Welcome to Chris Collins, Inc.!  I’m Chris, “The Bulldog,” and I specialize in finding ways to motivate a sales team like nothing you’ve ever seen.  Of course, I employ comprehensive and in-depth analysis of my clients’ businesses; we dig deep to learn exactly what sales team behaviors are the true drivers of profits and performance. We also work with our clients to make the entire process smooth, from design to training to implementation, and ultimately to the total transformation of their businesses.  But, my secret weapon is a relatively new technique called gamification.  Well … it’s new to business, anyway.

GAMIFICATION: THE NEWEST OLDEST TRICK IN THE BOOK

For millennia, humans have been designing games to be fun, hard to put down, motivational and morale-boosting.  The tricks and tools that make games so engaging have been centuries in the making, but today in the digital age, game theory has grown from an art to a science.  That’s why the simplest little cell phone games, based on mechanics that should be mind-numbingly repetitive and boring (like lining up little colored blocks, three in a row, again and again and again) can be not only powerfully motivating … they can literally be addictive.  The techniques they employ are simple, but very carefully chosen and balanced to turn nearly any process or procedure into a fun, energizing, engaging experience.

Gamification is the application of those same core design principles to the business world.  It started out as a sales training tool, but it’s become one of the best ways to motivate a sales team in the daily operation of any business with a product or service to sell, and people to sell it.

LEARN THE CORE PRINCIPLES OF GAMIFICATION

Gamification is built around six core principles; the building blocks of motivation and engagement, if you will.  In my website, you can learn a lot more about all of them, and of course, my team and I are Top Dog experts at each and every one of them.  They are:

• Goals: Every motivational methodology starts with goals.  As always, they must be carefully chosen with research and thought.
• Milestones: This is where gamification starts to differentiate itself.  It’s hard to stay focused on goals.  Milestones, however, give sales people a roadmap to success, with smaller steps they can wrap their minds around.
• Visual Feedback: Games almost always include this, whether it’s a simple scoreboard, or the track around a board game.  It lets people see at a glance how they’re doing, and what they need to improve.
• Difficulty Curve: A smooth difficulty curve ensures that your less advanced sales associates won’t get intimidated and discouraged, while at the same time, keeping top performers engaged and challenged.
• Social Interaction: This builds morale and engagement, through competition, collaboration, or a mixture of both.  Think of how much more powerfully addictive multiplayer games are than solo games.
• Rewards: In games, winning and the bragging rights to go with it, are their own rewards.  But, you have much more powerful tools at your disposal, including cash.  Cash is king, but it shouldn’t be taken for granted.

MY SECRET WEAPON CAN BE YOURS

I firmly believe gamification is the best way to motivate a sales team, but it has to be done correctly, with deep analysis of the business.  While you could give it a try on your own, my Bulldog sales training team is here to help!  Together, we can turn your sales team into Top Dogs, and propel your business to a level of success you’ve barely even dreamed was possible!