“The best salespeople are those who’ve done their homework. They’ve invested their time in learning something about me and asking the right questions.” ~ Jill Konrath, a sales Kickoff veteran during her Interview in Inside Sales Summit
Sales Kickoffs meetings are a critical step in your early project stages to make sure that your team and stakeholders are not only informed about the project and what you are doing, but also how you’ll do it together.
It helps to develop and strengthen the culture and strategy of a sales team. Moreover, when your sales force is working hard every day to fulfill their quotas, it's easy to lose sight of the broad vision.
Therefore, sales kickoffs meetings are so important: they provide encouragement and a major boost to the team, putting them on the right track for the remainder of the year. In this guide, we will thoroughly learn all aspects related to the sales kickoffs meeting. We’ll cover:
- Understanding Sales Kickoff Meeting
- 6 Major Advantages of Hosting Sales Kickoff Meeting
- 9 Magical Factors Essential for Sales Kickoff Meeting
- Ideas for Sales Kickoff Meeting
- Examples of Sales Kickoff Meeting
- Checklist of Sales Kickoff Meeting
Without any further ado, let’s explore:
Understanding Sales Kickoff Meeting
A Sales Kickoffs meeting is an annual event hosted to motivate the entire sales team, generate best sales practices, celebrate past successes, and plan upcoming sales goals and objectives.
Furthermore, these events are usually held early in the year (usually in January) and consist of a combination of professional sales training and entertaining team-building activities. This meeting further helps to establish the tone for the following 12 months and motivates everyone in the company, from the top to the lowest, to achieve their objectives.
However, bringing a company's entire sales team together for an all-day event at a traditional venue, on the other hand, was once prohibitively expensive.
Sales kickoff meetings, on the other hand, were well worth the investment because there is no better way to motivate an entire sales team and align the entire organization around a common plan.
6 Major Advantages of Hosting Sales Kickoff Meeting
Following is the list of 5 major advantages associated with the hosting of the sales kickoffs meeting. Let’s dig in to explore them:
1. All Great Minds in One Place
Having your team in one place would bring out effective and innovative ideas. Generally, most of the employees are consumed in work during usual working days. But, such meetings would help them to have out-of-the-box conversations and discussions over certain subjects, including sales.
2. Builds Focus
Online meetings are renowned for providing options for multitasking and distraction. However, you are more likely to capture and hold your team's attention throughout your agenda if you bring them together in a face-to-face setting. It brings all the individuals to stay on the same page without getting distracted.
3. Establish Strong Relationships
Having face-to-face conversations have a higher impact than any other form of conversation. Moreover, face-to-face conversation leads to an amazing opportunity to network and build relationships and personal bonds. In addition, teams that are built on strong, productive relationships can be up to ten times more productive over the course of the year.
Furthermore, interacting and communicating with teammates creates trust and empathy, laying the groundwork for successful collaboration.
4. Educational Tools
Having everyone on board in the sales kickoffs meeting is a perfect opportunity to educate and train them about your product and services. Undoubtedly, you cannot make anyone sell products or services, which they cannot comprehend. Therefore, it is crucial and vital to educate your sales force all about your products’ features, functions, importance, and much more.
5. Enhances Positivity
When everyone gathers to celebrate success, learnings, and brainstorming for future plans— then it automatically leads the entire sales force to enhance positivity. Everyone learns one thing or another from others and it boosts confidence as well. Without a doubt, this positive generated energy will continue to stay for months. And, it will eventually showcase productivity in their work.
6. Boosts Energy
A meeting that is both productive and engaging is one that has a constant flow of energy. An enthralling speaker, an awards ceremony, or a small break to just clap your hands are all excellent ways to infuse enthusiasm into your meeting.
9 Magical Factors Essential for Sales Kickoff Meeting
Following is the list of 9 magical factors that are essential for a sales kickoffs meeting. Let’s learn them in detail:
1. Begin with Objective
It is highly crucial for everyone to stay on the same page about your organization’s objectives, strategy, targets, and goals. Moreover, make sure to clearly define your targets for the coming year. Without all this information, it will be completely pointless to organize the kickoff meeting. And, you’ll risk squandering your team’s valuable investment.
While creating objectives, ask your planning team the following critical questions:
- What are we hoping visitors will think about while they're here?
- What exactly are we attempting to achieve? Are we concentrating on education? Motivation? Technology? Do you have any product information?
- How will we know whether your event was a success?
After you've answered these questions, utilize the information to create 1-3 objective statements that you can use internally to keep track of your progress during the planning process.
Doing so ahead of time will give a foundation for open, transparent, and honest discussion. It will cover all aspects of the organization’s strategy and goals, allowing your staff to see the big picture and how their contributions contribute to overall success.
Statements of objectives turn what you wish to achieve into a defined and measurable plan of action. It informs everyone of what will be accomplished and when it must be completed.
Here are some examples of corporate objectives:
- Financial: Increase revenue by at least 5% on an annual basis.
- Improve customer service by hiring and onboarding three new customer service representatives by a certain date.
- Provide staff with resources for professional development and progress through training and education.
2. Networking and Team Building
The possibility to get your team together to get to know one another on a personal level is reason enough to invest in a sales launch meeting, especially if your company is spread. Moreover, when companies invest in developing trust and rapport among their employees, they may expect to see significant increases in productivity and organizational health.
Furthermore, it's vital to schedule enough time for formal and unstructured networking on the agenda to guarantee this happens. In fact, the best ideas often originate from unexpected talks, so make sure your team has plenty of chances to come up with something brilliant on the spur of the moment.
