Structure Your SKO for Success
The January sales kickoff can be an energizing start to the business year, a fun get-together whose message is forgotten on the flight home, or a demoralizing kvetch-fest over company failings. All too often the company sales conference or start-of-year kickoff is treated as an afterthought, an event whose agenda is hastily thrown together in the rush to close out the previous year’s business.
Company sales conferences are not strictly social affairs. They serve a very real business purpose: establishing the go-to-market strategy for the year. Yet many leaders conflate getting together with working together, thinking that the key to company cohesion is pre-session icebreakers and drinks at the hotel bar, rather than a clear strategy with a defined action plan.
I have experienced sales kickoffs from various perspectives, having attended, presented at, and helped organize them. Below are several suggestions on planning an effective and memorable sales kickoff, one that will clearly lay out your strategy for the year while exciting your sales team.
Tip #1: Identify “the One Thing”
Company leaders sometimes rush to think of a clever theme for the event without first determining what the defining focus should be. Event themes can be fun, but they should not drive the priorities or agenda. The go-to-market strategy should.
What is the big business initiative for the year, the one you need to rally your sales team behind? Are you releasing new features to give you a competitive edge? Repositioning your offering? Adjusting your sales strategy? These are clear focus areas around which to build an agenda.
When preparing a presentation, or prepping an executive for theirs, I always ask, “If your audience only remembers one thing from this talk, what do you want it to be?” The same goes for a multi-day event made up of many presentations. Can you summarize the single most important piece of information in a sentence? This approach goes for both the conference as a whole, and for each session.
Tip #2: Consider Your Audience
Salespeople go to the kickoff to learn about what they’re selling in the coming year, get the information they need to develop their territory strategy and action plan, and to share best practices they can directly apply with their own prospects and accounts.
Most experienced salespeople have finely tuned bullshit detectors, and they prefer that you keep things simple. They have a lot to remember–the names of countless contacts, the details of hundreds of accounts, and the latest updates to the product and pricing. Hours of sit-and-get material is not going to win over your audience. Salespeople want new information to be presented in a way that is relevant to them. How will the new product features help them reach their quota? Why are you introducing new pricing? Why is the target buyer persona the right one? You need to connect the dots for them.
Tip #3: Find the Friction
What, if anything, has changed in your go-to-market strategy that might introduce friction into the existing sales process? Are you entering a new market segment? Engaging with a new buyer persona? Looking to increase average deal size?
Changes to the sales process can cause uncertainty, confusion, or worry, as salespeople wonder how they will meet their quotas. Rather than allowing these worries to distract your audience from your core message, you must anticipate and address them head on–just as your salespeople handle customer objections that arise during the sales process. So if your go-to-market strategy requires a change to the status quo, plan to dedicate adequate time to explaining the change, addressing any concerns, and sharing a timeline for additional information.
Tip #4: Balance Information with Application
Sitting and listening attentively requires a significant amount of focus and mental energy. True learning occurs when the learner can apply their knowledge. When you develop your agenda, make sure to balance informational sessions with time for application.
If the information you need to relay is extensive or complex, consider previewing or front-loading the content before your event with a podcast, video, or online module. This frees up time at the kickoff for interaction and application, which is, after all, what your audience is looking for.
For example, when preparing for a product launch, I released the initial training to the sales team through recorded modules prior to the kickoff. This gave them the background they needed on market problems, buyer personas, and product positioning before they traveled to the event, where they could then focus on practicing their sales pitch with their colleagues.
As a general rule, presentations should be reserved for communicating strategy and information that is universal, regardless of geographic territory or account size. A keynote from an industry thought leader, the company sales strategy, the launch of a new marketing campaign–these are all good uses of general session time. Translating strategy into action warrants time for direct application with smaller breakout sessions. Regional and account-based strategies, pitchfests, and competitive positioning are content better suited to smaller interactive sessions.
It can also be valuable to provide attendees opportunities to explore and have their questions answered. Organizers might consider setting up an exhibit space at the event with booths or tables for different products or functional teams, which salespeople can visit during designated times. The experts staffing the exhibit space can then act as a resource center as the salespeople develop their territory and account plans in their breakout sessions.
Tip #5: Build Credibility and Relationships
Who presents at a sales kick-off is almost as important as what they present. Selecting presenters is an opportunity to build credibility within the organization–and help the employees with go-to-market responsibilities build relationships with the sales team.
In other words, don’t let executives hog the spotlight. A major company event offers the chance to build the profile of the team who have a hands-on role in sales readiness. Make room for product managers and leaders in marketing, sales operations, and customer success to share their knowledge and vision by including them in the event planning process and assigning them roles in the event itself. Whether these people are presenting up on a stage or staffing a table in an exhibit area, you want to make sure the sales team knows who they are and how they ensure the success of the company strategy.
Bonus Tip: Model Your Agenda After the Sales Process
Given that the primary audience for the sales kickoff is the sales team, one way to approach the agenda is to model it after the sales process. What I like about this approach is that it starts with the company strategy and business rationale and moves toward more individual concerns, finishing with a strong answer to the “what’s in it for me?” question that salespeople are likely to have.
Here’s how to structure your sales kickoff like the sales process.
Prospecting: Open the conference with a presentation on market problems. What changes have occurred, and how is the company responding? These sessions would include presentations from the CEO or founder and keynotes from industry thought leaders.
Qualifying: Who experiences the problems identified most acutely? Who are the buyer personas, and what is the account profile? In other words, who is the ideal customer? These sessions could be delivered by leaders in sales or marketing, or offered as facilitated Q&A with customers in target persona roles.
Presentation: Have the product team demonstrate new functionality that meets the identified market problems in a general session, or review and practice positioning with breakout sessions.
Proof: Showcase the impact of the company’s solutions with a customer panel. If you are launching a new product or set of features, build credibility with the sales team by letting them hear from customers involved in piloting or beta testing.
Close: Share the compensation plan and new resources available. Make sure salespeople know whom to contact with questions.
Conclusion
The company sales kickoff should establish the go-to-market strategy for the year and get the sales team invested–so don’t leave planning till the last minute. When organizing the event, be sure to define your focus, consider your audience, anticipate concerns, offer a balance of activities, and build relationships and credibility across the organization. Given that the event is focused on your salespeople, you may want to model your agenda after the sales process, beginning with a powerful hook and closing with the next steps that will make your team successful. This will help you begin to operationalize your go-to-market strategy, as your salespeople understand how to translate your business plan into action.