Every year brings a brand new alternative to reset and focus in your gross sales group’s new objectives. What higher technique to get everybody on the identical web page and amped to hit their targets than internet hosting a gross sales kickoff?
For those who’re searching for assist getting began, we have got you lined with our suggestions, gross sales kickoff themes, and pattern agenda. First, let’s cowl the fundamentals.
What’s a gross sales kickoff?
A gross sales kickoff is an annual assembly (often in January) on your complete gross sales workforce. The primary targets are motivating your reps, managers, and leaders; laying out your technique; and celebrating wins. You are setting the tone for the subsequent 12 months and getting your complete group — from the highest to the underside — fired as much as hit their objectives.
Gross sales kickoffs assist increase morale, construct workforce belief and rapport, and be sure that your complete group understands the priorities and roadmap for the yr forward. Under are our particular suggestions for planning kickoff — so preserve studying.
Digital Gross sales Kickoff
The pandemic has modified the way in which corporations do enterprise and digital occasions have gotten the norm. However simply since you’re taking your SKO occasion on-line doesn’t imply that it needs to be a bore. It simply means you’ll must get inventive and be strategic about the way you allocate time. Take a look at a few of our digital gross sales kickoff concepts under.
1. Construct in breaks.
Zoom fatigue and slide overload are very actual. Give your attendees time to mirror, and take small breaks in between periods. It will preserve people from zoning out, which is simple to do when sitting by a number of hours of displays.
2. Make it interactive.
On-line occasions usually lack the gang participation of in-person occasions. It may be tough having somebody discuss at you for hours on finish. That’s why it’s vital to get the viewers concerned. Whereas it’s unimaginable to recreate the identical nuance and surroundings of in-person gatherings, you can provide folks the chance to socialize in different methods.
- Divide attendees into groups for a sport. Incentivize them to take part with small prizes. Mock Shark Tank or different pitching and improvisational challenges could be a superb match. Digital escape room video games are additionally a well-liked selection for workforce constructing.
- Create breakout periods for meet and greets or matter discussions. It will enable attendees to fulfill and work together with one another.
- Encourage folks to ask questions. Construct in time to reply questions within the chat or in real-time with the hand-raised emoji.
3. Use participating keynote audio system.
Having an amazing speaker is vital at any occasion, nevertheless it’s completely a should for digital ones. Work together with your stakeholders throughout your SKO planning periods to slim down who in your group (or outdoors in case you have the flexibility to rent) would ship the most effective keynote message, or who has an fascinating story to share that your viewers would discover precious.
4. Make your presentation rely.
For digital occasions, having an interesting presentation may also help you maintain everybody’s consideration. Attempt to not have tons of textual content in your slides and incorporate extra video and different visuals each time doable.
5. Ship a swag bag.
This doesn’t need to be extreme for those who’re involved about price. Even a branded pocket book that your workforce can use for the day with some pens can go a protracted technique to making the occasion really feel extra cohesive and inclusive.
6. Create awards and acknowledge excessive performers.
Simply since you’re not assembly in actual life doesn’t imply you possibly can’t acknowledge workforce members which might be doing effectively. Put aside time in your presentation to have fun wins and the individuals who helped the corporate obtain them.
Able to get right down to the nitty-gritty particulars of planning your occasion? Let’s focus on how one can make your occasion each participating and informative.
Gross sales Kickoff Ideas
- Select an interesting gross sales kickoff theme.
- Create a gross sales kickoff agenda.
- Combine displays, trainings, and team-building.
1. Select an interesting gross sales kickoff theme.
Why select a theme on your gross sales kickoff? First, your content material will likely be extra participating and memorable if all of it goes again to a central thought. Second, it heightens the leisure worth. A theme enables you to add in jokes, slideshows, skits, mini contests, and so forth. Third, a theme retains you on monitor. Kickoffs fail once they’re all over — reps find yourself forgetting what they’ve heard, and there is no lasting worth. To make your kickoff profitable, give it an overarching theme.
However do not select one at random. In keeping with the “Heavy Hitter” sequence writer Steve Martin, the correct theme will depend on your org’s morale.
