Mercedes-Benz Uses Gamification On Motivating Sales Staff

Motivating Sales Staff: Mercedes-Benz Uses Gamification to Boost Performance

In the highly competitive world of vehicle manufacturing and sales, finding innovative ways to stand out can truly make a difference. This is where gamification comes in. It’s a methodology that uses game elements and mechanics to engage and motivate teams, for example, sales team motivation and differentiation in the industry. This is exactly what Elson Sousa from the Mercedes-Benz team decided to use when he wanted to encourage his sales team to become even more engaged and productive.

Elson is completing his master’s degree at FGV and researching new strategies to boost his sales team. In a recent interview with us, he revealed his journey of discovery and implementation of corporate gamification to achieve his goals.

Discovering Gamification: Elson’s Path to Sales Enhancement

It all started when Elson – while pursuing his master’s degree at FGV – had the opportunity to learn about gamification and marketing. This inspiring class led him to seek ways to apply these concepts within his own company. It was then, following the recommendation of his teacher Professor Henrique Júnior from FGV, that Elson discovered Seppo: a platform that offered the perfect combination of flexibility and game mechanics to meet the needs of Mercedes-Benz.

Elson’s goals were clear: to motivate his sales team to reach new performance heights, while also providing them with the necessary commercial knowledge to stand out in the market. Elson had already planned to hold a championship to conduct sales training with actions that encouraged healthy competition among the sellers. Gamification was the ideal solution to achieve these objectives, especially since the participating team was very diverse and spread throughout Latin America.

How Seppo’s Flexible Gamification Tool Transformed Mercedes-Benz Sales Training

When selecting Seppo as his gamification tool, Elson was impressed with the platform’s flexibility and its diverse game mechanics, which aligned perfectly with the sales team’s needs. Elson had considered other gamification solutions, including the possibility of having the entire game created by another gamification company, but Seppo’s authoring tool caught his attention and he was very satisfied with the functionalities that exceeded what they had in mind. The cost-effectiveness of Seppo was also a deciding factor.

Direct Impact on Sales Results

The implementation of gamification at Mercedes-Benz had a significant impact, with many employees showing renewed interest in their daily tasks. Sales leaders were particularly enthusiastic about the new approach, and the overall feedback was extremely positive. When asked about the impact of using the Seppo tool, Elson mentioned the results of his master’s research in which he interviewed 10 of the most engaged participants in the championship. Elson noticed that the sellers who were already performing well achieved even better results. There was unanimous perception that gamification helps engage in the championship and is an excellent strategy for motivating learning. He also expects to see medium and long-term results due to people learning about advanced sales techniques.

Game Mechanics and Challenging Tasks

Elson detailed how he used Seppo’s functionalities to implement game mechanics in the training. The creative task functionality, for example, using video as a method of answering a task, was used for an unboxing dynamic, where the salespeople had to record opening a box with a car part inside and present its features. This improved the salespeople’s argumentation skills. The creative tasks also enabled to create tasks such as creating slogans, building SWOT and GUT matrices, 5W2H, analysing opportunities with customers by visiting a mechanical workshop and sending photos. These activities were planned based on scientific research, aiming to integrate gamification with training objectives, provide immediate feedback, promote healthy competition and collaboration among teams, establish clear rules, progressively increase the level of difficulty, and set challenging goals.

One of the most powerful features of Seppo, according to Elson, is the ranking and leaderboard, which motivated employees to compete among themselves in a healthy way and reach new performance levels. Moreover, the creative tasks, done in the real world, were well received by the team, stimulating imagination and promoting learning in an engaging way.

Elson highlighted his learning curve in conducting gamified training campaigns. He learned from the challenges and mistakes of the first gamified championship in 2022 and adjusted his approach to ensure the continuous success of gamification at Mercedes-Benz. In addition to the experience of the first championship, Elson was inspired to research gamification and realised that he needed to provide stimulus and then engagement would occur organically and naturally, without the need to send emails and messages to the team to get into the game.

The success of the second gamified training campaign in 2023 was so impressive that the partnership with Seppo is to be expanded. The potential of gamification to not only boost sales but also to promote engagement and continuous learning in the company was clear and proven.

AI Support and Other Technologies

Elson also mentioned how it was possible to use AI tools to facilitate the creation of the game, for example, in generating questions, response alternatives, feedback, and even images for the game. Indeed, some of the AI created images were truly impressive and really helped to contextualize the exercises and improved the overall design of the game.

For other organisations considering incorporating gamification into their strategies, Elson offers clear advice: “Gamification is a powerful methodology. Consider how your activities can be adapted to the logic of the game and see the positive impact this brings to your team.”

With its proven success at Mercedes-Benz, gamification with Seppo is becoming an indispensable tool for boosting team performance and engagement. With Seppo, companies across various sectors are finding creative ways to achieve their goals and inspiring their teams to achieve success.

Footnote:

Exclusive interview in which Elson Sousa shared with the president of the Innovation and Learning Committee of the Finnish Chamber of Commerce (Brazil) and consultant of Seppo, Maxwill Braga, in April 2024