CRM adoption: Using gamification to level up your sales process

Ah, CRM and sales reps!

Without any doubt, that’s an interesting relationship.

If you do a quick check today on sites like Capterra, there are approximately?1500?CRMs on the market, and yet the majority of sales leaders, 76% to be more specific, report that their teams do not use most of the features of their CRM of choice (Hubspot, 2020).

Like a friend of mine, a former executive at one of the leaders of the CRM market, I think that even if you have the best tool in the world, if your people do not use it, it becomes useless.

The most recurrent reasons for the lack of adoption

From several sources that we did research, the most recurrent reasons that sales reps mentioned for not using CRM are:

• I love to talk, not to type.
• I’d rather spend time building relationships and closing deals instead of filling out CRM.
• CRM is extra work without pay.
• CRM is a way to control me and not support me.

To achieve a clear understanding, let’s analyze and put down some considerations:

“I love to talk, not to type.”

First, it’s relatively natural to expect a sales representative to be more wired to speak and go after his goals instead of spending time writing.

However, better insights and data are key for delivering more personalized and meaningful experiences, and 74% of companies that adopted CRM got better access to customer data (Resco, 2020).

“I’d rather spend time on building relationships and closing deals instead of filling out CRM.” and “CRM is a way to control me, and not support me.”

Building relationships and closing deals are the top priorities, but it doesn't mean that a process is not needed. In fact, in a world where data is fundamental for a better connection with customers, some time invested in CRM will support building relationships and closing more deals.

For instance, according to Salesforce research, CRM adoption increases sales in general by up to 29%, productivity by up to 34%, and forecast accuracy by up to 40%.

“CRM is extra work without pay.”

Finally, when looking at this mentioned reason, we can conclude that usually, the sales reps do not see filling out CRM data as their work, and because their work is fundamentally results-driven, they see it as a bad investment of their time (no direct monetary return).

However, data from TrackVia shows that on average a proper CRM adoption can increase revenue per salesperson by 41%.

It’s a question of managing engagement levels

Even with all data in the world showing the benefits of the adoption of a CRM, at the end of the day, as human beings most of us will try to convince ourselves to keep doing things as we are used to.

With that said, this is one of the main causes why it’s relatively common to see different kinds of very expensive initiatives, training, and implementations (from ERP to CRM solutions) in organizations losing adoption a few months after conclusion.

And this is not only me saying. According to EuropeanCEO 70% of business transformation programs fail due to poor employee engagement.

In that sense, gamification can be a game changer for your sales teams. Just take a look at some of the numbers below:

• 89% of people say that gamification makes them more productive at work (TalentLMS).
• Up to 7X conversion rates have been achieved by companies using sales gamification (Neil Patel).

Use cases in sales gamification + Yera

If so far you started wondering about ways of implementing gamification for your sales teams, here are some possible use cases:

• Turning sales goals into a game with real-time leaderboards.
• Engaging your reps in filling out their CRM data more diligently.
• Motivating reps to schedule more meetings and follow-ups.
• Stimulate more collaboration among sales reps → 60% of the sales professionals say that collaborative selling increased productivity by 25%+ (Salesforce).

Finally, if you’re looking or wondering about a partner to support you through this journey,?I do recommend you to take a look at?Yera. It’s a full solution that includes a gamification platform and real-life rewards.

Some of the main advantages are:

• Works integrated with your CRM of choice.
• Very flexible gamification engine which allows you to create rules for different results, performance indicators, processes, and behaviour.
• Includes a reward store, where your people can exchange their performance for real-life stuff.
• In most cases, you can be provided already with a selection of local partners in the store.
• Transparent and competitive pricing.