Claire Orcutt
“Don’t let fear of taking risks stop you from doing something remarkable,” says Claire Orcutt.
Stepping – more like leaping – out of her comfort zone is something in which Claire Orcutt is well-versed.
The Heider College of Business senior has tackled many unknowns to date. She has established an eCommerce business that has clocked over 3,500 transactions and generated more than $162,000. She has picked up power tools to help build homes for Habitat for Humanity. She has left the security of campus life to participate in more than one Schlegel Center for Service and Justice service trip over her semester breaks. And most recently, she entered a sales competition, bringing home to Creighton the first-place trophy and $1000.
The competition in question is the second annual Gallup Consultative Sales Competition, whose purpose is to give juniors and seniors from participating universities – Creighton, University of Nebraska Omaha and University of Nebraska-Lincoln – consultative selling practice in a simulated sales environment. Participants gain strategic negotiations and relationship building experience.
Excelling in consultative sales
Students assumed the roles of sales professionals tasked with pitching Gallup’s Q12 survey, an employee engagement product, based on a fabricated case study. The top three advanced to a second pitching session with Gallup executives, which was livestreamed to all competition participants and panel of judges.
This was the first year the Heider College of Business sent a student to the competition; so Trent Wachner, PhD, associate professor of marketing and faculty member who helped prepare team Creighton, says he was expecting a year of acclimation. He could not have been more wrong.
According to one of the judges, “Claire absolutely CRUSHED it, and all of the Jays did fantastic. It was absolutely amazing to see.”
Orcutt credits her success to Wachner, her Global Marketing professor, who, says Orcutt, “went above and beyond” to prepare her. “He met with me outside of class and helped me develop and rehearse a strong sales pitch.”
The experience shifted her entire view of sales. It corrected a misconception that sales is simply asking people to part with their hard-earned cash. It’s not. Sales, she discovered, is about finding a solution for people’s problems.
How to start an eCommerce business
It may seem ironic that a person who has a successful eCommerce business with 100% positive feedback considers herself a marketing novice. It’s because Orcutt considers herself a business owner and entrepreneur, not a marketer. Orcutt enrolled in business school to learn how to grow her online store, CommerceByClaire. In fact, her two majors, management (entrepreneurship track) and finance (financial services track), feed her ambitions.
“I have always been attracted to the idea of being my own boss. Entrepreneurship allows me to channel my inner creativity. I find the independence and freedom of entrepreneurship invigorating,” she says. “My entrepreneurship degree has taught me many critical skills, including how to manage risk, raise capital, give a successful pitch and accomplish social change through business.”
Finance, on the other hand, is “the backbone of business,” continues Orcutt, “and everything I have learned so far helped me expand my business.”
Orcutt first tested the eCommerce waters as a high school sophomore in Mankato, Minnesota, when she traded her job as a snow board instructor for selling garage sale and thrift store finds on eBay. It all began with a gently used pair of Nikes. “I was instantly hooked,” she says.
Soon after, Orcutt expanded CommerceByClaire to include eCommerce platforms Amazon, PayPal and FaceBook Marketplace. She now specializes in electronics, shoes, clothing, office supplies and toys, acquiring stock through various retail websites and online marketplaces.
The finance coursework she has taken has helped Orcutt advance her business. She has learned how to manage cashflow, how the state of the economy affects business and the importance of ethical business decisions. A financial modeling course taught by Keith Olson, DBA, CFA, assistant professor of practice in the Department of Economics and Finance, has enhanced her bookkeeping skills and helped her organize her business’ financials.
“I now have the ability to analyze and interpret the financial data of my business,” she says. “This will help me make strategic business decisions that will grow my business.”
In addition to teaching her Investment Analysis and Financial Modeling, Orcutt says Olson has become a friend and mentor. He has counseled her on how to grow her business, including providing her with “an arsenal of connections, including international suppliers in Hong Kong,” and helping her develop new eCommerce strategies to pursue.
“Using the skills and knowledge I have attained so far, my vision is to build a business that I can use to make positive social change,” says Orcutt.
