How to find the Right Sales Contest Software?
9 minutes read
Here is the story of Jim, the head of the sales department at an insurance company.
With the beginning of this quarter, Jim has the pressure to get his salesforce to achieve the end of the year sales goals. To do that, he decides to adopt the age-old strategy of injecting excitement, passion, and inspiration into one’s salesforce. That is to run exciting sales contests.
Jim has got some amazing insurance sales contest ideas which he wants to run for his salesforce.
Now, he doesn’t want to deal with the tedious and manual work of the contest. And, rather focus on the final goal. So, he makes the smart decision to digitize the sales contest.
To run a digitized sales contest, he needs a sales contest software. With some options available in the market, he is confused about which one to go for.
Like Jim, if you are trying to figure out which sales contest software works best for your team, then you have come to the right place.
In this blog, we discuss 9 aspects that you need to look out for while selecting your sales contest software. Also, we have listed down the top 3 sales contest software tools that are the best.
So, here we go:
1. Gamifies Learning as well as Sales Activities
A strong sales team is made by strengthening these main aspects:
Sales knowledge
Sales conversational skills
Sales Performance
In fact, these aspects go hand-in-hand. Good product knowledge and the ability to have meaningful conversations with customers are key factors in driving good sales performance.
While picking your sales contest software you want to select the one that gives you the flexibility to include learning aspects, as well as performance.
Here are the examples of running a mixed contest -
This kind of multi-purpose software acts as a single source of truth for your sales reps. Also, it helps you to parallelly improve your reps’ sales knowledge and performance.
2. Allows you to set KPIs of your choice
As a manager of the sales department, you must be tracking a lot of KPIs like:
Annual sales and quarterly sales
Region-wise and Territory wise sales
Product-wise sales
KPIs change with the objective of the contest. If it's a new product launch, you want to run KPI gamification related to the new product.
For each contest, you want to set and measure different KPIs. So, your sales contest software should allow you to define different KPIs according to your requirement.
3.Individual and team format contests
Whether you have a small team or a globally distributed salesforce, your sales contest software should be able to support both small and large teams.
- Your sales contest software should allow you to conduct an individual format contest for a smaller team at one of your company’s branches.
- And, it should also allow you to conduct a larger contest between the sales teams that are located in various regions and countries.
4.Scoring System and Automatic Calculation
Scoring is the heart of any sales contest. Without an appropriate scoring system in place, your contest fails to have the kind impact that’s needed. So, make sure that the software you choose provides you with a lot of scoring options.
Your sales contest software should be flexible enough to calculate the ‘points per KPI’. Like 5 points per customer follow-up.
At the same time, it should also be able to calculate points based on levels like
- Policy Premium between $25k to $35k gives 30 points
- Policy Premium between $35k to $45k gives 40 points
- Policy Premium more than $45k gives 60 points
Here is an example of different kinds of scoring rules.
| KPI | Points | Targets |
|---|---|---|
| Coverage | 5 points per customer follow-up | Successfully meet 3 customers daily |
| Number of policies sold | 50 points per policy | Sell 2 policies weekly |
| Branch Activation | 20 points per activation | Activate 1 branch in a week |
| Points on Levels of Premium for each policy sold | Health Plans: Policy Premium less than $10k gives 15 points Policy Premium between $10k to $20k gives 20 points Policy Premium between $20k to $30k gives 30 points Policy Premium more than $30k gives 40 points |
5.Gamification Elements
When choosing the sales contest software, narrow down which gamification elements work best for your team. This ensures that your team gets the most out of the new tool.
Every tool comes with a set of gamification elements. But, here are some popular features amongst the sales reps that you need to look out for:
Contest Themes: It should allow you to set a theme for your contests. Like, NFL, March Madness, Halloween, etc. A theme helps in setting the right contest environment and effectively engages everyone.
Virtual badges: These badges provide each sales rep with a visual representation of their accomplishments
Real-time Leaderboards: It should showcase individual and team leaderboards. A leaderboard allows employees to see their progress with respect to the entire team’s progress. This provides a competitive edge to the entire process.
Progress bar: Think of how your favorite video game displays a progress bar. You can do the same thing by letting your team know how close they are to achieving a goal.
