For the past 18 months April Six have been working hard creating some incredible work for tech giant Lenovo. Engaging with their channel base, by creating a roadshow of Spiff days. Targeting their sales teams to encourage an increase in sales of their high-end ThinkPad laptop. Not only creating spikes in sales on the day, but keeping Lenovo top of mind once we have left the building.
Spanning 5 quarters, we’ve run 100 Spiff days across the UK from Scotland through to Southampton, reaching 4,312 sales staff. On this journey there have been a number of key takeaways. We’d like to share some great insights on how you can optimise the human side of your roadshows from our experiences.
1. Understanding your Audience
It’s not always simple dealing with human beings. Sometimes when it comes to marketing we forget that behind all the messaging, we need to engage and reach people.
This may sound basic, but it’s really important to understand who your audience is. When it comes to sales, to really engage with them, getting to know who you will be targeting is key. So, understand the age group, gender, how long they’ve been with the company, and even what they enjoy to do outside of work, i.e. into healthy fitness. A key way of getting this information is speaking to the Partner Account Manager. They will be able to provide some great insight and potentially enlighten you as to what has and hasn’t worked previously. This information will be key in what activities you recommend your client running on the day, then selling it into them.
2. What bribery is suitable when it comes to sales events ?
Often these distributers and resellers have vendors going in and running Spiff days on a weekly basis so it’s important to always stand out. BRANDING is especially important, else they won’t remember you or, worse, will attribute your amazing event to another company.
What we’ve found is that PRIZES PRIZES PRIZES on the day of the event go down a treat with the sales people. Especially something tangible that they can take home on the day. We’ve learned that winning a free weekend to Marbs may sound great, but in reality, it happens on the weekend, you have to go with work colleagues (and if you don’t get on with them could be a bit awks) and you get taken away from your family and friends; let’s be honest in this day and age, quality time is very important.
Once you understand your target audience these prizes can be customised to the event, ensuring you deliver the best possible experience you can.
3. Promoting your event
You need to think about how you will build hype around the day and bring some excitement to the sales floor. This could be sending out teaser emails to the sales floor, using internal social channels and depending on the budget, creating teaser videos that can be played on screens across the office. Then when the day arrives, the sales teams will already be really up for getting involved.
4. Igniting participation on the day
From our experience sales people love a good old competition, so combining selling and a competition is a match made in heaven. Essentially if you make a sale, you get to compete. Competing with each other really generates a buzz on the floor, in turn pushing people to sell more so they can get involved. Creating a game that stands out in the office (hopefully that won’t completely disturb the whole floor) is key when putting on a successful Spiff day. Again, going back to point 1, understanding who you are talking to will help develop the appropriate ideas.
5. Training the people around you
Training can take a few different forms. You will first need to provide training to your key contact on the day (Partner Account Manager as an example). Potentially look to create a deck you can run through, which will give them a brief on the creative theme and also how the day’s structure is going to pan out. This will give them confidence on how their day can run under their control.
If you are hiring event staff to help run the days, as let’s be honest, it’s not always possible for you to attend every event, they will need a thorough event brief. It’s always a good idea to do a demo run through prior to the event, so everyone is crystal clear on their task. Logistics companies who will be moving all the collateral/branding up and down the country will also need to be briefed on timings, parking restrictions, lift access etc.
No matter how prepared you are, be aware that often events can change from one minute to the next, whether that’s cancellation, change of location or date. This is nothing to worry about. As long as you’re organised, it all works out in the end. Good Luck!
