3 Reasons to Gamify Sales and Tips to Make It More Enticing

In the pulsating realm of sales, contests have long been heralded as the champions of motivation, promising to propel teams to soaring heights. Sales contests are a popular and often effective tool businesses use to motivate and engage their sales teams. Yet, for many businesses, the reality often falls short of expectations.  

Are your sales contests not yielding the expected results? You're not alone.  

According to recent statistics, a staggering 73% of companies express dissatisfaction with the effectiveness of their sales contests, citing a lack of engagement and underwhelming performance. 

If your sales contests are falling short of expectations, it's essential to identify the reasons behind their lackluster performance and implement strategies to boost their effectiveness.  

Having said that, in this blog, we'll explore some common reasons why gamify your sales contest and provide valuable tips to make your sales contests truly enticing, combining the excitement of gamification with irresistible rewards and incentives. 

Why gamify your sales contest? 

Traditional methods create opaque communication and low engagement. Sales teams often face repetitive, pushy goal sheets without real-time feedback, while managers struggle with delays in publishing contests and tracking performance. This makes it difficult to implement creative sales contest ideas and effective sales incentive contest ideas, leading to inefficiencies in overall sales competition. 

1. Need for gamification in sales 

Integrating gamification incentives transforms the sales process. By incorporating sales incentive games and diverse sales contest ideas, teams are more engaged and motivated.  

Regional managers benefit from real-time insights to drive efficient sales competition, and program administrators can leverage streamlined processes to ensure timely, accurate incentive disbursements—all critical components to successfully gamify sales. 

2. Digital solution benefits 

The software should have capability to publish salesmen’s goal sheets, incentive plans and contests and let them track his performance LIVE. Ready-made templates can enable publishing programs in less than 10 minutes. The product should do real-time calculations, generate scorecards and nudge at the right time. Here are a few basic capabilities of the software. 

1. Publish Contests & incentive Plans 
2. Live Scorecards 
3. One-click payments 
4. Groups & Communities 
5. Nudges & Notifications 
6. Trends & Insights‍ 

3. Cost analysis 

The need of the product is not just to calculate incentives, but it helps you to bring data-transparency that matters to your salesmen and team managers. Compass integrates with your CRM and helps your business in following ways - 

1. 100% Clear & Transparent Communication 
2. 80% Increase in Sales Productivity 
3. 90% Saving on Processing Time 
4. 15% Savings on Budgets 
5. 20% Impact in Attrition rates 

If you have realized the need of the product - here are the minimum cost components you will need to build the solution yourself. 

Let’s discuss how gamifying the sales competition help the sales reps sell more. 

‍How does gamifying the sales competition help the sales reps sell more? 

Sales gamification is the process of applying game-design elements and features to sales and includes awarding points for certain successful actions, arranging regular competitions, and rewarding sales reps for their performance and is majorly used for turning pipeline tasks, like calling prospects, setting meetings, and closing deals, into a game. 

Preset day gamification typically uses technology and interface that builds a game-like simulation for sales reps to “play” on. Here’s an example of Compass live in action. 

1. Clearer targets 

Compass helps participants in target setting by letting them set their own goals ang then gamifying them. 

2. Milestone-based game 

Milestone based games break down targets into parts thus making them more achievable which can be easily configured on Compass. 

3. Rewards 

Compass not only helps participants earn rewards but also helps organizations roll out meaningful rewards. 

4. Live leaderboards 

Compass helps in displaying leaderboards that reward and reinforce behaviors, instead of only praising the results thus making it easier to understand revenue-generating behaviors. 

5. Real-time notifications and nudges 

Real-time notifications and nudges in Compass help in breaking down performance targets into rightly timed interventions to boost achievements. 

When you set goals for sales teams, it becomes easier for them to complete tasks and work towards achieving that goal. Gamification can help motivate your employees to complete their tasks efficiently, helping boost the overall sales. 

5 Tips to make sales contests enticing with gamified rewards and incentives 

Studies show that 90% of sales reps are more productive at work when they’re involved in gamified programs like sales contests. So, turn your boring sales contests into magical experiences that captivate your team and propel them toward success. Infusing them with gamified rewards and enticing incentives can turn the experience into a thrilling adventure. Here is how: 

1. Create a game-like atmosphere 

Transform your sales contests into a captivating game by incorporating elements such as points, badges, and leaderboards. Make the journey towards sales targets feel like an epic quest.  

Provide participants with a clear understanding of how they earn points, achieve badges, and climb the leaderboard. This creates a sense of friendly competition and adds an element of fun to the daily sales grind. 

2. Align incentives with achievable goals 

Make incentives for the treasures waiting at each level's end by aligning them with achievable goals. Whether hitting specific sales targets, securing new clients, or achieving a set conversion rate, ensure that the objectives are challenging yet realistic. This keeps the excitement alive and motivates team members to push their limits. 

3. Personalize rewards for individual motivation 

Recognize that each team member is motivated by different incentives. Monetary rewards may drive some, while others may value recognition or unique experiences. Personalize your rewards to cater to diverse preferences within your team.  

Whether it's cold hard cash, recognition, or a weekend getaway, choose rewards that light up your team's eyes. Make them dream big and watch the motivation soar. This boosts motivation and creates a sense of appreciation for individual contributions. 

4. Introduce mystery and surprise elements 

Keep participants on their toes by introducing mystery and surprise elements throughout the contest. Consider adding unexpected rewards, special bonuses, or hidden challenges that unlock additional incentives. The element of surprise adds an extra layer of excitement, making the sales contest feel like an adventure with unexpected twists and turns. 

5. Encourage collaboration with team-based challenges 

Foster a sense of camaraderie by incorporating team-based challenges into your sales contests. Create scenarios where team members must collaborate to achieve collective goals.  

