How To Capitalize on March Madness Hype with Ambition Sales Contests

Ever wanted to run an authentic, March Madness-style tournament for your sales team? Here's how you can with Ambition.

The best sales contests are engaging, sustainable, impact your entire sales team, and involve multiple metrics. What's the perfect model for a sales contest that has each of those elements? (Hint: It's not a leaderboard - sorry golfers).

It's a tie between Fantasy Football and March Madness, hands-down the two best models for running unique, memorable and impactful sales contests.

Here at Ambition, we help sales organizations run epic sales competitions - ranging from Fantasy Football for Sales to major SPIFs. If you've ever wanted to run a March Madness-style sales contest, here's how you can via Ambition's drag-and-drop competition builder.

Step 1: Score daily performance.

Ambition plugs into any data source and lets you set benchmarks for your sales people using multiple metrics. Using those benchmarks, we create what's called an "Ambition Score," which is a single, overarching score of that person's daily performance. Click the image below to see how it works.

Every member of your sales team finishes their day with a final score. That will come in handy once we move to Step 4.

Step 2. Create Your Teams.

Once you've set the benchmarks that will go towards each sales rep's Ambition Score, you have two options. Option A. Let your sales reps compete individually against one anothert. Option B. Divide them into teams.


If your sales force is big enough to support teams, we recommend Option B. Bear in mind that you would like a bracket of either 32 or 64 teams (with play-in games as needed) that consist of at least 3 sales reps apiece.

If your sales organization has 100 or more members, take Option B. Smaller sales forces will be better-suited running individual vs. individual matchups. 

Step 3.  Set up your bracket.

Ambition lets you visualize your tournament bracket and automatically updates each matchup in real-time. In setting up your bracket, we advise that you forego seeding based on prior performance (too much hassle and potential to lead to hurt feelings).

Instead, simply set up your matchups to create as much potential for friendly "rivalry" games to happen as possible.

We also advise running week-long matchups, in the event someone has a sick day or faces unique circumstances that attention away from the benchmarks being scored. Week-long matchups are the best way to ensure "fair" competition.

Step 4. Add Hype.

Now comes the fun part. Once you've completed Steps 1-3, your job is to enjoy the Madness. Here are a few of the Ambition features that will pump up your competitors and whip your sales team into a frenzy.

Pre-game and real-time score projections.

Highlight feed with updates on team and individual performance.

Have reps create an Ambition Anthem that auto-plays over Office TVs when their team wins.

These are the features that will help your competitors go the distance. All you're missing is color commentary from Clark Kellogg and Bill Raftery.

Step 5: Embrace the Madness.

Self-explanatory. When one team closes a huge 11th hour deal to upset another, you better make sure it gets broadcast. Otherwise, you'll miss an opportunity to bring the below gif into your sales force. 

Goal: Transorm your sales floor into ground zero for dramatics, heroism, and memorable moments like this. 

Run March Madness for Sales on Ambition

Ambition is a sales management platform that syncs every department, data source, and performance metric in your organization on one system.

Companies use Ambition to codify and manage sales metrics and personnel. Ambition's drag-and-drop interface lets non-technical sales leaders create custom sales contests, scorecards, reports, and TVs to drive results.  

Ambition is endorsed by Harvard Business Review, AA-ISP (the Global Inside Sales Organization), and USA Today as a proven solution for sales teams looking to run hyper-engaging sales competitions that accelerate revenue. Contact us and build your March Madness themed sales contest.

Watch Testimonials:

1. FiveStars: Adam Wall. Sr. Manager of Sales Operations . 
2. Filemaker: Brad Freitag. Vice-President of Worldwide Sales.
3. Outreach: Mark Kosoglow. Vice-President of Sales.
4. Cell Marque: Lauren Hopson. Director of Sales & Marketing.
5. Access America Transport: Ted Alling. Chief Executive Officer.

Watch Product Walkthroughs:

1. ChowNow. Led by Vice-President of Sales, Drew Woodcock.
2. Outreach. Led by Sales Development Manager, Alex Lynn.
3. AMX Logistics. Led by Executive Vice-President ,Jared Moore.

Read Case Studies:

1. Clayton Homes: HBR finds triple-digit growth in 3 sales efficiency metrics. 
2. Coyote Logistics: Monthly revenue per broker grew $525 in 6 months.
3. Peek: Monthly sales activity volume grew 142% in 6 months.
4. Vorsight: Monthly sales conversations grew 300% in 6 months.

Contact us to learn how Ambition can impact your sales organization today.