Sales is more creative than we think. But what motivates your sales team to work creatively makes all the difference. There’s a new trend brewing – the use of gamification to get the best out of sales teams. A report stated that 53% of technology stakeholders believed that by 2020, the use of gamification would be widespread. Some organizations have gone on to the extent of getting a fantasy sports website designed for engaging their sales teams.

Why does gamification work for teams?

According to Gamification by Design co-author Gabe Zichermann, “gamification is 75 percent psychology and 25 percent technology.” A good gamification tool such as fantasy sports application, taps into the psychological behaviours of that govern the day-to-day decisions employees make. These tools encourage a level-playing field, quite literally in case of fantasy sports apps, for competition and encourage employees to share their achievement and manage progress of their work. When a large organization choose to gamify its sales algorithm, it basically intends to encourage a certain kind of behaviour.

According to Gartner, gamification motivates a target audience—whether that’s your employees or your customers—"to higher and more meaningful levels of engagement. Humans are ‘hard-wired’ to enjoy games and have a natural tendency to interact more deeply in activities that are framed in a game construct."

How does fantasy sports website boost sales performance?

The idea of using fantasy sports applications for gamification of sales teams has caught the fancy of gamers, organizations and app developers alike. Performance Fantasy League is a fantasy sports application launched in 2016, which brings together employees and teams from various departments. Formed by former star pitcher of Delta State University Chris Burgess, the PFL has managed to engage sales teams of banks and financial institutions. Participants of these apps can select fantasy teams – be it football, basketball or baseball – and play fantasy league games. Through fantasy sports software, members of different departments such as operations, retail, lending or compliance – can come together and compete against each other. The software has managed to get 100% participation in several organizations while some banks claim that they were able to achieve teamwork due to the fantasy sports mobile application.

Gartner’s Hype Cycle for the Digital Workplace, 2017 says that businesses are becoming more interested in implementing gamification as an overall innovation management strategy that seeks to improve customer relationship management, as well as employee engagement

Here’s how fantasy sports website and mobile app can engage sales teams:

Boosting sales through leaderboards: A fantasy sports website or mobile app typically has a leaderboard that ranks the best players and teams. This when put into a sales gamification context, works wonders for motivating sales reps and boosting sales. When real time dashboards and statistics are put in front of the sales teams, it allows them to compete and recognize individual and team achievements.

Deeper engagement: As stated by Gartner, human brains are hard-wired for games. And when sales teams are pitched in for a performance through a fantasy sports app, they are bound to feel and get more engaged. Now their performance becomes their natural concern and competition motivates them to try harder.

Innovation through contests: Fantasy sports software can also have real-time promotions or contests around an effort format (such as calls and appointments) and result format (sales closed). This will compel them to find newer ways to get the targets on time. The sales teams will invent and experiment more and wonderful systems can be brought in for execution in the organization.

Should large organizations opt for fantasy sports apps?

The bigger the organization, the larger is the hierarchy and systems. As a result, the sales and retail departments often struggle to co-ordinate and yet keep everyone motivated. If a large organization has structured teams, it must definitely consider getting a fantasy sports website designed. In fact, such as organization must also think of customer engagement through gamification.

A few points should be considered for fantasy sports or any gamified app –
/ Getting a gamified technology such as fantasy sports software is different from other IT solutions.
/ A fantasy sports software needs a totally unique approach based on a storyline, leaderboards, badges, reward programs etc.
/ Few IT service providers have gamification app skills, hence hiring an organization that designs fantasy sports apps is more sensible.

Industries using gamified apps

Fitness industry has been an early adopter of gamified technologies to keep users motivated. Several fitness centers, clinics and cosmetology centers have designed their own gamified apps to keep customers and employees motivated. Fitness apps such as Zombies,Run! and Superhero Workout have been tremendously successful.
Banks and financial institutions, being large in terms of organization, have adopted fantasy sports apps in order to engage their sales teams. Startups have also been quite proactive since gamified sales processes are fun and keep employees engaged.

Time to engage your millennial sales team

Your sales teams are a group of millennials that are currently experiencing a work-engagement crisis. According to a Gallup survey, approximately 70 percent of millennials feel disengaged at work. Good news is this demographic is extremely tech-savvy and prefer a fun workplace (read bean bags) and interaction. Here’s when fantasy sports apps make the cut and become most suitable for deeper engagement.

Vinfotech can be your trusted partner fantasy sports website design and development for your organization. Being world leaders in fantasy sports apps, we can create the best gamified app to suit your sales department. Apart from having a rich portfolio of fantasy sports apps for sports fans, we have built some niche fantasy sports apps that were created for niche purposes. For instance, there’s GM Genius - A fantasy football software created to engage American teens for improving their math skills and Nationball- A fantasy politics software. If you think it’s time your organization gamified its sales department, do give us a call.