B2B sales skills were put to the test in Turku Sales Competition

Text: Mari Loikkanen

32 competitors from Finland, Germany, France, Greece, Indonesia and Thailand took part in Turku Sales Competition this spring. Also, over 120 judges and buyers attended the online event.

Sophie Maier from Germany won the 16th Turku Sales Competition. She is a double degree student from Aschaffenburg and Turku UAS. She was followed by Tomke Florian from Brühl, Samu Suominen from Turku UAS and Daniel Wieland, a double degree student from Aalen and Turku UAS.

– Turku Sales Competition was an amazing and very important experience for me. It was the perfect way to use the skills I learned during the sales courses and to finally see how I developed myself and how to deal with realistic sales meetings and negotiations. The most important words I learned from (Turku UAS principal lecturer) Timo Holopainen were “ask, listen actively, and above all – be yourself”. I felt perfectly prepared for the competition and the whole experience boosted my self-confidence enormously, the winner Sophie Maier says.

Turku Sales Competition is a role-playing game that simulates a B2B sales situation. Students will prove their interaction and sales skills to the judges who decide the winner.

In spring 2021, Nooga Oy Ab was the co-operation partner. The participants sold Nooga services and tried to negotiate a deal with the buyer.

Stiff competition in the final

Turku Sales Competition is held in English and it’s a part of the Sales Module at Turku UAS. The participants consist of sales engineering students and exchange students from Turku UAS as well as visitors from other universities.

– The judges said that this spring the level of the competition was extremely high, and it was clear that the contestants had practiced online sales a lot. Once again it was a stiff competition between the finalists, Competition Director Timo Holopainen comments.

Originally Turku Sales Competition has been organized on-site but for the last three times it has been online because of the Covid-19 situation. There has also been a general change in sales –  sales are increasingly made online. That’s why in the future the Turku Sales Competitions will most likely be held partly on-line and partly on-site. In practice that would mean that only the final would be organized on-site.

In the photo above: Ville Hautala from Nooga Oy Ab and Sophie Maier