How to Keep Score in Public

Popular video games like Golden Tee and Big Buck Hunter have made Incredible Technologies a $60 million success in a once dormant industry. For Don Pesceone, the vice president of sales, the trick is to keep his field reps from becoming complacent. Fortunately, he didn't have to look much beyond his own consoles for a great strategy. Borrowing an idea from tournament scoreboards, Pesceone began posting "player stats"--an update of each rep's sales numbers--on a daily basis.

Each afternoon, Pesceone distributes the stats to his advisory board and customer service departments. "Nobody wants to be on the bottom of that list," he says. Meanwhile, those who top the charts appreciate the kudos. The company's CEO, Elaine Hodgson, will often write notes to them. She also regularly congratulates reps when their numbers improve noticeably.

Since implementing this strategy, Pesceone says, "our lowest performer moved from nearly the bottom to the top, and everybody is falling within 4% of their per-territory saturation targets, versus 15% to 20% of those goals previously."

Pesceone also happily reports that the player stats have spawned a series of side bets (for Cubs tickets or a bottle of Jack Daniels) over who can meet a quarterly goal first, or who achieves a personal best.

Follow Inc. magazine at @incmagazine, By: Lora Kolodny