analytics, meeting a regional retail chain owner who wants faster response times, lower staffing costs, better inventory and a stronger in-store and online customer experience. Before competition you research an actual company you will represent and real products or services, plus the target customer, and build a presentation that walks the client through the selling or consulting process. Two parts: a 100-question, multiple-choice Marketing cluster exam (Business Administration Core plus cluster performance indicators; this event uses the performance indicators for the exam only), and a sales presentation of up to 15 minutes including the judge's questions. The judge plays the buyer or client, lets you finish without interrupting unless you ask them to respond, and may ask questions if time remains. You may bring presentation notes and hand-carried visual aids; no power or internet is supplied. There is no written entry to submit. Scoring: the presentation evaluation is out of 100 points and is weighted twice the exam score; the exam score carries forward into the finals. The evaluation form (shared by all three events) scores opening and engagement, assessing needs, positioning value (features, benefits, value), the solution recommendation and objection handling, closing and follow-up, and presentation technique.
Exam day
What to expect
100-question exam plus a judged presentation
100-question Marketing exam plus a 15-minute sales presentation including judge questions (100 points, weighted twice the exam).
Written from the instructional areas
Exam questions follow the Marketing exam's published instructional areas and performance indicators, in the proportions of the official exam blueprint. Practice questions here are drawn the same way.
How you advance
How many advance from districts to states and on to the International Career Development Conference (ICDC) depends on your association's rules. Study the official instructional areas: they list the exact areas and their weight on the exam.
What judges score
What's on the exam
Study resources
Bookmark to saveCurated by ChapterPrep. Free unless noted. External links open in a new tab.