Rising sales stars from across Europe went head to head in Edinburgh at a prestigious international competition.
Students from across the Continent, and a team from Kansas State University in the USA, came to Scotland to take part in the Salesforce European Sales Competition at Edinburgh Napier University.
More than 50 students from 20 universities in 11 different countries entered the event at the Craiglockhart campus, where they were assessed on their presentation, negotiation and interpersonal skills.
The host university, Aberdeen, Abertay and Dundee flew the flag for Scotland at the contest – part of the movement to take sales away from the spiv stereotype and put it at the heart of the higher education curriculum.
After two intense days of pitching to and negotiating with seasoned business professionals, Daisy Fagel from Euridis Business School in France emerged as the winner of the main Sales Role Play competition. Lanessa Aurand of Kansas State came second and Matthew Saunders of the University of Portsmouth was third.
There were five joint winners of the Sales SpeedSell competition which acted as a curtain raiser to the event, held last Wednesday and Thursday; Sarai Lambert (Euridis), Molly Young (Kansas State), Jacqueline Clawson (Kansas State) and the host university’s Giulia Hetzenauer and Tobia La Marca.
Edinburgh Napier’s Dr Tony Douglas, Director of the Competition, the fourth European Sales Competition to be held, said: “ESC 2017 gave students the chance to demonstrate their presentation, active listening, questioning, negotiating and closing skills.
“It is very likely that students will receive job offers from one of the many sponsors in attendance, and it was also a great opportunity to showcase our Craiglockhart campus, which was an ideal venue for such a large competition.”
He added: “The prestigious event will be followed next year with a UK Sales Competition now that more and more UK-based Universities are starting to take sales seriously as part of their Business School curriculum.”
The first of the European Sales Competitions – which put students’ skills under the microscope by role playing the pressures of real-life business situations – was organised in Brussels in June 2015 with the aim of addressing a lack of structured sales training and exposing participants to cross-cultural differences.
Last week’s competition in Edinburgh was sponsored by cloud computing company Salesforce.
Oracle, Gartner, Hudson, Eastern Western Motor Group, Textron and the Association of Professional Sales also supported the event, which aims to make sales an attractive career choice, and competing students came from as far afield as Spain, Finland, Holland, Norway, Germany, Belgium, Austria and the USA.
Wednesday’s SpeedSell event saw students pitching against the clock to professional sales people and getting instant feedback on their performance.
The main competition the following day involved competitors selling to buyers provided by the Royal Bank of Scotland, with the five afternoon finalists having their performance relayed by video link to an audience in the Lindsay Stewart Lecture Theatre. The winners were announced at a Gala Dinner on Thursday night.
Edinburgh Napier, home to Scotland’s first university sales division, offers two PG degree programmes with a sales element, and an advisory group drawn from industry helps develop the teaching agenda.
Just announced – special Business & Innovation day combined ticket for Scottish Businesses!
Scotland’s 2020 Climate Group are pleased to announce that a special £150 ticket offer is available for Scottish businesses who wish to attend BOTH the Business and Innovations Day programmes at ECCA.
To view the programmes and register for your £150 two-day ticket please use this link: http://ecca2017.eu/conference/businessandinnovation/
Business & Innovation at ECCA 2017
Climate change presents a wide range of serious risks for business. At the same time, it also provides opportunities for companies, large and small, to drive forward innovative and successful adaptation products and services.
ECCA is the global conference that brings together the people who deliver climate adaptation action on the ground – from business, industry, NGOs, and local government – to share knowledge, ideas and experience with leading researchers and policy makers. Held in Glasgow at the SEC, the ECCA Business & Innovation Days will offer packed programmes focused on the unique opportunities adaption presents for businesses. Recognising the increasing need for the business sector to engage in developing and delivering climate ready solutions.
The tailor-made business and innovation programme on 6-7 June is open to businesses, SMEs, social enterprises and entrepreneurs.
A special two-day rate of £150 is being offered for businesses wishing to attend the Business & Innovation Days. Please visit the website to register.
View the Business & Innovation Day Programmes and Register for your £150 ticket here.
On 20 and 21 June in Edinburgh, the British Standards Institution (BSI) is hosting the Annual Meetings of the European standards organisations CEN and CENELEC, bringing together senior representatives from all 34 European national standards bodies, as well as other leading international figures from the community, including the International Standards Organisations – ISO and IEC. This is the first time that the UK has hosted this event since 2002.
These formal meetings are then going to be followed on Thursday 22 June by an Open Day called ‘Standards Matter’, intended to be a day of exhibitions, talks and debates on the future of standardisation and the importance of standards in our changing world. The event will be held at the Sheraton Grand Hotel in the centre of Edinburgh in the first floor conference area.
During the day, BSI hope to introduce leaders from the UK, European and international standards communities to local industrialists, innovators and entrepreneurs to debate the role of standards in accelerating innovation and to answer questions on how the national, European and international systems can help industry achieve its goals.
The audience will include senior executives from the leading European national standards bodies; the President, President Elect and new Secretary General of ISO; senior representatives from other international standards bodies; officials from the European Commission; UK Government representatives; BSI technical committee members and representatives from industry, local government and NGOs.
‘Standards Matter’ will be based around four main themes:
1. Standards supporting global growth: Standards and international trade and Smarter regulation
2. Innovation in a digital world: Autonomy and transport in a fully connected world
3. Future of standards development: The future of collaboration, New ways of working, developing and sharing content in a digital world,
4. Our future society: The circular economy, BS 8001 – Framework for implementing circular economy principles in organizations, Approaches to the circular city, Progress towards UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Building trust in a digital world.
