Martin Smithson named winner of ACDI’s first Demo Kumite sales demo competition

THE JOURNEY TO KUMITE: How acdi turned sales training into a competition

We at ACDI just organized our first Demo Kumite won by Martin Smithson; one of our OEM Managers. Congratulations again Martin!

You may be asking yourself, what is a Kumite (Koo-mee-tay?)  Kumite is the fictitious (I think) martial arts tournament from the 1988 film Bloodsport starring Jean-Claude Van Damme.  If you haven’t seen it, go watch it now.  We’ll wait.  Watch Bloodsport online now.  

You’re back. Great movie, right?  Did it inspire you to demo software solutions against your co-workers?  It didn’t inspire us that way either when we first watched it.  But more recently, we were brainstorming and thought,  “What if we set up an internal Kumite style competition where our team went head to head to see who could give the best solutions demonstration?”  That was the original idea.  Unlike a lot of ideas where we said, “Yeah, that would be pretty cool” and then did nothing, we did something different.  We kept talking about it.  A lot, in fact.  At sales meetings, marketing meetings, product meetings.  We quickly realized that this “off the wall” idea had the potential to positively impact every aspect of our organization.  Take a passionate and competitive group, add a hokie theme and tons of social pressure and what do you have?  Demo Kumite.  

As we dug into it, this was our motivation: Time is our most precious commodity.  Our teams are scrambling everyday to drive as much business as humanly possible.  It seems like there’s never enough minutes in the day to make that last call or send another email.  Meanwhile, customer challenges (and the solutions for them) are constantly evolving. Our teams have to adapt and be in a constant state of learning.  How do we effectively help our teams communicate new challenges and new solutions in a way that is both on point and on brand without hindering daily business? This was the challenge our team faced and this was the starting point for ACDI’s journey to Kumite.

 So that’s what we did.  A series of head to head demo battles where our team put their skills to the test against their peers with everyone in the company watching. Was it successful?  Absolutely! Here are some of the takeaways from our first iteration of demo kumite:

IRON SHARPENS IRON

There was a lot of healthy competition and many of our team were inspired by their peers with the way they presented concepts and ideas.

individuality on display

The diversity of thought in how our team presented solutions was great to see.

alignment on brand

Kumite gave our leadership a view into how our team presents our brand and how they align products with customer needs and requirements.

There’s nothing like stepping into a scenario where you can’t rely on your comfort zone. A kumite forces you to stretch, think on your feet, and try new approaches in front of people who know the material just as well as you do. It’s uncomfortable… and that’s exactly why it works.

 

A few words from our team:

“What stood out to me most was how clearly preparation showed up in performance. The teammates who put in the reps came in confident, flexible, and ready for anything. I am so proud of everyone leaning in.”
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Meghan Acciavatti
Regional Vice President of Solutions - U.S. West
“The Kumite helped me hone my talk track and definitely forced me to dive further into our product portfolio. It was a blast and I look forward to the opportunity to compete again.”
Jeff Vincent
Strategic Solutions Executive - U.S. East

In a word: Experimentation. ACDI has always strived for new and ambitious ideas – even ones inspired from 80’s movies. If you’re interested in inspiring strength and poise within your sales team and beyond. We’ve got a few notes we’d love to share with you. Feel free to reach out!