5 Ways To Use Gamification In Your Sales Team

There is an undeniable buzz around the word “gamification,” but few organizations have been able to fully incorporate this new technique into their teams and reap its benefits. There is scientific evidence of how gamification can encourage behavioral changes wherever employed.

Both commercial and non-commercial gamification has been shown to guide people’s behaviors towards specific changes. Commercial gamification is especially beneficial in the sales team of an organization.

Through behavioral gamification, sales teams can be motivated, engaged, and incentivized to perform more efficiently. Better performance in the sales team directly leads to a more productive environment and increased revenue for the organization.

However, the essential factor to notice here is how gamification influences behavior, impacting and changing activities and performance. If you would like to incorporate behavioral gamification in your sales team to improve your productivity and sales, then here are some effective ways of doing so.

1.  Using Gamification To Motivate Employees During Seasonal Drops In Performance

It is no secret that sales can fluctuate throughout the year. Although for a company to be on the rising trend, it should ideally experience more highs than lows in sales. If sales teams do not meet their targets, they are often discouraged and lose motivation. This can cause a further decline in sales, and employee productivity is likely to take a profound hit.

However, using gamification, you can try to diminish, if not eliminate, instances of low sales. Furthermore, you can also help sales teams get back on track and not be disheartened after an instance of poor performance. 

Gamification is a proven way of improving motivation in employees. By using sales leaderboards and progress monitoring gamification, company heads can track underperforming units in the sales team and work on geared methods to help them solve critical issues that may hinder performance.

Individuals in the sales team can monitor their progress and behaviors through progress tracking to identify where they went wrong and how they can stop this from happening in the future.

Progress monitoring gamification can be an excellent way for sales teams to identify areas they may lack. They can do so independently and without having their misgivings read to them in front of a group. Then during team-building exercises and gamification on improving certain aspects of performance such as engagement. teams can improve their sales performance and experience.

2.  Using Gamification To Encourage Employees To Set New Sales Targets

Consistently meeting sales targets and setting newer ones is an excellent way to experience accelerated growth. Unfortunately, although sales teams leads try to encourage and motivate the entire team to perform better than their last target, most teams become complacent with their pace.

Unless there are metrics that the team can measure itself against, set parameters for improvement that are easy to understand, and a drive to do better, teams often do not put in the extra effort required to beat old targets and set new ones consistently. 

However, suppose these instructions and encouragements are delivered in a fun way through gamification to employees. In that case, chances are they will be encouraged and motivated to perform better as gamification induces behavioral changes.

By turning pipeline tasks such as calling prospects, scheduling meetings, closing deals into gamification, sales personnel are more likely to improve their performance and set new targets. Repetitive tasks can often lead to team members becoming tired of the rut, and their sales targets begin to slip.

However, gamification of such work will encourage teams to repeat the same behaviors that led to their success, but more efficiently. By honing their skills and developing the ability to improve themselves, sales team members exhibit positive and productive behaviors. Such positive behaviors are enforced by gamification, leading to setting and achieving successful new targets.  

3.  Using Gamification To Bring Out Competitive Nature In The Sales Team

Healthy competition is what keeps an organization driven. Although at an extreme level this may be unhealthy, incorporating competition among team members allows them to step out of their comfort zone.

All organizations push the various teams to maintain a certain standard of work and enforce this standard through healthy competition.

However, this is somewhat difficult to implement in a group where individual progress is often overshadowed by teamwork. But for a team to indeed improve, all of its components must constantly be striving to do better. This can only happen if some element of competition is introduced to the team. 

By using a rewards system and keeping scores and leaderboards open, employees are encouraged to out-perform each other and their own old targets. Gamification is an excellent way to introduce healthy competition in a team while keeping hostilities at bay.

Since sales gamification is not biased, and rewards are solely based on individual performance, team members will have no qualms about the performance of a specific member.

Therefore, well-deserved rewards will be more readily accepted, and other team members will be motivated to improve their performance. Posting leaderboard scores and acknowledging high performers can all lead to a positive behavioral change that focuses on excellence as the target. 

4.  Using Incentives Through Gamification To Increase Engagement 

The human mind is particularly receptive to a rewards-based system. When elements of instant and delayed gratification are at play, individuals subconsciously move towards gaining more rewards and making behavioral changes to achieve those results.

Although the value of the prize and its utility make a difference, even smaller incentives can act as stimuli for individuals to adopt positive behaviors. Companies can adopt this psychology behind incentives and rewards to work on critical areas of their business. For example, if the sales team head would like their team members to be more engaged in their work, they can place certain rewards for increased engagement.

However, for this to be done successfully, there must be a measurable metric to gauge engagement level on an individual and team level and place rewards accordingly. 

Gamification can help in providing incentives to teams to improve their engagement levels. Employee engagement will no longer be seen as dreaded and tedious by gamifying tasks that enhance engagement, using on-the-spot recognition of achievements, and using badges and trophies.

Employees can measure their engagement levels, and the progress will help motivate them to be more focused and interested in their work.

5.  Gamification Of KPI For Better Understanding Of Sales Team

A vital part of improving performance is understanding your targets, how you can achieve them and how your execution can be measured. Using key performance indicators, sales personnel can chart their way to successfully meeting goals.

Concrete KPIs help improve employee performance and gives employees a standard required to achieve. However, when KPIs are unclear or not communicated clearly, employees cannot perform to their fullest potential. This results in frustration, loss of motivation, inability to meet goals, and an inability to perform better. 

However, by turning complex tasks into simpler ones that are easier for employees to grasp, sales representatives can understand what is being asked and how they can deliver results. This results in behaviors that welcome change and simplify all problems to find viable solutions. 

Conclusion

The sales team’s performance is a vital indicator of how successful an organization is. The more a company’s sales improve, the more considerable revenue they receive and the more the company will grow.

However, improving a sales team’s performance is a difficult job. Team members are often easily disheartened by rejection, lose motivation quickly, and become bored from repetitive, tedious tasks. However, the best method to change this is by changing behaviors that will result in modified action.

Behavioral gamification is a process whereby behavioral metrics are worked upon fun and encouraging. Gamification allows leaders to measure capabilities and implement strategies to improve them.

By using various methods to develop certain effective behaviors, company leaders can quickly and efficiently harness the power of behavioral gamification for their sales them and organization. 

References:

The Psychology of Sales Gamification

Gamification, the new way to boost your sales team!

10 Gamification Ideas for Sales Teams to Hit Your Business Goals

Five Ways To Gamify Sales & Sales Enablement In 2021