Karl Kapp.
Zombie Sales Apocalypse:
Powerful Sales Training Tool
Currently, one of my passion projects is Zombie Sales Apocalypse™ you can play the demo here!
Zombie Sales Apocalypse™ is a flexible, interactive sales training tool that immerses the learner in an environment focused on building sales skills. The sales training tool is built from the ground up on a foundation of solid academic research. In fact, it's two fun games. A video game version and a card game version.
The result of this evidence-based approach is a tool that motivates and engages the learner while simultaneously meeting the desired behavioral and performance goals of the organization. Research indicates that the engaging elements of games make them effective tools for learning and when properly designed and incorporated into a curriculum provide improvements in learner performance.
POWERFUL SALES TRAINING PLATFORM
Learning Elements
The interactive learning experience uses evidence-based best practices as they relate to game-based learning. Research has shown that games are effective for learning because they actively engage learners in the course material as opposed to passively conveying it during a lecture, an assigned reading or a watching a video. Research strongly suggests, the more active and engaged the learner, the more effective the learning.
When a learner makes a decision in the game, he or she receives immediate feedback either reinforcing or correcting the decision and behavior.
Gameplay Experience
Here is a quick synopsis of the zombie version of the game. Other versions are available.
A powerful virus has been striking people throughout the city turning infected individuals into zombies. The learner (sales rep) must carefully “sell” the anecdote using his or her organization’s trusted sales model.
The learner will have to use all of their wits, wisdom and experience to convince the person they speaking with to buy what they are selling—not unlike a sales person’s day job.
Why Fantasy-Based?
Why zombies or robots? Why include a fantasy element and not just a serious branching-simulation with no gameplay? The use of fantasy is a purposeful design decision having a direct positive impact on learning. In fact, research indicates that fantasy provides cognitive emotional and motivational advantages for learning.
Feedback is conveyed in a safe environment with specific, but not catastrophic, consequences for failure. The fantasy of dealing with the zombies means that failure and experimentation are allowed and encouraged. Humans learn from failure more than instant success.
The fantasy environment allows for failure and re-engagement with the content again and again which leads to mastery.
Fully Customizable
The game comes “out of the box” 80% complete which avoids the cost of developing the game from the ground up. Your organization along with our experienced team completes the game to your exact needs using your sales model and your sales conversation.
This means there is a template and general functionality, like questioning, player analytics and gameplay standard in any version of the game. The 80% complete concept reduces your costs and provides you with an immersive learning game quickly and inexpensively.
Powerful Analytics
What sets this sales training platform apart is the ability to track every behavior and conversational choice made by the sales representative. In the set up phase, your organization's individual sales model is map to conversational elements. As a result each choice made by the learner with the sales conversation is tracked.
What this means is that at the end of the game, you can see how each sales representative responded and behaved in terms of your own individual module. Did the sales rep make the most optimal choices or were sub-optimal choices made?