The full agenda is be available on the BSI website: www.bsigroup.com/standards-matter-17
The event will highlight the role that voluntary business standards can be used by business to facilitate international trade, improve business performance, support innovation and promote quality and environmental and risk management.
The winners of the IFLR European Awards have been announced, and a deal on which Shepherd and Wedderburn’s leading Banking and Finance team acted has come out on top.
The Towd Point Mortgage Funding 2016-Granite 1 deal was named the structured finance and securitisation deal of the year at the awards, which recognise the most innovative deals, teams, firms, and in-house deal makers from the past year.
Towd Point is a residential mortgage-backed securitisation under which £6.1 billion of bonds issued are backed by a pool of over 80,000 mortgages from the legacy book of Northern Rock acquired by Cerberus from the UK Government. It represents the largest transaction of its kind since the global financial crisis .
In addition to acting as Scottish counsel to the arrangers of the Towd Point deal, the firm acted on two other deals that were nominated at the awards: it acted for Close Brothers in their inaugural public securitisation which was one of the landmark transactions of the year in the UK Auto ABS sector; and it acted for MyDentist on the first sterling high yield bond deal following the Brexit vote.
Hamish Patrick, partner in Shepherd and Wedderburn’s Banking and Finance Team, said:
“We are pleased to be involved in a number of the biggest and most innovative deals in the market. Shepherd and Wedderburn is privileged to have so many great clients trust us with their complex transactions. We have one of the most cutting edge and hardworking teams in the banking and finance sector, and it is great to be acknowledged as such by the IFLR.”
An international field of rising sales stars will converge on Edinburgh for the fourth European Sales Competition.
Students from across the Continent, and a contingent from the USA, will demonstrate their selling skills in buyer-seller business meetings as the prestigious contest comes to Britain for the first time.
Edinburgh Napier University will host more than 50 students from 20 universities in 10 different countries who are taking part in the event – part of the movement to take sales away from the spiv stereotype and put it at the heart of the higher education curriculum.
The first of the competitions – which put students’ skills under the microscope by role playing the pressures of real-life business situations – was organised in Brussels in June 2015 with the aim of addressing a lack of structured sales training and exposing participants to cross-cultural differences.
Supporters wanted to pave the way for a standardised approach to sales education across Europe and foster the creation of a pan-European Sales University Alliance.
Sponsored by cloud computing company Salesforce, the competition at Edinburgh Napier’s Craiglockhart Campus opens on May 31 with a Speed Selling Event which will see students pitching against the clock to professional sales people and getting instant feedback on their performance.
The main competition the following day involves competitors selling to buyers provided by the Royal Bank of Scotland while bracing themselves for possible interruptions and surprises. Those judged to have performed best in semi-finals held in five separate rooms will progress to an afternoon final, which will be broadcast live online and to an audience in the Lindsay Stewart Lecture Theatre.
The winners will be announced at a Gala Dinner that evening, which will also give the visitors, from as far afield as Spain, Finland and Kansas state, the chance to try their hand at ceilidh dancing.
Dr Tony Douglas, Edinburgh Napier’s Associate Professor of Strategy & Sales and Director of the European Sales Competition, said: “I first witnessed sales competition events in the USA some six years ago, and I was so excited by the concept of bringing together industry and students in the Business School environment that I added this event to my list of ‘must dos’.
“Sales by its nature can be very competitive and the European Sales Competition ticks all the right boxes by connecting the right students with the right businesses, who are looking for more efficient ways of recruiting.”
With talented sales people at the heart of most successful companies, leading business organisations have been happy to lend their support to a competition which spotlights up and coming stars.
Salesforce, Oracle, Gartner, Hudson, Eastern Western Motor Group, Textron and the Association of Professional Sales all back the event, which aims to make sales an attractive career choice.
Edinburgh Napier, home to Scotland’s first university sales division and Scotland’s representatives at the event, offers two PG degree programmes with a sales element, and an advisory group drawn from industry helps develop the teaching agenda.
The Business School last month launched its Centre for Sales and Business Development, which will become a hub for the professionalisation of sales through research and commercial activity.
The university now also offers advanced entry to its BA Sales Management course for people with relevant work experience, and has joined forces with universities in Finland, Austria and Germany to research the coaching of sales professionals.
Dr Douglas said: “With the introduction of sales programmes at Edinburgh Napier, we are now able to help students to not just learn about sales but to practise important selling skills such as questioning, listening, presentation and negotiation, using role play as part of our assessments.”
The ScotRail Alliance is advising customers that services in the central belt on 12 and 13 May are expected to be very busy due to a number of special events taking place.
Friday 12 May
• Take That, SSE Hydro
• European rugby Challenge Cup final, BT Murrayfield
Saturday 13 May
• Take That, SSE Hydro
• European rugby Champions Cup final, BT Murrayfield
Services during the evening rush on Friday towards both Edinburgh and Glasgow will be much busier than normal. Fans are being encouraged to consider earlier trains to Edinburgh and Glasgow, or consider alternative routes via Bathgate, Shotts or Carstairs.
On Saturday 13 May, services towards Edinburgh and Glasgow are expected to get busier as the day progresses. Extra carriages will be added to trains all day on the Edinburgh – Falkirk High – Glasgow route, as well as on key services between Helensburgh, Milngavie and Edinburgh, and select services linking Glenrothes, Edinburgh, and Tweedbank.
Queuing systems will be in place on both days at Exhibition Centre and Haymarket. As with most special event trains, alcohol bans will be in place.
For service information, customers can use the ScotRail app or head to scotrail.co.uk
A ScotRail Alliance spokesperson said: “There’s no doubt that trains are going to be very busy this Friday and Saturday. Please plan your journeys in advance, and consider taking an alternative route where possible to avoid the crowds.
“Please follow the instructions of staff to ensure that things go smoothly.”
