Real negotiations with a representative of an existing business: B2B sales
Within the framework of the Erasmus+ “Learn-Innovate-Sell-Succeed” (LISS24) project, the 2nd intra-university competition of startup ideas in the field of B2B sales was held on October 23 in the Agrotechnology Incubator Hall among 9 students selected after the second round of the free courses “B2B Sales and Innovation”. By the decision of the coordinator of the LISS24 project at the Armenian Agricultural University, Head of the Department of Agricultural Mechanization and Automation Research Institute Artur Altunyan and the project researcher, lecturer at the Department of Agribusiness Management and Policy Hasmik Gevorgyan and the competition jury, this time the format of the competition was sales in the true sense of the word: the participants were assigned to sell agricultural drones to a real business representative. In this regard, they highly appreciate the support of the director of Almond Agro Company Arsen Avetisyan. he provided hours for meetings and negotiations with the participating students.
Both Mr. Avetisyan and the jury, which also included Karen Nersisyan and Vahram Merangulyan, who conducted the training preceding the competition, were impressed by the knowledge, communication skills, and fairly mature approaches and skills in conducting negotiations that the students demonstrated.
Before announcing the names of the winner and prize-winners, Hrachya Grigoryan, Dean of the Faculty of Agribusiness and Economics, who was a member of the jury, and Ruben Aghgashyan, Chairman of the jury and Head of the Digital Technologies Research Center of National Polytechnic University of Armenia, warmly welcomed the participants, not hiding their satisfaction with the rather high level of their preparation. The preparatory course, which lasted only three weeks, was clearly effective. They also agreed on another issue: everyone wins in this competition, in the sense that everyone made the most of the unprecedented opportunity created. And the competition itself once again showed the “old” truth, which Mr. Aghgashyan mentioned: being a good specialist is not enough, it is necessary to show it and prove it in the market.
The winner of the competition and the first obstacle to participating in the 12th international competition “B2B Sales” - the intra-university round - was Nare Kivranyan. The second and third places in the prize were taken by Lilia Israelyan and Karine Zargaryan, respectively.
