A sales contest is a short, focused competition designed to spike a particular behavior — the most dials in an afternoon, the most demos booked this week, the most net-new pipeline this month. It works by attaching urgency, visibility, and a reward to an activity that would otherwise feel routine.
The two things that make or break a contest are what you score and how long it runs. Score on raw revenue over six weeks and you’ve built a coronation for your top closer. Match the length to the behavior — short sprints for activity bursts, longer story-driven formats for pipeline and skill — and you get a contest the whole floor actually plays.
For formats grouped by how you run them, plus how to design one that moves the middle of the team, see 25 sales contest ideas that motivate the whole team.
The Gauntlet packages this as a structured, repeatable bracket so you’re not rebuilding a contest from scratch every time.