Meet Glassdoor, a job hunting mecca that used Hopin for its first fully virtual sales kickoff

PLANNING A NEW KIND OF EVENT

Can a virtual sales kickoff live up to the in-person event?

Glassdoor's mission statement is 'to help people everywhere find a job and company they love.' But the truth is, you can't get people excited about a new career or a company jazzed about new talent if your sales enablement team isn’t confident and properly trained.

That's where Scott Schwartz comes in. As Senior Manager of Glassdoor's Sales Enablement Team, Scott was tasked with planning Glassdoor's 2021 annual sales kickoff. The event's primary goals were to create camaraderie and trust between Glassdoor's sales and leadership teams, and educate team members on the company's strategy for the coming year.

"Coming off such a destabilizing year, we wanted people to feel really steady and steadfast in where the company is going as well as the sales and customer success org. We also had a few leadership changes. So, one of the main goals of the event was for people to get to know the new executive leadership, where their minds are, and the kind of personalities they are." – Scott Schwartz, Senior Manager, Glassdoor

After researching different event platforms, Scott decided Hopin was the right solution for the perfect virtual kickoff. For Scott, it was all about having an intuitive platform that could keep Glassdoor's employees engaged over the entire three-day event. He needed a virtual environment where employees could interact, network, share questions, and get answers in real-time.

Scott was also in search of a platform that’s dependable with a clean look and feel. Hopin ticked every box.

Before the event, Scott used Hopin's pre-event communication tools to send invites, highlight specific talks, post the agenda, and share registration reminders. That way, employees were already familiar with the platform before the kickoff began.

Woman smiling and sitting at table in front of laptop and waving

"Our sales kickoff is typically in-person, but we had to adapt like the rest of the world to the pandemic. We used Hopin to make it a really top-notch virtual experience that was as impactful as it would be in-person."

Scott Schwartz

Senior Manager, Glassdoor

IT’S SHOWTIME

Creating an Audience-First Kickoff

Thanks to the time and money saved by going virtual with Hopin, Scott was able to book two high-profile keynote speakers without going over budget. Employees enjoyed insights from former Beats CMO Omar Johnson and Alison Hadden from the “No Time to Waste” podcast.

"Attendees loved the speakers. They loved the fact that they could ask a lot more questions, and they felt that the content was far more tailored to them than it had been in the past because they could have that interactivity. The whole experience was just fantastic." – Scott Schwartz, Senior Manager, Glassdoor

To keep presentations engaging, Scott limited each speaker to a maximum of 30 minutes, and made full use of Hopin's audience engagement tools to ensure speakers and employees had plenty of interaction. Scott even collaborated with presenters to hide items in the background of their talks that employees had to spot as part of a fun scavenger hunt.

Scott was also able to involve Glassdoor's vendors, inviting them to host virtual expo booths at the event. Representatives from companies like Slack, Gainsight, and Salesforce all attended the kickoff. Each company used a virtual booth to teach employees how to become superusers of their tools.

Overall, Hopin allowed Scott to create a virtual experience that was more interactive and tailored to employees than it would have been in person.

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The features Glassdoor used for a successful sales kickoff

Scott used several of Hopin's features for the event:

Audience engagement: Polling, quiz, and Q&A features were invaluable for ensuring employees stayed engaged throughout the event.
Networking: Using Hopin's one-to-one video networking functionality, employees connected with people outside their day-to-day teams in fun, speed-networking sessions.
Customization: Glassdoor added its logo and branding to the event to ensure employees felt at home. They also customized the event's sidebar and pop-up messages to make the kickoff easy to navigate.
Sessions: To recreate the off-the-cuff authenticity of an in-person event, Scott used Sessions to create private meeting rooms for executives to meet with employees.
Expo: Hopin helped Glassdoor improve its relationship with key vendors by offering them virtual expo booths where they could connect with employees.

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"The navigation of the event was seamless. The customizability of the sidebar and ability to put up messages, whether through slides or some other pop-up, made it super simple for everyone."

Scott Schwartz

Senior Manager, Glassdoor

HOW IT TURNED OUT

That’s a wrap

Previous in-person sales kickoffs created plenty of internal buzz for Glassdoor and Scott was happy to see the same reaction to the virtual experience.

"People actually said, 'I feel like the morale of the team is better. My own morale and how I'm approaching the job has improved.' It was really nice to hear that employees appreciated we'd gone above and beyond to make sure we were impacting morale in a positive way." – Scott Schwartz, Senior Manager, Glassdoor

The most common piece of feedback Scott received from employees was that they felt more energized in their roles and confident in the company's direction. Managers noted their teams were getting along better, and morale improved after the event.

This feedback was reflected in the event's metrics. Engagement and attendance rates were high throughout the three-day event. Beyond that, employees were able to revisit and reference their favorite content after the event finished, and many sessions continued to attract viewers months after the kickoff ended.

Glassdoor's vendors were also happy with the interactions they had with employees. Initially, they expected people to come to their booths with quick questions, but they found themselves giving product demos to dozens of Glassdoor employees throughout the event.

With the success of its first virtual sales kickoff, Glassdoor now plans to incorporate virtual and hybrid events into its long-term strategy.

Scott is already working on the next big company event – a virtual version of Glassdoor’s annual company offsite – and he plans to use Hopin again.

85%

Attendance rate among Glassdoor’s sales enablement team

20%

Attendance rate among other teams

95%

Of employees said they planned to apply a tactic from the kickoff

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70%

Of employees said they have a strong understanding of next year's strategy

"Overall, the reception to this event was awesome. After the kind of year we've had, it was amazing to hear people say they were really happy to be at Glassdoor, and they were excited about the future."

Scott Schwartz

Senior Manager, Glassdoor