Gamification Tactics to Level Up Your PRM and Drive Channel Partner Success 2024

Gamification could revolutionize 2024 PRM with mobile apps, smart tech, and personalized engagement. Discover more about PRM gamification today.

1. Level Up Your PRM: Gamification Set to Revolutionize Channel Partner Programs

Partner relationship management (PRM) programs play a crucial role in channel sales
strategies for many companies. These programs are designed to motivate, enable,
and incentivize channel partners like distributors, resellers, agents, and technology
partners to promote and sell a vendor’s products and solutions. The overarching goals
of PRM programs are to maximize channel revenue, ensure partner loyalty, provide the
right sales support tools, and gather useful sales data and insights.
PRM platforms provide partners with access to assets like marketing materials, sales
tools, training resources, and deal registration systems. PRM programs also include
elements like tiered partner levels, sales incentives, rebates, and rewards programs to
drive desired sales behaviors. As the channel represents a major revenue stream for
most high-tech and SaaS companies, optimizing PRM strategy is a top priority.
Let’s discover how to revolutionize your channel partner programs with PRM
gamification.
In this article, we’ll discover:
• What is Gamification?
• Benefits of Gamification
• Gamification in Business
• Potential for PRM Gamification
• Gamification Techniques for PRM
• Integrating Gamification
• Examples & Case Studies
• Challenges & Risk
• Future of Gamification in PRM
What is Gamification?
Gamification refers to the application of game design elements, game principles and
game mechanics in non-game contexts. The goal is to increase user engagement,
motivation, loyalty, retention and enjoyment in achieving their objectives.
Some examples of gamification include:
• Loyalty programs like frequent flyer miles, which reward repeated customer
behavior.

2. • Fitness apps that give you points and badges for exercising.
• Employee recognition programs that use leaderboards to drive friendly
competition.
• eLearning platforms that offer badges for completing courses.
• Social networks that have status levels based on user activity.
The basic idea is to leverage peoples’ natural desires for competition, achievement,
status, self-expression, altruism and closure. Game techniques like points, levels,
challenges, rewards and leaderboards tap into those intrinsic motivations.
Gamification doesn’t necessarily mean developing a full-fledged game. The focus is
applying proven game mechanics and principles in a business context. This could be as
simple as awarding points and badges for desired behaviors. Or it could involve more
complex gaming scenarios and simulations. But the goal is the same – increasing
participation, engagement and loyalty.
Read also: Can Gamification be the Secret Sauce for Channel Partner Programs in 2024
Benefits of Gamification
Gamification offers many potential benefits that make it an appealing option
for enhancing PRM programs in the future. Some of the key advantages of integrating
gamification elements include:
1. Drives Engagement and Motivation
One of the most well-known benefits of gamification is that it helps drive higher user
engagement and motivation. By incorporating points, levels, challenges, rewards and
other game-like features, users become more invested and interested in participating.
This increased motivation and engagement can lead to better outcomes like higher
sales, more content sharing, further training progression and other desired behaviors.
Gamification taps into people’s inherent desires for competition, achievement and
status.
2. Provides Feedback Loops
Gamification allows for real-time feedback loops where users can see their progression
and status related to goals and objectives. This transparency provides reinforcement
and motivation to keep advancing. Users can track their points, levels, badges and
placement on leaderboards. This level of insight helps satisfy innate human desires for
achievement.
3. Delivers Personalization

