Industrial sales initiative celebrates successful collaboration – training in industrial sales well underway at Tampere University
The industrial sales initiative has received exceptionally broad support. To date, the partner companies and foundations have pledged €1.8 million to strengthen the sales capabilities of Finnish technology and industrial companies and accelerate their international growth.
In the first phase of the initiative, Tuukka Ahoniemi was appointed as Professor of Practice in Industrial Sales within the Industrial Engineering and Management Unit at the Faculty of Management and Business (MAB).
Basic courses in industrial sales are already available at Tampere University.
“Students appreciate concrete examples that complement academic theory and connect sales expertise with the realities of working life. Students are clearly interested in this topic: the course was oversubscribed despite being voluntary and promoted only briefly,” says Ahoniemi.
Building a hub for industrial sales expertise and research
Efforts are now underway to establish a full-scale hub for industrial sales expertise and research at Tampere University.
This hub will conduct cutting-edge research on industrial sales through collaborative projects with partner companies. A new tenure-track professor specialising in industrial sales will be recruited to work alongside the Professor of Practice, with the position due to be advertised soon.
Marko Seppänen, Dean of the Faculty of Management and Business (MAB), highlights the initiative as a prime example of effective collaboration between academia and industry.
“The industrial sales initiative has received strong backing from numerous companies within our stakeholder network, allowing us to get off to a fast start. Industry collaboration enriches teaching through guest lectures, real-world case studies and thesis placements,” says Seppänen, who also serves as a Professor of Industrial Management at Tampere University.
The initiative gained widespread attention this autumn when it reached the final and received an honorary mention in the 2025 Industrial Achievement of the Year Competition at the Subcontracting Fair.
In-depth customer understanding is the key to commercial success
According to Ahoniemi, the commercialisation of investment products and technology services is fundamentally about creating value for customers. Technically skilled professionals play an important role in industrial sales processes.
The first industrial sales course, open to students from all engineering disciplines, was organised in the autumn of 2025, and a more comprehensive integration of sales training into engineering curricula is now underway. From 2027 onwards, students will have the opportunity to pursue a more in-depth specialisation in industrial sales. Commercialisation perspectives are also being highlighted during other courses. For example, recent courses in industrial engineering and management have featured guest lecturers discussing commercialisation.
“Sales is often outsourced to external sales organisations within companies, while R&D departments operate in isolation without continuous dialogue with customers. This can easily result in world-class technological solutions being developed based on assumed customer value rather than genuine, verified needs. We believe that engineering professionals with expertise in industrial sales are best equipped to overcome this challenge,” say Seppänen and Ahoniemi.
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The industrial sales initiative celebrated successful university-industry collaboration on the Hervanta campus, where a donor board featuring the names of supporters was unveiled. To date, the initiative has raised €1.8 million in private donations from 38 supporters.
Photos: Aki Tulikari
