Thinking About How to Gamify Sales Training

We would like to increase the participation in our sales training by making it  social, fun and rewarding.

I  just read, (and highly recommend), Jonah Berger's just released book , "Contagious".  There are many examples of how companies create "social currency."  We ,and I'm sure you, are looking for ways to motivate our salespeople to do the things that will make them successful.  The key areas, we believe, are: 1. connecting with people who can help them in their tasks (this is especially important in a matrix organization such as we have at IBM)  2.  Encourage them to learn about the products and solutions they sell, where we have sold them successfully and who competes with us.  3. Encourage them to learn more about the industries they sell into. So they understand key metrics and challenges of their prospects/customers and. 4. encourage them to learn about the process and tools to help them sell.

To accomplish this we have established an internal social community of all sellers who are in the training or have been in the training at some time.  This is our "Virtual Water Cooler."  This community will form the foundation for our gamification.  Along the lines of "Four Square" we will invite community members to compete to be the Mayors of each of these four aforementioned areas.  They will accumulate points by checking into various activities ( personal networks, online courses, articles recordings, forums wikis) earning one point for each activity. At the end of two weeks the person with the most points will be declared the Mayor of the area.  This person will be recognized with thier sales leader and remain the mayor for two weeks while the process is repeated.

All of this is in the planning stage at the moment. I will let you know how we make out.  I would love to hear about your efforts to gamify your sales training. Please share in the comments.