6. Mobile App and notifications
Sales teams are mostly on the field. They don’t have the time or the inclination to open up their laptops to know who ranks where in the leaderboard.
A mobile app enables your sales reps and managers to follow the contest progress and updates from anywhere, at anytime.
Also, make sure that it sends push notifications and email notifications to the players and managers about:
Contest Progress
Contest/ quota deadline
And, updated competitive ranking
7. Group Collaboration
This is a feature that you need to look for in order to facilitate communication and collaboration amongst the participants of the contest. For instance, a team participating in a team-based contest can communicate and collaborate with each other through the group chat feature of the sales contest app.
They can:
Discuss strategies on how to move forward and win
Encourage each other to achieve their goals
Share their achievement with their group members
And, congratulate the top performers
This encourages team-work and peer-to-peer collaboration
8. Integration with your CRM
A CRM is used by every medium-to-large sized sales team today. If your sales team is using a CRM like Salesforce or Hubspot (drive salesforce user adoption), then make sure that your sales contest platform integrates directly with that.
The sales contest software can directly tap into the CRM to determine:
Which salespeople are closing most leads
Their average time to move a prospect through the funnel
And other relevant metrics
Built-in integration of the sales contest tool with CRM, allows you to harness the data from your CRM immediately, without having your sales team input the data twice.
The sales contest platform can then use this data to create real-time leaderboards, assign points, and reward users.
9. Ability to roll back incorrect input data records
There might be instances where you or one of your team member have updated the KPI data with some incorrect values for the contest. Or there might be occasions where you want one of your contest participants to retake a test and upload the new score again. In such cases, this “Data Roll-back” feature comes in handy.
Your sales contest platform should allow you to roll back the incorrect input data records and let you upload the correct ones again. This way you can be assured that even if something goes wrong during your contest you can put it back on the right track without any issues.
Now that you are aware of the crucial features that you need to have in the sales contest tool, let’s take a look at the top sales contest tools of 2020.
Top 3 Sales Contest Softwares of 2020
The following is a list of top 3 sales contest software products that are currently popular with sales teams worldwide. All these software run digital sales contests online and possess unique features that can improve your salesforce’s productivity.
SmartWinnr | World’s #1 Mobile-first Sales Productivity Platform
Site: SmartWinnr.com
Integration: Salesforce.com, Microsoft Dynamics, Hubspot, Excel data upload, any data source
Key Features: Unlimited custom KPIs, Roll-back incorrect data, Learning contests, Sales contests, Person vs Person Challenges, team vs team challenges, Individual and team competitions, Contest themes, Individual and team leaderboards, Scorecards, Real-time data tracking, Manager View and Sales rep’s view of contest progress, Mobile app, Email and push notifications, Automated reporting, Group chat
Major Customers: Boston Scientific, NN Group, FedEx, ICICI Bank, SKF
Pricing: Contact Us
Ambition | Sales Productivity and Analytics Software
Integration: Any data source
Key Features: Ambition Score, Custom Metrics, Leaderboards, Individual & Team Competitions, Sales Anthems, Automated Reporting, Email notifications, Mobile App, Real-Time Data Tracking.
Major Customers: Dropbox, Coyote Logistics, Clayton Homes.
Pricing: Contact
Level Eleven | The sales Performance Platform
Integration: Salesforce
Key Features: Leaderboards, Competitions, Real-Time Data Tracking, Mobile App, Chatter groups, Email, Mobile, and CRM notifications.
Major Customers: Kelly Services, Comcast, Stanley Black & Decker.
Pricing: Mini: Starting at $40 user/month, Standard: Starting at $50, Power: Starting at $40, Enterprise: $12.5k
SmartWinnr: The Leader in the Sales Contest Software
SmartWinnr is an AI-powered gamification platform that helps you to improve your sales team’s knowledge and performance by up to 80%.
You can run the most effective, engaging, hustle-free, and automated contests with the help of SmartWinnr. No tedious excel calculations, live leaderboards, and many more.
Curious to see SmartWinnr in action? Book a demo with us today!
Published on Sat Oct 17 2020