Looking for a way to give your sales team a shot of motivation without getting lost in spreadsheets or manual scorekeeping? This guide is for sales managers, ops folks, and team leads who want to actually get something useful out of Ambition—not just set it up and forget it. We’ll walk through how to set up automated leaderboards and competitions that actually drive behavior, not just look pretty on a dashboard.
If you’re tired of vague promises and want real results (without babysitting the process), keep reading.
Why bother with leaderboards and competitions?
Let’s get real: not everyone loves leaderboards. Run them poorly and you’ll annoy half your team. Run them well and you can get a healthy dose of competition, recognition, and focus on the right activities. The trick is to automate as much as possible, keep things transparent, and avoid rewarding the same top dog every time.
Ambition isn’t magic, but it can save you a ton of time and hassle if you use it right.
Step 1: Know What You Want to Track (and Why)
Before you even log in to Ambition, get clear on what matters. Leaderboards and competitions are only as good as the metrics behind them.
Questions to ask yourself:
- What behaviors actually drive results for your team? (Calls? Meetings booked? Revenue? Demos?)
- Do you want to reward pure output, or progress towards a long-term goal?
- Is everyone competing on a level playing field, or do you need to adjust for territory, role, or experience?
Pro tip: Don’t try to track everything. Pick 1-3 metrics that are visible, fair, and actionable. If your reps can’t control it, don’t put it on the board.
Step 2: Make Sure Your Data Is Clean and Flowing
Ambition can only automate what it can see. If your CRM is a mess or reps log stuff inconsistently, your leaderboard will be garbage in, garbage out.
Checklist: - Is your CRM (Salesforce, HubSpot, etc.) up to date? - Does Ambition have the right permissions to pull data automatically? - Are the fields you care about (like “Meetings Booked” or “Opportunities Won”) in a consistent format?
Don’t skip this. If you set up a leaderboard and people immediately question the numbers, you’ve lost all credibility—and now you’re troubleshooting instead of motivating.
Step 3: Set Up Your Metrics in Ambition
Now, log in and get your metrics mapped in Ambition. Here’s how to do it (skip the fluff):
- Navigate to Data Integrations:
- Go to “Admin” > “Integrations” and connect your CRM if you haven’t already.
- Create Metrics:
- Under “Data,” define exactly which CRM fields you want to track. For example, “Outbound Calls” might map to your Salesforce “Call Logged” activity.
- Test Your Metrics:
- Pull a quick report in Ambition and compare it to your CRM. Are the numbers lining up? If not, fix it now—not after your team starts complaining.
Watch out for:
- Duplicate fields or custom objects in your CRM that don’t map cleanly.
- Metrics that update with a lag (Ambition usually syncs every 15 minutes, but check your integration settings).
Step 4: Build Your Leaderboards
Here’s where Ambition earns its keep. Leaderboards are the simplest way to get started, and they’re easy to automate.
- Go to the “Leaderboards” Section:
- Click “Create Leaderboard.”
- Choose Your Metric(s):
- Pick from the metrics you set up earlier.
- Select Participants:
- Individual reps, teams, or even custom groups (like SDRs vs. AEs).
- Set the Timeframe:
- Daily, weekly, monthly—whatever makes sense for your sales cycle.
- Decide on Visibility:
- Make it public to the whole org, your team, or just managers.
- Tip: Public leaderboards drive more engagement, but only if the data is trustworthy.
Be careful:
- Don’t humiliate low performers—avoid “bottom 5” boards unless you want resentment.
- If you have huge swings in deal sizes, leaderboard on activities (calls, meetings) instead of revenue to give everyone a shot.
Step 5: Create Competitions That Don’t Suck
Competitions are more than just a leaderboard with prizes. Ambition lets you automate the whole thing—brackets, points, timeframes, and notifications.
- Head to the “Competitions” Module:
- Click “New Competition.”
- Pick a Format:
- Head-to-head: March Madness style brackets.
- Team face-off: Groups or pods compete.
- Free-for-all: Everyone for themselves.
- Choose Metrics and Scoring:
- Single metric (like calls made), or a weighted formula (calls + meetings + revenue).
- Decide if you want cumulative totals or average per person (important for uneven team sizes).
- Set the Rules:
- Duration: a day, a week, month, or custom.
- Tiebreakers (you’ll need them).
- Prize or recognition: Doesn’t have to be cash—lunch, trophy, even bragging rights.
- Automate Notifications:
- Ambition can send Slack, email, or TV alerts to keep things top of mind.
What to avoid:
- Overly long competitions. Anything over a month gets stale.
- Making it winner-take-all every time. Mix it up: top 3, random draw among everyone who meets a goal, etc.
- “Participation trophies” that feel patronizing.
Step 6: Launch and Let It Run (But Don’t Disappear)
The beauty of automation is you don’t have to babysit results, but that doesn’t mean you go dark.
- Announce the leaderboard or competition clearly. How it works, what counts, and what’s at stake.
- Encourage reps to check their standings themselves—don’t send a million reminders.
- If something’s off (data issues, gamed metrics), pause and fix. Don’t let it fester.
Pro tip:
Highlight “most improved” or “hustle” awards alongside the usual top-performer stuff. It broadens recognition and keeps more people engaged.
Step 7: Review and Iterate—Don’t Set and Forget
Even the best automation needs a tune-up. Every few weeks, check:
- Are the metrics still driving the right behavior? (If calls go up but quality tanks, rethink.)
- Has your team lost interest? Try new formats, rotate prizes, or get their input.
- Are there any loopholes or ways to game the system? Close them fast.
Stuff that rarely works, no matter what Ambition’s marketing says: - Complex point systems nobody understands. - Competitions that only reward the already-top performers. - Leaderboards with stale or obviously wrong data.
Keep it simple, keep it fair, and don’t be afraid to kill something that’s not working.
Wrapping Up: Start Simple, Get Feedback, Adjust
Ambition can make leaderboards and competitions way less painful—and even fun—if you stick to the basics. Don’t overthink it. Set up a simple leaderboard, run a short competition, and see what happens. Get feedback from your team and adjust. The goal isn’t to build the world’s most “engaging gamification system”—it’s to nudge your sales team in the right direction, without creating more work for yourself.
Automate what matters, ignore the hype, and keep your focus on what actually helps your team win.