The sales floor, defined.
Plain-English definitions of the terms managers actually use to run a team — contests, leaderboards, incentives, and the metrics underneath them. One clear answer per term, with the posts that go deeper.
- Pipeline Velocity Metrics & Scorecards
Pipeline velocity measures how quickly deals move through your pipeline and turn into revenue, combining the number of open deals, average deal size, win rate, and sales cycle length into a single dollars-per-day figure.
- Ramp Time Metrics & Scorecards
Ramp time is how long it takes a newly hired sales rep to reach full productivity — typically defined as the point they consistently hit quota — and is a core measure of onboarding and enablement effectiveness.
- Sales Contest Sales Contests
A sales contest is a time-boxed competition that rewards a specific selling behavior — calls, demos booked, pipeline created, or deals closed — with recognition or a prize.
- Sales Gamification Gamification
Sales gamification is the practice of applying game mechanics — points, levels, contests, leaderboards, and rewards — to everyday selling activity to make the work more engaging and the right behaviors more visible.
- Sales Leaderboard Leaderboards
A sales leaderboard is a ranked, usually real-time display of reps by a chosen metric — revenue, activity, or points — used to create visibility and competition across a team.
- SPIFF Incentives & Comp
A SPIFF is a short-term, extra incentive paid to a rep for a specific action — like closing a particular product or hitting a one-week target — on top of their normal commission.