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What is Gamification?
One of the trending topics in business is gamification. If you are not familiar with the term, in short, gamification is the application of game mechanics to non-game experiences that can drive an audience to a desired behavior.The size of the audience available through gaming is enormous and rivals television as a medium.
According to Forrester, gamers span just about every demographic.
- 65% of Xbox gamers are male
- 59% of “social gamers” (like Farmville…) are women
- 23% of the “social gamers” are Boomers between 45 and 65 years old.
In general gamers are also more motivated to have ‘connections’ with people than non-gamers. In the world of sales, connections and engagement is key to driving pipeline growth and creating new opportunities.
A few definitions of gamification:
- A game is structured play, usually for fun.
- Gameplay is interaction inside of a game.
- Game Mechanics are constructs or tactics commonly used in games to encourage gameplay. These are things like badges, points, leader boards, levels, challenges, achievements and virtual sheep you can put on your virtual farm.
- Game Dynamics are strategies commonly used in game design based on psychological motivations. These include things like “Appointments,” in which someone does something to gain a reward, “Avoidance,” in which someone does something to avoid a punishment, or the “Free Lunch” dynamic, in which people feel they are getting something because of their behavior.
- Currencies are ways to give people incentives based on various motivations in a digital world: the need for financial reward, the need to do good, the need to help one’s community, the need for recognition and influence, the need for pleasure. We can assign currencies to each one of these motivations to reward people for desired behaviors.
Gamification for Sales
Turning the sales process into a game is not a stretch of the imagination for companies. In may ways companies with B2B sales people have already added game mechanics into the process on a small scale. Glenngary Glen Ross has an amazing scene in the beginning of the movie where Alec Baldwin is addressing the sales team where is explains First Prize is a Cadillac and Second Prize is a set of steak knives. This is how most businesses gamify sales to date.
- Commission checks
- Presidents Club
- Spiffs
These are all typically based around revenue for a company and these game mechanics drive the behavior of the sales team to sell more. This is where most companies end the game process but that is about to change.
Companies like Xactly have developed an application that drives compensation management , most typically marketed to businesses that have become buried in spreadsheets trying to track sales teams and their commissions. That’s a big enough problem to tackle for companies but their application has some functionality that brings gamification to the sales teams directly. At a recent event I heard Xactly discuss how their customers base compensation and commissions on a series of behaviors that lean more ‘reward’ to the sales person if they do things such as close a deal early in the month or if they sales can close a deal within a specific time frame.
This opens up a lot doors into how companies could introduce game mechanics for sales even extending beyond revenue events.
Game On for B2B Sales
Research shows that financial rewards for gamers is only one incentive and not even the primary factor that people play games. We saw this internally at InsideView when we wanted to drive social media adoption by the company. The only game mechanic we had to put in place was a monthly email that highlighted to most active employees on Twitter. The internal competition to be in First Place drove up the number of updates from employees 312%.
Sales teams could, and I think should be incentivised for a number of activities outside of just revenue generation. True, the primary responsibility for sales teams is to close deals but within that process of selling there are a number of activities or tasks that can be measured and applied with game mechanics to drive even more productivity. Image a sales team that saw their work as a game and wanted to unlock as many achievements as possible to be recognized publicly and financially?
I hear more and more companies trying to add a layer of gamification to their sales processes. There are several ways to do this and the achievements and metrics are different depending on each companies desired goals.
- Number of calls
- New opportunities created
- Engagement on social media
- Discussions created in company communities
- Leads generated by online/personal social activities.
The list can go on forever. The truth is that they are almost limitless and all drive business metrics across different departments.
Is your company thinking of implementing gamification to sales or have any game mechanics that have been working so far?
It all comes back to the phone book
Just when you would think the explanation of data vs. intelligence was a moot point, a customer brought us another little anecdote that drives the nail in even further to the coffin of big data providers. Most startups and even larger businesses have a need to deliver leads to the sales team. This can be done using a combination of many marketing campaigns and targeting people that can benefit from your product or service. One of the normal go-to methods for companies is to inject a bunch of names into their CRM in a form of list building that gives the sales people a starting point of people to contact. Companies buy these lists because it’s better than handing a sales team a stack of yellow pages and telling them to start at A and work through Z. But is it really any better?
