If you have been active in the social selling game for a while, you know it’s a tough business. After all, staying ahead of the curve requires more than just posting content and engaging with prospects. But what if we told you social selling can be fun?

Our team thought hard about how to make social selling not only much easier for your sales professionals but also an entertaining activity that helps your company reach its goals. That’s why we developed a unique gamification approach inside ReadyForSocial.

Including gamification elements into our social selling tool and your strategic approach helps drive results while keeping your sales team motivated and engaged. 

This article will explain gamification, how the ReadyForSocial gamification features work, and how to help your team on their interactive and rewarding social selling journey.

What is gamification?

Gamification is a strategic approach that integrates game mechanics and elements, such as competition, rewards, and challenges, into non-game contexts to motivate participation and drive desired behaviors. According to a report by Gartner, gamification can increase engagement levels by up to 100% and improve productivity by up to 25%. And research by Aberdeen Group found that companies using gamification in their sales processes experienced a 48% increase in revenue compared to those who didn’t.

Inside our RFS tool, gamification features transform routine tasks and activities into interactive experiences that are both enjoyable and rewarding. By incorporating elements like points, badges, leaderboards, and achievements, gamification encourages sales professionals to engage actively with the platform and complete tasks more effectively. 

Behind all this is some serious science. Because Gamification taps into intrinsic human motivators, such as competition and achievement, to drive desired behaviors. A study published in the Journal of Marketing Research revealed that gamification can lead to a 68% increase in motivation and a 36% improvement in learning outcomes. In social selling, this translates to higher levels of engagement, increased productivity, and, ultimately, improved sales performance.

How is it useful for social selling in B2B?

We mentioned before that social selling isn’t a sprint. It’s a marathon. This mentality is especially true in the B2B world, where sales cycles are typically longer, and relationships play a crucial role. 

Lisa Davidson, a tenured social selling and marketing expert at RFS emphasizes the significance of gamification in social selling: “Social selling is a long-term activity. It involves building credibility and learning skills. A good platform will help you keep salespeople engaged and will help those who want to develop their skills through some form of gamification.”

Gamification elements offer even more benefits when you’re in for the long run: 

• Gamification fosters engagement and motivation among sales teams.
• Gamification encourages healthy competition inside your team. 
• Gamification aligns goals with performance tracking.
• Gamification facilitates skill development and training reinforcement.

According to a report by McKinsey, B2B companies that integrate gamification into their sales processes experience a 40% increase in sales productivity. Who wouldn’t want that?

How RFS uses gamification elements as features

To make the RFS social selling tool as effective as possible, our team developed different features to address every aspect of gamification benefits. Let’s take a second and look at each of them in detail.

1. Engagement and motivation: RFS badges

Our ReadyForSocial badges add an element of fun to the process of social selling and daily to-dos, serving as visual representations of your teams’ achievements. These badges encompass critical social media metrics like followers, activity levels, and audience responsiveness to your posts.

Sales professionals are incentivized to actively participate, share content, and interact with prospects, driving higher levels of engagement and fostering a sense of accomplishment.

2. Competition and collaboration: RFS score

The RFS Score dynamically measures each user’s progress within your team, reflecting their achievements and advancements. It contains various metrics, including user activity, follower growth, social media engagement, and specific incentive metrics, such as LinkedIn followers and likes and retweets on X.

Whether sharing posts or expanding the network, users engage in friendly competition to meet goals while working together to elevate the organization’s social selling efforts collectively. Through features like leaderboards and performance metrics, gamification ignites a competitive spirit among sales professionals, driving them to excel and surpass their peers. Research from the Harvard Business Review indicates that competition can enhance motivation by up to 15%, underscoring the significant impact of gamification on performance improvement.

3. Skill development and training reinforcement: RFS LinkedIn reviews

RFS also integrates gamification into skill development and training reinforcement initiatives. From personalized LinkedIn reviews to unlocking different platform features, users are motivated to enhance their social selling skills while enjoying a gamified learning experience. Research by Training Industry Magazine found that gamified training programs can lead to a 14% improvement in skill-based knowledge retention.

Our RFS LinkedIn Profile Review is designed to enhance users’ professional presence on LinkedIn. By requesting a review, users receive personalized feedback, which provides insights into areas for improvement and highlights strengths. Whether it’s optimizing profile sections, refining headline and summary statements, or enhancing visual elements, the review offers practical tips and tricks to elevate the profile’s effectiveness. 

Additionally, users learn to leverage LinkedIn’s features to maximize visibility and engagement within their network. With this insightful feedback, users fine-tune their profiles to establish a strong personal brand and make a lasting impression on potential prospects and connections in the competitive digital landscape.

4. Recognition and rewards: RFS proficiency levels

RFS also uses gamification elements to offer users a dynamic and engaging platform that rewards and recognizes their efforts. One key aspect is proficiency levels, which provide users with a clear roadmap for advancement and achievement. 

As users interact with the platform and utilize its features, they progress through different proficiency levels, unlocking new features and functions. The proficiency levels, including Member, Insider, and Elite, are designed to reflect users’ engagement and utilization of RFS over time. 

For example, achieving the Insider level may require consistent posting for a specified period, while attaining the Elite level could involve additional criteria such as requesting a profile review or demonstrating advanced social selling skills. 

This structured progression encourages users to actively participate and provides a sense of accomplishment as they reach new milestones and unlock enhanced capabilities within the platform. With proficiency levels guiding users’ journey on RFS, individuals are motivated to continuously improve their social selling strategies and maximize their impact in the digital landscape.

5. Data-driven insights, performance tracking, and optimization

The RFS gamification system generates valuable data insights that drive optimization and informed decision-making. By analyzing user behavior and performance metrics, businesses can identify trends, refine strategies, and optimize social selling efforts for better results.

Ranging from weekly to monthly to benchmark reporting, our analytics track key performance indicators (KPIs) in real-time. Thanks to this, businesses gain valuable insights into their social selling efforts and areas for improvement, driving continuous growth and success. Analyzing data also helps leadership make informed decisions. No wonder that businesses that align sales goals with performance metrics achieve 29% higher sales quota attainment, according to Salesforce.

Gamification makes social selling fun!

Gamification fosters long-term engagement and retention by transforming social selling into an enjoyable and rewarding experience. Sales professionals are likelier to stay motivated, committed, and loyal to the platform.

ReadyForSocial uses gamification elements as a strategic approach to enhance engagement, drive performance, and foster continuous improvement in social selling. We help your business level up its sales game and achieve unprecedented success in the competitive social selling landscape.