A sales leaderboard can be a great tool to motivate your sales reps. It can help boost productivity, spur on some friendly competition and accelerate pipeline activity. A sales leaderboard is essentially a visual representation of individual or team performance. You select your KPIs and then let the leaderboard rank the reps and display results for all to see.

Whether you’re ranking on metrics like number of leads contacted or total revenue, a sales leaderboard can be incredibly motivating. Why is that? According to Salesforce’s Samuel Holzman, it all comes down to the psychology of sales motivation.

Even before gamification, when sales leaderboards lived on whiteboards or poster paper, leaderboards were shown to improve sales performance. Holzman points out research that shows that 72% of employees say gamification inspires them to work harder, and after implementing sales gamification, companies have seen as much as a 45% increase in sales margin.

How can you get the most out of your sales leaderboard? Read on. We’re sharing some guidance from Holzman in this issue of PromoPro Daily.

Reward the right sales behaviors and activities. Motivating your sales reps is important, but you should also be helping them do their jobs better. Instead of only rewarding results related to things like revenue generated and opportunities won, Holzman recommends using KPIs tied to specific behaviors like sending personalized emails or making cold calls.

Make your leaderboard visible and accessible. It should be baked into your sales process, Holzman says. Your employees should never have to wonder how they’re doing on the leaderboard. He suggests displaying the leaderboard on monitors throughout the office or incorporating them into software your team already uses.

Remember different personalities. To make a sales leaderboard successful, you should cater to all the different personalities on your team. Holzman says some employees find it fun to engage in some friendly competition, while others enjoy the recognition and social clout when they know everyone can see how well they’re doing. Some employees are reward-chasers – they want those cool promos or bonus benefits like extra PTO.

Don’t complicate things. If the rules are vague or confusing, sales reps won’t want to participate in the leaderboard. Holzman advises creating a rule system that’s easy to understand. Make sure your employees know that specific actions tie in to specific rewards.

Make them reach for rewards. You should never over-reward the bare minimum, Holzman says. This can demotivate your top performers. Aim to create a system that doesn’t ignore the small wins but rewards the exceptional victories.

Acknowledge progress and achievement. A sales leaderboard can help bring some excitement to the office, but sales reps shouldn’t feel like their worth is tied to a ranking or how many points they get. Holzman encourages leaders to highlight their employees’ progress, especially those reps who aren’t consistently at the top of the board.

When you want to create a results-driven environment, try implementing a sales leaderboard. You don’t have to get it right the first time – just keep trying new things, getting feedback from your reps and adapting as you go.

Compiled by Audrey Sellers
Source: Samuel Holzman is a content writer and product marketing lead at Salesforce. He has eight years of experience as a marketing writer covering topics like sales and finance.