The Marketing & Sales Game is a case-based game where theory and practice come together. The goal is to bring people’s knowledge of marketing and sales-related concepts to the next level. After developing the game inhouse, The Next Organization (TNXTO) has hosted it for a wide variety of groups. From industry-leading organisations such as Jaguar Land Rover to well-known universities and business schools such as Copenhagen Business School, Aston Business School and University of St. Gallen. The game has been a great success. It was, however, time for an update. Thus, we proudly present to you The Marketing & Sales Game 2.0! This article discusses what the new game is all about and how this game can help your organization forward.
The article starts with background information on gamification, followed by the structure of the game. Subsequently, we discuss the content of the game and its advantages. The article closes with the different forms of the Marketing & Sales Game (M&S Game).
Gamification and its advantages
The M&S Game is based on the idea of gamification. It stimulates collaboration, allows modularity and is fun too for participants. As such, participants have a safe learning environment allowing them to make mistakes. Even though gamification is used for the game, it is fully based on real-life cases creating a true and unique experience.
How is the M&S Game set up?
The M&S Game consists of various rounds. Each round inspires participants with existing and novel theories and concepts and tests them with challenging assignments. Participants work together in groups of three to six and apply these theories and concepts accordingly in the challenging assignments. All assignments are centred around a real-life case. Groups are assessed on hard & soft skills and qualitatively & quantitatively. In each round, each group receives tailored feedback about how they performed. As such, participants learn directly ‘on the job’ and may adapt their approach during the game. The game closes with a pitch presentation wherein a ‘Dragon’s Den’ three experts assess the groups. The group that performed best on all dimensions wins. This creates a competitive edge to the game, just like in daily business and competing with competitors.
What content does the M&S Game cover?
The M&S Game covers different aspects of marketing and sales. From market segmentation and customer journeys to defining market sales concepts such as market approaches. In market segmentation, participants further delve into understanding customer segments and choosing appropriate segments. Subsequently, participants tap into the customer’s journey including characteristics like value-in-use, their needs and fitting channels. In the market approach, it is key to design an approach that effectively increases sales. All these rounds work towards a consolidated business plan and pitch.
How can the M&S Game help you forward?
A vehicle helping you forward.
The M&S Game is an innovative and effective vehicle for both practitioners and students to get more acquainted with marketing and sales related concepts. Moreover, participants learn on the job because they apply the concepts directly. This gives them a proper impression of how to use several elements to make a successful strategy.
Learning to collaborate.
It is also about collaboration. Collaboration with peers but also with people from different fields and backgrounds. Through this, participants are challenged on soft skills such as teamwork skills. Every single participant fulfils a certain role in a team contributing to the overall result.
Tailored learning.
Finally, the M&S Game can also be tailored specifically towards a certain case for an organisation. As such, participants address challenges that are present within a company. This win-win situation ensures that participants can develop themselves and organisational challenges can be solved.
What can we offer you?
The M&S Game comes in different forms:
A standard off the shelf game:
TNXTO offers a standard real-life case, that can be played directly.
A customised game:
TNXTO also offers different levels of customisation. It can be an organisational challenge that you are facing which you want to challenge by the participants of your game, which can either be your team or for example external participants such as executive MBA students. This creates the opportunity for participants to solve an organisational challenge that you are facing. Besides that, a full customised case specifically on your situation is also possible. This offers you a game where everything is centred around your business context giving you input for a successful marketing and sales strategy.
Are you interested in how we can make the M&S Game fitting to your needs and help you forward? Please get in touch.
