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Our CSO Jared Houghton called it 3 years ago - now is the time to budget for Sales Gamification.
Gamification is the tool with the highest expected growth (83.1%) among sales development teams in 2018. So says The State of Sales Development, a massive survey authored by InsideSales.com, Nudge, Drift, SalesForLife, The Bridge Group, OneLab, and Datanyze.
More telling is that - according to the study - Gamification outpaces the 2nd fastest-growing sales development tool in terms of adoption (Video Outreach tools) by a nearly 3:1 clip.
Source: The State of Sales Development.
What’s behind the crazy growth? Simple. The average SDR has a massive daily workload, in terms of expected activity volume. According to the report, sales development reps did an average of 93.8 daily activities, including an average of:
- 37.2 phone calls (39.7%).
- 36.2 emails (38.6%).
- 15.2 voicemail messages (15.2%).
- 7.7 social media touches (8.2%).
These activities led to an average of:
- 13.6 meaningful conversations a day. (14.5% conversation rate).
- 22.5 appointments set per month (5.5% appointment rate).
- 2.3 opportunities accepted per month. (74.8% opp acceptance rate).
- 12.3 deals per quarter. (33.2% accepted-to-closed won rate).
Sales gamification platforms give teams real-time visibility and insights into activity and achievements on a rep-by-rep basis. The most advanced tools offer compelling views such as scorecards, dashboards, leaderboards, TVs, and Slack alerts. A favorite of Salesforce users, sales gamification tools are often used by sales managers, VPs, operations and business analysts for at-a-glance reporting, coaching, and process analysis.
At a high level, Gamification increases return-on-investment in your sales development function in 3 facets:
- Moving the needle on the middle 70% of sales team performers.
- Visibility, transparency and ownership over daily performance.
- Automating recognition and positive feedback loops.
Here’s a quick overview of each benefit and how it’s working in real-world application.
Sales Gamification Benefit #1. Move the Needle for the Middle 70%.
Your sales organization has likely invested in click-to-call, call analytics or coaching, or sales acceleration / cadence tools. You've definitely invested in a CRM.
Add that up, and you have the tools in place to maximize sales team productivity and performance tracking. The next logical addition - performance visualization. Which gamification is apt to provide.
Don't take our word for it. Read our West case study and TV Leaderboard Best Practices White Paper to see how their Fortune 1000 inside sales organization moved the midde by adding visibility and meaning to metrics being tracked by NewVoiceMedia and PeopleSoft.
Sales Gamification Benefit #2. KPI Visibility, Transparency, Ownership.
The best Sales Gamification tools deploy scorecards and KPI leaderboards to create consistency and accountability around your sales KPIs.
Learn how Wayfair used Ambition to create real-time performance tracking and visibility for 140 inside sales reps - leading to 100% increase in revenue-per-rep over 12 months.
Sales Gamification Benefit #3. Automate Recognition and Feedback.
Sales gamification platforms like Ambition work by sending personalized, real-time recognition to office TVs, emails, and Slack channels.
As multiple users have noted, sales gamification tools maximize value by automating real-time feedback loops and creating addictive public recognition for sales reps who close a deal or hit a performance milestone.
Finding Budget for SDR Spend
Not including CRM spend, companies spend an average of $2,027 per SDR per year on sales technology.
Companies report they expect the overall amount to increase by 3.8% in 2018. This equates to $169 per month per rep in 2017 and $175 per month per rep in 2018.
The average sales development rep uses an average of 4.9 sales technologies for their SDRs. The total number of sales tools adopted also depends on role and deal size.
The Real-Time Sales Performance Platform
Harvard Business Review and AA-ISP (the Global Inside Sales Organization). Fortune 1000 sales organizations like UPS, Aerotek and Wayfair use Ambition to enhance sales KPI clarity and drive their teams using real-time scorecards, dashboards, alerts, contests, and TV leaderboards.
Contact us to schedule a demo of Ambition for your sales force today.
