What Fantasy Football Can Teach Your Salespeople
Companies worldwide struggle to engage employees, especially sales teams. It’s no secret that we’ve all got a lot going on, both personally and professionally, and we’re trying to fit it all into the finite time we have. Take me, for example. I’m someone who gets the “Sunday Scaries” – that anxious feeling before a week begins. It’s not because I dread the week or because I don’t want to go to work. It’s simply because I’m in the same boat as most people: I’m busy and I’m trying to make it all happen.
One thing that helps ease my Sunday anxiety: fantasy football. I love having conversations with my co-workers about the weekend’s games and talking about our teams as we kick off the week. And that got me thinking about how the game-like elements of fantasy football could be infused into the workplace to engage employees.
Fantasy football is basically the gamification of the sport us non-professional athletes have come to know and love. And the principles of sales gamification can be used in a professional environment, too. For example, managers can help sales teams ignite competition, build stronger teams, and incentivize the right behaviors.
When you apply the game-like elements of fantasy football within your sales team, you can drive higher engagement and performance. So what can fantasy football teach your salespeople?
With Greater Visibility Comes Greater Results
Maybe your salespeople won’t be thrilled to be under a microscope, especially with their peers. But sales performance is visible in most organizations anyway, so gamification helps bring some fun and excitement to that level of visibility. Imagine creating a “fantasy football” team with your salespeople. Having a tournament with all the activities you want to track or improve (for example, increasing the number of cold calls your team makes or prospecting emails they send each day) enables your salespeople to earn points over a period of time based on the behaviors you want to drive. Your salespeople will learn where they need to focus time and effort to achieve their goals, and you’ll see which people are performing well and who could use help. And with better visibility and performance insights comes the opportunity to implement new coaching tactics and lessons to make your team more effective.
Rally Around Performance
Typically, sales is seen as an “individual sport.” Salespeople are always trying to outperform their peers and rank number one within their teams. What would happen if you switched up the game and added a team dimension to the mix? Taking the principles of fantasy football, you could create teams of salespeople from a draft pool of peers. Players on a team would be more engaged and involved with their teammates’ performance. Team owners (sales managers, for example) would see new levels of collaboration and camaraderie. And with a culture of collaboration, salespeople would be much more likely to help their fellow colleagues out in order to take their team to the top of the league — and that’s what will ultimately help your business better achieve your sales targets and company goals.
Infusing a game-like experience into everyday sales activities can help you drive new levels of performance and results across your sales team. Learn more about how you can implement a fantasy football-like experience with your sales teams with Bullhorn SalesDuel.
