Is it attainable to copy the infectious vitality of the gross sales ground 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 important month for B2B gross sales groups. The final day of the 12 months is particularly thrilling as gross sales leaders race to the end line to blow by 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 stay New Yr’s Eve celebration — 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 Reside.

Sporting bow ties and fancy formalwear, with digital fireworks lighting up their Zoom backgrounds, our gross sales enablement workforce emceed the marathon occasion. The hours handed rapidly due to the seamless mix of each severe 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 stay portion of the occasion was comprised of some key components that gave it the texture of a sporting occasion.

We employed a manufacturing firm, DCE Productions, to assist us govt 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 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 needed to supply an expertise much like cable information, the place you possibly can tune in and rapidly take up the most recent information — or go away it on within the background and revel in all kinds of content material.

Reside Wins Ticker And “Sideline” Interviews

All through the day, a scrolling ticker of stay deal updates ran throughout on the backside of the display, 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 stay “sideline” interviews with a few of these staff, 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 experiences, the board displayed metrics together with annual recurring income, DocuSigns signed by new purchasers, and new enterprise alternatives.

Our gross sales operations workforce created the dashboard utilizing the information visualization instrument Geckoboard. We additionally checked in on scoreboards for particular person gross sales groups as individuals labored in actual time to satisfy their targets. These visuals helped drive residence the message that we win as a workforce. There isn’t a tomorrow — get it accomplished immediately.

Inside Seems at Gross sales Staff 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 provided real-time encouragement to ship that further e-mail and make that further 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 workforce — your entire 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 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 staff a front-row seat to Insightful conversations about big-picture firm priorities. 

2. Rejoice Final Yr’s Wins & Leverage Previous Content material

We waded by our in-house video footage to create pre-recorded programming that provided a sweeping view of every part 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 entire 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 associates and our household. We’ve got no management over any of these issues. However what I’d problem all of you to do immediately 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. 

Participating 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 Neglect to Get Inventive & Have Enjoyable

It was New Yr’s Eve, in any case, so we clearly needed to have a bit enjoyable, too. This portion of the night turned the occasion into a real celebration and helped all of us really feel nearer to one another regardless of 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 and marketing Supervisor,” an authentic tune 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 determine to affix a gross sales name when working from residence. 
• An authentic rap tune 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 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 staff to guess the precise time of day after we would hit sure targets, with the winner receiving a prize.

Staff Milestones: From Weddings to Donation Drives

Workers shared photos 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 Assessment: What Did We Study?

When it was throughout, we had efficiently hosted a digital celebration for almost 2,000 those who featured greater than 20 audio system, 50 movies, and (most likely too many) JibJab parodies. 

Extra importantly, we introduced the workforce along with enjoyable, academic content material, bringing the gross sales move to your entire 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 anyplace. We’ll be logging on once more subsequent 12 months — possibly with some actual confetti this time.