What contests should I run on a technician leaderboard?

Run one contest at a time, on one number, for two to four weeks. The best technician contests use close rate, maintenance plan rate, average ticket, or percent of revenue goal, not raw revenue. Read the standings off the TV Leaderboard in SOS Lite and the owner dashboard. Announce the prize before day one.

Why sales gamification ideas written for reps do not work in a shop

Most sales gamification ideas online are for a sales floor. A weekly call blitz, a demo race, Sales Bingo, a March Madness bracket, team versus team on new logos. They score dials, emails, and meetings booked. They assume ten to fifty reps who all sell the same thing.

A service shop has four to twelve techs across two or three trades. Nobody dials. Dispatch decides how many calls each tech runs. A contest on calls ran rewards the tech with the busiest route. A contest on raw revenue rewards the HVAC install lead every single month, and the plumbers stop looking at the board by week two.

The sales leaderboard ideas that carry over are the rules, not the games. One number. A short window. Standings everyone can see. A prize named up front. The numbers themselves have to be the ones a tech controls once he is in the house.

Five rules for a shop contest

1. One number. A contest on three numbers is a report. Pick one and say it out loud.
2. Two to four weeks. A week is too short for a tech who runs eight calls. A quarter is too long to hold anyone's attention. Two weeks for a push, a month for a rate.
3. Fair across trades and tenure. Rank inside the trade, or use percent of goal so a new hire has a reason to look.
4. Prize announced on day one. Cash, a day off, a tool, dinner for the family. Say what it is and when it pays.
5. Standings on the wall every day. You or your service manager enter KTIs daily during a contest, not weekly. A board that lags three days behind is not a contest.

Seven contests built on service-shop numbers

1. Close rate month

Highest close rate in each trade for the month wins. Close rate is calls sold divided by calls ran, so route size does not matter. A tech who runs 30 calls and sells 21 beats a tech who runs 60 and sells 36.

Set a floor so a tech with three calls and three sales does not win on a technicality. Ten calls in the month is a fair minimum for most shops. The TV Leaderboard already shows close rate next to every name, so the standings need no extra work.

2. Maintenance plan push

Two weeks. Highest maintenance plan rate wins: plans sold divided by plan opportunities. This is the contest to run when the Goals page shows your plan rate under goal. It is also the only contest where you want the whole crew copying one tech's script.

Run it in the spring and the fall, before the busy season starts. Plans sold now are the calls your board is full of next year.

3. Average ticket week per trade

One week. Highest average ticket in each trade wins. Average ticket is revenue divided by jobs sold, so a tech who gives the customer three options and sells the middle one moves up. Keep it inside the trade. A plumbing ticket and an HVAC ticket are not the same size, and the board ranks each trade on its own for that reason.

4. Percent of revenue goal

This is the fairest contest a shop can run and the one we recommend first. Each tech has a revenue goal on the owner dashboard. The contest is who gets the highest percent of his own goal by month end. A second-year tech at 112% of a $20,000 goal beats a 10-year tech at 95% of a $45,000 goal.

The owner dashboard shows each tech's revenue against goal with a pace marker, so you can see who is ahead of pace on the 15th. It also lets an electrician, a plumber, and an HVAC tech compete on the same number without the trade deciding the winner.

5. Most improved close rate

Compare each tech's close rate this month with last month. Biggest gain wins. This gives the bottom half of the board something to win. A tech going from 38% to 50% gains 12 points. The tech at 68% has nowhere near that much room.

Switch the TV Leaderboard to last month, write down each tech's close rate, then switch back to current month. The gain is the contest. Run it right after a training class or a round of ride-alongs so the class has a scoreboard.

6. Team callback goal

Callbacks do not belong on a public board. They turn the leaderboard into a list of who made mistakes. If you want a callback contest, make the whole shop the team. If the shop's callback rate stays under goal for the month, everyone gets the prize.

You watch the number on the owner dashboard, not the TV. Talk to any tech over goal in private.

7. Shop hits goal

Every tech at or above his close rate goal for the month, and you buy the whole shop dinner. Say it on the first and tell the crew where the shop stands every Friday. This sales incentive gamification idea works for one reason. The top tech now has a reason to help the bottom tech instead of ignoring him.

How to run a contest in SOS Lite

SOS does not have a contest module. It has a board, goals, and a dashboard, and that is enough.

1. Set each tech's goals on the Goals page. Company defaults are set per trade, so your plumbing and HVAC goals can be different numbers.
2. Pick the contest and the number. Tell the crew the prize, the start date, and the end date in the Monday meeting.
3. Set the TV Leaderboard to the right period. Current month for a month-long contest, last 30 days if the contest crosses a month end.
4. Enter each tech's KTIs every day during the contest. The board updates within a minute of each entry.
5. Check the owner dashboard once a week. Green and red against goal tells you who needs a ride-along before the contest ends, not after.
6. Pay the prize the day the contest ends, in front of the crew.

Then wait two weeks before the next one. Back-to-back contests stop being contests. If you have not set up the board yet, start with the free TV Leaderboard and pair the TV before you announce anything.

What to leave out

Points. Generic sales contest leaderboard tools let you award points for anything and rank the total. Points hide the real numbers. A tech should read the board and know his close rate without doing math.

Raw revenue contests. The install lead wins. Everyone else learns that the contest is not for them.

Calls ran. Dispatch controls this number. It belongs inside close rate.

Two contests at once. Attention splits and neither number moves.

Contests longer than a month. By week six nobody remembers the prize.