The problem with data as a launching point
Companies need data. List building has a place in the process but if that’s what you are relying on to drive a large volume of revenue for your company, you are going to be very disappointed. Using data as a launching point for your inside sales team to start working through is almost as bad as handing them a copy of the Yellow Pages for their territory with the industries they should focus on. Where do they start? What companies should they call first? Even with a more focused set of targets, sales people still have the same problems. Without some context or sales intelligence around the company or contact, sales people are still walking blind. Sure they’ll call 50 people and get 3 people that might be interested for a follow up but again, it’s a VERY grassroots process that belongs only in the history books.
What happens when you add a layer of actionable intelligence to the data? All of a sudden sales people are getting alerted to sales opportunities, they get fed information that they can pass onto their prospects and customers about trends and issues facing their competitors and how the prospect can benefit more from the service they offer. Sales intelligence has an explosive impact on driving revenue for a company.
The solution that builds revenue faster
When you hand a sales person a lead, it’s in their DNA to follow up on it with a call, email or some other communication. It will be hit or miss using the phonebook approach and they will move onto the next name on the list. We’ve documented case studies where customers are getting upwards of 70 new opportunities a month, per rep and watched sales efficiency increase dramatically by eliminating a large chunk of research a sales person needs to do. This will never be done by the Big Data vendors as much as they want you to believe it. Sales intelligence is the only solution.
Cold calling is the process of approaching prospective customers or clients, typically via telephone, who were not expecting such an interaction. The word “cold” is used because the person receiving the call is not expecting a call or has not specifically asked to be contacted by a sales person -wiki. Basically, picking up the phone with a list of names and numbers and running down the list hoping that someone will pick up and then have the time or general interest in talking with you for a few minutes. Sure, this works if you have a dedicated sales team that puts on their Plantronics headsets and can spend hours a day making calls to people that have never displayed an interest in your product.
The Cold Calling Debate
I’ve been a little rash when it comes to my thoughts on why cold calling is the bottom of the barrel. When I was in sales, I was measured by the number of calls I made in a day and if I didn’t hit the “magical” number of calls my professionalism was called into question. This post is the #4 most tweeted article from all of my posts on the blog. The comments from the post were insightful and come from some of the leaders in sales, training and services industries.
A few blog articles were made in response to the post from people with their own take on the idea that cold calling is dead. Ken Rouge wrote in Predictive Sales Intelligence Will Redefine CRM and the Sales Process that “InsideView proves that the value of social media increases exponentially when it can be applied directly to the sales/buying cycle. Marketing automation solutions like Eloqua manage opt-ins and content, all directly linked back to lead generation and sales acquisition costs. Dialer tools like the PowerDialer for Salesforce manage and predict call cycles for lead generation, pushing the highest-quality leads and data to the reps right when they need it.
All of this is designed for a single purpose–to close the gap from “old” sales to new. Getting attention through marketing channels is harder than ever. So when a company finally does “get some love” from a prospect, the tools have to be in place to make every opportunity count, to have the highest chance to contact and close the deal.
While I don’t totally agree with InsideView that cold calling is “bottom of the barrel,” the shifting sands of demand generation and sales intelligence in 2011 means that true “cold” calling will almost be misnomer in the future. Our ability to “predict” who and when to call, what to say when we do, and the value proposition a prospect will most readily respond to will ever increase as the sophistication of the tools we use increases with it.“
One of our great advocates Trish Bertuzzi of The Bridge Group referenced our article in her post “It’s the ‘cold’ that’s dead, not the ‘calling‘“. Not a day goes by that I don’t see numerous bloggers, tweeters, etc. arguing passionately that cold calling is dead. The problem is that people are confusing cold calling with outbound calling. Picking up the phone still works as part of a Sales & Marketing approach that integrates inbound marketing, social media, great content, lead nurturing, etc.
