Give your team CRAMPS

My framework for employee engagement

If you want to keep your team engaged, motivated and retained, you have to give them CRAMPS. 🤔🤔🤔

The difference between 24 and 48 month average employee tenure in market facing functions like sales, CS, support, onboarding is massive. The economics of your growth model can change entirely. If you're a leader worth your salt, you should also want to deliver an incredible experience to your team. 

However, making engagement strategy actionable can be challenging and opaque so I’m going to share my framework with you: CRAMPS. 

I borrowed AMP (Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose) from Daniel Pink’s book Drive, but found it incomplete. So, I expanded it using insights from the best research on employee engagement, particularly Gallup's Q12 work. 

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C – Community

Humans crave connection. We’re social animals. Build a culture where your team has real relationships with one another. It could be through team-building events, casual check-ins, or encouraging collaboration across departments. When people feel like they belong, they’re more likely to stick around.

R – Recognition

Carolyn Wiley of Roosevelt University, studied engagement research over 46 years of data and only one answer was cited every time among the top two motivators: "Full appreciation of work done."

Celebrate every milestone — first 50 sourced ops, first $100K deal, anything! Salespeople live for recognition. The more you acknowledge their wins (big or small), the more engaged and driven they’ll be. And it doesn’t have to be just public recognition. A simple shout-out in a Slack channel or a leaderboard update can do wonders.

A – Autonomy

Give your team the space and trust to do their job well. Autonomy means letting them take ownership of their tasks and decisions. For example, after your BDRs have mastered your core frameworks, allow them to experiment with new outreach techniques or give AEs the freedom to adjust their pitch to their style. “Imitate before you innovate,” according to KD. 

M – Mastery

Providing a path to mastery is arguably the most important part of this framework. It doesn’t just impact engagement but it leads to life satisfaction. In The Happiness Hypothesis, Jonathan Haidt discusses mastery in the context of finding purpose and satisfaction through what he calls "vital engagement"—a state where people are deeply involved in work or activities that challenge them just enough to feel progress without being overwhelmed. Haidt draws on the concept of flow (from Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi) to explain that humans are happiest when they are fully immersed in activities that push their skills slightly beyond their current capabilities, creating a balance between challenge and ability.

Haidt emphasizes that this drive for improvement and mastery is fundamental to well-being, as it allows people to grow and feel a deeper sense of purpose. The combination of challenge and progress provides intrinsic satisfaction, which leads to sustained happiness and engagement over time. Imagine your ability to retain team members when you’re providing life satisfaction. 😲

P – Purpose

Your team needs to understand how their work ties into the bigger picture. When people can connect their day-to-day tasks to a larger purpose, it drives their motivation. Share customer success stories, highlight the impact they’re having, and remind them of the company’s mission. People don’t work just for a paycheck — they want to know they’re making a difference.

S – Steps

Steps really means ‘career progression’ but an “S” made my mnemonic work. 🤷Career progression is essential for keeping your team engaged long-term especially for early career folks. If your BDRs and Support reps don’t see a clear path forward, they’ll leave. I heavily prioritize internal promotions even when stronger external talent exists because of the impact it can have on engagement, morale and retention. 

Even if you don’t have immediate AE roles open, you can create step promotions to keep them motivated (e.g., BDR -> Sr. BDR -> BDR Team Lead -> AE). We’ve also used interim roles, like Solutions Consultant, to give BDRs more responsibility while they ramp up for AE roles. It’s an investment that pays off.

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Hopefully this framework helps leaders offer a better experience for their teams and you’ve walked away understanding the impact of this investment.