A sales kickoff is when a company gathers all its employees to share a common goal and vision. Its purpose is to inspire and motivate salespeople. Managers get feedback from their reps about their needs to succeed. You should plan it carefully and tailor it to the needs of your business and your employees. Also, a sales kickoff needs to be fun.

Read on to discover how you can successfully run a sales kickoff (SKO).

What is a sales kickoff, and how does it work?

Here’s the definition:

8 Benefits of running a sales kickoff 

A sales kickoff is a highly anticipated event that can help inspire the sales team. It’s an opportunity for the company to share its vision, goals, and plans for the year. Check out the following eight benefits of a sales kickoff.

1. Sales kickoffs provide motivation

Sales kickoffs are an essential part of a business. They motivate employees, increase morale and make the work week more productive. 

2. SKO helps educate your team

Sales kickoffs help educate your team and get them on the same page. It’s a great way to teach everyone about your company and establish a unified vision. It helps build rapport with new employees and reconnect with long-time team members.

3. Sales kickoffs help you implement new strategies

Sales kickoff sessions are an essential part of a sales team’s success. It’s time to introduce new techniques, share them with the team, and inspire them. 

4. SKO gives you a roadmap to success

Every business needs a roadmap to success. A sales kickoff meeting is an event that kicks off the new year with goals, objectives, and a plan to meet those objectives. A well-executed sales kickoff can help boost morale, create better customer interactions and provide a sense of connection with co-workers.

5. Sales kickoffs create an energized environment

Sales kickoffs create an energized environment and get the team excited about a new product launch or sales goals. The event can motivate employees and generate excitement for the company’s unique purposes while also encouraging collaboration between departments.

6. Sales kickoffs are an excellent way to celebrate successes

There has been a lot of talk about the importance of rewarding successful employees. Sales kickoffs are a perfect way to do this.

7. SKO keeps your team on track with company goals

It’s always critical to stay focused on company goals. One way to do this is by hosting a sales kickoff each year. A sales kickoff can help motivate your team and keep them on track with company goals by reminding them of what they need to be working on.

8. Sales kickoff keeps your team excited and engaged

Sales kickoff is an important event that helps your team stay engaged and excited. It’s a time to celebrate the goals achieved and create an environment conducive to new purposes. Everyone can share their thoughts about what they would like to see in the coming year.

Best tips on how to conduct a successful sales kickoff

Clarify your objectives and choose an SKO theme

Every attendee of the sales kickoff needs to be clear on why the event is crucial to them. It means that before the meeting, you should define the purpose of the SKO around which you can develop a theme. Here are some questions to set the ball rolling.

• What do we expect visitors will remember about this event?
• What do we want to accomplish?
• Is education our primary focus? New tools or motivation? 
• Do you have any information about the product?
• If your event is a success, how will we know?

You can develop a theme for your sales kickoff once your goals are clear. Check out the following SKO ideas to spark your imagination.

Fire up your sales

It’s a brilliant theme idea if your company has the following aims: introducing a new sales tactic or strategy, talking about recent market changes, launching new products, payment plan, etc. You can invite industry experts or top-performing reps to inspire salespeople with new sales techniques. But this should be related to your sector.

Creating customer connections

Your SKO can focus on how your company can improve customer relations by using a technology tool, such as  CRM software. In this case, you want to provide the latest information about how the platform can help sellers. 

 A vendor supplying the software can be part of the occasion to demonstrate the application’s benefits. You can also include a Q&A to allow reps to understand the software better.

Scaling new heights

A sales kickoff meeting can be a source of motivation and new challenges for your team. For example, you can emphasize this theme to inspire your salespeople with new internal processes or sales incentives programs. Or reps can have 1-on-1 or group meetings to share their experiences. Also, you can discuss your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses.

Get buy-in from your sellers

You can have a successful sales kickoff if you involve your reps in the planning stages. Well before the start of the event, use a poll or a survey to find out what they want to see in the meeting. Ask them about their career growth, dreams, plans, etc. 

The findings can show the reps’ interests and their goals -you can use this info to create themes and objectives.

Create excitement about your forthcoming event

Hollywood is brilliant in arousing interest in its future movies through film trailers, interviews of actors, adverts, etc. You can do the same on a small budget by asking your speakers to make short videos about their topics. Also, you can create videos centered around the themes to tease participants and build high expectations.