Brian Berlin who is a good friend and past manager of mine is the owner of Straightline Strategies even found some data to back up the idea that cold calling is not as bad as we might think.
Ending the Debate on Cold Calling
As a social selling advocate and sales professional, I would never stand on a soap box and say that using the phone to contact prospects is a bad idea. I can’t say that because I still make daily calls on my Plantronics headset too. The difference is that I don’t blindly call people that I have to convince that it would be in their best interest to spend a few more minutes with me to hear a sales pitch. Times have changed and sales processes must change to keep up. Should sales people blog? I have my opinions on that. I have more thoughts on why sales teams are not leveraging social media and it boils down to FEAR.
I agree with Trish, most people confuse cold calling with making outbound calls. Calling names based on a prospecting list generated by marketing with contact data is not needed in the age of sales intelligence applications.
“There’s the old adage that 90 percent of people hate cold-calling and the other 10 percent are lying,” says Brian Carroll, CEO of InTouch Inc., and author of the book, Lead Generation for the Complex Sale.
However, even in today’s business world, picking up the phone remains one of the best ways to reach an organization’s senior executives. A 2007 survey by MarketingSherpa, a research firm that tracks what works in the marketing profession, found that only 11 to 17 percent of business prospects were annoyed by getting an unsolicited cold call. On the other hand, 45 to 53 percent of the executives interviewed said that a cold call they received had helped vendors leapfrog onto the consideration shortlist for purchases. – INC.com
Adding a layer of intelligence to your sales process will dramatically increase sales productivity and increase your opportunity win rates. Does social media answer all the needs of every sales organization? No. But it adds an additional layer that gives sales people an edge when identifying new prospects and making that first phone call less awkward. Even marketing automation companies like Marketo see the value in leveraging social media for sales.
Making a global shift from the ‘cold calling’ mentality will take time but the shift is happening. Much faster than most companies can adjust.
Companies across the world are agreeing that social media is changing the landscape of how customers interact with brands. Airlines use social media tools like Twitter to stay on top of customer service needs, companies use social media as a marketing tool to stay engaged with customers. The growing popularity of sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn have become a breeding ground for conversations.
Sales Teams Need Social Media
What is rarely talked about it the need for sales teams to be active on Twitter and other social networks like LinkedIn. On a base level, sales people need to be aware that social media and social selling can have a measurable impact on their win rates. CSO Insights recently published a paper called “The Sales Intelligence Challenge” that addressed this. InsideView was involved in a Webinar with CSO Insights on this topic also. It was found in their research that B2B Sales win rates were highest when sales people used sales intelligence tools like InsideView.
Social Media is the Key
There is too much information available online these days that a sales person is walking blind if they are not using it in some way. Sales prospecting lists for contact data is fine but it’s not very effective on a large scale. Gathering contact information is only the first step in an effective sales process. The real intelligence comes from contact data and the relevant information about that contact.
Most times this means that sales people are opening up several tabs in their browser to run searches in LinkedIn, Twitter, Blogs and Google to see what they can find on their contact so a phone call or other engagement can seem timely and be well received from the prospect. Knowing more about your prospect, their company and industry is NOT provided by contact data or prospect lists.
The best sales professionals are gathering recent news and relevant information about prospects and companies by looking at social media for the sales intelligence needed to drive the conversation.
A new report by the Sales Executive Council (SEC) outlines that sales people are not spending enough time with customers and spending more time engaged in administrative work. Access to potential customers across the board is reported to have dropped 26%. Time spent getting ready for presentations and post-sales activities has increased 15%.
Why is this?
There has been a shift in the sales process and specifically in the customer buying process. People are being alot more careful about how they spend their money and what vendors they work with. Since customers are now in control more than they were 5 years ago, sales teams are having to adust their behavoirs and activities to customize more of their offerings to each potential customer. B2B companies have to keep pace with Customer 2.0. Companies are now in the solutions game and selling a solution is a much longer process than having a CD in a box and selling it off a shelf. Customers demand more engagement by sales people and more customized applications to solve their issues.
