6 Call Blitz Contest Ideas To Build Confidence & Increase Performance

Have you ever heard of a Call Blitz? If you’ve been in sales for some time, you’ve likely already participated in one, even if that’s not what it was called at the time.

A call blitz is an intense day of focused cold calling. At the outset, it probably doesn’t sound like a whole lot of fun, but believe me when I tell you, they can be absolutely exhilarating.

Whether you’re looking to ramp up your target sales during the end-of-year window or are just looking to break the monotony of day-to-day selling in your office, a call blitz could provide just the incentive your team needs to be successful.

Instead of simply asking your team to dig a little deeper, dial a little fast, and push their pitches a little harder, a carefully crafted contest can make your call blitz day as fun as it is effective, leaving your team hungry for more opportunity to hit the top of the leaderboard.

If you’re not sure where to start, we’ve compiled a list of 6 great call blitz contest ideas to get your sales staff fired up to sell, sell, sell.

6 Call Blitz Contest Ideas to Build Confidence and Increase Performance

1. Holiday Gift Exchange

This game rose to popularity after being featured on Season 2 of the endearing sitcom The Office; it’s sometimes referred to as “Dirty Santa,” White Elephant,” or “Yankee Swap,” but we call it the Holiday Gift Exchange.

The game itself is very simple. First, you’ll set a target for your sales staff to aim for, like a sale over a specific dollar amount. For the purpose of this example let’s say it’s $5.00. When someone makes a sale, even if it’s only $5.01, they’re allowed to open a wrapped gift that will be set out for everyone in the office to see.

Now, where it gets really interesting is that the winner is not allowed to then just take that prize home, it will sit among the remaining gifts and the game continues.

The next person to exceed the target sale then has the opportunity to open a new gift, or “steal” a previously opened gift from their colleague.

The reason this contest is so successful is that your sales team is not only encouraged by the mystery of what remains in unwrapped gifts, but they’re also motivated by the allure of the opened gifts.

Watch out, your team could be so fired up for this game that they’ll have unwrapped every gift within a single week, so you’ll want to set your targets high while still being attainable, and try to consider the types of prizes that will truly excite and inspire your team; a pack of stickers won’t cut it here.

2. Flash Friday

Flash Friday is designed to keep your team on their toes while adhering to their inherent desire to leave the office a little early to get a start on their weekend plans.

If you’re noticing that sales tend to take a dip towards the end of the month, try a spontaneous Flash Friday call blitz. Despite the name, you’ll actually implement this contest at the head of the week, giving your team the remainder to reach a target quota. Once they reach or exceed their quota, they’ll be rewarded with either the afternoon or a full Friday off, depending on what you decide the target is worth.

The heightened and sudden sense of urgency inspires the team to work harder and faster, developing a well-oiled sales machine before your very eyes. While it can adhere to individual goals, this contest works best as a team challenge as it not only encourages increased sales but helps develop a sense of comradery among the team which will benefit you in the long run, too.

3. Poker Stars

If you have an office full of Poker fans, this contest is bound to get them excited.

Poker Stars is a 5-day contest that is designed to encourage your team to achieve small daily goals, as opposed to one big target. It has equal elements of suspense and strategy which is why it tends to be so effective.

The way this game works is by first setting daily sales goals for your team; this can be a number of leads to generate, a number of calls to make, or another predetermined sales target.

As each team member achieves the daily goal, they’ll be presented with a standard deck of 52 cards to select from. At the end of the week, all players will reveal their 5 cards to see who holds the best hand and wins the pot.

The pot itself can be any sort of reward you desire, like a gift card to a popular steakhouse or just cold hard cash.

This game can be played individually or, depending on the size of your organization, in teams, where at the end of the week entire teams can pool together their collected cards and submit their final hand as a whole with the final hand being presented by a team representative. Of course, if you’re playing this game with a large group, you might want to use more than one deck of cards for even more fun.

4. 3-Legged-Race

If you have an office full of laggards, cores, and star salespeople, as most sales teams do, a 3-legged-race is a great game that can serve to boost sales and improve overall performance.

How this contest works is by first defining who your laggards, core, and stars are. Then, as best you can, you’re going to split up your sales teams into groups of 3. The key, of course, is to try and connect a laggard with a core and star. This serves two purposes: one, they’ll be working together as an effective team-building exercise, but two, they’ll be encouraged to share their tactics in order to improve the “speed” of their team.

Within their teams, you can set individual goals based on current performance and needs, or you can set team targets and let them decide who should tackle what task.

The first team to “cross the finish line,” or achieve all their targets, wins the race and will be rewarded.

While this contest is effective in increasing sales, the true reward is the benefit this has to the team as a whole who are able to learn effective strategies from each other that they can apply to their day-to-day schedule. Think about how quickly your laggards will improve with a star seller on their side? You’ll have an office full of rainmakers in no time.

5. Sales Playoffs

Let playoff season come early and pit your team against each other in a fun sport-inspired competition to find the salesperson of the month.

Just as you’d set up a bracket-board for the NHL playoff season, this contest starts by pairing individuals against each other, working inwards in order to get to the final showdown and receive the top prize. The “Stanley Cup” of sales, if you will. You can even develop prizes for the runner-ups to encourage more competition.

Feel free to be as strategic with your pairings as you’d like, or you can pick your pairings completely at random out of a hat to avoid any disagreements or grumblings of favouritism.

The key here is that the daily targets you set should get more and more difficult as the game goes on, just as the competition increases in sports. This encourages your team not to get too comfortable with their targets and to aim higher than they’re used to.

6. Musical Chairs

Focusing on the bottom tier of your reps really turns the competition on its head.

With a musical chair competition the concept is to randomly ‘stop the music’ throughout the day and who ever is in last place at that time is elimintated from the competition.

Here you are really benefiting from a team that is focusing on calls and activities throughout the entire day, as opposed to just a burst of activity at the end of the day to just try and hit the target. Reps tend to focus more and produce even greater results.

Check out more sales contest ideas

While these call blitz contests are designed to increase sales, it’s important to consider the other benefits of the competitions, too. Developing enjoyable contests for your team is an effective way to encourage better communication, learn new strategies, and boost morale when they’re otherwise feeling uninspired or burnt-out from their daily duties. With the right contests, rewards, and strategic timing, you’ll not only see an improvement in your weekly numbers, but in your teams’ confidence, too, and a confident team is an effective one.

More on how Spinify gamifies your teams tasks: Gamify Your Staff