“All gross sales forces undergo intervals of excessive and low morale,” he explains. “When morale is excessive, you may be extra inventive and take greater dangers with the theme you select.”
Martin says among the best gross sales kickoffs he ever attended had a “Night time on the Oscars” theme.
“Every of the gross sales areas created their very own video concerning the common day within the lifetime of a salesman. The movies have been exceptionally well-done, filled with side-splitting humor, and their ingenuity was inspirational. Everybody beloved watching them and a judging panel of firm executives awarded Oscars to the most effective.”
However “such an over-the-top” theme could be a foul thought throughout a low interval. In that scenario, Martin recommends a extra pragmatic one, like “Higher, Stronger, Quicker.” Planning a merger? Go together with a theme that emphasizes collaboration, similar to “Profitable collectively.”
Listed below are some concepts to get you began:
The Avengers/The Justice League
Give every of your prime salespeople from final yr a superhero persona. Then have them costume in costume and shoot a video or give a speech explaining what they did to achieve success. You can even have your presenters costume as superheroes and stage battles.
Star Wars
That is one other cinema-inspired theme that’ll make your gross sales kickoff a superb time. Give each host or gross sales chief a personality (if you would like laughs, I like to recommend asking the supervisor with the “hardest” fame to be Darth Vader).
“Beat [Competitor]”
Do you could have a transparent rival out there? Now’s your probability to make use of that to your benefit. Nothing rallies a gross sales workforce like a typical enemy, so use a theme that focuses on overcoming your competitor.
Again to the Future
Hop within the DeLorean for this enjoyable theme. Marty can signify your loyal, good, enterprising salespeople; Doc Brown is their courageous supervisor; Biff is the rival firm, and getting again to their very own time zone equals their gross sales targets.
March Insanity
Assign an NCAA workforce to every gross sales workforce or area, then have them compete all through the kickoff to advance by the bracket. Maintain the basketball theme going all through — have your presenters costume like coaches, use “referees” to quiet the gang, and provides basketball tickets as prizes.
Residence Run
A baseball theme is one other sturdy selection, particularly whenever you give attention to “residence runs:” Those you hit final yr and those you may hit subsequent yr.
Inspector Gadget/The Pink Panther/James Bond
Go together with a spy theme to make issues just a little mysterious and enjoyable. Your workforce’s “devices” embrace their telephones, laptops, CRM, and so forth. Their mission: Hit or exceed their annual quota.
[Your Company Slogan]
If in case you have an organization tagline or slogan, think about making it your kickoff theme.
Survivor
Divide salespeople into groups. Over the course of the kickoff, maintain a number of “challenges” to check their product data, promoting expertise, engagement throughout periods, and so forth. The kickoff’s emcee can play Survivor host Jeff Probst. On the finish of the kickoff, give the workforce with probably the most factors a prize.
2. Create a gross sales kickoff agenda.
Salespeople need to study what the highest folks on the firm did to allow them to obtain the identical success. These tales are each inspiring and insightful. With that in thoughts, schedule one to a few panels the place your highest-performing sellers focus on their greatest offers — how they began the gross sales dialog, how the method went, which obstacles they encountered, and the way they bought previous them, and so forth.
You must also embrace at the very least one tactical gross sales coaching session. Profitable salespeople by no means cease studying, so give them loads of insights and new strategies to strive within the new yr.
Networking is one other vital ingredient of an amazing kickoff. That is the one time everybody in your gross sales workforce is in a single place, so let your reps benefit from it. They will forge precious connections that’ll result in mentorships, casual peer coaching, friendships, and deal collaborations.
In fact, you additionally want to incorporate the high-level content material — how the gross sales org and firm did final yr and what your technique and objectives are for this yr. These periods get everybody on the identical web page so that you’re as efficient as doable.
Day 1:
Welcome/breakfast: The host introduces themselves, goes over the schedule, and will get everybody excited. Free meals by no means hurts — and in case your attendees eat a superb breakfast, it will be simpler for them to focus.