This data tell us that in complex sales, selling is about more than being a persuasive presenter: it’s about the hard work that happens before and after that presentation, from researching customers to pulling together internal stakeholders to planning how to grow the account over time.
Pre-call planning by sales teams has increased 15% to meet the demands of customers. Sales people may only have one chance to talk with the C-Suite and the cookie cutter presentations that worked years ago will result in a glazed over look and forgotten about before you walk out of the room. Deal complexity has increased as customers want the customized solutions that affect their business process. The increase in panning also is attributed to the lack of resources available to a sales team now versus a few years ago.
With more emphasis in pre-call planning there is a much greater need by companies to be invested with sales intelligence solutions that can cut down research time and give a sales person an advantage. Some of this information will come from conversations with the customer but decision makers are busy and discovery calls are few and far between. Using Sales 2.0 tools and harnessing aggregated news and social streams from individuals and companies can fill in much of the information gap.
It was also interesting that the report showed that post-sales activities by sales teams increased 15%. This means that sales people are not focusing on bringing in new business and working with existing business. Companies that have this issue should look into investing more sales support and relieve the burden on revenue producers.
READ The Entire report on Sales Process Trends
If you are an Inside Sales professional or a sales leader, you should already know about the AA-ISP Inside Sales Leadership Summit 2011. This event will feature over 30 of the nation’s leading Inside Sales experts who will deliver presentations and discussions focused on the issues most critical to today’s Inside Sales Leaders and Managers.
As the only conference dedicated exclusively to the “front lines” of Inside Sales, this event will bring together Inside Sales Professionals to learn, share, and network. Inside Sales 2011 will deliver informative, thought-provoking presentations designed to help Inside Sales individuals, teams, and organizations.
This one day conference will include a variety of general sessions, interactive break-out sessions, and lively panel discussions featuring some of the nation’s leading Inside Sales experts. Focus will be on addressing issues critical to the success of today’s Inside Sales Professionals while providing key sales tactics and techniques. In addition, the Solution Provider Exhibit will offer attendees the opportunity to meet with leading inside sales vendors.
The conference will be packed full of innovative, practical ideas and best practices. Inside Sales Professionals will leave exhilarated, enthused, and armed with new knowledge, techniques, and tools designed to improve and enhance sales performance.
Umberto Milletti will be a Featured Speaker at the event along with some other great speakers like Tom Scontras of Glance Networks, Steve Richards of Vorsight Sales Training and many, many more.
Increase Inside Sales Productivity with Social Intelligence
Cold calling is changing to warm calling, as prospects are demanding more relevance from sales reps. Find out how to harness social intelligence to increase your sales productivity and accelerate sales cycles. Learn how to bring social selling into your sales organization to improve prospecting effectiveness and close rates.Time: Thursday, February 10 from 4;15 p.m – 4:45 p.m
The AA-ISP Inside Sales Leadership Summit 2011 is less than two weeks away and it’s not too late to register. InsideView will also have a booth at the event and we look forward to talking with you about our product or ways that we have maximized our sales productivity internally to double our revenue in a record breaking year.
Social media has become a defacto marketing tool for any organization, but it’s incredible how scared sales managers and teams still are of letting their sales reps join the sales 2.0 party. But the reality is, the only thing you have to fear is fear itself…oh, and not closing more and larger deals faster than ever before.
Social networks like Twitter and LinkedIn (as well as the entire blogosophere) are target-rich environments to find new opportunities and leads, and engage with prospects in a powerful and effectively intelligent new way. So what is holding companies back? Of the dozen or so objections I have heard, my conclusion is: FEAR. Fear that their sales team will not produce results, fear that the sales team will waste their time online and fear that their sales teams will do or say something online that will tarnish their brand and kill sales. The fact of the matter is, NOT letting sales professionals engage on social media is detrimental to the bottom line for the reasons below.
