If you're running a sales team and using gamification, you know the pain of manual badge awarding—it's slow, error-prone, and honestly, nobody wants to babysit spreadsheets. Automating badge assignment in Bunchball can save you hours, cut out mistakes, and actually make badges mean something to your team. This guide is for sales managers, admins, or anyone tired of clicking the same buttons over and over.
Why Bother Automating Badge Assignment?
Manual badge assignment sounds simple until you're drowning in deals and reps are pinging you for recognition. Automation keeps things fair, instant, and frees you up to focus on actually coaching your team. Plus, salespeople notice when the system’s lagging—they’re competitive by nature. If badges aren’t timely, motivation tanks.
But here's the honest bit: automation isn't magic. Get it right, and it's a huge win. Get it wrong, and people will game the system or lose trust. So let's keep it practical.
Step 1: Get Your Badge Logic Straight
Before you touch Bunchball, you need to define when and why a badge should be assigned. If this sounds obvious, trust me, it’s the step most teams skip.
- Tie badges to real, trackable actions. Examples:
- Closing a deal over $10,000
- Adding 50 prospects in a week
- Booking 10 demos in a month
- Avoid badges for “soft” actions like “being a team player.” If it’s not measurable, don’t automate it.
- Map badges to sales KPIs. If a badge doesn’t support your goals, skip it.
Pro Tip: Start with 2-3 core badges. Get those right, then expand. Badges lose value if there are too many, or if nobody knows what they mean.
Step 2: Audit Your Data Sources
Bunchball automates badge assignment based on events. These events need data. For sales teams, your sources are usually:
- CRM (like Salesforce, HubSpot)
- Spreadsheets (not ideal, but possible)
- Internal sales tools
Checklist: - Is your CRM data clean? No duplicates, standardized fields? - Can you get real-time or daily exports? - Who owns the data? If marketing or IT controls it, loop them in now.
Warning: Garbage in = garbage out. If your data isn’t reliable, fix that first. Automation will just multiply your errors.
Step 3: Connect Data to Bunchball
Now, hook up your sales data so Bunchball can “see” when to trigger a badge.
Options:
- Native CRM Integration
- Bunchball has built-in connectors for some CRMs (Salesforce is the big one).
- You’ll map CRM fields (like
Closed Won Amount) to Bunchball events. -
Usually, your Salesforce admin or IT will need to help.
-
CSV Import
- Export your sales data as a CSV.
- Upload it into Bunchball on a schedule (daily/weekly).
-
Good for small teams or if you don’t have CRM access.
-
API Integration
- For advanced folks: use Bunchball’s API to push events directly.
- More flexible, but you’ll need developer support.
What works best? - If you have Salesforce, use the native integration. It’s less hassle. - If you’re stuck with spreadsheets, set a recurring upload (and automate the export if you can). - APIs are great but overkill for most sales orgs unless you have complex needs.
Step 4: Set Up Badge Rules in Bunchball
Now the fun part—telling Bunchball exactly when to assign a badge.
- Log into Bunchball as an admin.
- Go to the “Rules” section. This is where you define automation.
- Create a new rule:
- Event trigger: E.g., “Deal Closed” or “Demo Booked”
- Condition: E.g., “Deal Amount >= $10,000”
- Action: Assign specific badge (“Big Deal Closer”)
- Set frequency: Avoid spamming badges. Limit how often someone can earn the same badge (once per deal, once per month, etc.)
Tips: - Name rules clearly—“Closed 10K+ Deal” is better than “Badge Assignment #2.” - Test your rules with sample data before rolling out. - Document your logic somewhere outside Bunchball in plain English. Future you (or your replacement) will thank you.
Step 5: Test (and Break) the System
Don’t trust any automation until you’ve tried to break it.
- Run test data. Simulate sales events. Did badges assign correctly?
- Edge cases: What happens if someone closes two big deals in a row? Or if a deal is edited?
- Ask a trusted rep to try it out. Salespeople love finding loopholes—let them.
What to ignore: Don’t bother automating rare or one-off badges yet. Focus on core behaviors that happen every week.
Step 6: Communicate With Your Team
Automation only works if your team knows how to earn badges and why they matter.
- Announce the automation: Be clear about what’s changing, and when.
- Share badge criteria: Literally show them the rules.
- Explain how to check their progress: Point them to the dashboard or profile page.
- Give reps a way to report errors: If a badge doesn’t trigger, they need to know who to contact.
Pro Tip: Don’t oversell badges. If you act like they’re the golden ticket, your team will tune out. Frame them as “quick wins” to track progress—not the only thing that matters.
Step 7: Monitor and Adjust
Automation isn’t “set it and forget it.” People will find bugs, loopholes, and edge cases.
- Review badge reports weekly for the first month.
- Watch for:
- Badges not triggering
- Badges triggering too often (or for the wrong people)
- Complaints or confusion from reps
- Adjust rules as needed. Don’t be afraid to scrap a badge that isn’t working.
What doesn’t work: Ignoring feedback. If reps think the system is broken, they’ll stop caring.
Step 8: Keep It Simple—and Iterate
Once the basics are running, you can get fancier—tiered badges, streaks, leaderboards, whatever. But don’t let complexity creep in before the basics work. Automation should save time, not create a new admin headache.
If you’re ever unsure, go back to your team’s goals: Is this badge helping your salespeople focus on what matters? If not, cut it.
Wrapping Up
Automating badge assignment in Bunchball isn’t rocket science, but the real trick is keeping things simple and grounded in real sales behaviors. Start small, check your work, and don’t let the “gamification” hype distract you from what your team actually cares about—winning deals.
Badges should make sales more fun and visible, not more complicated. If you keep that in mind, you’ll do just fine.