The Laminex sales experience

For as long as Australia has had happy little Vegemites, Laminex has been creating decorative laminates.

Started in Melbourne by Bob Sykes in 1934, they remain proudly Australian-owned and manufactured.

A key part of Laminex’s strategy was to grow primary demand across their market segments. This required an uplift in the skills and behaviours of their sales reps and business development managers.

They thought they needed a workshop to achieve this.

Have you got what it takes as a high-achieving Laminex sales rep to show everyone you’re the king of your segment?

Demonstrate your scouting and questioning skills to identify the key players in your sector and win them over. Then leverage your planning and strategy abilities to make those relationships count on your way up to the supremacy of your segment.

But beware of external factors and other players throwing spanners in the works, and always have a contingency plan… or two. Ultimately, be the first to access that influential ‘innovator’ at the top of your segment and win the day!

Salespeople are a social and competitive group, so we thought why not play to these strengths? Following more conversations, we identified the key performance gap was around questions and earning the right to advance in the conversation. So why not focus on that? No one needs another sales workshop on how to build rapport.

So, let’s not just do 'gamification' – let’s make a game.

The Art of Primary Demand – The Game
'Win the customer – win the day'

We created a Cards Against Humanity-style game where the players’ goal was to win their segment and through game play, learn about the segments, key personas in each and their 'value' and be able to identify and ask great questions to advance the conversation.

To get further value, we also designed a 'coaching mode' version of the game that could be used by the leaders in small-group or one-on-one conversations.

The feedback from participants was how much more engaging this was than a traditional workshop. It aligned with their culture of embracing innovation and championing creativity. Participants recognised real customers in the scenarios and were immediately able to apply these new skills on the job.

Leaders were also able to use any element of the game for one-on-one coaching conversations which aligns with how Laminex views its people – a team of high performers and everyday leaders where continuous learning, and embracing change is how the work gets done.

This intent and design has flowed into other Laminex programmes as the organisation focuses on achieving personal goals just as much as business ones.