How to gamify your team’s performance

Success in sales often hinges on employee engagement, motivation, and general productivity. When your team is committed, driven, and inspired, they will be capable of performing at a very high level, but on the other hand, when they are disinterested, unmotivated, and stressed out, it is unlikely that they will achieve good results. So how can you improve your team’s performance, increase their overall engagement levels, and nurture an environment that is conducive to high-volume high-performance sales?

The answer is sales gamification, and in this article, we will explain what sales gamification is, why it works, and how you can gamify your team’s performance to ensure that each team member is driven and committed to producing the best results for themselves, you, and the company.

Gamification is important in sales

Sales gamification is essentially a process by which you incorporate the elements of games into your sales system, making the job more fun and entertaining while at the same time rewarding those who perform well with prizes and sales incentives to boost motivation, engagement, productivity, and performance. Gamified sales teams often perform better than their unincentivized counterparts, and through sales gamification, you can demonstrate that you value and reward those who work hard and do a good job.

How to initiate a reward program for your team

In order to gamify your team, you need to come up with a reward system. This trick is to come up with fun challenges that will keep your team engaged and productive throughout the month. You’ll also need to be able to track everyone’s performance. Whether you use a sales gamification software or an old-fashioned leaderboard, you’ll need to come up with a solution for keeping track of each team member’s progress.

The next step is to choose a sales incentive that will motivate your team members to put forth their best effort. Not all sales incentives are equal when it comes to sales gamification, and so we’ve compiled a list of some of the best prices and rewards that will be sure to excite and entice every member on your sales team.

The best performing sales incentives

Remember, the key to a good sales gamification strategy is having prizes and rewards that are exciting and valuable. The sales incentives need to inspire commitment, engagement and increased work ethic, so you will need to select valuable or unique incentives.

These are certainly not the only incentives that you can choose from, but these incentives have been proven to be effective at motivating your team members and encouraging a high-performance, results-oriented sales team.

1. Additional income

Far and away, the best sales incentive to including your sales gamification program is additional income. Additional income incentives come in a few different varieties, such as one-time cash bonuses, an increased hourly pay rate for a certain duration of time, or even company stock and bond options.

One way to roll out this type of gamification initiative is by offering a fixed amount of money to any team member who achieves a certain target such as X number of sales, or the most sales for any given day, week, month, quarter, or year.

Suppose team members know that they have a chance to go home with an extra couple hundred or couple thousand dollars at the end of the month. In that case, they will certainly do their best to try and win the reward. When you implement a monetary reward system as part of a sales gamification program, you can expect to see a noticeable increase in productivity, performance, and employee engagement.

2. Valuable prizes

Now everybody loves to win money, but other prizes can also be really fun and exciting motivators for your sales gamification effort. However, be careful not to fall into the common trap of purchasing inexpensive, non-valuable prizes as sales incentives, as this can have the opposite effect from what you are intending.

The goal was sales gamification is to show your team that you value those who work hard, perform well and achieve company objectives; a company-branded pen or water bottle will only inspire your top talent to start sending out their resumes. You want people to be excited about the prizes on offer. The following items make great sales incentives:

• Televisions
• Computers
• Tablets
• Smartphones
• Cameras
• Headphones
• Home appliances
• Smart home devices
• Gift cards

The idea is to offer things that have a high perceived real-world value so that people will want to put in the hard work necessary to win the prize.

3. Special experiences

Offering unique or otherwise special experiences in lieu of cash or prizes can make for an interesting sales incentive that will inspire your team, boosting engagement while encouraging both growth and productivity. Great examples of experience-based sales incentives include trips to the spa, weekend getaways, two coming concerts or sporting events, or dinner for two at a nice restaurant.

4. Advancement

Now, just about everybody in the world would love to receive a promotion. Offering career development opportunities or career advancement directives, such as paid them up to attend a workshop, conference, or seminar, is a fantastic way to reward up sales talent while also strengthening your team and bolstering your sales arsenal.

Consider this sort of incentive as an investment in the future of your sales team, and when the time is right, promote your top performers to trainers or supervisors. Career advancement is without a doubt one of the most powerful motivators in any industry, and this is especially true when it comes to sales.

5. Enhancement

Career advancement is indeed a powerful motivator, and sales gamification can be a great mechanism by which to monitor the preparedness and progress of each team member on your sales staff. That said, personal development is also a powerful motivator for those inspired to improve their lives and performance at work.

Some fantastic sales incentives that are centered around personal development include things such as tuition reimbursement, holistic retreats, gym memberships, or other services that simply improved the quality of life for that team member; such services might include a personal chef service for X number of guests, a maid service, or free car washes for a year.

Summary

Sales gamification is an important concept to understand if you want your sales team to be world-class and performing at the highest possible level. By bringing the elements of a fun and friendly game into your sales environment, you will be able to nurture and grow a sales team that feels valued and is driven to perform their very best by remaining engaged, productive, and profitable.