A Boston startup founded by a former IBM salesman is trying to gamify sales, and it’s picking up steam as it gets ready to launch a new version of its competitive platform.
DraftSales spins up Peloton-style challenges and competitions for sales teams, with prizes attached, with a platform that also borrows from the concept of daily fantasy sports competitions like DraftKings. The idea is to keep them motivated and entertained, said founder and CEO Thomas Casale.
“It’s a job that’s really tough,” said Casale. “It’s a lot of people right out of college, facing rejection. And a lot of these managers deal with attrition in a job like this.”
He said the platform helps provide a “healthy combination” of boosted morale and productivity.
The company’s first version of its product was mostly head-to-head competitions, or long lists. The new version, which it plans to launch in the near future, comes with an updated UI, more customization and features like daily challenges, Casale said.
“If we’re doing investment discussions, we talk about the world being gamified,” he said. “It’s in every industry. Amazon warehouse workers, Robinhood, Peloton. All these brands are making things more instant gratification. And that’s exactly what we’re doing for sales teams, a job that every company has a department for.”
The company has raised seed funding and is looking to add salespeople and developers to its team in the coming months.
DraftSales’ customers include the IT company SmartBear and Boston startup Reveneer, which builds inside sales teams for other firms.
“It naturally drives more engagement and effort and just overall activity,” said Zach Ingalls, Reveneer’s director of sales development. “It’s just kind of human nature.”
Ingalls said the software has replaced the manual process of setting up sales performance incentive funds (SPIFs) or other incentives, which would often be done in spreadsheets or by hand.
He said salespeople also like that it makes the work collaborative and keeps teams engaged.
“The job can be a grind sometimes,” Ingalls said. “So just having something that you can joke around about and having something that you're more working towards a smaller team.”
The incentives they use include sports tickets, gift cards, hotel stays and more.
