Is it potential to duplicate the infectious vitality 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 a detailed in December, which is usually an important month for B2B gross sales groups. The final day of the yr is very thrilling as gross sales leaders race to the end line to blow by their annual quotas.
However in a yr disrupted by the pandemic, we discovered ourselves nonetheless caught at dwelling after months spent bodily aside.
We have been decided to breed that buzz throughout our first-ever digital company-wide dwell New 12 months’s Eve social gathering — dubbed Henry Schuck’s New 12 months’s Closin’ Eve — which finally 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 Dwell.
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 shortly 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 have been working alongside one another again within the workplace. The dwell 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 Workers, Jennifer Creticos, was on a walkie-talkie app serving to to navigate from one section to a different. We additionally created a “run of present” sheet that mapped out the programming all the way down to the minute.
We wished to offer an expertise just like cable information, the place you may tune in and shortly take up the newest information — or go away it on within the background and luxuriate in all kinds of content material.
Dwell Wins Ticker And “Sideline” Interviews
All through the day, a scrolling ticker of dwell deal updates ran throughout on the backside of the display screen, celebrating wins as they rolled in from particular person workers. To create the ticker, incoming DocuSign information was formatted and fed right into a Google Sheet each half hour.
We additionally broadcast dwell “sideline” interviews with a few of these workers, throughout which they defined how they pushed every deal over the purpose line — and mentioned classes discovered that they deliberate to implement in 2021.
Information-Pushed Scoreboards
On the high 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 evening wore on. Powered by Salesforce stories, the board displayed metrics together with annual recurring income, DocuSigns signed by new shoppers, and new enterprise alternatives.
Our gross sales operations staff created the dashboard utilizing the info visualization device Geckoboard. We additionally checked in on scoreboards for particular person gross sales groups as individuals labored in actual time to fulfill their objectives. These visuals helped drive dwelling the message that we win as a staff. There isn’t a tomorrow — get it executed at the moment.
Inside Seems at Gross sales Crew Conferences
We tuned into stand-up conferences taking place world wide 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 further e mail and make that further name. They exhorted workers to ship this message to shoppers:
Let’s make a deal so your group can kick off the brand new yr on the precise foot.
“Use your complete staff — the complete firm is right here that will help you,” Lou Wolf, Vice President of New Enterprise Gross sales, informed his workers. “We are going to discover offers at 10 p.m. tonight. I do know we are going to.”
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 workers a front-row seat to Insightful conversations about big-picture firm priorities.
2. Rejoice Final 12 months’s Wins & Leverage Previous Content material
We waded by our in-house video footage to create pre-recorded programming that supplied a sweeping view of the whole lot 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 yr.
You don’t should create 10 hours’ value of content material to drag this off. Reap the benefits of 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 the complete nation was gripped with worry and uncertainty:
There’s a lot that’s out of our management. Schedules, youngsters at dwelling, earn a living from home, not having the ability to see our mates and our household. We’ve no management over any of these issues. However what I’d problem all of you to do at the moment is to stipulate what you can management. I can management how I present up on daily basis.
– Henry Schuck, ZoomInfo CEO
Showcasing Buyer Testimonials
We assembled a mash-up that includes testimonials from actual shoppers raving about our product, which was dominated by sure turns of phrase, together with “freakin’ superior!” and “that is magical” repeated advert nauseum.
Participating with Insightful Gross sales Chief Roundtables
Pre-recorded interviews and roundtables showcased our enterprise growth achievements from 2020, that includes interviews with new enterprise, account administration, gross sales enablement, and C-suite executives.
3. Don’t Neglect to Get Artistic & Have Enjoyable
It was New 12 months’s Eve, in spite of everything, so we clearly needed to have a bit of enjoyable, too. This portion of the night turned the occasion into a real social gathering 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 authentic music 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 affix a gross sales name when working from dwelling.
- An authentic rap music 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 numerous 90s music movies (no clarification required).
Eyes on The Prize: Contests & Video games
A collection 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 workers to guess the precise time of day once we would hit sure targets, with the winner receiving a prize.
Crew Milestones: From Weddings to Donation Drives
Workers shared footage of massive 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 Evaluation: What Did We Study?
When it was throughout, we had efficiently hosted a digital social gathering for almost 2,000 those that featured greater than 20 audio system, 50 movies, and (most likely too many) JibJab parodies.
Extra importantly, we introduced the staff along with enjoyable, academic content material, bringing the gross sales move to the complete firm.. When 2021 attracts to a detailed, the pandemic will hopefully be a factor of the previous.
However our digital New 12 months’s Eve isn’t going wherever. We’ll be logging on once more subsequent yr — possibly with some actual confetti this time.