The rewards for these challenges can be shared among the winning team, promoting teamwork and a supportive work environment. This adds a social aspect to the contest and strengthens the bonds within the sales team. 

With rewards that sparkle, gamification that adds a dash of fun, and incentives that fuel ambition, your sales contests can become enchanting experiences that leave a lasting impact. It's not just about closing deals; it's about creating a magical journey where every team member feels inspired, valued, and ready to conquer the next challenge. 

Elevate your sales game with Compass: A gamification revolution for boosting performance 

Staying ahead of the game requires innovation and strategic motivation in the ever-evolving sales landscape. Enter Compass, your compass to success in gamified sales contests. Compass simplifies the process of creating competitions and empowers you to influence performance against key performance indicators (KPIs) and foster positive behavior changes.  

Let's dive into how Compass can revolutionize your sales contests and elevate your team's performance. 

1. Diverse competition formats 

Compass offers a versatile range of competition formats to suit your goals. Whether you aim to influence weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly performance, choose from milestones, races, counters, or bingo to drive the right results. This flexibility ensures that your sales contests align with the timeframe and objectives that matter most to your team. 

• Target-based: Influence performance over specific timeframes. 
• Competition-based: Foster healthy competition within or across teams. 
• Special Schemes: Drive targeted results in specific areas like product sales or stock clearance. 
• Cascading Programs: Address tail-end performance, high achievers, or implement PIP (Performance Improvement Plan) programs. 

2. Personalized nudges & notifications 

Harness the persuasive power of Compass's nudge engine to prompt timely action. Break down performance targets into well-timed interventions. Send personalized updates based on self-performance, participation in programs, or redemptions.  

Schedule nudges such as relative performance comparisons, earning opportunities, company announcements, and reminders to maximize engagement and keep your team on track. 

3. Groups & communities for internal communication 

Foster a sense of community and collaboration within your sales team with Compass's communication hub. Create chat groups to encourage conversations, share best practices, and drive healthy competition.  

Utilize activity feeds, document repositories, focused groups, and announcements to enhance internal communication. Push notifications ensure that important updates are never missed. 

4. Motivate with potential earnings insights 

Empower your team to measure and plan for success with Compass's earning simulator. Provide real-time data on earning trends, opportunities, and achievements.  

By showcasing potential earnings insights, Compass creates an environment focused on achievement, motivating your team to strive for their goals with a clear understanding of the rewards awaiting them. 

Case Study: eKart enhances delivery executive engagement with Compass incentive gamification 

eKart, India's leading logistics and supply chain service provider, recognized the pivotal role of Delivery Executives (DEs) in shaping customer experiences. Facing challenges such as rising delivery costs, delayed deliveries, and a high attrition rate, eKart sought to boost DE engagement and efficiency. In their quest for a solution, they partnered with Compass, a gamified incentive platform. 

Client overview 

eKart, established in 2009 as Flipkart’s in-house supply chain arm, has evolved into a comprehensive logistics solutions provider. With a reputation for reliable deliveries and operational excellence, eKart serves businesses across India, handling approximately 10 million shipments monthly across 3800 pin codes. 

Challenges 

• Delivery costs: Delays and incorrect deliveries were inflating costs, impacting the company's financial health. 
• DE engagement and attrition: Low motivation among DEs led to high attrition rates, resulting in recurring expenses for hiring and training. 

Objectives 

• Incentive structure: Manage various incentive levels for DEs at hub, zone, and regional levels. 
• Efficiency improvement: Reinforce activities leading to improved delivery efficiencies. 
• Fake delivery attempts: Eliminate false delivery attempts through better monitoring and motivation. 

The Compass solution 

eKart implemented Compass to automate and digitize their incentive program. The platform incorporated game-like elements, rewards, and recognition, providing comprehensive access to incentive program information for eKart's vast network of 2 lakh delivery agents. 

Key features 

• Incentive customization: Compass accommodated multiple incentive structures, aligning with various award categories for DEs at different organizational levels. 
• Performance improvement: The platform facilitated timely nudges, guiding DEs towards activities that garnered recognition, rewards, and incentives, thereby enhancing delivery efficiency. 
• Visibility through leaderboards: Compass leaderboards offered real-time visibility, allowing leadership and DEs at different levels to identify top performers and appreciate them for their outstanding contributions. 
• Fake rate metrics: Real-time metrics on fake delivery attempts were captured and integrated with an inverse incentive design in Compass, motivating DEs to reduce fraudulent activities and consequently improving overall delivery efficiency. 

Results 

• Delivery efficiency improvement: eKart witnessed a remarkable 79% improvement in delivery efficiency. 
• Attrition reduction: The attrition rate decreased by 48%, resulting in substantial cost savings related to hiring and training. 
• Enhanced visibility: Compass provided transparency, enabling leadership to recognize and appreciate top performing DEs. 
• Fake delivery attempts mitigation: Through targeted incentives and real-time metrics, eKart successfully reduced fake delivery attempts, ensuring greater customer satisfaction. 

By harnessing the power of Compass, eKart not only addressed the challenges in their last-mile delivery but transformed their DE engagement strategies. The gamified incentive platform significantly improved operational efficiency and contributed to a substantial reduction in attrition, showcasing the transformative impact of innovative solutions in the logistics industry. 

Conclusion 

Sales contests have the potential to be powerful motivators when executed thoughtfully. You can breathe new life into your sales contests by addressing clarity, rewards, format, communication, and support issues and boost their effectiveness. 

Remember, a well-designed and engaging contest drives performance and fosters a positive and competitive spirit within your sales team, contributing to long-term success.