Leverage The Sales Leaderboard To Motivate Your Team

The sales leaderboard not only allows leaders to monitor sales performance and make accurate forecasts, but when used thoughtfully, it can also serve as a powerful tool for:

• Motivating the sales team
• Enhancing team and individual performance
• Cultivating a positive and healthy sales team culture

The best sales leaders spend a lot of time maintaining team culture; they’re seeking to foster a culture that blends a healthy community with a focus on high performance. They want reps to value and support one another while staying focused on goals and results. 

Sales leaderboards can advance the sales environment with all its complexities and relieve pressure on the sales leader. Sales managers can use it to drive teamwork as well as promote winning and keeping score. Effectively leveraging leaderboards encourages sales team members to take responsibility for their actions, fostering a culture of accountability and allowing them to enjoy their work while safeguarding the team’s overall atmosphere.

Make The Sales Leaderboard A Secret Advantage For The Sales Organization

Constructing and updating a leaderboard doesn’t take time away from other managerial responsibilities because sales managers already need to know the information presented. But, managers can go a step further to bring the sales leaderboard into the lifeblood of the sales organization for its consistent shot of positive reinforcement. By sharing the leaderboard with reps, managers reduce the need for negative motivation and cultivate an environment where team members are driven by organic positivity, seeking rewards, recognition, and self-affirmation from their leaderboard success.

1. Update the leaderboard regularly –  If the manager doesn’t take the data presented seriously, neither will sales reps. Post consistently, regardless of who is in the lead. If a top producer is struggling and numbers reflect that, they will be driven to change. Allow sales reps to challenge one another in direct sales competitions. Salespeople are natural competitors. 

2. Choose KPIs Carefully – Track more than just completed sales numbers. Track key performance indicators (KPIs) such as new opportunities, meetings, calls, etc. This not only measures numerical achievements but also encourages and celebrates the behaviors that contribute to successful deals. Recognizing and celebrating these behaviors ultimately leads to closed deals.

3. Celebrate Effort – Sales managers can publicly and privately recognize a sales rep’s leaderboard progress in sales behavior KPIs. When sales professionals consistently enhance their leaderboard stats, effort transforms into a habit. Connecting process behaviors, like making calls, to rewards and recognition improves attitudes toward the sales process. This fosters habits that contribute to sustained success for salespeople.

4. Make the leaderboard a prominent focal point in the sales office. Ensure salespeople have daily updates, allowing them to visualize their standing. This constant awareness reinforces goals and boosts motivation through ongoing comparisons with teammates. Promptly communicate shifts in the leaderboard status in morning meetings, team emails, and one-on-one discussions.
   
5. Make it fun. Introduce short-term contests and weekly games that include humor to bring the team together while pushing them on to a larger goal.

• Ask the team to contribute ideas. They’ll come up with putting green games, ringing the gong, and passing the victory belt around to weekly winners. 
• Personalize the leaderboard with individual icons and accomplishment badges.
• Give salespeople producer nicknames that sound like warrior sales professionals. Jenny, “The Machine,” Garry, “The Ice Box” – help them live up to their name.

6. Offer rewards salespeople want. Some ideas sales reps have enjoyed include trips, cash prizes, or tickets to sporting events and concerts for long-term contests. Give smaller prizes for short-term contests and larger value rewards for reaching longer-term goals. Ensure both team and individual prizes are included, and avoid retracting promised rewards.

The leaderboard aids sales managers in preserving the desired team culture—a close-knit family of revenue-focused sales professionals. This fosters positive encouragement among team members, minimizing the need for negative motivation tactics and ensuring the perpetuation of the cherished culture.

TaskHuman’s expert Sales Coaches can help sales leaders quickly adopt sales leaderboards and other winning sales strategies.