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What is Gamification? A Primer on Sales Gamification

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What is Gamification? A Primer on Sales Gamification

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What is Gamification? A Primer on Sales Gamification

We've all played video games (some a lot more than others). But it's less known that companies are using a strategy (involving gaming) to improve customer retention, lower the sales cycle, and improve team performance. It's called gamification. And some may immediately ask, "What is gamification?"

Fair enough question.

In the simplest terms, it's a way to boost the engagement level of certain activities. A different kind of motivation to strive for goals. Your next question (whether you've heard the term or not) is likely "Why is this on a sales blog?"

Fair enough, yet again.

Have you done anything to make your sales team compete with one another? Set group goals, or motivate in any way that is more positive than negative? If so, you've used a form of gamification already.

This post is to help you determine:

What gamification is exactly.

5 Steps to Successfully Implement Gamification into the Sales Process.

7 Different Ways/Ideas of What to Track.

Let's get into it.

What is Gamification (exactly)?

Gamification: The application of typical elements of game playing (e.g. point scoring, competition with others, rules of play) to other areas of activity, typically as an online marketing technique to encourage engagement with a product or service. ( source)

Primarily our term in question is used in the software world. If a developer can get users to perform a certain function a certain number of times, or use the product in a certain way, it increases the likelihood of that individual becoming a long-term user.

Couple Examples:

If an Android/iPhone game can get a user to play 10 levels on your first go, that user is X% more likely to make an "in-app purchase".

An invoicing SaaS can increase the lifetime value of a user if they create X invoices in the their first month.

But it's not just for Silicon Valley.

Marketing and sales teams can use certain elements of gamification to motivate leads within the funnel and the team selling those leads. This post will focus on how to motivate your reps.

If you've ever played role-playing video games, you understand that mini-games help you break up the content and keep you motivated to move onto the next phase of the game. Essentially, this is what you're doing when you install little indicators and mini-games into your sales process.

5 Necessary Steps to Implement Sales Gamification

Thinking of the price is right. It's a show of games, but when one is in progress - everyone is focused on three things.

Once the game starts everyone is trying to figure out the price of the gizmo, or the path of the plinko because they know these three things. If you want the team to gather around your gamification program, they'll need all three of these.

Number One: The Prize (Choose Your Reward)

Don't panic. This doesn't mean you have to start buying expensive swag and vacations for your team. And gamification is not about coddling your poor performing reps into better performance.

It's about raising the bar and sometimes that takes a little incentive. There are a few different types to consider.

Recognition: Some of the more discreet forms of recognition are things like a progress bar during training, or a handwritten note from the CEO. This is for both individual or cooperative play. For instance, you hit the revenue target as a company and write out personal thank you notes to every sales-facing employee. Your hand would hurt, but think of what it would mean to your crew.

Here's a great resource with 13 simple ways to recognize employees via YouEarnedIt.com

Rewards: Picking a prize for winning needs to be set before the game begins. It can be continuous, but that requires it to be something worth winning multiple times. Typically, the best loved (by the majority) are things that deal with food or time off. Let's do a couple of examples.

Work from Home: The individual that has the [insert goal and metric here] at the end of every month can work from home every Wednesday the following month.

Food Truck Lunch: If a team goal is hit, get them food. Have a food truck come by and feed everyone full of tacos. You could even take it up a notch by telling them to go home right after lunch.

Snack nation put this massive list of 121 ways to reward your awesome people.

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Webcast, November 30th: How Zendesk Scaled to 100,000 Customers in 150+ Countries - Simply and Beautifully

Number Two: The Goal (Choose Your Metric)

This one is tricky.

What do you need more of right now? While I can't speak to your individual needs, we can do an example to help you work this one out on your own.

Problem: Close rate is good, but the number of qualifying calls are too low to make your revenue target.

Research: Upon a closer look, you're contacting a good amount of leads (via cold email) just not getting enough conversations started due to poor open rate.

Metrics: The contest would be for your sales team to come up with the best subject line they can (obviously this would be for smaller teams, or you could have groups work together). You run a couple hundred with each subject line and the one that results in the highest open rate wins.

