Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

The role of the predictive gamification to increase the sales performance: a novel business approach

The role of the predictive gamification to increase the sales performance: a novel business approach This paper aims to examine the impact of predictive gamification, through a sales simulator game, as a strategy to minimize sales problems in organizations.Design/methodology/approachThis empirical study was executed in a large global company that produces and markets footwear for B2B and B2C markets. The company operates in more than 18 countries and adopts the gamification to train 7,600 sellers and 10,052 professionals directly linked to the sales area. The methodology adopted followed a qualitative and exploratory approach based on an in-depth case study analysis.FindingsResults indicated that the use of predictive gamification allowed mitigating future problems, in average, four months in advance of the arrival of the new products at the points of sale. The main findings included improvement in sales arguments, product knowledge and sales closure. The company assigns the results to the implementation of the gamification and the possibility to simulate the evaluation of the level of readiness of the sales force resources. For this, the following three primary variables emerged: adequate definition of training content, analysis of the learning process and simulation of store reality.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors introduced to the sales training literature the concept of predictive gamification. The predictive gamification allows anticipating and reducing future problems before the arrival of the new products in the market, improving the argument of sales, the knowledge about the products and the ratio of sales conversion of stores.Practical implicationsFirst, the content design of gamification needs to be carefully projected before the simulator development, considering the target audience and its particularities. Second, the construction of evaluation activities needs to consider contexts, actions and results. Third, monitoring the paths taken by the seller in the simulator environment is requisite. Fourth, the analysis of the results of vendor responses in the simulator environment can be obtained through learning management system reports. Fifth, the development of game simulators with advanced technologies may be done with low investment.Originality/valueThe findings have implications for the field vis-à-vis three main research gaps identified in the literature discussing gamification in sales training. First, the authors identified best practices from the application of gamification in sales training. Second, they showed the sales qualification processes, which can be improved by applying gamification. Third, they presented strategies of use of gamification as an approach allied to the training of sales professionals to generate enhanced sales results. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing Emerald Publishing

The role of the predictive gamification to increase the sales performance: a novel business approach

Download PDF
17 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/emerald-publishing/the-role-of-the-predictive-gamification-to-increase-the-sales-EKPc0070TH

References (66)

Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
© Emerald Publishing Limited
ISSN
0885-8624
DOI
10.1108/jbim-01-2019-0005
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

This paper aims to examine the impact of predictive gamification, through a sales simulator game, as a strategy to minimize sales problems in organizations.Design/methodology/approachThis empirical study was executed in a large global company that produces and markets footwear for B2B and B2C markets. The company operates in more than 18 countries and adopts the gamification to train 7,600 sellers and 10,052 professionals directly linked to the sales area. The methodology adopted followed a qualitative and exploratory approach based on an in-depth case study analysis.FindingsResults indicated that the use of predictive gamification allowed mitigating future problems, in average, four months in advance of the arrival of the new products at the points of sale. The main findings included improvement in sales arguments, product knowledge and sales closure. The company assigns the results to the implementation of the gamification and the possibility to simulate the evaluation of the level of readiness of the sales force resources. For this, the following three primary variables emerged: adequate definition of training content, analysis of the learning process and simulation of store reality.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors introduced to the sales training literature the concept of predictive gamification. The predictive gamification allows anticipating and reducing future problems before the arrival of the new products in the market, improving the argument of sales, the knowledge about the products and the ratio of sales conversion of stores.Practical implicationsFirst, the content design of gamification needs to be carefully projected before the simulator development, considering the target audience and its particularities. Second, the construction of evaluation activities needs to consider contexts, actions and results. Third, monitoring the paths taken by the seller in the simulator environment is requisite. Fourth, the analysis of the results of vendor responses in the simulator environment can be obtained through learning management system reports. Fifth, the development of game simulators with advanced technologies may be done with low investment.Originality/valueThe findings have implications for the field vis-à-vis three main research gaps identified in the literature discussing gamification in sales training. First, the authors identified best practices from the application of gamification in sales training. Second, they showed the sales qualification processes, which can be improved by applying gamification. Third, they presented strategies of use of gamification as an approach allied to the training of sales professionals to generate enhanced sales results.

Journal

Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing – Emerald Publishing

Published: Apr 23, 2020

Keywords: Sales training; Games; Gamification; Learning analysis; Sales simulator; Retailing; Business games

There are no references for this article.