5 Must-Have’s For A Successful Sales Kick-Off Event
Sales kick-off events can genuinely elevate your team’s performance. They provide a clear motivational message regarding how, as a company, you’ll achieve your goals together. They also ensure staff and stakeholders are informed and aligned about your tasks and objectives.
When your sales team is working hard every day to fulfil their quotas, it's easy to lose sight of the broad vision. This is why sales kick-off events are so important: they provide encouragement and a major boost to the team, putting them on the right track for the year ahead.
The format can take place either in person or online and, for the most part, features the business’s commercial strategy for the coming fiscal year. One of the primary event goals is generally to engage and motivate front-line salespeople.
Sleek has conceptualised and delivered SKO’s for global brands in a broad range of scales and formats. We wanted to share our 5 must-haves for a successful event that will ensure your team get the most out of the time spent together.
1. Understand Your Goals
Your objectives should form the foundation of your entire SKO, by taking time to define your goals, you'll ensure your meet-up is both productive and successful. There are two kinds of goals you should set:
Business goals: What do you want your sales team to achieve this year? Examples could be, "Boost revenue by at least 10%" or "Break into X market." Don't plan the rest of your SKO until you know exactly what your business goals are.
SKO goals: You should also plan specific goals for your sales kickoff event. What do you want your event to accomplish? Maybe you're looking to celebrate big wins from the previous year and fire up your team for the months ahead. Or maybe you plan to focus on education at your SKO so that your reps have the tools they need to sell effectively. Know your goals so that you can plan an effective event.
2. Create A Theme
When you hear ‘create a theme’ it can sound a bit corny but most marketers and event planners know that a cohesive theme can genuinely help deliver an impactful message! Much like having a theme for sponsored trade shows, having a specific theme for a sales meeting can help create the right environment. Remember to include the theme to any guest speakers or senior leaders who may be presenting, the more that you can intertwine the theme into your event the more successful it will be. Likewise, if you’re hosting any competitions throughout the event, centre these around your theme and get your sales team as involved as possible!
3. Plan Multiple Session Types
Looking to educate your reps at your next sales kick-off? Or maybe you want to take time to celebrate last year's wins or work to build stronger relationships between colleagues. These are all great goals and objectives to set for your SKO! But if every single moment of your SKO is about the same topic, you may lose focus and engagement as your event progresses.
Instead, plan multiple session types so that your team has a well-rounded experience that's both fun and productive. Here are a few session types to include:
Celebration: Last year might have been rough, but good things still happened. If they didn't your company wouldn't be in business anymore. Your SKO is the perfect time to recognize and celebrate the big wins from the past 12 months.
New updates: Are there any fresh developments your reps need to know about? New product releases, pricing changes, and compensation adjustments all apply. These kinds of sessions are also a perfect time to share new goals for the upcoming year.
Education: There's always new information to learn and salespeople want to learn what the top people at the company did so they can achieve the same success. These stories are both inspiring and insightful. Teach and share with your team selling strategies they can use to meet quotas. If possible use a combination of speakers, bring in outside speakers to educate your reps so that they have access to fresh information but also use your internal resources of successful leaders and employees to inspire.
Customer interviews: The best way to learn about your company's customers is to, you know, talk to them. Plan a customer interview session so that your reps can interact and learn from them in a zero-pressure situation. The customer insights they glean will be invaluable and help them lock down many more sales in the future.
Team Building: Modern sales is a team sport, which means team-building sessions are essential to the success of your department. Help your team build deeper bonds with each other via fun games and exercises. Team building sessions will also help boost company morale and excitement for the coming year!
There are plenty of other session types you can also include in your SKO. When planning your event's agenda, keep things fresh with a wide range of content.
4. Invite Other Departments
Although SKOs tend to be designed for sales teams, your sellers don't just work on their own. Marketing, production, customer service, and other departments all need to work together in order for a company to be successful. With this in mind, invite other leaders in your organisation to speak at your sales kickoff meeting.
It can be incredibly beneficial for reps to understand how marketing can work with them. Sometimes there's a disconnect between marketers and sellers within companies. Your next SKO is a fantastic opportunity to unite these teams and bring cohesive messaging throughout the company. Our blog 5 Benefits on aligning your marketing and sales teams talks more about the misalignment and strategies around fixing that common issue.
Likewise, insights from the product team can help your reps better understand the solutions they sell and conversations with your company’s customer service leaders will give them in-depth knowledge about the unique audience they need to convert.
If you have chosen a theme around your SKO ensure that everyone who speaks at your SKO understands the theme you've chosen and plans their talking points around it, regardless of the department they work in. This way sessions feel cohesive and work towards the common goal of your event.
5. Provide Follow-Ups
After a successful SKO your sales reps will leave your event better educated, energised, and motivated. Take full advantage of these benefits by providing follow-up opportunities for your sales teams.
To reinforce the goals, theme, and enthusiasm generated by your sales kick-off meeting, plan ways to continue the conversation. For example, you could schedule regular meetings to check in with your team or create a Slack channel devoted to the themes and goals covered in the kick-off. For a more memorable follow-up create a best bits video or have a roundup paper ready with the highlights and key takeaways from the event.
Although your SKO may be one single event, it will impact and set up the entire year. Do what you can to ensure the benefits of your meet-up extend far beyond the few days you host it.
So those are our top 5 must-haves for a memorable SKO! Now it’s time to get inspired, check out our case study on a Global Tech Brands - EMEA Commercial Kick-Off
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Unsure whether you want to plan a virtual, hybrid or in-person SKO? Or need support in planning your sales kick-off event? Sleek’s team of event experts are here to help. Fill out the below form for a complimentary consultation to answer any questions you may have when it comes to planning your next event.