Gamification and how it can be implemented to drive better KPIs - Case Study 2

The next few articles will focus on gamification - one of the recommendations from my previous articles on Critical Success Factors and KPIs. I will share detailed examples from projects I have implemented over the years where gamification has driven positive behavioural change and improved performance outcomes.

Gamification

The core principle of gamification we aim to leverage lies in harnessing the end user's intrinsic and extrinsic motivations to drive behaviours that align with the organization's objectives for improved performance outcomes.

Case Study 2 - How a Company improved their Promotional Activity to their most valuable HCPs and the Sales performance outcomes they derived

Background: A number of execution metrics drive ‘quantity over quality’

While easy to measure, quantity-based metrics miss the opportunity to drive better promotional activity to your most valuable HCPs on several levels.

The world over, ‘calls per day’ & ‘days in field’ drive the worst behaviour and reward for volume of activity, with little regard for the quality of the HCP or the engagement.

Take this conversation between a Sales Manager and a Medical Representative:

First Line Sales Manager: “You need to make 6 calls per day and we expect you in the field 90 days per semester’

Medical Representative: “OK”

First Line Sales Manager: “You also need to see 80% of your A & B Segment Customers at least 6 times each in the next 6 months”

Medical Representative: “OK”

Rep thinks to themselves – 100 A & B Segment HCPs * 6 calls = 600 calls and I have 90 days to do that….I need to make >5.3 calls per day on 80 HCPs just to hit that target…. Better drop the other 20 I can’t see…. Phew this is going to be a tough ask….

What typically happens after 6 months?

• First Line Manager is frustrated that the Medical Rep doesn’t seem to be on top of the Coverage @ Freq metric
• Medical Representative is frustrated they are running around focusing on 80 HCPs and not being recognised for the 10 calls they are making per day – confusion is created by having a quantity metric they are hitting but a frequency metric they are not

Applying Gamification and how this helped achieve promotional Activity and Sales performance goals

• Building on a deep understanding of HCP Value (please refer to previous articles that discussed HCP value & distribution), we set about introducing the concept of “Quality” in the context of the HCPs potential to prescribe the Client’s Brand (Patient pool in the TA), as well as their support for the Client’s Brand (Actual Prescriptions).
• We gave each HCP a ‘points value’ based on these 2 parameters – ranging from 36 points to 2 points. (Message me if you would like to go into more detail on the value and range!!)
• With the full support of the Senior Leadership Team, we introduced a change management program to the First Line Sales Managers and Sales Representatives which focused on shifting the current mentality of 6 points per day (historically all HCPs are effectively equal to 1 point) to measuring them for Calls X HCP Points value = 90 points per day going forward.
• It was explained that Medical Representatives can achieve this by calling on 3 X 30 point HCPs/ day or they can achieve this by seeing 9 X 10 point HCPs (and everything in between!).
• While some guardrails were set in place, this was the fundamental principle of the gamification applied.

Behaviour shift

• Medical Representatives gave significantly more thought to who they targeted and how much time they allocated to high value HCPs, recognising their time and effort was being rewarded more for seeing these high value HCPs.
• Focus on those high value HCPs was rewarded with higher frequency of engagement than before the program, with effort redirected away from low value HCPs (who previously counted as 1/6 points for the day (and are now worth only 2/ 90 points for the day!)

Sales Performance Outcomes

• This program was piloted in one State for 9 months prior to being rolled our Nationally. In that time, sales growth was > 13% higher in the Pilot State than the rest of the Country.
• The program was adopted Nationally across all Brands and subsequently also taken internationally.

What next?

This article is intended as a starting point to help the reader determine the concepts applied in different gamification situations. It deliberately does not tackle the details that went into the change management, data validation, performance monitoring, coaching and capability building required for the success of such a program.

If you would like to better understand the concepts outlined here and more, feel free to reach out to me at Varese Group.

David Ledger

Founder & Managing Director @ Varese Group | Transforming complex data into actionable insights with AI that speaks your language