Turku Sales Competition measures students’ selling skills
The Turku Sales Competition was arranged in April 2018 by Turku University of Applied Sciences (TUAS). Sales competitions represent a learning method that measures the selling skills of students in simulated sales situations.
Text and photo: Aino Lindroos
In the Turku Sales Competition (TSC) of spring 2018, students in industrial management and engineering demonstrated what they had learnt about sales. Their sales studies cover courses in presentation and negotiation skills as well as in sales skills and processes, and a sales workshop. Exchange students from European partner institutions of higher education attend the study units, which is why all sales studies are conducted in English. For the same reason, TSC is also arranged in English.
In TSC, each participant has 20 minutes to carry a sales discussion with a buyer in front of a jury. During the sales negotiation, the salesperson's aim is to convince the buyer of the product. The product chosen for the competition of spring 2018 was a ventilation system by Swegon . Students are provided with detailed product information by the company and based on them they need to create value and need for the product. The sales situations are simulated, with suggestive roles for the seller and buyer drafted beforehand.
In April 2018, altogether 39 students participated in the two-day TSC event. Approximately one-third of them were exchange students. The event started with a qualifying round from which eight participants made it to the second-day semi-finals. In the semi-finals, four competitors were selected for the final. The final competition is always arranged in front of an audience and a jury consisting of professionals from different businesses. This way, cooperation partners and students have ringside seats for witnessing the selling skills of future sales engineers.
The winner of the Turku Sales Competition 2018 is Joonas Koivuniemi. The second place went to Tuuli Elomaa, third to Harri Ohvo and fourth to Daniel Borrmann.
The director of the competition, Principal Lecturer Timo Holopainen wishes to thank Swegon and other cooperation partners as well as each competitor, all the jury members, buyers and the audience for their participation.
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