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Why onboarding, enablement, and high-value sales activities matter more than ever

A BI WORLDWIDE whitepaper

Scott Smestad , Division Vice President, Client Services – Technology More about the author

The new rules of the sales game

Let’s face it: technology sales are a high-stakes, high-velocity game. Every player— whether a business development rep (BDR) making the first call, an account executive (AE) closing the deal, or a client success manager (CSM) ensuring renewals—has a direct line to your company’s growth. But here’s the twist: while most organizations obsess over the finish line, the real winners are investing where it counts—onboarding, enablement, and the daily focus on high-value activities (HVA), which lead to higher quota attainment and revenue growth.

A white outline of a running person icon inside an orange circular background.

Accelerate Onboarding

Gamify role-based new hire onboarding
Recognize and reward desired behaviors

A white icon of a person walking up stairs, centered on an orange circular background.

Boost Enablement

Gamify role-based sales enablement journeys
Motivate sellers to complete learning
Recognize and reward desired behaviors
Amplify new product and solution launches

White icon of a person climbing stairs towards a flag, symbolizing achievement or progress, on an orange circular background.

Drive High-Value Activity

Gamify role-based sales processes and activities
Motivate sellers to complete high-value activities (HVA)
Recognize and reward desired behaviors

A simple white icon of a person standing on a hilltop holding a flag, symbolizing achievement or success, on an orange circular background.

Drive Quota Attainment

Motivate sellers to attain or exceed quota
Improve closure rates, deal size, cross-sell and upsell, renewal rates, etc.
Recognize and reward top performers and consistent quota attainment

The data is clear. Structured onboarding, robust enablement, and smart non-cash incentives aren’t just “nice to have”—they’re the difference between teams that are simply trying to hit quota and teams that redefine what’s possible.

Accelerate sales onboarding

First impressions, lasting impact

First impressions matter. In sales, they’re everything. The moment a new rep walks through the (virtual) door, the clock starts ticking. How fast can they ramp up? How soon will they deliver results? The answer: as fast as your onboarding allows.

Korn Ferry found that effective onboarding boosts quota attainment by 14% and win rates by 11%, and it speeds ramp-to-productivity by 6%. Miss the mark, and voluntary turnover jumps from 10.7% to 13.7%.¹

Harvard Business Review reports companies with formal onboarding see 50% greater retention and 62% higher productivity among new hires.²

Yet, only 12% of employees believe their organization excels at onboarding.³

So, what’s the secret sauce? Gamification and recognition. Aberdeen Group found that gamified onboarding can lead to 31% higher first-year quota attainment.⁴

BI WORLDWIDE (BIW) helped a global tech company dramatically improve new rep engagement in the first 90 days and accelerate early milestone achievement, such as cutting time-to-first sale by 30%, while reducing early attrition by integrating badges, leaderboards and milestone rewards into onboarding.

Orange circle with black text stating: Gamified onboarding dramatically improved engagement in the first 90 days and accelerated early milestone achievement such as cutting time-to-first sale by 30%.

Boost sales enablement

Sustaining excellence

If onboarding is about starting strong, enablement is about sustaining excellence. The best sales teams don’t just train once—they build a culture of continuous learning, coaching, and support. Companies with structured enablement strategies report a 9-point increase in win rates, and those using formal methodologies are twice as likely to see gains in both win rate and quota attainment.⁵

Gamification and incentives bring enablement to life. 83% of employees receiving gamified learning feel motivated (vs. 61% without), and 89% say they’d be more productive if their work were gamified.⁶

A yellow-orange circle with black text stating: Gamified personal learning journeys engage more than 40% of reps monthly, completing an average of 120,000 missions or 4.6 missions per rep.

BIW partnered with a leading media and technology company to gamify enablement. The results? More than 40% of total reps engage with content monthly, completing an average of 120,000 missions or 4.6 missions per rep. During one period, engaged reps sold 90% more units than non-engaged reps.

When learning is fun, reps don’t just participate. They compete, collaborate, and strive to win.

Drive high-value sales activities

Less busy work, more selling

Here’s a reality check: LinkedIn reports that sales reps spend less than 30% of their time selling.⁷ The rest of the time? Meetings, admin, and everything but what moves the needle.

