Motivate Your Reps to Learn…With Gamification

Increasingly, organizations are pairing gamification with traditional sales training efforts to reinforce particular skills and knowledge. Using the principles of traditional games in real-world situations, a sales force is more engaged in the training, retains more information, and understands the application of what they are learning. Currently gamification is often used to increase a seller’s market and product knowledge and to practice particular skills, such as tailoring insight and creative thinking.

Gamification is particularly effective because it incorporates real-time feedback and provides a combination of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to the sales force. Unlike so many real-world situations, in which actions go unnoticed or unrewarded, in the context of a game, proper action or answers can be celebrated. Similarly, when individuals incorrectly answer a question or apply a skill, they can receive constructive feedback to improve future efforts. This aspect allows sellers to think about effective application of new knowledge and skills in the context of actual situations they may encounter.

The opportunities for competition, mastery, and recognition in gamification incentivize reps to engage with and participate in the training. Often, the game platforms have a variety of public leaderboards that display the top players and their scores. This visibility cultivates internal (fun) competition within the sales force around the particular game and also identifies those that have mastered specific content for the rest of the sales force to learn from. Since much of these games’ content is skill or knowledge-based and the platform allows individuals to track their success, gamification allows individuals to achieve mastery and to also compete against themselves.

Similarly, the embedded rewards and recognition within the games, such as badges and progress paths, break down larger concepts into manageable pieces for reps to learn, while also reinforcing individual’s sense of mastery. In order for games to be effective, it is critical that the sales force is engaged when playing and eager to play again. By creating internal competition and the opportunity for mastery, participants invest in the game, putting forth effort, engaging with the content, and continuing to play.

In addition to effectively teaching the sales force new concepts, knowledge, and skills, the organization is also able to track individual levels of progress and mastery due to the transparent nature of gamification. With this insight, leaders can make more informed decisions about the composition of sales teams and can identify those to serve as mentors or models of proficient behavior.

SLC Members: To learn more about how to create sales training stickiness, read the key findings from the study, Get Your Sales Training to “Stick”, and visit the Talent Development topic center.