Struggling with a CRM that nobody’s using? Gamification gets everyone on board fast.

Simple tools to leverage your CRM’s full potential and improve your ROI

It’s a fact: certain times of the year require additional encouragement, support, and team-building efforts. Humans are predictable that way. Traditionally, January and February are among these periods, where it’s common to feel a little less motivated and require a bit more incentive.

If 2020 taught us anything, it’s the importance, and challenge, of creating and cultivating connection all of the time, regardless of location. The kind of connection that keeps staff inspired, clients enthused, and partners eager and excited. Gamification has the power to do all of this, and it starts with an interactive CRM.

The whole point of a CRM is getting your ROI by encouraging your workforce to use it, and use it well. But increasing your teams’ usage isn’t enough. You want to improve how your people are actually using it. In other words, from a business perspective, if you’ve invested in a high-performance CRM, you’ll only benefit if your team understands and embraces it fully. Otherwise, you’re throwing money, and opportunities, out the door.

Gamification can be game-changing (pun intended!). Let’s explore how.

Commission-driven incentives won’t inspire everyone.

Management often believes that a commission should be a sufficient incentive for every salesperson to use the company’s CRM. Unfortunately, that’s not how it works. The beauty and challenge in dealing with human beings are that each person is unique, and what motivates one person to behave in a certain way can be different from another. Some will indeed use the CRM because of the commission, while others will not. The only guarantee is that you won’t get everyone on board.

The potential of a pleasurable experience

When we apply gamification in a CRM, something magical happens. The experience of working within the CRM becomes more pleasurable and ignites spontaneous use from a higher percentage of employees. In every case, the results always improve. Caixa Economica Federal, a finance and insurance company that worked with Funifier, increased sales by 155% after gamifying its CRM.

Data to make better decisions

In addition to supporting your sales team’s work, efforts, and strategies, gamification also helps C-level executives. A properly used CRM provides executives with quality information to make critical decisions, set better goals, and plan wisely. Your team will be more committed when realistic objectives are established with a clear picture in hand. Consequently, execution is better orchestrated and performance improved. As an example, one of our international customers in the finance industry increased the planned execution by 80%.

Tools and functionalities that make it simple and fun

Gamification increases and improves how your CRM is used by applying human motivation principles, in favor of smarter business practices. This means inserting game mechanics into the CRM, so the individual using it interacts in a different way. Ways that are normally associated with having fun or interacting with friends. Ways that boost endorphins and serotonin levels.

For example, Funifier gamified CRMs always present personalized feedback, guidance, and suggestions to the salesperson, much like they would get when interacting with a friend. It’s as if the gamification was empathetic with their feelings and guided them on the required path. It seems simple, but feeling connected is powerful.

Some will be more inclined to use and access the CRM frequently when they experience a healthy, competitive vibe. Members can motivate each other, see how the overall team is performing, and support co-worker efforts, so everyone does better. This is often more engaging than a commission. Highly competitive individuals will favor a sense of performance over a paycheck. This may seem a little over the top, but we’ve witnessed it more than once.

And if you don’t want to compete, that’s fine, too. Competitions can be optional, and we have game mechanics to fill each person’s need for motivation. The screen below shows a competition using a sailboat narrative within a CRM.

Depending on your position at the end of the competition, you can win bigger or smaller prizes. So imagine Eduardo is sitting in the first position, with Mariana close in second place. If the score difference is minimal, Mariana will feel highly motivated to beat Eduardo and win the top spot’s virtual rewards. On the other hand, Eduardo will work harder than usual to maintain his position, right until the end of the competition. For competitive types, this is highly exhilarating.

Funifier’s gamification solutions work with many CRM applications, including Salesforce, ZOHO, and Hubspot, to name a few. Let’s look at a specific application to get a better feel for what can be done.

Applying gamification: an integration example with Salesforce

For better results, gamification programmed to engage sales teams should offer real-time feedback. Let’s use the example of closing a deal. When a person achieves a hard-earned sale, there’s an opportunity to reinforce the feeling of pride and jubilation, and the best time to do so is upon completion. In this context, exact timing, immediate feedback, and positive reinforcement are clinically proven to be meaningful. Combining your CRM with Funifier contributes to the end-result.

Delivering real-time feedback within CRMs requires deep integration with the gamification platform. The CRM system should transmit actions directly to the gamification platform that processes them and then presents the related feedback to the CRM, which then displays it to the salesperson to read instantly.

For this reason, Funifier has plug-and-play integrations for the most commonly used CRMs on the market. Installation and configuration can happen literally within minutes. If you already have a Funifier account, you can gamify Salesforce with the most advanced gamification techniques with just a few clicks.

It all starts by installing “Funifier for Salesforce”.

Then, enter the Funifier credentials you want to use when integrating with Salesforce.

The Funifier Marketplace allows you to choose the graphical user interface (GUI) that enables salespeople to interact with the gamification. Once the interface is installed, it will appear within Salesforce.

Boooom, you’re done!

Your salespeople will see the graphical user interface that gives them the feedback they so desire. And you can have as many graphical interfaces as you want. Don’t like this one? Too playful? No worries! Choose one that’s more aligned with the visual identity of your company, and voilà! Start engaging your workforce. Now.

In addition to the graphical interface, it’s important to define the goals that your salespeople must fulfill to progress within gamification. Not sure where to even start? We’ve thought of that, too. Go to the Funifier Marketplace and install an engagement strategy with some predefined challenges. They’ll be magically presented to your salespeople, and you’ll be on your way.

To complete integrating Funifier with your CRM, you need to configure which desired actions performed within Salesforce are sent to Funifier. These actions can be to register a lead, a contact, an account, an opportunity, or even some customized information within Salesforce that meets your business’ specific needs.

Go to the “triggers” tab to configure this. Still unsure where to start? We’ve got you covered. Click on “Import Triggers,” and Funifier will create those that make the most sense for the engagement strategy you are using.

From this moment on, you’ll have a strategic management tool to engage your sales team. It’s as if gamification were the steering wheel of a car, where the engine’s traction comes from human motivation. Worth the money? Absolutely. Some clients have gotten over $90 for every $1 invested in gamification.

You’ve invested in a CRM because you believe in its value. You know you’ll only get an ROI if your team uses it well and often to make better sales. Gamification makes using your CRM fun and motivating. And in the long run, driven, inspired, and happy humans will bring in better results.

Ricardo Costa-Lopes,

Co-Founder and CTO