Create your SKO agenda

Check out some innovative ideas for your sales kickoff meeting plan.

• Sales strategy lessons: Use internal or external real-life examples.

• Skill development in sales: Focus on how sellers can overcome their fears, challenges, and customer objections.

• Updates on the company product: Let your team see your solution from the buyer’s perspective – their likes and dislikes.

• Company speakers: Invite internal staff, like account executives, a customer success team, etc., to share their hurdles and success stories.

• Overall sales: Give an update on your business’ revenue, goals, customer support, etc. How well does it do in those areas? 

• Competitors: Talk briefly about your organization’s market share vs. your rivals.

Related: 22 Most daunting sales objections and how to overcome them

The meeting is now up and running – here are some things you can do to inject fun and excitement.

Introduce healthy competitions

A sales kickoff meeting should be fun to keep the attendees engaged and excited. You can achieve this through sales competitions. For example, you can try the following creative activities:

• Leaderboards with games and quizzes.
• Sellers compete in creating killer pitches and rewarding the winner on the last day.
• Awarding high-performing salespeople – hold a ceremony.

Encourage engagement among participants

While speakers can bring value to the SKO, impromptu interactions among the guests are also crucial. You need to leave free time on your schedule for reps to mingle and engage with other visitors. These informal conversations can strengthen relations, open new opportunities, and improve collaboration. 

Motivate your salespeople with real success stories

A sales kickoff is also an excellent time to inspire sellers with testimonies and case studies. Invite high-performing sales reps to talk about their challenges, how they overcome them, and their winning strategies. You can change these success stories into case studies for reference in the future.

Consider your wins and losses from a customer’s point of view

Organize a session where two buyers can share their experiences with your company or product. One customer can talk about why they bought your solution, how it fixes their pain points and the sales process.

The other buyer can share their dislike about your sales cycle, why they’re uninterested in your product, what they think about the sellers, etc.  Your team will understand what they need to do to close more deals.

Your sales kickoff is over; what’s next? Here are some things you can do after the SKO event. 

Reinforce the sales kickoff lessons

Salespeople will likely forget most of the information they learned during the occasion. It’s not anyone’s fault – it’s human nature. However, you can help them remember and practice the concepts through reinforcement.

You can share slide decks or presentations with sales leaders and sellers. Also, keep the most crucial lessons on the reps’ minds by reminding them throughout the year. Follow up on the agreed sales techniques or tactics by asking individual sellers how well they use them. 

Also, encourage the attendees to teach others who weren’t part of the meeting. This way, they can keep the SKO fresh and implement its recommendations. Incentives or awards are also a great way to motivate your team to apply the lessons.

Cash in on the feedback

The SKO participants have a mine of views concerning the meeting. So, collect feedback from the visitors about what they feel went right or wrong about the sales kickoff. Use surveys or polls. 

The findings can help you design a training program to improve sales performance or the next SKO. You can also use the ideas to develop a content marketing strategy for your customers.

What could an SKO meeting look like? See the following three examples.

Sales kickoff meeting examples

What’s a virtual sales kickoff, and do you need it?

A virtual sales kickoff is a way to get the entire company on the same page before salespeople go out and talk to customers. It’s a remote team meeting where everyone can see and hear what’s going on. 

An SKO is an excellent way for new hires to get up to speed or for remote employees who work at home all day to participate in meetings. It also allows people to ask questions they might not feel comfortable asking in person.

Having a virtual sales kickoff saves time, reduces travel costs, and helps your employees feel more connected with each other and their work.

How do you run a successful virtual sales kickoff?

A successful virtual sales kickoff will have a clear beginning, middle, and end plan. There should be plenty of time allotted for Q&A sessions to allow participants to ask any questions they may have. The most important part of this meeting is ensuring enough content to keep the salespeople engaged.

Wrapping up

The first step for a successful sales kickoff is to get all the necessary resources ready. It includes ensuring enough space for everyone, food, drinks on hand, and letting people know about the kickoff beforehand.

The next step is to plan out your schedule and decide when to start with your opening remarks, and have time for breaks during the day. 

The final step is to ensure you have clear objectives for everyone to know what they should be doing on the day.

Related: Sales meetings: Best practice to run effective sales meetings in 10 minutes