This would be an example of a short-term game, but you'll have to determine the metrics that fit the company's goals best.

Number Three: The Rules (Set the Terms)

Clearly lay out what you want to happen and how you want them to go about it.

Without some boundaries, you may have a "the ends justify the means" type and end up with a potential ethics issue on your hands. All prompted by a contest that you started. They should be basic, presenting the key things that employees need to know.

Timeframe (monthly, one time, date?)

Do's (specific best practices)

Don't(s) (Don't buy leads, work off the clock, etc.)

Number Four: Be Consistent

You can test the waters with small games (like the one we mentioned earlier), but don't start a long-term program unless you're willing to roll with the punches and keep it going.

Gamification can improve morale and performance, unless you jump ship within a couple months and your crew doesn't see you fulfilling your end of the bargain.

Set reminders, pre-purchase the prizes, check in on progress - do whatever it takes. Which leads us to our last tip for implementation.

Number Five: Get an App

The last thing you want hanging in the office is one of those thermometers that you fill in with a red marker. You know the ones, like you got the template from Windows 98.

I'd argue the case that you won't be consistent unless your gamification involves automation.

You'll forget to create that spreadsheet, run those numbers, and maybe even see who was the winner. Then, someone from your team will remind you and you'll say, "oh, yea...give me until the end of the day".

Then, everyone will be the opposite of motivated.

We could put together a list of the top apps to help gamify your sales process, but TenFold already did it. They've listed their top 15 right here.

7 Ideas for Sales Gamification

Cooperative Play (Team works together)

New Product/Service Launch: Trying to get traction behind a new feature/product/service can be difficult if your sales team isn't focused. They know the scripts for your current stuff and don't want to risk their commissions by spending too much energy on the new. Contests, metric-tracking, and incentives (e.g. gamification) works.

Revenue Targets: Trying to grow your business typically involves more ad spend, infrastructure, better sales funnels, etc.. But if you're not looping the sales team into the push and getting them excited about growing, you're doing the company (and your reps) a disservice.

Competitive Play

Sales: This one is tricky if you have a more complex sales team. Sales development may not necessarily close deals. This means that the metrics will have to be different depending on the size of your team. Small companies could just rate the number of qualified calls that go to the closer/owner.

Prospecting: Businesses can have a lot of problems, but there are few (if any) that are more destructive than a sales team that isn't constantly prospecting for new leads. Sales reps run out of fresh leads end up in one of two places. One, scrambling to find more quality leads. Or two, buying a list of poor quality leads. Constantly tracking, recognizing and rewarding prospecting can break the roller coaster ride.

Make the Mundane Fun-dane

Training: Bringing on new reps, implementing HR training, or refreshing the team on new/upcoming products. Making your training fun is one of the easiest ways to increase participation while getting the point across.

CRM Upkeep: We've all dealt with the reps who are great with people, but not so great with the backend. Inputting data, keeping contacts updated, you name it. All can be gamified and rewarded to keep the CRM clean and effective.

Efficiency: Hustle and hard work moves the needle. But there's a huge difference between working effectively and just working. Conversion rates, close rates, open rates, responses-all of these things can be tracked. Those who are more efficient can help others improve by sharing tactics. This makes gamification even more valuable to businesses.

Ready to Use Sales Gamification?

You're probably already using some elements of sales gamification to motivate your team, but maybe don't have a process.

What are some of your favorite ways to get better performance from your team?

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What is Gamification? A Primer on Sales Gamification

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We've all played video games (some a lot more than others). But it's less known that companies are using a strategy (involving gaming) to improve customer retention, lower the sales cycle, and improve team performance. It's called gamification. And some may immediately ask, "What is gamification?" Fair enough question.

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Branching Scenarios: What You Need To Know - eLearning Industry

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Branching Scenarios: What You Need To Know - eLearning Industry

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When I created our software for building branching scenarios, I assumed that everybody knew what scenarios were and how scenarios could improve your eLearning. I quickly came to realize that a lot of people had never used or even seen a branching scenario. Instead, they keep producing standard linear eLearning courses that do not engage learners. So I wanted to help you get started with branching scenarios by answering some frequently asked questions.