Yr in assessment: Dialogue of final yr’s numbers, the highlights and lowlights, main firm trade, and product developments.
Coaching/breakout session: Reps get into small teams for skills-based gross sales coaching. Take into account sending pre-work so coaching periods are constructing on acquainted data and ideas.
Lunch: This can be a nice alternative for salespeople to community. Encourage mingling.
Advertising replace: The CMO or VP of Advertising covers the initiatives their division is planning for the upcoming yr (and extra importantly, how these will assist Gross sales earn more money).
Stay name (non-obligatory): Have a prime performer run by an precise name with a prospect. Not solely is listening to a reside, unscripted dialog much more fascinating than a deliberate presentation or name recording, it is also an effective way to make the kickoff memorable and fascinating.
Enjoyable networking alternative: Capitalize on the power your final session generated. Host a Jeopardy-style quiz, ask reps to pick the true clients from the faux ones for a prize, and so forth.
Aggressive assessment: Have the Gross sales Enablement workforce focus on the foremost aggressive gamers — the place they seem to be a true risk and the place they fall brief. To make this session extra interactive, every individual can play a persona of a unique competitor.
Group dinner: That is one other ideally suited time on your reps to get to know new faces and greet outdated ones whereas kicking again just a little.
Day 2:
Brief welcome/breakfast: This intro session ought to rapidly go over the plan for the day.
Product coaching: In and of themselves, product updates aren’t helpful to reps. What is helpful? Tactical content material on learn how to place the brand new options, add-ons, and choices.
Breakout session: To strengthen the final session, have reps get into small teams (every led by a gross sales supervisor or facilitator) and full a coaching module and role-play train.
Lunch: The identical thought as yesterday’s lunch — attempt to encourage cross-team mingling if doable. You can even use this time to current awards to the highest reps and managers of final yr.
Coaching session: Put together one other skills-based lesson and train for this a part of the kickoff.
The primary goal of this presentation? Get your reps fired up. You may select somebody out of your firm to speak — like a high-performing rep — or rent a visitor speaker. Simply make sure that they’re extremely motivating and may communicate to your gross sales org’s particular tradition.
Closing remarks: Have somebody out of your firm (possibly the CEO or VP of Gross sales) give a brief speech summarizing the kickoff’s highlights and reminding everybody what they will accomplish that yr
Many corporations host three-, four-, and even five-day kickoffs. This is not a good suggestion: At that time, it is unlikely each session is useful or related to the vast majority of attendees; plus, folks need to get again to their common obligations (to not point out lives). If this agenda would not absolutely suit your wants, swap periods out and in.
For instance, you may select to have a session dedicated to your CRM — learn how to navigate it, which options are most helpful, knowledgeable suggestions, and so forth. Maybe you’d prefer to cowl an trade pattern. HubSpot reps, to present you an thought, might learn to discuss to their EU prospects about Normal Knowledge Safety Regulation (GDPR) compliance.
3. Combine displays, coaching, and team-building.
As soon as you’ve got completed getting by the content material and coaching that it’s worthwhile to cowl, ensure you construct in time for enjoyable, social, team-building actions so your workforce can get to know each other and spend time collectively outdoors of the workplace. Under are a few concepts:
Glad hour/enjoyable exercise: Maintain a cheerful hour with alcohol-free choices for people who don’t drink. Another choice is to host an exercise. Give your salespeople the selection between paintball, laser tag, a cooking class, a scavenger hunt, a baseball sport, or Escape the Room, to get people mingling and collaborating.
Dinner: That is non-obligatory — you possibly can let attendees go residence after the earlier exercise if you would like. However it may be good to convey everybody collectively for one final dinner, particularly if many attendees reside too distant to journey again that night time.
Host an SKO gross sales reps will take pleasure in and keep in mind.
Every gross sales workforce is exclusive and also you’ll need to tailor your occasion to your workforce’s tradition and gross sales objectives. Nevertheless, for those who comply with these pointers, reps will not simply take up quite a bit out of your gross sales kickoff — they will take pleasure in it, too.
This text was initially revealed in December 2018 and has been up to date for comprehensiveness.