3. Since gamification platforms track user behaviors and engagement across many data
points, they allow for personalized and adaptive experiences. Content, challenges,
rewards and incentives can all be tailored to different user segments and roles. This
creates more relevant and meaningful experiences by catering to individual needs and
interests.
4. Makes Routine Tasks More Engaging
Gamification can add an element of fun even to mundane tasks. What might normally
seem boring or routine can become more game-like and engaging. This mechanic of
making repetitive actions, training or jobs more interesting via gamification can lead to
higher levels of buy-in and participation.
5. Encourages Long-Term Usage
By leveraging people’s competitive natures and desires for achievement, gamification
promotes more regular and long-term usage. People become invested in reaching new
levels, earning rewards and improving their ranking over time. This extended and
habitual usage is valuable for PRM initiatives looking to drive continuous partner
enablement and performance.
Current Use of Gamification in Business
Gamification techniques are currently used in a variety of business applications to drive
engagement, learning, and motivation. Here are some of the key uses:
1. Marketing
Gamification is used by marketers to increase engagement, promote content sharing,
build loyalty programs, and incentivize referrals. Points, badges, leaderboards, and
challenges help create an interactive marketing experience. Brands like Samsung, NBC,
and Ikea have used gamification successfully in their marketing campaigns.
2. Employee Training
Gamification makes employee training and onboarding more engaging and effective.
Companies are using game elements like points, badges, leaderboards, and quests to
motivate employees to complete training programs. It helps with knowledge retention,
skills development, and driving desired behaviors. Companies like Oracle, Target, and
Microsoft have incorporated gamification in their staff training.
3. Sales Management
Gamification of sales management introduces fun, transparency, and healthy
competition among sales teams. Leaderboards, team battles, challenges, goals,
commissions, and rewards help drive sales productivity. Companies like Mulesoft,
Freshworks, and Salesforce use gamified sales management approaches.

4. 4. Product Design
User experience designers often incorporate game-like elements into products to drive
engagement. Features like points, rewards, levels, onboarding tutorials, and challenges
enhance onboarding and retention. Product and SaaS companies like Duolingo, PayPal,
Uber, and Coursera use gamification in their product design.
5. Customer Loyalty Programs
Many brands use game mechanics in their customer loyalty programs. Points for
purchases, redeemable rewards, tiered privilege levels, surprise bonuses etc. help drive
customer loyalty. Airlines, hotels, retailers and financial service providers often drive
engagement through gamified loyalty programs. So in summary, gamification principles
are already widely used in marketing, training, sales, product design and customer
loyalty initiatives across industries. This sets the stage for further adoption in areas like
partner relationship management.

Potential for PRM Gamification
Partner Relationship Management (PRM) programs aim to maximize channel partner
engagement, enablement, and performance. Gamification provides an intriguing
opportunity to help achieve these goals by applying game-like elements to drive

5. participation, motivation, and desired behaviors among channel partners and sales
teams.
Gamification could be highly effective in a PRM context for several reasons:
• Increased Engagement: Games are inherently engaging and rewarding.
Integrating missions, points, levels, challenges, rewards and leaderboards into
partner portals and apps can help drive active daily usage and ongoing
participation.
• Motivate Desired Actions: Gamification allows PRMs to incentivize specific
actions and behaviors from channel partners, such as completing training
modules, sharing marketing materials, registering deals, and hitting sales
targets. Partners feel motivated to perform these actions to earn points and
rewards.
• Drive Healthy Competition: Leaderboards, badges, and other status indicators
tap into partners’ competitive desires. Partners will be motivated to perform well
to gain high status and recognition among their peers.
• Ongoing Progression: Unlike traditional loyalty programs, gamified systems
provide endless opportunities to engage and progress via points, levels,
challenges, etc. There’s always something new to strive for.
• Align to Business Objectives: Gamification elements like points and badges
can be tied directly to key business objectives like pipeline generation, deal
registration, and sales growth.
• Fun and Engaging: Incorporating game mechanics adds an element of fun and
makes it enjoyable for channel partners to participate in the PRM program. This
drives higher engagement.
By leveraging gamification techniques, PRM programs can maximize channel partner
participation, sales productivity, and program success. The future looks bright for
gamification to become a game changer in driving partner performance.
Read also: Gain Competitive Advantage with PRM
Gamification Techniques for PRM
There are several key gamification techniques that can be effectively utilized in PRM
programs:
• Points: Awarding points for certain actions and achievements is a simple yet
powerful gamification technique. Partners and sales reps can earn points for
activities like sales wins, training completion, content sharing, etc. The points
can then be redeemed for rewards or used as a metric on leaderboards. The