What Is A Branching Scenario?

Branching scenario is an interactive form of learning. It challenges the learner, requires them to make a decision, and then presents the consequences. Each consequence produces new challenges and more choices. As the learner makes decisions, the story unfolds in unpredictable ways, thereby making such learning interaction engaging and fun.

Branching scenarios are similar to the Choose Your Own Adventure books. Only instead of saving a princess from a castle, eLearning scenario narratives are built around dealing with angry customers, negotiating with suppliers, managing employees and other business-related challenges.
Here are a few examples of branching scenarios:
Learning about Marketing
Learning about Cyber-Security
Military-style scenario about Cultural Differences

How Is A Branching Scenario Different From A Quiz?

I know, quizzes also pose challenges and ask for input. The difference is that quizzes are linear. The next question is always the same regardless of what the learner answered before. In a scenario, every response determines what's next. Scenarios aren't linear and therefore they are unpredictable and engaging. It means they are fun to play and re-play.

Quizzes often focus on checking learner knowledge whereas scenarios are all about presenting realistic situations and asking for practical choices. Scenarios don't care what the acronym for that fancy cross-selling technique is, they check whether the learner can actually sell a product to a virtual customer in a realistic setting.

Another significant difference is that quizzes provide straight-on feedback. You got this wrong, you got that right. By comparison, scenarios present consequences of learner decisions and allow learner to understand whether this particular outcome is good or bad, and whether it could be improved in another attempt at playing through the branching scenario. As far as pros and cons go, this is one of the strongest sides of using branching scenarios in eLearning.

Finally, nobody likes quizzes while almost everyone loves scenarios.

Why Should I Use Branching Scenarios In eLearning Courses?

Branching scenarios enable learners to put their theoretical knowledge into a practical perspective. How many times have you been in a situation where a manual or instruction makes perfect sense... until you have to actually do it for real? Trying and failing in a scenario quickly highlights skill and knowledge gaps and improves learning outcomes.

What Are The Disadvantages Of Branching Scenarios?

Like all great eLearning, scenarios can challenge you with regards to 3 factors:

I'll briefly explain each of the caveats (and how to deal with them) below.

1. Time.

As with all new things, expect your first scenarios to take longer to build than you hoped. Authoring a branching script is harder than writing a linear course page by page and it also demands more creativity. Communicating with Subject Matter Experts can be difficult especially if they have never worked with a scenario before.

Building the final product using conventional authoring tools will present challenges of its own. Regardless of whether you use PowerPoint, Articulate Storyline, Adobe Captivate or any other tool, you will still need to create a lot of pages, buttons, actions, layers, etc. It is easy to lose track of which slide leads where and spend a lot of time untangling your branching. Play-testing and quality assurance will also take extra time since you need to play through your scenario multiple times to make sure every branch works.

Best way to avoid spending excessive time? Plan for more time! Seriously, make sure everyone understands that you are building something new and exciting, and that you want to make it right so you need adequate time frame.

Using specialized scenario-building tools like BranchTrack also eliminates the most time-consuming part of the job, i.e. building all the slides. You only need to focus on writing your story, not on placing images on slides or copying and pasting texts.

2. Complexity.

Scenarios are complex by nature. If they were simple and linear, we wouldn't call them scenarios, we'd just call them boring. My biggest challenge with my first scenario was that it was growing exponentially. As I created more branches, I had to create more choices. Each choice lead to more branches and I was quickly losing control of what is going on (and running out of whiteboard space).

The best advice for avoiding an overgrown branching scenario is to start at the end. First, define the outcomes of your scenario. In an customer service training scenario, outcomes could be these:

"A happy customer purchases a new product" (100 points).

"A moderately satisfied customer leaves the store" (50 points).

"A dissatisfied customer complains to the manager" (0 points).

Then work your way up from these outcomes and create a high-level outline of the scenario. What decisions lead to a customer being angry? How did we come into this situation? Where did all of this start? This approach guarantees that your scenario will be manageable and does not result in having twenty different endings that you have to write out.

