Game of Phones – The Rise of Gamification in Sales

How often have you been at work and wished you were having fun instead? More times than you can remember. Perhaps playing a game or two is on your list of ways to have fun after hours?

This pretty obvious fact of work life is driving tech innovators to rethink the way sales teams are motivated. The inspiration to incorporate the excitement of gaming into business operations has given way to what is known as sales gamification software. This revolutionary tool is being used by sales-driven businesses across the globe to trigger healthy competition.

It works in ways you can probably imagine; the software work portal is designed with game style prompts and arrangements built in for sales team members to activate. The salesforce gamification service Hoolpa, for example, gives reps the opportunity to enact a “Faceoff” challenge to the rest of the team. This sets a sales standard objective made visible to all staff, inciting healthy competition among the salesforce.

As mentioned earlier, the emerging trend of gamification in sales is gaining traction primarily by its direct link to the competitive nature of humanity. We are, after all, a species which puts great emphasis on status, prestige, and triumph. In one word, we want victory.  Better yet we want to be a part of the winning process, if not a direct player in bringing about the win.

Of course, we would be remiss if we didn’t stop to think about the way competition can get the best of us. This is especially the case in sales environments, where the stakes are very high to say the least. You don’t have to watch Glengarry Glen Ross to get a sense for how heated things can get behind the scenes with sales; just ask any of the almost million salespersons in the US alone.

However, this is precisely the sort of unbridled, unregulated rivalries among sales staff that sales gamification is trying to prevent. It may sound counterintuitive, but it’s the same reason we have sports and sports culture; there needs to be a healthy outlet for the instinctive desire within us all to be the best.

Sales teams without a gamification process in place are destined to become cutthroat. While managers have a history of sitting back and turning blind eyes to dirty albeit lucrative tricks, this unwritten policy has a long term negative impact on the sales success of a given enterprise.

In decades past, the survival of the fittest mentality was enabled by a revolving door of salespersons and sink or swim style management.  These days there is simply a far smaller pool of contenders to choose from at the onset. Companies have to find a way to capture that motivating power of competition without driving off half the team every quarter.

Enter sales gamification software. It provides a healthy outlet for fierce, competitive instincts in the business world. The result is a sales team driven to win without being driven over the edge.