Prioritizing high-value activities like pipeline-building, client demos, and executive meetings isn’t just smart, it’s proven. Highspot research shows companies that identify and prioritize winning activities see a 7-point boost in win rates and a 10-point increase in rep satisfaction.⁸ Korn Ferry data reveals even bigger gains: focusing reps on role-specific success factors leads to 25% higher quota attainment, 17% higher win rates, and 20% lower turnover.⁹

Gamification and recognition bridge the gap. Aberdeen found that sales gamification doubled quota attainment, tripled engagement, and drove 11% higher year-over-year revenue growth.¹⁰

BIW engaged with a global software company to gamify aspects of its sales process and incorporate targeted incentives, boosting qualified leads by 25% and accelerating conversion speed.

Orange gradient circle with black text stating: Sales process gamification and targeted incentives boosted qualified leads 25% and accelerated conversion speed.

Increase quota attainment

The power of incentives and recognition

Quota attainment isn’t just a metric—it’s the scoreboard. And incentives are the playbook. Gamified sales processes drive 18% higher team quota attainment, while structured incentive programs can increase performance by 25–44%, especially when sustained over time.4,11 BIW’s meta-analysis shows that long-term incentive strategies generate 14% higher annual quota performance.

A bell curve graph showing participant performance. The right tail, marked “Top 20%,” is highlighted in orange with an arrow above it, indicating higher performance compared to the rest of the group.

To unlock performance, improve quota attainment, and maximize returns, incentives must go beyond rewarding only the top echelon. They must engage the middle 60%—the often-overlooked majority who represent the greatest capacity for incremental growth. When you design incentives to motivate all performance levels, not just the elite few, the result is a more energized sales force, greater growth, and a stronger return on investment.

A yellow-orange circle with black text stating that unified sales incentives and recognition increased revenue, market share, and produced an ROI of 10.4:1 or greater for each promotion.

BIW collaborated with a prominent software company to integrate all sales incentives and recognition initiatives into a unified, comprehensive program. This approach included quarterly and semi-annual global incentives, local discretionary incentives, and an exclusive group travel reward for top performers. The partnership increased revenue and grew market share while producing a return on investment of 10.4:1 or greater for each promotion.

Conclusion

Enable your sellers, growth will follow

Selling technology is complex, fast paced, and unforgiving. But the path to better outcomes is clear: invest in structured onboarding, reinforce with strong enablement, focus reps on high-value activities, and amplify it all with gamification, incentives, and recognition. The results speak for themselves: faster ramp-up, stronger productivity, healthier pipelines, faster velocity, higher win rates, and greater quota attainment. Together, they drive sustainable growth—not just for sales teams, but for the entire organization.

Mark Grimshaw and Doug Johnson. “How to Effectively Onboard New Sales Talent.” Korn Ferry Insights, October 17, 2023. https://www.kornferry.com/insights/articles/how-to-effectively-onboard-new-sales-talent
Gys Kappers and Sinazo Sibisi. “Onboarding Can Make or Break a New Hire’s Experience.” Harvard Business Review, April 5, 2022. https://hbr.org/2022/04/onboarding-can-make-or-break-a-new-hires-experience
Gallup. State of the American Workplace Report. 2017. https://www.gallup.com/workplace/238085/state-american-workplace-report-2017.aspx
Aberdeen Group. Gamification in B2B Sales: Is it Time? (Part I). 2014. Retrieved August 18, 2025, from https://appexchange.salesforce.com/partners/servlet/servlet.FileDownload?file=00P3000000P3QENEA3
Highspot. 2023 State of Sales Enablement Report. July 2023. Accessed August 25, 2025. https://community.highspot.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/State-of-Sales-Enablement-Report-2023.pdf
Apostolopoulos, Aris. “Gamification at Work: The 2019 Survey Results.” TalentLMS, August 19, 2019. Retrieved August 18, 2025, from https://www.talentlms.com/blog/gamification-survey-results/
LinkedIn. Global State of Sales 2022. LinkedIn Sales Solutions. Accessed July 28, 2025. https://business.linkedin.com/sales-solutions/the-state-of-sales-2022-report
Highspot. 2023 State of Sales Enablement Report. July 2023. Accessed August 25, 2025. https://community.highspot.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/State-of-Sales-Enablement-Report-2023.pdf
Korn Ferry. Supercharging Sales Effectiveness: From Talent Excellence to Precise Execution. Korn Ferry Sales Maturity Survey. 2024. Accessed August 25, 2025. https://www.kornferry.com/insights/featured-topics/sales-transformation/supercharging-sales-effectiveness
Aberdeen Group. Sales Performance Management: How the Best-in-Class Optimize the Front Line to Grow the Bottom Line. 2014.