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100 points or $100 - Which Would You Rather Have?

Author: Ryan Lallier - CEO, RepTivity @RLallier

Gamification is exploding. Some critics claim it has reached its peak while others believe the surface has barely been scratched.  Gamification is now making its way into the workplace with executives and managers deploying game mechanics to motivate and publicly acknowledge their top performers.  One of the key ingredients of gamification is the use of points to recognize achievements.  I have a problem with this concept.

Points are great for airline miles, football games, fantasy sports leagues and credit card awards. Unless you’re willing to equate points to monetary items they carry little value in the workplace, especially in a sales environment.  As a sales person myself, I could care less about 100 points. What I do care about is money, spiffs and public acknowledgement for doing my job well.  I also care about my sales rank in relation to my peers. Sales managers don’t care about how many points I have. They care about how many deals I’ve closed, my current forecast, my pipeline and whether or not I am doing the required activities to be successful. Giving sales reps tangible awards instead of virtual points for achieving these goals delivers significant value and is proven to be motivating. My point is I’d rather receive $100 instead of 100 points.   

One Good Reason to Have Your Product Demo on Your Website - Preferably Your Homepage

Author: Ryan Lallier - CEO, RepTivity @RLallier

Last night I presented RepTivity to a group of 30 attendees during Boston New Tech Meetup August 2011.  First, I want to say thank you to Chris Requena and Dave Rafkind for organizing the event and a second thank you to Dave for letting me borrow his laptop! Yep, I had to borrow his laptop. Right as I was about to present, my mouse pad decided to lock up and my presentation froze.  Dave quickly plugged his laptop into the overhead projected and launched my website. As I looked up at the big screen I internally said to myself, “oh thank God”.  Thank God for Dave and his awesome act of kindness and because my recorded demo was featured on our homepage. All I had to do was click play and begin talking.

Imagine this scene, me the sales guy presenting in front of 30 plus technical folks and I can’t get my laptop or my presentation to work. Even worse, I went last and the five presenters before me had no problems whatsoever.  I was definitely rattled for the first two minutes of the presentation but having my product demo running in the background helped me get into a groove. As the presentation continued I looked out into the crowd and noticed several smiles, head nods and intellectual face squints.  What I was saying was making sense and more importantly this room of very smart people thought my product was pretty cool.  I ended the presentation and fielded about ten to fifteen questions.

In the end, disaster was averted and the “techies” took it easy on me for my laptop debacle. I learned one lesson and was reminded of one thing. First, in crisis use the pre-recorded demo on your website and if you don’t have one – record one now! Second, in time of need people help people. Even though my situation wasn’t catastrophic the community last night was supportive and willing to help. So if I could summarize my experience with Boston Tech Meetup – It’s a Community of Supportive People Willing to Help.