Sales performance is the backbone for an organization’s growth curve. The financial impact that poor sales performance tends to have, is not unknown to anyone.
Therefore, the performance of the sales team is always under the radar. It is dynamic and demanding.
It is not limited to speaking with the customer and explaining a product, service or solution to convert the lead to a customer. Their role is not just limited to conversion, but engagement, account management, retention and escalation and more.
Therefore, when we talk about sales performance, we are not merely looking at the rate of conversion but a lot of other parameters too. So, fixing performance gap is not just about getting more leads or conversion but about effectively managing different aspects of the lifecycle of a customer.
Building a sales competent team is therefore not a one-time activity. Sales folks have different aptitude for learning, learning styles and expectations.
Gamification refers to the application of gaming elements into non-game situations or processes. Incorporating point-keeping, leader boards, badges, competitions, team activities, and other game-like features boosts concentration and participation.
So, how can gamification help us meet those expectations and optimize the performance of the sales teams?
Here are few areas where we have experienced gamification creating more value for the sales teams.
Creating the right environment
It is not uncommon to notice impatience in the sales folks in a classroom session. The everyday action in their life may seem stressful but that is also something that gives them the adrenalin rush. Uncertainty and ambiguity drive them to action. Gamification creates a learning environment that is apt for their attention span. Blended with microlearning modules, gamified course not only triggers interest among them but also helps them learn more in less time. Gamified courses can also be made competitive thus making it fun for the learners too.
Meeting the aptitude of the learners
Sales team are seen as rough and tough. They believe in their voice and they are always at speed. So, if you expect them to sit at a place and listen for long, that isn’t happening. They need to talk; they want to think and be fast at getting work done. Gamification is interactive and engages with the learners thus encouraging them to take the complete course rather than leaving it half way. The best gamification courses are very careful about the aptitude of the learners.
Making knowledge transfer wholesome
One of the major reasons of a low performing Sales team is the lack of awareness. This could be related to product, service, solution, competition, market, partners or industry. Gamified courses, if customized well can meet this learning need too. This makes learning wholesome. Teams not only learn about their brand but develops a more holistic view about the ongoing sales processes beyond the boundaries of their organization. Thus, compelling them to research and learn more from multiple sources. As a result of which they can come across as more informed and credible in front of their customers or stakeholders. In fact, why just products, services and solutions? If you have an important process that you want to onboard your team to or have a new team that you need to onboard, a gamified course could be a fantastic way. You may not have an in-house expert always but that does not mean expertise cannot be developed. Gamified courses can help you sensitize towards a new skill. We all believe in learning by doing and it could only get better with gamified courses.
Learning continuity
Gamification is a smart way to make the best use of the time of any sales team. It not only helps them learn fast, but retain the learning for a longer period of time while continuously upskilling themselves on various aspects of better sales performance in a way which does not necessarily involve always going through pages of information or a podcast or a webinar which may not be convenient for them always. Of course, these can be kept as options so that if someone wants to expand their knowledge or gather more insights from experts, they are able to do so conveniently. These could be in the form of additional reading materials, eBooks, recorded webinars, video learning modules and more
Building partner capability
Your partner or vendors are an important part of the sales cycle. Having a team who is aligned to your core team is critical to ensure that processes are seamless and customer experience is consistent. Whether it is onboarding a new partner, or onboarding a partner to a new process or product, gamification can be more efficient than traditional learning methodologies especially if your empanelled partners are beyond geographies. Our recommendation would be to build these gamification courses in a customized way rather than looking for gamification courses online. However, if you are looking to upskill your team to skills that are generic to any sales team, online gamification course may way a good way to get started but we would not recommend them for lo
Redefining customer engagement
Why just sales team, gamification has become a great way to engage with customers. It not only helps you reach out to the market faster but helps a brand in building awareness about existing and upcoming products and services. Remember, gone are the days when customers will visit a store or call up a call centre for questions. They would either Google for information or believe what they see in social media platforms which may or may not be true. Brands are therefore, paying a lot of heed these days to use gamification as an effective way to improve customer experience and build on customer loyalty.
Gamification is expanding it’s reach to create learning exclusive for different teams. We will continue to learn more with every learning journey that we create for our learners. The use VI and AI is also catching up.
If you want to know more about how we are helping teams optimize their performance through gamification, write to us.
