Gamification—as we mentioned before—involves the use of game mechanics and game design in non-game scenarios. By 2016, Gartner estimates that gamification will be an essential element for brands and retailers to drive customer marketing and loyalty. (Source: Gartner)
Sales organizations can also see this trend of gamification leading its marketing and loyalty programs as a mechanism to transform and inspire their teams to adopt new ways of driving revenue. It’s even possible to drive deeper customer engagement and loyalty.
Gamification can be applied in sales organizations in 3 areas:
- Behavioral design – This can be anything from customer engagement to employee performance to knowledge management.
- Skill development – This includes employee onboarding and recruiting.
- Problem solving – Such as innovation management or crowdsourced solutions.
However, like any application, implementation of the gamification process must be focused and strategic. You’ve got to do your research, and you’ve got to have your metrics right. Here at Xactly, we know what can happen when you try to motivate your reps with rewards that don’t drive the right behaviors. (Give up? We’ll give you some hints: loss of productivity, a decrease in profits, and the raised eyebrows of your supervisors.)
When you explore opportunities to engage reps and change behaviors, you’re innovating. And that’s what business is all about.
To see how jewelry company Stella & Dot used gamification in its onboarding process, see the discussion on the Xactly Network page on LinkedIn.
Got something to say? We’re listening. Tell us all about it at @XactlyCorp
—Erik Charles is Xactly’s Principal Incentives Strategist.
