Reach Young Employees

HP’s sales conferences turn into sporting events when sales teams compete and the audience votes via live polling.

Background

Simon Puleo is tasked with training HP’s international sales teams and new hires. He develops curriculum and teaches staff how to present new products to customers. Simon often has to speak at huge sales conferences in Europe, Asia, and the Americas.

Simon needed a way to engage audiences of up to 800 people on three continents, without a lot of hardware or bandwidth headaches. So he turned to Poll Everywhere. The text-in response option made sad hotel bandwidth a non-issue, and the fact that he didn’t need extra gear or installations was a plus.

A little kick of competition gets everyone going.

When your goal is to increase engagement, competition is usually a safe bet. Simon organized a sales pitch showdown between the sales teams at each regional conference. Teams came on stage to give their best pitch to the audience. Then sales execs scored the pitches on their technique and effectiveness.

But the final decision came down to the audience vote. Simon created a multiple choice poll that allowed the crowd to choose a clear winner. Because everyone was able to use their own cell carriers to text in responses, rather than spotty web connections, all of the audience members were able to participate. And Simon got to use the same poll on all three continents without any issues.

The race is on!

Simon said, “The minute people start texting in their answers or using the web interface, you’re seeing results onstage.” By the end the crowd was standing and cheering on their favorite teams. “They see the bar going across the screen, and they start grabbing all their devices trying to ring in as many votes as they can!”

A little competition and a very portable polling method turned three international sales conferences into fun sporting events—something tech savvy young employees could easily engage with.

How can you do this?

Step 1

Create a fun poll to warm up the audience and get them comfortable with voting . Use this poll at the start of the competition. Allow 1-2 minutes to let the audience vote on this poll.

Step 2

Create a Multiple Choice poll to let the audience choose the winning team. Assign names to the teams with a code to text for each team.

Step 3

After the teams present, put your poll onscreen and ask everyone to text in their votes, or use the web interface if you have great WiFi access at your location. Watch the bars update live, and then declare a winner.