Use  Ambition  to  Transform  Your  Sales  Team  Into  Fantasy  Football  

Introduction  

Salesforce  offers  some  of  the  most  powerful  data  analytics  and  performance  tracking  capabilities  in  enterprise  software.  And  now,  a  new  Salesforce  App  is  allowing  users  to  take  their  business  intelligence  and  company  culture  to  the  next  level.    

Ambition  tracks  employee  performance  metrics  and  creates  workplace  competitions  replicating  of  European  and  American-­style  Fantasy  Football.  The  goal:  better  sales  team  engagement,  smarter  business  analytics,  and  real-­time  insights  that  create  a  sustainable  path  to  growth.    

Incredible  as  it  may  sound,  Ambition  has  engineered  the  most  advanced  workforce  competition  platform  on  the  market,  letting  an  organization  track  its  sales  team  as  an  owner  would  track  his  or  her  Fantasy  Football  Squad.    

 

Overview  

The  major  functions  of  Ambition  are  to  inspire  a  more  self-­aware,  better  coached,  and  dynamic,  

responsive  workforce  and  all-­around  organization.    

Ambition  tracks  data  about  employee  performance  in  real-­time,  measuring  anything  from  daily  outbound  cold  calls  to  conversion  rates.  It  then  computes  these  metrics  to  form  an  employee’s  Ambition  score.    

The  Fantasy  Football  element  of  Ambition?  Employees  compete  against  one  another  in  customizable  matchups  based  around  the  Ambition  score.  In  a  default  league,  employees  compete  in  weekly  matchups  -­-­  the  team  with  the  higher  Ambition  score  wins  their  matchup  and  moves  one  step  closer  to  making  the  playoffs  and  claiming  the  league  title.    

Ambition  fully  integrates  with  SalesForce,  add-­ons  like  Yesware,  phone  systems  such  as  Avaya  or  

Cisco,  Dropbox,  Google  Docs,  and  homegrown  CSV’s.  Managers  set  and  weigh  benchmarks  that  will  go  into  each  employee’s  daily  “Ambition  Score”  (think  football  players’  weekly  fantasy  points).  Competitions  (seasons)  usually  take  place  over  the  course  of  a  quarter,  complete  with  a  regular  season  and  playoffs.  

 

Here  is  how  you  can  use  Ambition  to  integrate  with  Salesforce  and  other  data-­tracking  systems  to  

transform  your  workforce’s  performance  into  Fantasy  Football  competitions.  

Setting  Salesforce  Objects  

Ambition  gives  you  the  power  to  select  any  and  all  kinds  of  metrics  to  incorporate  into  the  Ambition  

score.  Ambition  can  dynamically  track  your  company's  custom  and  standard  objects  and  fields.  

Outbound  calls,  emails,    revenue,  meetings,  new  opportunities  -­-­  you  name  it,  Ambition  can  track  it.    

Since  Salesforce  uses  Ambition’s  new  integration  system,  Ambition  inputs  your  Salesforce  metrics  in  a  

matter  of  minutes.  Ambition  also  allows  Salesforce  users  to  change  the  format  of  incoming  data  or  

metrics  themselves,  no  questions  asked.  For  Salesforce  users  who  want  access  to  their  historical  

performances.  Ambition  can  also  manually  process  old  company  data  and  display  that  information  as  

well.    

Creating  the  Ambition  Score  

The  Ambition  score  is  all  about  how  well  employees  meet  daily  performance  benchmarks.  Salesforce  

users  can  select  any  number  of  metrics  from  Salesforce  and  other  sources  (Yesware,  for  example)  and  

set  the  targeted  level  of  performance  for  each  metric.  The  user  then  weights  each  benchmark  to  decide  

how  much  it  will  impact  each  team  member’s  Ambition  score.  

 

Once  that  is  done,  employees  receive  an  overall  daily  score  that  shows  how  well  they  performed  in  

meeting  and  exceeding  their  benchmarks.  The  normalized  Ambition  score  is  a  100,  so  employees  that  hit  their  exact  daily  benchmarks  will  receive  a  score  of  100.  Those  that  exceed  benchmarks  can  earn  above  a  100,  while  those  that  fall  below  their  benchmarks  will  receive  a  score  lower  than  100.  Users  are  free  to  tweak  benchmarks  and  add  new  metrics  into  their  Ambition  score  at  any  time.  

