4 Reasons Why Competitions Work in the Workplace

People are competitive by nature, so it’s no surprise that this extends to the workplace. Learn why competitions are so effective, as well as some tips for running them properly.

Sales contests–if setup and run correctly–are a great way to drive performance on key targets and introduce a little friendly competition into the workplace. Since most people are driven by an inner desire for improvement, it only makes sense that competitions push them to perform better. Additionally, it makes routine work tasks more enjoyable and incentivizes the completion of important activities.

Read on to discover the top 4 reasons why sales competitions are so effective.

Competitions are customizable

Running standard sales competitions is fine, but they can only be so effective. Your organization and your employees are unique, so why shouldn’t your contests reflect that? Customizing competitions to your specific needs is much more likely to have a positive effect and drive the right behavior.

For example, maybe you have several different departments or offices that you want to run competitions between. Or maybe one of your sales reps wants to challenge another rep 1-on-1. The fact that you can cater to your exact needs is what makes competitions that much more valuable.

Competitions inspire creativity and innovation

When people have a tangible goal to work towards, it causes them to perform better and do everything they can in order to achieve that goal. It inspires creativity and innovation because they tend to explore a variety of solutions that will lead to performing well in the competition.

“In the long run, competition makes us better… it drives innovation.” — Dennis Muilenburg

In addition, team competitions are an excellent way to encourage collaboration, which leads to openness and knowledge sharing. Say you are a software company running a team competition amongst your developers. Perhaps Jim is particularly skilled at Visual Studio Code and shares some useful tips with his team that they were previously unaware of. Now Stanley and Dwight have added a new skill to their toolbox, that will ultimately lead to better performance in the future–and they have an advantage in the competition as well.

Competitions challenge people

Extrinsic motivation “occurs when we are motivated to perform a behavior or engage in an activity to earn a reward or avoid punishment.” Intrinsic motivation “involves engaging in a behavior because it is personally rewarding; essentially, performing an activity for its own sake rather than the desire for some external reward.”

The great thing about workplace competitions is that they can involve both types of motivation–extrinsic because it generally involves some type of reward, and intrinsic because people can also want to perform well at their jobs because it is personally satisfying to them. Sales competitions are so effective because they do cater to both motivation types, and they challenge your employees to work harder whether they are intrinsically or extrinsically motivated themselves.

For instance, Michael might perform better in a week that his office is running a competition because he wants to win the top prize of an extra vacation day. Pam might perform better during that week because she genuinely loves succeeding at her job and enjoys the personal satisfaction of seeing her name at the top of the leaderboard.

Competitions are fun!

It may seem overly simple, but one of the reasons that competitions are actually so effective in the workplace is because they are fun. Especially when the daily grind of boring data reporting and repetitive tasks starts to wear down your employees, competitions are an excellent way to introduce a sense of fun and excitement back into the office.

With SalesScreen competitions, you can choose from a variety of themes and templates that ensure you keep your contests interesting and dynamic–and your employees engaged.

Looking for some inspiration? Check out our recommendations for some spring sales contests.

Originally published at www.salesscreen.com.