In addition, it always surprises me when a company pushes off any new technology based on such fear, and masks it with an excuse. Businesses that embrace innovation and new tools have a great track record of becoming leaders in their spaces. Social media is no different as it applies to sales professionals. There are very simple reasons that all of these excuses should be thrown away and sales people given a green light to social media engagement with leads and prospects.
Fact: Social selling produces results
Sirius Decisions Inc. recently said in a webinar that in most sales cycles, customers are now in control. Customers are doing 70 percent of the research online that drives the buying decisions, and then contacting a specific vendor for the purchase. The old concept of customers calling into a company to be ‘sold’ something is quickly vanishing. Since more of the buying process is happening online in discussion groups and social networks, sales people that are paying attention and, in most cases, are already a member of these networks like Twitter, will capitalize on these conversations and identify new opportunities much earlier than those without such social involvement.
Myth: Social Selling is not a time-suck
If your sales team is wasting their time online or talking to friends on the phone most of the day, stop now and reevaluate your employees. If you have talented and hard working people on your sales team, then you shouldn’t expect them to behave any different with using social media throughout the sales cycle. If your sales team is already using Twitter or other networks for personal use, they will be able to adopt a sales methodology around the same tools to produce revenue.
Myth: ‘Social Selling’ is too risky
This is an objection that comes up more often than any other, and it’s a common misunderstanding that a business can be destroyed in the matter of one status update or blog post. But, I don’t agree with this any more than I would with the idea that a poorly sent email to a customer can do the same. There was a point in time where sales people didn’t have access to email for that exact reason, but can you imagine not having email as a tool? The same will be said about social media tools in 10 years – those who embrace it will be in the drivers seat, and ultimately win out.
It all comes down to “letting go” and enabling your sales teams to be more effective. Social Selling is not fit for every sales person, but I’d bet you have a strong percentage of your sales team that would welcome the opportunity to drive opportunities through social tools in addition to traditional phone and email tactics.
This post originally appeared on Sales2.com where InsideView has regular contributions. Sales 2.0 is a site dedicated to the improvement of sales results.
Nobody will tell you that being in sales an easy gig. Only the top performers get recognized and the people who under-perform are typically passed over for promotions or asked to leave. There are actions every sales person can take that will increase their chances at success and outside of “Sales 101″ they should be investing in learning about and using every effective tool online and off to succeed. Social Selling in a B2B environment does work and there are some basic rules of social engagement every sales 2.0 leader should know and follow.
Aim before you shoot, the spray and pray method with calls and email blasts doesn’t work. Sales people need to be smarter about who they are contacting and when they contact them. Using a sales intelligence tool and including social engagement will increase your sales performance based on a recent Aberdeen study.
Break the rules before they break you. Inside sales people should not live in a box. There are so many new tools available and sales teams should not be limited to only a phone and email as communication tools. Not using new media to connect with prospects is hurting your business.
Have a character but don’t be a character. Sales people should use social networks in a professional manner. This doesn’t mean that you need to come across as a robot, have some fun.
Lead from the front. Using social media for sales let’s you find and connect with more relevant people than any prospect list will allow. Connecting with people in the networks that they are already active in will get you more exposure and leave more lasting impressions.
Don’t confuse planning with training or talking with selling. Starting off with using social media for sales takes some planning and it has a learning curve. If you start off with just using LinkedIn and perfecting the process you will begin to understand how much of an impact social media can have on lead generation and identifying new opportunities. Don’t focus on the number of people you are connecting with, having a large network doesn’t mean anything if it’s not translating into new business.
Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. The path to success is littered with failures. The most important skill any sales person can learn is that not every deal will be won. Getting up and working on the next opportunity is the name of the game and sales members need to learn from the mistakes they make. “Genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration.”
Take risks and then more risks. The safe and easy route is a quick way to nowhere. Sales people that are strategic in thought and can execute effectively will have to assume extra risks. Maybe your plan was flawed or you zigged when you should have zagged with that new opportunity, regardless of what the situation is, you took a risk and you should own it. Continuing to take risks will force you to be smarter about your sales tactics and have the most impact on your career.
