How to gamify your team

If you want to take your sales team to the next level, then implementing a sales gamification strategy may be just the thing you need. Gamified sales environments are much more productive the non incentivized sales roles, and so if you’re serious about wanting to have the best sales team around, then you should seriously consider gamifying your sales team. But what exactly is gamification in sales? And how can you gamify your team the right way so as to get the best results and the greatest ROI?

Keep reading to learn the best method of gamifying your sales team, as well as how to implement a gamification strategy, and some of the best incentives to include as part of the initiative so that you can take your team from good to great and inspire each sales associate to put forth their best effort and be their most productive.

What is sales gamification?

Sales gamification is basically a system whereby you reward the most productive team members with exciting prizes, such as cash, physical goods, entertainment, leisure time, or career development. Sales is inherently a very stressful job, and so by turning the sales process into a game, you will be able to reframe your team’s mindset from one which is nerve-wracking and anxious into one which is fun and exciting, resulting in increased engagement, productivity, and performance.

Why you should use gamification

Sales gamification is the cornerstone of any successful sales manager’s playbook. By offering rewards as sales incentives, you will be able to motivate your sales team members so that they want to perform their very best with the hopes of earning cash or prizes.

Sales teams that don’t use gamification run the risk of performing poorly because their sales associates are often uncommitted, unproductive, unmotivated, and unsuccessful; gamified sales teams are just the opposite, often being loyal, dedicated, ambitious, and very successful.

How to initiate a rewards program

The first step towards gamifying your sales environment is to determine what sort of budget you’re working with. Once you determine how much you can afford to spend on your rewards program, you will be able to select sales incentives that are in line with your companies’ finances. Try to select prizes that will be of interest to the greatest number of people, so that every team member will strive to win the friendly competition month in and month out.

Tracking individual performance

Next, you need to be able to track the performance of the individuals on your team to properly reward those who are performing well with the prizes you picked out for sales incentives. Metrics such as sales by day, week, or month, along with other KPI’s should be recorded and made available to the sales staff so that each individual can track their progress and see where they are on the leaderboard at any given time.

The best rewards and incentives

Some rewards are better than others when it comes to sales gamification. If you want your team to be their most productive, consider the sales incentives below, as they have been proven to be effective motivators.

1. Cash

Monetary awards are always effective motivators; this is true in life but especially so in sales. If you offer cash prizes, then your team will almost certainly perform better. Monetary sales incentives can include a small bonus commission on each sale or a larger lump sum bonus paid out if a certain number of sales are achieved.

You can also offer incentives to the team members with the best retention rates, average sales over the course of the month, or the most sales in one day that month. Stock and bond options may also be a viable incentive depending on the relative strength of the equity being offered.

2. Prizes

Prizes are the next best thing to cash when it comes to incentivizing your sales team. Be careful, though; it’s important to choose prizes that will appeal to everyone on the team. Sales gamification strategies depend on everyone being incentivized, so try to pick prizes with a decent value that everyone will want to win. Some great prizes for the purposes of sales gamification include:

• Electronics, such as TV’s, tablets, headphones, smartphones, and cameras
• Home appliances, such as smart home devices or kitchen appliances
• Gift cards that will appeal to everyone, such as Amazon, Wal-Mart, etc.

3. Entertainment

Another great option for sales incentives is entertainment. You can offer free subscription services, tickets to a concert or sporting event, or even a spa getaway. Any experience that will be enjoyable and entertaining for a team member and their spouse or a friend will be an effective motivator.

Try to pick incentives that will be memorable as people will be more likely to work hard to achieve them. Dinner for two at McDonald’s probably won’t inspire too many people; dinner at a musical theatre might, dinner on a sunset cruise certainly will.

4. Leisure time

Being able to take some paid personal time off is a massive incentive that most employees will strive to achieve. An extra week of vacation for the person with the most sales this month or a day off with pay for anyone who gets X number of sales tonight or this week – these sorts of rewards will appeal to almost everyone and can ramp up not only productivity but team engagement as well.

5. Career development

When you are running a sales team, the trick is to cultivate your stars and turn them into superstars. In most cases, the majority of your sales will come from the same people each month, so consider rewarding them with career development opportunities, such as paid training, tuition reimbursement, or even a promotion if they deserve it.

Summary

By turning your sales environment into a friendly competition and then rewarding those who do well, you will be able to foster an environment that’s conducive to excellence. Sales gamification is about making a commitment to value those people that work hard, demonstrate skill, and earn your company a good amount of profit. Gamification need not be any more complicated than this: reward those who reward you.