Sales competition as education method – The case of the European sales engineering team competition

Abstract

Sales competitions are an interesting education method to train negotiation and sales skills of students. Different European sales competitions exist on European and national level, where the competitor must sell a standard product to a buyer in a given lapse of time. These competitions do not well correspond to the sales process for technically complex products or services sales engineers are used to. Therefore, the Academic Association of Sales Engineering AASE developed the European Sales Engineering Team Competition ESETC, where international teams of students compete in a 4-step approach including two written and two oral stages. This article presents the genesis of ESETC and compares this innovative team competition with existing European sales competitions.