In-person National Sales Days back with a bang!
A regular feature of life in the Driver Hire network are our regular National Sales Days. These events bring together offices from across the UK for a day of focused sales activity and “serious fun”.
Although National Sales Days were held virtually whilst Covid security measures were still in place, the latest, on 18 May 2022, was the first in-person event free of security measures since February 2020. With more than 80 Driver Hire franchises taking part, more than 2,500 calls made and over 1,000 visits arranged and logged on the day – it is safe to say that they’re back with a bang!
Teams took part in fancy dress for the event and whilst there was lots of fun had, there was a serious business purpose of the day, which was to create opportunities to get in front of customers and remind them of Driver Hire’s portfolio of recruitment and training services.
In advance of the National Sales Day, a marketing campaign was developed by Driver Hire’s central Marketing team and consisted of a direct mail and follow-up e-shot, which was sent to targeted prospects and customers, selected by the local office. On the day itself, the marketing activity is followed up with telesales calls, with the objective of winning sales appointments and ultimately, growing the business.
An essential feature of National Sales Days are our innovative Driver Hire TV broadcasts. Streamed live through Driver Hire’s own YouTube channel, hourly updates are provided by Development Directors, Simon Johnston and Lee Devenish to keep everyone up to date on the competition.
Winning the most sales appointments matters of course, but so do the results of the many games and challenges that happen during the day – fancy dress, spin the wheel, quizzes and sporting challenges.
“Competition with ‘serious fun’ is a really important part of the Sales Day concept,” explains Network Development Director, Simon Johnston. “We’re a very diverse network and events like this really bring people together in a spirit of friendly competition. There’s no doubt that when people are having fun, that comes across in the phone calls they make to potential customers – and they win more new business as a result.”
To ensure that the impact is felt for more than just a day, each event also kicks off a network-wide sales and recruitment competition between offices, which will last 6 weeks. Regular updates and league tables are provided to all offices. As well as sales KPIs, structured recruitment activity is also essential – since higher demand for our services means more quality candidates are required to service that demand.