Is it doable to duplicate the infectious power of the gross sales flooring on the finish of 1 / 4 in a digital world?
That was the problem ZoomInfo confronted as 2020 drew to an in depth in December, which is usually an incredible month for B2B gross sales groups. The final day of the 12 months is very thrilling as gross sales leaders race to the end line to blow by means of their annual quotas.
However in a 12 months disrupted by the pandemic, we discovered ourselves nonetheless caught at residence after months spent bodily aside.
We had been decided to breed that buzz throughout our first-ever digital company-wide reside New Yr’s Eve get together — dubbed Henry Schuck’s New Yr’s Closin’ Eve — which in the end lasted ten productive and entertaining hours (think about the content material creation!). Right here’s how we pulled it off — and the way you are able to do it, too.
1. Breaking Information: Broadcast Sports activities Gross sales Updates Stay.
Sporting bow ties and fancy formalwear, with digital fireworks lighting up their Zoom backgrounds, our gross sales enablement staff emceed the marathon occasion. The hours handed rapidly because of the seamless mix of each critical gross sales speak and playful segments that stored the temper upbeat.
It was important to maintain everyone motivated to hit their quantity, simply as if we had been working alongside one another again within the workplace. The reside portion of the occasion was comprised of some key parts that gave it the texture of a sporting occasion.
We employed a manufacturing firm, DCE Productions, to assist us government produce it. Behind the scenes, our CEO’s Chief of Employees, Jennifer Creticos, was on a walkie-talkie app serving to to navigate from one phase to a different. We additionally created a “run of present” sheet that mapped out the programming right down to the minute.
We wished to offer an expertise just like cable information, the place you possibly can tune in and rapidly take up the newest information — or go away it on within the background and revel in all kinds of content material.
Stay Wins Ticker And “Sideline” Interviews
All through the day, a scrolling ticker of reside deal updates ran throughout on the backside of the display screen, celebrating wins as they rolled in from particular person staff. To create the ticker, incoming DocuSign information was formatted and fed right into a Google Sheet each half hour.
We additionally broadcast reside “sideline” interviews with a few of these staff, throughout which they defined how they pushed every deal over the objective line — and mentioned classes realized that they deliberate to implement in 2021.
Knowledge-Pushed Scoreboards
On the prime of each hour, the emcees rang a (literal) bell and checked in on a company-wide scoreboard that includes numbers that steadily elevated because the night time wore on. Powered by Salesforce stories, the board displayed metrics together with annual recurring income, DocuSigns signed by new purchasers, and new enterprise alternatives.
Our gross sales operations staff created the dashboard utilizing the info visualization instrument Geckoboard. We additionally checked in on scoreboards for particular person gross sales groups as folks labored in actual time to fulfill their objectives. These visuals helped drive residence the message that we win as a staff. There isn’t any tomorrow — get it executed right this moment.
Inside Appears at Gross sales Group Conferences
We tuned into stand-up conferences occurring all over the world on particular person gross sales groups as they went over their playbooks for the day. Gross sales leaders supplied real-time encouragement to ship that additional e-mail and make that additional name. They exhorted staff to ship this message to purchasers:
Let’s make a deal so your group can kick off the brand new 12 months on the suitable foot.
“Use your complete staff — your complete firm is right here that will help you,” Lou Wolf, Vice President of New Enterprise Gross sales, advised his staff. “We’ll discover offers at 10 p.m. tonight. I do know we’ll.”
Actual-Time Conversations with the Board of Administrators
ZoomInfo CEO Henry Schuck and Chief Income Officer Chris Hays sat down with a number of board members for casual interviews, giving staff a front-row seat to Insightful conversations about big-picture firm priorities.
2. Have fun Final Yr’s Wins & Leverage Previous Content material
We waded by means of our in-house video footage to create pre-recorded programming that supplied a sweeping view of every thing our firm achieved in 2020. That included a glance again on the magic surrounding our profitable IPO in June, together with different highlights from a difficult 12 months.
You don’t should create 10 hours’ value of content material to drag this off. Benefit from your spotlight reel and freshen it up with new information.
Sharing Motivating Recommendation from Our Leaders
We highlighted some compelling moments from all-hands conferences, together with this knowledge delivered by our CEO Henry Schuck in April, a month into the pandemic, when your complete nation was gripped with worry and uncertainty:
There’s a lot that’s out of our management. Schedules, children at residence, make money working from home, not with the ability to see our mates and our household. We’ve got no management over any of these issues. However what I might problem all of you to do right this moment is to stipulate what you can management. I can management how I present up each day.
– Henry Schuck, ZoomInfo CEO
Showcasing Buyer Testimonials
We assembled a mash-up that includes testimonials from actual purchasers raving about our product, which was dominated by sure turns of phrase, together with “freakin’ superior!” and “that is magical” repeated advert nauseum.
Partaking with Insightful Gross sales Chief Roundtables
Pre-recorded interviews and roundtables showcased our enterprise improvement achievements from 2020, that includes interviews with new enterprise, account administration, gross sales enablement, and C-suite executives.
3. Don’t Overlook to Get Artistic & Have Enjoyable
It was New Yr’s Eve, in any case, so we clearly needed to have a little bit enjoyable, too. This portion of the night turned the occasion into a real get together and helped all of us really feel nearer to one another despite the bodily miles between us.
Our Worker Showcase: Raps, Rhymes & Ridiculous Strikes
The ZoomInfo household took to the digital stage to point out off our creativity, starting from heartfelt renditions of Beatles’ songs to a downright ridiculous efficiency of “Advertising Supervisor,” an unique track written by an worker that features these iconic lyrics: “A 30-minute demo was all it took / A fast look and the CMO was shook.”
Different highlights:
- An infomercial about what occurs when pets resolve to hitch a gross sales name when working from residence.
- An unique rap track about ZoomInfo that rivaled Michael Scott’s notorious “Straight Outta Scranton” from The Workplace.
- A number of JibJab movies that superimposed the heads of firm leaders onto varied 90s music movies (no rationalization required).
Eyes on The Prize: Contests & Video games
A sequence of video games helped lighten the temper all through the night: bingo boards, soccer squares, swag giveaways. Lauren Penney, a gross sales enablement supervisor who helped host the occasion, challenged staff to guess the precise time of day after we would hit sure targets, with the winner receiving a prize.
Group Milestones: From Weddings to Donation Drives
Workers shared footage of huge moments in their very own lives, from weddings and visas to new infants and pets. We additionally spotlighted our company-wide charitable efforts, which netted $650,000 for native nonprofits in 2020.
Submit-Occasion Overview: What Did We Study?
When it was throughout, we had efficiently hosted a digital get together for almost 2,000 people who featured greater than 20 audio system, 50 movies, and (most likely too many) JibJab parodies.
Extra importantly, we introduced the staff along with enjoyable, instructional content material, bringing the gross sales move to your complete firm.. When 2021 attracts to an in depth, the pandemic will hopefully be a factor of the previous.
However our digital New Yr’s Eve isn’t going wherever. We’ll be logging on once more subsequent 12 months — perhaps with some actual confetti this time.