Of course, having a good way to visualize your scenario is very useful, too. It can range from whiteboards to post-it notes to Excel flowcharts to specialized branching scenario software. The important thing is ease of use, ability to modify it on the fly and collaboration with colleagues and Subject Matter Experts.

(Illustration: An eLearning vendor learns that you want to build a scenario)

3. Cost.

Branching scenarios are often the favorite kind of project for eLearning vendors and developers because the time and complexity involved guarantee handsome project budgets. Alas for this same reason many companies do not use branching scenarios in their training and settle for standard linear eLearning courses that are less effective and less engaging.

In my experience -and I have worked on the eLearning vendor side for quite a while-, the cost comes from 3 main factors:
a) Time requirements.
Without tools that are specifically designed for creating branching scenarios, eLearning developers spend more time than they should and must bill their customers extra.
b) Complexity.
Without effective ways to communicate and review their projects, the project stakeholders spend extra time on communication and dealing with errors that result from poor communication. Developers, Subject Matter Experts, internal or external customers spend time writing emails, pasting screenshots, counting slides, reviewing charts, and doing other tasks that can easily be avoided with tools that are designed for branching scenarios.
c) Premium.
Scenarios are considered the "extra" type of eLearning that deserves to be priced at a premium. I consider this unfair and made it my mission to make sure any company anywhere in the world can build and deliver branching scenarios quickly, easily and at minimal cost.

How Much Does A Branching Scenario Cost?

Let's use the model from the previous section to estimate how much it would cost to build a branching scenario. Coming up with an idea, authoring a draft outline and then scripting the actual flow chart for a branching scenario could require give or take 30 hours from all parties involved. Developing the graphics and building all slides, interactions and links between them would probably take another 30 hours. Quality assurance, play-testing, gathering feedback, implementing change requests and other post-production task would probably require another 20 hours. Of course, these are ballpark figures and a scenario could be much more complex and take much more time but it would be really difficult to build it faster than that unless you are working off a previous project, templates or using a very simple branching structure.

So we are looking at 80 hours of costs for a branching scenario if we are building the scenario in-house. If you are working with an outside contractor, they will probably quote for at least 120 hours. I will leave it up to you to multiply this for the eLearning rate of your choosing but if you are paying under $50 per hour, you are probably not getting the quality you need.

With the right tools, this amount could easily reduced by a factor of two or even three. The scenario authoring would require about the same time, say, 20 hours, and development would be gone, and post-production would go down to 10 hours. This amounts to about 30 hours instead of 80 for a single scenario.

To Sum Up

I hope that the pros and cons of using scenarios in eLearning are clearer now.

Pros:

Better training results because learners are more engaged.

Better on-the-job performance because scenarios put theory into perspective.

Lower learning curve because scenarios provide ready-to-use behavior patterns.

Cons:

Authoring, developing, and play-testing a scenario-based training module will definitely take more time.

Costs, which are related to the time, will consequently be higher.

Using the wrong tools (or rather the tools geared towards classic linear course production) will increase both the time, the cost and the overall complexity of production.

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Branching Scenarios: What You Need To Know - eLearning Industry

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When I created our software for building branching scenarios, I assumed that everybody knew what scenarios were and how scenarios could improve your eLearning. I quickly came to realize that a lot of people had never used or even seen a branching scenario. Instead, they keep producing standard linear eLearning courses that do not engage learners.

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elearn Magazine: Gamification: Using Game Mechanics to Enhance eLearning

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elearn Magazine: Gamification: Using Game Mechanics to Enhance eLearning

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elearn Magazine: Gamification: Using Game Mechanics to Enhance eLearning

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Is gamification just another empty buzzword, or can the principles that game designers employ to engage players really be applied to the design of eLearning software? What exactly is gamification? And, can the theories of gamification be applied to a variety of projects regardless of scope and budget?

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Logiciel auteur, éditeur de Serious Games, simulations pour la formation

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Logiciel auteur, éditeur de Serious Games, simulations pour la formation

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Serious Factory - Serious Game pour une pédagogie innovante

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Serious Factory édite des solutions pédagogiques pour la formation de type Simulation, Serious game, e-Learning, digital learning, logiciel auteur