The short version
- Sales gamification means points, leaderboards, contests and streaks for the work that leads to deals.
- Give points for activity a rep controls, such as calls, meetings and proposals, and more for the steps closer to a deal.
- The classic contest, most revenue wins, motivates the two reps who can win it. Use formats where everyone who hits their own number wins something.
- Reset the board every week, so a slow start doesn't mean a lost month.
- Pair every activity count with a quality check, or you'll get empty calls logged for points.
What sales gamification looks like on a small team
Sales gamification is using game pieces, such as points, a leaderboard, contests, streaks and small prizes, to make the daily work of selling visible and worth doing. A rep who makes forty calls in a week with nothing to show for it on the revenue line sees their points go up instead.
It works when it rewards the steps that lead to deals and when most of the team can win something. It fails when it turns into a contest the same person wins every month.
What to give points for
Give points for the activities a rep controls, and give more for the steps closer to a deal. Here's a made-up starting table:
| Activity | Points | Why this many |
|---|---|---|
| Call made | 1 | Lots of them, each worth a little |
| Conversation with the right person | 2 | A call that reached someone |
| Meeting booked | 3 | Needs a conversation that went well |
| Meeting held | 5 | Needs the buyer to turn up |
| Proposal sent | 5 | The buyer asked for a price |
| Deal closed | 10 | The one you're paid on |
Change the numbers at the start of a month, never in the middle. If reps pile into one activity because it's cheap points, that activity is worth too much. The glossary entry on activity points has more on setting them, and the sales leaderboard template does the sums in a spreadsheet.
Sales gamification ideas the middle of the board can win
| Format | How it works | Who it motivates |
|---|---|---|
| Hit your number | Everyone who reaches their own weekly target wins the prize | The whole team, each against their own record |
| Most improved | The biggest rise over the rep's own last 4 weeks wins | The middle and the bottom |
| Team against team | Split the team in two and add up the points | Reps who'd never win alone |
| Streak | Every week on target in a row earns a ticket in a draw | Reps who are steady but never top |
| Raffle tickets | Every meeting held is one ticket in the end-of-month draw | Everyone, with the best odds for the busiest |
| Top of the board | The most points or revenue wins | The top two reps |
The last one is the classic, and it's fine now and then. Run it every month, though, and by week two the rest of the team has worked out that they can't win and stopped trying, so mix it with the others.
How to motivate the middle of the leaderboard
The top of the board motivates itself, and the bottom usually needs coaching more than a prize. The middle of the board is most of your team, and it's the group a ranked leaderboard does least for: they'll never be first, and they're not in trouble, so nothing on the board is aimed at them.
Give the middle something to chase that doesn't depend on beating the top two:
- A personal target on the board beside their points, so "hit your number" is a win they can see.
- Most improved, measured against their own recent weeks.
- A streak of weeks on target, which a steady rep can build and a star who coasts can lose.
- Recognition for the step they're best at: the best show rate, the most follow-ups done on the day promised.
- A partner from the top of the board for a week of joint calls, framed as a skill swap.
A made-up example: a rep in the middle averages 40 points a week. Set their target at 45. The week they hit 46 they're a winner on the board, even though they're sixth of ten.
Run a four-week contest from a spreadsheet
- Pick the one number that's furthest off pace this month, such as meetings held.
- Set each rep's weekly target from their own last 8 weeks, plus a stretch of about 10%.
- Choose the format: hit your number, with a draw among everyone who hits it all four weeks.
- Announce it on a Monday with the rules on one page: what counts, how it's logged, when it ends and what the prize is.
- Update the board every day, and say who's on pace in the Wednesday check.
- Name the weekly winners every Friday, so the contest has four finishes instead of one.
- At the end, look at the number you picked. If it moved and stayed up in the month after, run it again. If it dropped straight back, the contest bought a spike and nothing more.
Stop reps gaming the points
Anything that earns points will be gamed by someone. Plan for it.
- Pair counts with outcomes. Calls earn points, but the board also shows meetings booked per 100 calls.
- Check a sample. Listen to three random logged calls a week. Reps log more carefully when they know someone looks.
- Count only what the system can see. A meeting counts when it's in the calendar with the buyer on it.
- Cap the cheap stuff. Calls stop earning points after, say, 80 a day.
- Take points back for things that didn't happen, quietly and in private.
When gamification makes things worse
- If the prizes are the only reason anyone logs, the logging stops when the prizes do.
- A board read out to shame the bottom three teaches people to hide from it.
- Rules that change mid-contest tell the team the game is rigged.
- A contest can reward activity the business doesn't need, such as calls to a list that's already been worked.
- A board that runs the same game forever becomes wallpaper, so rotate formats every month or two.
Do you need software, or will a spreadsheet do?
Not to start. A spreadsheet with one row per rep, a column per activity and a points row runs a team of ten for months, and the sales leaderboard template is one you can copy. Software earns its place when updating the sheet takes someone an hour a day, when reps are in the field and log on their phones, or when you want the board to update the moment someone logs. The comparison of sales gamification software covers seven tools side by side.
Points for the work, a board that resets every Monday
This guide is free. ActivityTracker, the app we make, is paid. Here's what it does for gamification.
- The leaderboard turns everything a rep logs into points, starts again every Monday, and shows each rep's own target beside their score
- Calls and meetings are one tap each to log, so the points count the moment the work is done
- A rep can tap their rank and get a card with their name, place and points, ready to drop in the team chat
- Biscuit, the app's corgi, turns each point into ten coins, and a no earns the same as a yes
- Streaks count weeks, so one missed day doesn't break a run of good weeks