As long as there have been sales teams, managers have been using some type of ranking system such as whiteboards or “President’s Clubs” to motivate reps. Why? Because it works. If you give reps a quota they will aim to hit it. But if you have salespeople compete against each other, they are more likely to exceed it with the goal of outselling each other. It’s no coincidence that when everyone strives to outscore their teammates, both friendly competition and revenue go through the roof.
Our team wanted a way to encourage this friendly competition beyond the outdated President’s Clubs and manual ranking systems. So, some of our engineers decided to build a leaderboard app for the sales team. The result was an interactive leaderboard that syncs directly to our Salesforce data, highlights key stats such as a rep’s average sales cycle, and flashes alerts in real-time when a new deal is closed. Now, this leaderboard is displayed on screens throughout the office and has been a valuable tool for the entire team. In fact, revenue grew by 127% the first quarter we started using it.
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Here are the top 3 reasons why the leaderboard app has been such a success for our team:
1. It uses recognition as a motivator
Go ask a number of salespeople what motivates them besides money. I would assure you that more than half of them say “recognition”. Salespeople want to be recognized by their peers as a strong closer. In fact, there is compelling evidence that recognition can be an even stronger motivator than money.
Individuals are more motivated by intrinsic factors such as the mastery of a skill than extrinsic motivators such as money, a concept Daniel Pink readers should be familiar with. At the most basic level, mastery of a skill is what gives people purpose. Being recognized as one of the best at a skill feeds this sense of purpose. Beyond cashing a commission check, a sales rep hustles because she wants to be the best. When reps gets recognition for their hustle, they get fired up. We’ve found that feeding this fire with a leaderboard ignites a new level of drive across our sales team.
2. It increases internal visibility
On top of motivating sales reps on a personal level, the leaderboard has provided valuable visibility to our entire team. With the leaderboard displayed on just about every room in the InsightSquared headquarters, even employees who aren’t directly tied to the daily activities of sales are able to tell you who our top salespeople of the month are and if we are hitting our numbers. It adds a layer of transparency to the team. It keeps the sales team accountable, and it keeps everyone better in tune with the daily performance of the business.
3. It makes selling more fun
When you get down to it, a leaderboard just makes selling more fun. With the InsightSquared Leaderboard App, the screen flashes the words “New Deal” across the screen with a loud whoosh sound whenever a new deal is closed. If you’re in our office when this happens, you’ll see everyone stand up and applaud. It’s exciting to celebrate every win, even the small ones, as a team. Plus, sometimes you may even see the rep who just closed attempt some dance moves.
If you don’t enjoy watching salespeople trying to dance, maybe the leaderboard isn’t for you. But for the rest of us, I think using a tool like this in the office makes too much sense.
Your reps deserve the recognition, internal visibility, and celebration a leaderboard will provide, which is why we’ve made ours available. Download it here for free and see how we’ve been able to encourage healthy competition and improve our sales team’s productivity.