6. transparency of earning points and seeing them accumulate can act as a strong
motivator.
• Badges: Badges are visual representations of achievements that can be earned.
For example, partners may earn badges for hitting certain sales targets,
mastering specific product information, or completing implementation steps.
Badges tap into people’s innate desire for accomplishment and provide visible
recognition. They can increase engagement as partners work towards unlocking
badges.
• Leaderboards: Leaderboards display rankings of top performers based on
points, badges, or other metrics. Partners can see how they compare to their
peers, spurring some healthy competition. Leaderboards promote increased
participation as partners aim to reach higher positions. Different leaderboards
could rank performance across regions, products, or various time frames.
• Challenges: Challenges, contests and missions pose objectives for partners
and reps to complete within certain time periods. Challenges could include
selling a targeted number of a new product, getting trained on a platform, or
providing a certain number of demos. With an enticing reward or prize at stake,
challenges help focus activity towards key goals. They inject a sense of
excitement into partner programs. By implementing a smart combination of
points, badges, leaderboards and challenges, PRM programs can tap into
gamification to intrinsically motivate partners, reps and influencers. The
competitive and engaging nature of gamification helps drive partner
performance to higher levels. Integrating gamification techniques into the PRM
platform streamlines implementation while allowing customization to match
program needs and objectives. With thoughtful gamification design, PRM
programs can capture partners’ interest and promote growth.

7. Integrating Gamification into PRM Platforms
Gamification elements can be integrated into PRM platforms in various ways to drive
partner engagement. Here are some potential techniques:
1. Mobile Apps: Developing custom mobile apps that include gamified
experiences like points, badges, leaderboards, contests, etc. This allows
partners access to gamified features on-the-go from their smartphones.
Integrating with gamification plugins like Geddit or Gametize that provide ready-
made gamification capabilities into mobile apps. Building social/community
elements into apps so partners can interact and compete with each other.
2. APIs: Many gamification software platforms provide APIs to integrate
gamification modules into other systems. These APIs allow developers to add
gamified features into the PRM platform. For example, APIs could be used to
track partner activities across systems like trainings completed, sales made,
content accessed and award badges or points in the PRM app accordingly.
3. Embedded Experiences: Gamification platforms offer embedded code/widgets
to add leaderboards, points systems, etc. into existing apps and websites. These
could be embedded into PRM portals to create leaderboards for top performers.
Interactive game modules can also be built into PRM platform dashboards and
reports to make reviewing performance statistics and trends more engaging
through gamification. The advantage of integrating gamification deeply into PRM
platforms is that it enables easy adoption by partners right within tools they
already use regularly for work. This creates a seamless and motivating
experience.

8. Examples and Case Studies
Integrating gamification techniques into partner relationship management (PRM)
programs can help drive engagement and motivation for channel partners. Though
adoption has been limited so far, some companies have found success leveraging
gamification in their PRM initiatives.
A large retailer, implemented a gamified loyalty program for its partner network of local
retailers. By completing training modules, sharing marketing materials, and hitting sales
targets, local retailers can earn points and unlock rewards like gift cards, vacations, and
the ability to collaborate on new product development. Over 80% of partners actively
participate in the gamified program. Surveys show it has increased partner engagement
by over 50%.
A cybersecurity software vendor, gamified its partner portal. Partners can level up by
acquiring new certifications, recruiting other partners, and exceeding revenue goals.
Top partners gain early access to roadmap briefings, discounted software licenses, and
invitations to exclusive in-person events. Active daily users of the partner portal doubled
after launching the gamified experience.
An online travel booking platform, introduced quests, badges, and leaderboards to its
affiliate marketing program. Affiliates who promote can complete growth, engagement,
and conversion quests to earn badges and climb the rankings. Since implementing
gamification, the business has seen a 40% rise in revenue generated from affiliates. The
gamified system provides structure, guidance, and incentives that better motivate
affiliate partners.
With thoughtful design tailored to program objectives, gamification can positively
influence channel partner behavior. Though adoption remains low, these examples
showcase the potential for gamification to drive partner engagement within PRM.
Companies should consider integrating game mechanics as part of a modern, digital
PRM strategy.
Challenges and Risks of PRM Gamification
Implementing gamification in PRM programs comes with some potential challenges and
risks that need to be considered:
• Burnout: Gamification runs the risk of becoming repetitive or fatiguing if not
thoughtfully designed. Constant notifications, scoring mechanisms, and
competition can lead to partner or sales representative burnout over time.
Gamification elements need to be varied and well-paced to sustain engagement.
• Complexity: Adding too many gamification components can overcomplicate the
user experience for partners and sales teams. The gamification techniques