The  best  aspect  of  the  Ambition  score:  Each  benchmark  is  completely  configurable,  so  employees  

with  different  job  functions  and  different  performance  expectations  can  still  compete  against  one  another,  since  competitions  are  based  upon  how  well  they  meet  their  own,  unique  performance  expections.  

Adding  Non-­Salesforce  Metrics  

A  pivotal  aspect  of  Ambition  is  that  it  measures  employee  performance,  not  just  productivity.  To  this  

effect,  Ambition  integrates  with  additional  Salesforce  Apps,  phone  systems,  and  other  data  tracking  sources  to  take  in  data  that  helps  users  better  understand  all-­around  performance.  

 

For  example,  Ambition  seamlessly  integrates  with  Yesware,  so  Salesforce  users  that  also  utilize  

Yesware  can  incorporate  daily  metrics  like  emails  sent,  open  rate,  response  rate,  click  rate,  and  so  forth  into  the  overall  Ambition  score.    

 

Ambition  Pro-­Tip:  The  optimal  number  of  metrics  in  Ambition  score  is  5  to  7.    

Setting  Up  Competitions  

Once  Salesforce  users  have  set  up  the  Ambition  score  computation,  it’s  time  to  set  up  the  competition  

format.  The  Ambition  default  competition  is  a  Fantasy  Football-­style,  11  week  regular  season  and  2  

week  playoff.    That  being  said,  Ambition  users  can  set  up  any  kind  of  competition  format  imaginable  -­-­  Ambition’s  competition  formatting  is  now  completely  tailorable  to  user  demands.  

 

Users  are  free  to  select:    

● Number  of  Leagues  

● Number  of  Teams    ● Number  of  Players  on  Each  Team    ● Team  Roster    ● Matchup  Length  ● Season  Length  ● Playoff  Format  ● And  much,  much  more.  

 

For  example,  Coyote  Logistics,  a  longtime  Ambition  client  with  over  400  users,  has  multiple  offices  

competing  in  leagues  separated  by  job-­type.  Its  Carrier  Reps  compete  in  one  league,  while  its  Minneapolis  and  Chattanooga  brokers  compete  in  another  league.  

A  neat  aspect  of  Ambition  is  that  it  lets  employees  in  different  cities  compete  against  one  another.  One  

Coyote  leagues  was  divided  into  two  conferences,  Minneapolis  and  Chattanooga.  Last  month,  the  Carrier  Cobra  Kai  squad  brought  home  the  League  championship.  

 

Ambition  Pro-­Tip:  The  optimal  number  of  teams  per  league  is  10,  while  the  optimal  number  of  players  

per  squad  is  5  to  7.  

Getting  Ambition  

Ambition  entered  the  Salesforce  App  Exchange  last  month  and  quickly  began  acquiring  rave  reviews.  

The  addition  of  new  features  like  Notifications  (sent  to  managers  and  users  every  time  an  employee  hits  a  critical  benchmark)  and  the  Ambition  TV  provide  for  better  transparency,  more  coaching  opportunities,  and  a  more  vibrant  work  environment.  

Through  a  unique  combination  of  advanced  data  analytics,  flexible  and  engaging  competitions,  and  

forward-­looking  game  design,  Ambition  has  found  the  roadmap  for  providing  your  company  with  sustainable  Return-­on-­Investment.  Dozens  of  companies  like  Coyote  Logistics,  Dropbox,  and  Axial  Financial  are  using  Ambition  and  taking  fantasy  football  to  the  office,  transforming  employees  into  competitors  and  teammates,  and  driving  better  productivity,  processes,  and  workplace  culture.  

Click  here  to  find  Ambition  on  the  Salesforce.com  App  Exchange.  To  chat  directly  with  an  Ambition  

team  member,  go  to  the  Ambition  Customer  Chatroom.  And  to  read  a  more  comprehensive  breakdown  of  Ambition  features,  check  out  this  post  on  the  Ambition  blog.