I love my Fitbit. The live movement tracking on my wrist, the competition with my friends, and the ability to earn badges along the way keep me motivated to move more and pursue a healthier lifestyle. In fact, adding a Fitbit to my life helped me lose 25 pounds last year!
After so many failed fad diets and gym memberships, why was this simple tool so effective for me? In part, it was because of the competition within the Fitbit community - who could walk the most steps or climb the most stairs today? Even better was the competition with myself. Would I finally be able to surpass the Ferris Wheel badge and climb 100 flights of stairs? And what quickly became my main focus - how long would it take me to earn the -25 lb Weight Loss badge? That simple badge drove me to make healthier decisions for an entire year.
Using Badges To Motivate Our Sales Team
We took that idea and translated it to our Account Growth Specialist team. First, what kinds badges would help intrinsically motivate them or create competition within the team on a daily basis? Second, what kinds of badges will our clients care about? We brainstormed a large list of options, worked with our GrowU team to test the theory and then launched the InceptGrows Badge Program with the entire division soon after.
At first, the reaction seemed sub-par. No one was jumping up and down at the chance to start earning some paper badges. We took a slight pivot to our approach, and learned that there are a few key pieces that have led to this program being successful:
Public recognition
This is crucial. We have a town hall meeting every other Wednesday that covers an array of topics, but one of the most exciting portions of the meeting is the announcement of all new badges earned over the last period. Everyone celebrates each other's achievements and helps to motivate each other to keep reaching for more.
Online profiles
As the Account Growth Specialists earn new badges, they get added to their online profiles. This allows them to stand out to clients and prospective clients looking at their profiles. There's no better way for them to depict that they earned the most sales funnel points last month or have 100 hours of sales experience in the manufacturing industry. The more badges they earn, the more clients want to work with them.
Performance evaluation
Incept uses a dynamic performance evaluation program that allows for frequent meetings regarding goal setting and success. We asked each of the Account Growth Specialists to add at least 3 badges they would like to try to earn to their Success Description which allows for regular conversation with their manager about their progress.
Agent involvement
If an Account Growth Specialist is passionate about a new badge being added to the lineup and presents the team with a convincing argument of why it would benefit our team and our clients, we add the badge!
This new program has positively impacted to our team comradery, competition, culture and results!
Think this the badge system could help motivate your sales team too? Take a look at all of our sales badges for inspiration, here.