From the course: Sales Gamification

Defining sales gamification and games

From the course: Sales Gamification

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Defining sales gamification and games

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- Sales gamification is an exciting methodology helping sales professionals maintain focus, learn new information, behave in a desired manner, and most importantly, make sales. There seems to be some confusion about sales gamification. In fact, the term gamification is often used interchangeably with other terms like sales games or even sales simulations. Let's define terms so we can have a common set of definitions to work from during this course. First, a sales simulation is when you realistically mimic or simulate a sales call. This might be done in a live role play or via an online program where the learner chooses a response from a list of choices. Simulations are typically as realistic as possible, like a flight simulator but for selling skills. Sales games on the other hand, often contain elements abstraction and fantasy. Let me show you one example, a sales game I developed called Zombie Sales Apocalypse. In this video game, players go through a mock sales call attempting to provide the right responses to questions asked by the office staff. The idea of the game is that a physician's office is infected with a zombie virus and you must decide an antidote to the office that you slip into the product you sell. If you agitate the office staff by answering incorrectly, they become zombies. This is clearly a sales game and not gamification. This sales game, and others, have a defined beginning, middle and end. It requires multiple game elements to be effective. It includes challenges, points, specific rules of engagement and if one of those elements is missing, the game falls apart. In other words, a sales game is a system focused on improving a player's sales skills in which players engage in an abstract challenge defined by rules, interactivity and feedback that result in a quantifiable outcome, a winner and a loser. Sales gamification is about engagement, motivation, and reinforcing behavior. It's using pieces of games to drive behavior rather than an entire game to teach a behavior. It's about layering those elements onto every day sales activities. An example is awarding points to the sales person who follows up with the most prospects in a week. This example isn't a game where abstract actions occur, rather it's adding a game element or layer, in this case points, to an activity, contacting prospects. It's something already undertaken by the sales professionals. That's sales gamification. Now that we've discussed critical terms, let's take a dive a little deeper into the subject.

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