Interview with the winner of Turku Sales Competition
Now that the Turku Sales Competition is over, and the winner is chosen, I think that all of you are excited to know who won and what the journey of him or her looked like during the competition.
So, TUASpire proudly presents you the winner of 2020 Turku Sales Competition: 19-year-old, Angelina Getmanchuk from Germany. In an exclusive interview with TUASpire she gave us some insights into her feelings and thoughts during and about the competition.
What was your first feeling after round 1?
I was very excited after I logged out of the meeting. The time passed so quickly, and I wondered if I was good enough or what I could have done better. In retrospect I think it was a very good feeling to go into a meeting and convince everyone of what I am selling. Even though some answers didn’t go as planned, it was so much fun and a completely new experience for me.
How did you prepare for the competition?
- I listened carefully to the product presentation of the CEO of FourFerries: Ida
- I deeply analyzed both websites of FourFerries and eMathStudios and the Product material that Timo sent us
- I created a word document with all the important information from the websites
- I created a new word document and sorted my information into categories, such as: students’ benefits, teacher benefits, needs, references….
- I read the ESC manual 2020 that Timo gave us and paid attention to the evaluation criteria
- I copied the structure of a traditional sales meeting from the manual onto a paper and always kept an eye on it during the meetings.
- And shortly before the meeting I even listened to classical music in order to have a suitable topic for the Smalltalk with Mr. Lahti, who then never appeared
What would you advise the next years competitors?
It is absolutely OK to be nervous. All the effort, stress and preparation time were worth it because in the end the great experience overweighs. What I understood during the meetings: Its always better to have keynotes or short handwritten notes, than a fully preformulated sheet of arguments… because it never goes as planned. Honesty and having good product knowledge are what helped me most during the competition.
However, I don’t fell in the position to give any advice, because I still will be nervous in the next meetings and it will take a lot of meetings in order to call oneself a real sales representative.
How realistic do you think was the sales meeting?
In my opinion it was very realistic. I know that the judges like Timo, Jouko and Ida have a lot of experience that they contribute to the sales competition. Round by round we went deeper into details, which made the competition more realistic to me.
How do you fell about organizing this event online?
First, I want to mention that I am glad that we even had the opportunity to do it online. At least for my point of view, the way of doing it online helped me to control my level of nervousness. Doing it onsite would make it more challenging because of all the viewers, judges and all the people who are watching and listening to you. I think I would not have been able to speak a word. To sum up, it was more convenient but with that there come also problems like connection and as the time is always limited, this could really affect you.
What was the most difficult part?
The time runs against you. Mentioning everything you want to mention can really be a problem in just 20 minutes. I’m naturally a very nervous person, acting as if you weren’t is a very difficult thing to do. In addition, doing it in a foreign language is more challenging to express what you intend to impress. Besides that, judging yourself after a meeting is really a problem without getting any feedback or comments right after it is over.
Last words
To sum up: Even though you feel like you don’t want to attend in the beginning, in the end you are proud of yourself to overcome yourself and take this big of a step. All together I would say, it wasn’t a competition but a chance to prove yourself and to increase your self-confidence.
These were Angelina’s answers about the TSC 2020. We are glade that we had the opportunity to speak to her. Stay tuned for next week. Have a nice day!
Your TUASpire Team