Nurturing Sales Graduates Through SEASAC at BINUS Business School
The South-East Asian Sales Competition, otherwise known as SEASAC, is a project that first and foremost aims to nurture highly skilled B2B Sales graduates in South-East Asian universities. This is a well-engaged project between Erasmus+, the European Union, and a consortium of 12 institutions from Europe, Indonesia, Thailand, and the South-East Asian Ministers of Education Organization Regional Open Learning Center (SEAMOLEC). SEASAC is also partnering with European Sales Competition Association (ESCA) and Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture.
SEASAC combines the European sales practice with Asian sales culture to further help these South-East Asian Higher Education Institutions to develop B2B sales professionals who are ready for dynamic and demanding international markets. As a competition, SEASAC is a place for South East Asian business students to hone their sales skills. The establishment of SEASAC is also due to the urgent need for proficient salespeople.
Unfortunately, sales has been overlooked over the years. However, in this digital revolution era, sales is one of the few occupations that can never be replaced by automatization. Companies gain revenues from sales and therefore, sales graduates are among the most employable graduates in the world.
The competition process
BINUS University is one of the 5 university partners of SEASAC. On August 19, 2020, BINUS Business School held a part of the extensive SEASAC process virtually via Zoom meeting. Starting with an 8-session mandatory course attended by 69 students from Master of Management, the assessment was done unconventionally through a sales competition in searching for the top 4 students who will proceed to Indonesian Sales Competition 2020 and European Sales Competition 2020.
This competition’s concept was sales role playing, students will act as salespeople trying to sell a product to a buyer. BINUS BUSINESS SCHOOL Master Program worked together with Microsoft, using their product Microsoft Teams, as a showcase. The SEASAC BINUS University started at around 08.15 WIB with the Qualifying Round, where there were eight separate rooms with different judges and buyers.
In the Qualifying Round, each participant was given 10 minutes to make an introduction and try to identify the needs of the buyer in relation with product they sold. The goal was to create interest, so the buyers would be interested in setting up a follow-up meeting. From the Qualifying Round, the best three from each room moved to the Semi Final that started at 11.15 WIB.
The Semi Final Round was divided into four separate rooms, where each participant had 15 minutes to make further product introductions and convinced the buyers to close the deal. At last, the Final Round began at 14.00 WIB with only 8 finalists. In this round, the judges assessed the many aspects of the sales process, from the presentation slides, negotiation techniques, and communication skills.
Each finalist was expected to construct one ideal presentation slide, preparing the product and pricing, as well as delivering the benefits of said product. The winners were determined based on the judges’ assessment and whether they successfully closed the deal or not.
BINUS to send 4 students
From the SEASAC BINUS University, 4 winners were announced. Anindhita Bunga Ayodhya (The Champion), Wilson Pribadi (1st Runner Up), Arief Kurniawan Ilyas (2nd Runner Up), and Catherine Amadea (3rd Runner Up) will represent BINUS University in the Indonesian Sales Competition 2020.
SEASAC BINUS University also included a short course by keynote speaker Rudy Rusli, the Business Manager of PT Mastersystem Infotama and a BINUS University alumnus. BINUS University invited judges from other university partners of SEASAC, such as Polyteknik Batam, Turku University of Applied Sciences, Sebelas Maret University, Parahyangan University, Edinburgh Napier University, and others.
Overall, the judges were impressed by the level of preparation that each participant brought to the table and their communication skills, especially when faced with critical questions from the buyers. There is no doubt that the four winners possess great knowledge and skills in B2B sales, which hopefully will help them win the Indonesian Sales Competition 2020. **(pid)
