Third grade classes across the country every year open their afternoon to the coveted “Show and Tell” time. Without fail, nephews, nieces, sons and daughters of us all show members of the class, for the first time,  a gleaming gold rock which puts the room in awe. To us, this is fool’s gold. To 3rd graders, it’s their first exposure to something seemingly so valuable…and gold. Typically the class jumps out of their desk, huddles around each other while jockeying for position to hold it. 

Reaction to sales gamification has produced euphoric states similar to 3rd grade class rooms across the country. Badges and computerized contests seem to be the medicine of choice for an under-achieving sales team. In reality, next levels, awards, medals, and other hoopla considered to be gamification can easily be replicated with a $5 custom-engraved plastic trophy picked up from the local trophy shop.

In time, contests get stale, badges lose luster, top performers stop caring about levels, and sales organizations gravitate towards the mean.

Gamification isn’t all waste. Two timeless qualities are worth noting. Great sales organization breed a culture of accountability and transparency. Many times, digital leader boards get looped into the gamification umbrella. Regardless of where the definition may extend, live leader boards in sales dens are as timeless as the leader boards every April in Augusta, Georgia.

Where does gamification leave us today?

The majority of sales motivation platforms leverage the push strategy of motivation. Fear, force, and consequences drive behavior producing temporary effects. Today the best motivation tactics include support and coaching. Coaching a sales executive by first unearthing their personal and professional goals creates a much more internally driven employee. 

We already know coaching is the most important thing that never happens. 

It’s hard. 

Managing excel spreadsheets is much easier than managing people. The best sales organizations put safeguards in place to ensure the concepts learned in training are effective and long lasting, facilitate discussions for discovering areas of improvement, and maintain the discipline for holding people accountable for applying what has been learned. 

In Rivalry’s world, this is called coaching.  

Today’s sales environments are not your father’s sales force. The boiler room is dead. In today's change-crazy business environment, winning is more than a numbers game. Most sales leaders are overwhelmed with data about what needs to improve. But they need less "what" and more "how." How do you attract and grow a young sales force and make sure your top performers keep up with new tools and new ideas? How do you get insights into what drives individual performance, when time and resources are already a premium?

The moment “Show and Tell” is over and the fool’s gold’s luster is lost with the classroom, students return to their desks and begin the hard work. The work necessary to complete their assignments and understand their lesson. 

With the right teacher, tutor, and after school coach, we all hope these students will achieve their potential one day. 

Your sales team is no different: growing people is still one of the best ways to grow your bottom-line.

About the Author

Jon Birdsong is the CEO of Rivalry which is head quartered in the Atlanta Tech Village. Rivalry is a sales coaching platform that increases sales team output 19% by putting the safeguards in place to ensure the concepts learned in training are effective, facilitating discussions for discovering areas of improvement, and maintaining the discipline for holding people accountable. Rivalry's software is used by publicly traded companies as well as early stage startups.

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