ManGO's online negotiation competition brings together different regions

ManGO! Games was tasked with finding a way to teach negotiations between suppliers and buyers of Kimberly-Clark retail chains. Compact and effective, the format was supposed to bring together participants from different regions. And we did manage to find it! Our online competition engaged the entire company staff while creating a true New Year's Eve extravaganza and a real celebration for all employees.

A total of 70 participants competed for the title of the 2019 Best Negotiator, cheered on by entire regions. All in all, the competition turned out to be an inspiring national-level event. We at ManGO! Games believe the live battle format to soon become a real game-changer for many companies on their road to maximum efficiency.

Mission: Devise and deliver an online negotiation competition.

Background:
The company faced the need to boost its key account managers' negotiation skills in the context of their location in different parts of Russia. This was a request made by their direct manager responsible for Kimberly-Clark's interaction with all the retail chains of the company's presence.

The problem arose right before the new year, during the period of intensive communication between key account managers and buyers. The underlying reason for this is the need to re-sign the annual contract and define the terms of future cooperation with a certain retailer.

It is, of course, one of the company's best interests to keep every negotiator in good shape.

All that combined necessitated ManGO's training session to refresh managers' negotiation skills and test them in action.

Solution:
In our decision to tap the competitive spirit, we chose the highly engaging format of a competition.

With the competition being widely advertised within the company, it became the most anticipated New Year event even before it started. Two weeks prior to the negotiation tournament, we held an online webinar to discuss organizational matters.

The competition itself proceeded in several rounds with a live grand finale. The event gathered a total of 70 participants, who were divided into two teams of 35 each.

The rules of the competition were quite strict, with losing players dropping out of the game. As half of the participants went down in the first round, following each new one, the situation kept getting tenser and tenser. The entire company staff followed the course of the event. According to Kimberly-Clark executives, there were whole regions cheering for their representatives.

As a result, we achieved a phenomenally high level of engagement from both participants and Kimberly-Clark managers. The negotiation competition was closely watched not only by salespeople but by other units of the company. The name of 2019 Best Negotiator has become the biggest intrigue of the year's last month, not to mention that it lifted everyone's spirits and greatly improved the corporate culture. It's no exaggeration to say it was one of the most inspiring team-building events of the year.