Ding Dong, the Gong Has Gone...?

It's small, but this little audio titillation can pack a real punch. Or at least it used to. I'm talking about bells on the sales floor.

That first hit of dopamine

One of my first impressionable moments in sales was the immersive sound of a diner plate-sized gong being struck by my sales director when someone landed a deal or, as we used to call them, the 'show me report' (of Jerry Maguire fame). Boy, did that small flick of the wrist get the pulse racing.

Incentivising sales teams is a big thing - nights out, trips away, champagne on top of Tower 42 - but nothing beats the immediate gratification of seeing your figures on the report and banging that gong. If someone hit it by accident, the disappointment was akin to your football team missing a penalty. Like Pavlov's dog, it sent a wave of dopamine flowing. Good things were coming.

A very British reluctance

Us Brits were late adopters. We watched our American counterparts doing it on TV and labelled it 'cheesy' and 'gimmicky' - far more likely to puff a cigar and crack open a 25-year-old GlenAllachie. But when I joined sales, the gong had joined too, and we embraced it in the 'one world' fashion of the late 2000s.

Does it still have a place?

Fast forward, and a few clients have raised the question lately: do these sound celebrations belong on the modern sales floor?

I get the scrutiny. In this post-COVID, more sensory-aware era, the old-school gong has some obvious problems. People won't always be there to hear it. If it isn't live, it loses its impact. And in a quieter, more mindful working environment, a sudden clang is less of a celebration and more of a pattern disrupt.

But equally - if it isn't broke, don't fix it. If you have bells and gongs galore and the team are responding, ring-a-ding all day long.

I know plenty of clients who ring it when they're in the office, and if they're not, it's a shout-out on Teams - with the full chorus saved for the Friday wrap-up, a flurry of high fives, and energy that genuinely feels good.

The verdict

Does the gong have a place on the modern sales floor? Yes - if it suits your culture. It's not a time-capped thing (or should I say ring). It's a cultural choice.

Here's to the bell not ending.