{"id":55169,"date":"2026-05-14T13:44:30","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T18:44:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/acd-inc.com\/?p=55169"},"modified":"2026-05-15T08:39:34","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T13:39:34","slug":"the-journey-to-kumite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/acd-inc.com\/es\/blog\/the-journey-to-kumite\/","title":{"rendered":"The Journey to Kumite: How ACDI Turned Sales Training Into a Competition"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Martin\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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THE JOURNEY TO KUMITE: How acdi turned sales training into a competition<\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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We at ACDI just organized our first Demo Kumite won by Martin Smithson; <\/span>one of our OEM Managers. Congratulations again Martin!<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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You may be asking yourself, what is a Kumite (Koo-mee-tay?)\u00a0 Kumite is the fictitious (I think) martial arts tournament from the 1988 film <\/span>Bloodsport<\/span> starring Jean-Claude Van Damme.\u00a0 If you haven\u2019t seen it, go watch it now.\u00a0 We\u2019ll wait.\u00a0 <\/span>Watch Bloodsport online now.<\/span><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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You\u2019re back. Great movie, right?\u00a0 Did it inspire you to demo software solutions against your co-workers?\u00a0 It didn\u2019t inspire us that way either when we first watched it.\u00a0 But more recently, we were brainstorming and thought,\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cWhat 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?\u201d<\/span>\u00a0 That was the original idea.\u00a0 Unlike a lot of ideas where we said, \u201cYeah, that would be pretty cool\u201d and then did nothing, <\/span>we did something different<\/span>.\u00a0 We kept talking about it.\u00a0 A lot, in fact.\u00a0 At sales meetings, marketing meetings, product meetings.\u00a0 We quickly realized that <\/span>this \u201coff the wall\u201d idea had the potential to positively impact every aspect of our organization<\/span>.\u00a0 Take a passionate and competitive group, add a hokie theme and tons of social pressure and what do you have?\u00a0 Demo Kumite.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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As we dug into it, this was our motivation: Time is our most precious commodity.\u00a0 Our teams are scrambling everyday to drive as much business as humanly possible.\u00a0 It seems like there\u2019s never enough minutes in the day to make that last call or send another email.\u00a0 Meanwhile, customer challenges (and the solutions for them) are constantly evolving. Our teams have to adapt and be in a constant state of learning.\u00a0 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\u2019s journey to Kumite. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\u00a0So that\u2019s what we did.\u00a0 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. <\/span>Was it successful?\u00a0 Absolutely!<\/span> Here are some of the takeaways from our first iteration of demo kumite:<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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IRON SHARPENS IRON<\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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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.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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individuality on display<\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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The diversity of thought in how our team presented solutions was great to see.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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alignment on brand<\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Kumite gave our leadership a view into how our team presents our brand and how they align products with customer needs and requirements.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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There\u2019s nothing like stepping into a scenario where you can\u2019t 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\u2019s uncomfortable\u2026 and that\u2019s exactly why it works.<\/span><\/p>

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A few words from our team:<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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\u201cWhat 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.\u201d<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
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Meghan Acciavatti<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
Regional Vice President of Solutions - U.S. West<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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\u201cThe 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.\u201d<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
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Jeff Vincent<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
Strategic Solutions Executive - U.S. East<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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In a word: <\/span>Experimentation<\/span>. ACDI has always strived for new and ambitious ideas \u2013 <\/span>even ones inspired from 80\u2019s movies<\/span>. If you\u2019re interested in inspiring strength and poise within your sales team and beyond. We\u2019ve got a few notes we\u2019d love to share with you. Feel free to reach out! <\/span><\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ACDI\u2019s first Demo Kumite brought the team together for a head-to-head sales demo competition designed to sharpen product knowledge, strengthen messaging, and build confidence across the organization.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":55185,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[250,324,256],"tags":[331,330,325,326,327,328,329],"class_list":["post-55169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-company-culture","category-products-blog","tag-acdi-culture","tag-better-than-yesterday","tag-demo-kumite","tag-sales-enablement","tag-sales-training","tag-software-demonstrations","tag-team-development"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/acd-inc.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/acd-inc.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/acd-inc.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acd-inc.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acd-inc.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55169"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/acd-inc.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55191,"href":"http:\/\/acd-inc.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55169\/revisions\/55191"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acd-inc.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/acd-inc.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acd-inc.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acd-inc.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}