Dear Santa, Can I Get More Sales for Christmas?

Santa Claus Brings More Sales for ChristmasMany CEOs are sending a letter to Santa Claus this year requesting a significant improvement in the productivity of sales. Most of the business leaders I have discussed with recently have presented their concern about how the general market situation and fierce changes in business environment have decreased average sales.

I dare to claim that instead of a productivity revolution there will be a lot of coal in those CEO’s gift boxes, if they don’t work together with sales, marketing and other employees to find the solutions for the following things:

1. How to qualify leads more efficiently?

a) Does the collaboration of sales and marketing work?

b) Does the collaboration of sales and other employees working with customers work?

2. Is the sales process structured enough?

a) How do sales people prioritize their time management?

b) How is the sales process managed?

3. Is your offering customized to the customer’s needs?

a) Is your sales person a pusher or a servant?

b) How to differ from competitors?

c) Is production efficient?

d) How the sales is involved in the execution of strategy?

The TAS Group demonstrates the above themes in concrete numbers.

Once the challenges of sales are found it is time to think about the solutions. The following three companies gamified their sales – and gained amazing results!

1) Lawley Insurance improved the accuracy of their sales forecast

The ability to predict sales even better is in the wish list of nearly all the sales directors I’ve met this autumn. Often the customer’s CRM system doesn’t hold enough data to make reliable predictions which holds up the implementation of new sales forecasting models.

Lawley Insurance had difficulties because of tumbled data concerning sales opportunities. The predicted closing date and the phase of the sales project were usually not up-to-date. Lawley gamified the way data was updated to CRM and the results were evident after two weeks: the closing dates of the sales projects were updated 152 % more often compared to the previous eight months period altogether. Up-to-date data had an immediate effect on the precision of the sales prediction model.

Lawley’s example is an excellent demonstration of how gamification can be used to support sales management and management of one’s own sales work.

2) Autodesk increased the quality and number of leads

Many SaaS vendors that sell their services over the internet have noticed that offering a free trial increases the number of trial users and with that also sales. Few vendors have succeeded in guiding the trial user into using the application as efficiently as Autodesk.

Autodesk’s 3D modelling software is mainly used by creative professionals in the game and movie industries. The company gamified a workflow that helped the user get to know the valuable features of the software within the 30-day free trial period. Gamification was implemented around a story that led the users to try out different features. As a result, they gained:

  • 54 % increase in trial uses,
  • 15 % increase in sales and
  • 29 % increase in channel sales per started trial use.

Autodesk is a great example of how it is possible to improve the quality and quantity of leads with gamification. Gamification of the trial period will most likely produce relevant information also for software development and it helps to serve potential customers more personally with their needs in mind.

3) Hewlett-Packard improved their partner sales

A well-managed partner network is one of the keys to success for the world’s leading technology companies.

Hewlett-Packard’s partners are mostly retailers. There are two typical challenges for managing a partner network: firstly, the principal can’t decide how the partner’s employees manage their time and secondly, there are always competing technologies in the partner’s sale portfolio. Hewlett-Packard gamified their partner portal by integrating game mechanics in the sales results and training.

The company gained impressive results with the new approach:

  • Almost 80 % of the 1200 sales people registered into the portal
  • The goal was a 50 % increase in sales – realization was 56,4 %
  • In the first three months of the financial year 2011/2012 sales grew by billion dollars

Hewlett-Packard’s example shows that engagement, motivation and loyalty counts.

Take the first steps towards sales gamification

As seen before, it is possible to increase the sales productivity notably and fast with gamification. When you are about to gamify your sales, it is crucial to:

1) find out the main factors that are proven to gain better sales result

2) define the actions which you want to increase either in quantity or quality

3) give instant feedback and rewards by the means that support the organizational culture and are appreciated by the sales people

How can your organization improve sales with gamification? Throw us a challenge and book a free appointment!

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