9. should seamlessly integrate within existing PRM platforms without creating
distraction or confusion. Start small and grow the gamified elements over time.
• Data Privacy: Collecting data for scoring, rewards and creating user profiles
raises privacy concerns. Make sure to be transparent about data practices and
allow users to opt in/out of certain gamification features. Do not collect or use
data in unethical ways.
• Adoption Challenges: Rolling out a new gamified system, even if optional, may
not drive 100% adoption right away. Have a plan to promote engagement,
showcase benefits and provide training to partners and sales teams. Make opting
in as frictionless as possible.
• Perception Issues: Some may see gamification as gimmicky or childish if not
presented professionally. Position gamification elements as valuable tools for
motivation and effectiveness, not just superficial badges and points.
• Legal Compliance: Be aware of any legal requirements related to contests,
sweepstakes, data privacy and more based on jurisdictions where partners and
sales reps operate. Review gamification approaches with legal counsel.
While gamification has great potential for improving PRM programs, avoid these pitfalls
by carefully designing the user experience, monitoring for burnout, and promoting
adoption through communication and training. Start small, gather feedback, and grow
gamification over time for maximum, sustainable engagement across partners and
sales teams.

10. The Future of Gamification in PRM
Gamification in PRM programs is poised for significant growth and adoption in the
coming years. As technology continues to advance, PRM platforms will have increased
capabilities to integrate sophisticated gamification techniques.
Here are some predictions for the future of gamification in PRM:
• Increased Adoption Across Industries: More companies and industries that
use PRM systems will start adopting gamification into their programs.
Gamification will become a standard best practice for PRM as its benefits
become more widely known.
• More Personalized Experiences: With advancements in AI and big data
analytics, gamification systems will be able to provide hyper-personalized
experiences by customizing activities, rewards and recognition for each user.
This will drive higher engagement and motivation.
• Integration with New Technologies: Gamification will integrate with cutting-
edge technologies like virtual and augmented reality to create more immersive
and exciting experiences for users. These rich gamification experiences will feel
like real games.
• Sophisticated Reward Systems: Next-gen gamification platforms will use
behavioral analytics to optimize rewards and incentive structures based on what
drives the highest engagement and performance with partners.

11. • Gamifying More Activities: Companies will gamify a broader range of activities
beyond sales, such as recruitment, training, community-building, content
creation, etc. This expansive use will further increase participation and results.
• New Game Techniques: PRM programs will borrow new game mechanics and
features from the gaming world such as personalized avatars, creative narrative
structures, social game interactions and more.
Overall, the application of gamification in PRM is still in the early stages but shows
immense promise. In the coming years, gamification is likely to become a game changer
that transforms PRM programs into dynamic and collaborative experiences that drive
channel growth.
Ready to Revolutionize your PRM strategy with Gamification?
Let’s embark on this transformative journey together! Explore how our innovative
solutions can drive engagement, boost productivity, and redefine your channel
partnerships.
Your next level awaits – contact us now!