3. Technology has your Back
Everyone nowadays is glued to their smartphones. When planning your event, this would be the greatest method to incorporate technology. In addition, you might use a live polling tool to engage your audience during your sessions, or you could create a simple app to manage the agenda and sign up for breakout sessions.
Employing technology to keep your attendees interested and informed before and throughout the event, regardless of which choice you choose, is a simple way to keep them informed.
Start sending out questionnaires or polls a few months before your event to get this information. You might start by identifying common knowledge gaps, and then dig deeper into what individuals want to learn.
4. Fully-Prepared Meeting
While not everyone will be able to take part in the planning, everyone should be prepared. Your sales kickoffs event, like any great film, will benefit from excellent pre-event promotion to build anticipation and set expectations for the event.
Send pre-work that outlines the agenda, theme, and even certain resources that may be seen before the event to all team members to prepare them for the sales kickoffs meeting. This is an excellent time to tease any major announcements you'll be making at the event.
If you're calling in outside speakers, try filming interviews with them ahead of time and releasing short video extracts with participants as a way to help them prepare.
5. Team Work and Involvement
According to the study, participants are more likely to be engaged when they have a stake in the game.
Polling the team on what they'd like to see on the agenda long before the meeting is a smart approach to get them involved in the planning. Naturally, incorporating their comments and adding agenda items based on their suggestions is critical.
Delegating particular agenda items and activities to team members for planning and coordination is another method to involve your team.
Ask your staff for recommendations if you're searching for a customer speaker, for example. Contact the account manager for help organizing the session or suggestions on what topics should be covered once a client speaker has been selected.
Assign a key team member to take the lead, plan the activity, and motivate the team to participate in networking events, team-building activities, and dinners.
6. A Planned Agenda
Throughout the year, your staff is likely to be inundated with emails from customers and internal teams, and some of them will inevitably go unread. Consider your sales launch meeting an opportunity to reinforce essential themes and help your team grasp what matters most in the coming year.
When planning your program, be sure to include a mix of internal speakers, outside-in perspectives from consumers, and opportunities for networking and team development.
7. Success Stories
Without customers, your firm would be nothing. Your sales launch meeting is an excellent time to recognize achievements, evangelize success, and motivate the rest of the team by sharing success stories from internal team members or clients.
Whether you do it in a panel environment, individual presentations, or both, make sure you include a variety of success stories that truly reflect the customer experience.
Make sure to include your customers in the planning of these sessions. Nobody knows their customers as they do. These meetings also help the team see things from the perspective of the client, giving them insight into their realities, pain areas, and decision-making process.
Make a point of recording these sessions and keeping them for later use.
8. Customer’s Involvement via Video Chats
Your product's goal is to make the client happy and take some of the stress out of their workday. Having a chat with the end-user is the best approach to get behind the scenes and genuinely grasp your service.
Having a couple of sessions dedicated to a town hall-style dialogue with consumers who are having various difficulties with your product can provide you with honest feedback so that your sales agents may enhance their sales process.
Here are some questions you can ask your customer panel:
- What influenced your decision to join us? What did that procedure entail?
- How do our competitors have to offer that might persuade you to switch?
- What is your overall impression of what we're delivering to your team?
9. Forthcoming Targets and Plans
It's a mistake to let a good effort go to waste by ignoring the need to continue the conversation. Unfortunately, not riding the wave of a sales kickoffs meeting is one of the most common mistakes sales companies make.
To get ahead of this, make a plan for reinforcing your primary themes throughout the year. Additionally, whether through regular meetings or an internal social network, create a space for continuing the conversation. Look for ways to extend the theme throughout the year by including the tagline in multiple discussions, maintaining the branding and visuals consistent, and ensuring that company managers and leaders continue to promote it.
It's not just up to the meeting planners to keep the momentum going; sales staff must also take responsibility for putting the value into practice on a regular basis. To help with this, include a template in the event materials that requires attendees to list their top three takeaways and how they plan to apply them in the future.
Have a solid plan in place for requesting input, whether through a survey or otherwise, as well as a strategy for reacting to and acting on the feedback you get. Attendees are more inclined to provide feedback if they sense that you are paying attention to it and responding to it.
Ideas for Sales Kickoff Meeting
Check the following ideas for sales kickoff meeting that would inspire you for your forthcoming kickoffs events:
Attractive Theme
Choosing a theme for your sales kickoffs meeting will assist attendees to remember the content while also delivering the message. While themes can be bright and enjoyable, the most essential thing is that they are consistent with your plan and tell a story about what success will look like in the coming year.
A good theme helps you to add entertainment value to your meeting by integrating skits, material, and incorporating stories and jokes while making your event relevant. It connects the meeting's many aspects, resulting in a seamless experience. Your team will be inspired by a powerful theme, which will give them a sense of purpose and drive to achieve their goals.
Here are some suggestions based on your team's current status
We Will Win
If your company is all about crushing the competition, this theme is for you. If you've had a management change or product delays, or if you don't feel like you have enough tools or a poor budget.
Then you have to make sure that everything is about us, we'll win no matter what. You're not going to quit until you've won. Furthermore, this theme is all about being 100 percent focused on winning.
212 Degrees
It defines consistent effort. Look at this: at 211 degrees - the water will not boil but at 212 degrees you have boiling water. It's all about that one additional degree, which represents a little extra effort that will push you to the limit. That one degree will make a difference in the outcome and results you wish to achieve in order to fulfill your dream.
Time is Now
If you've done everything you can to get to full throttle, this theme is ideal for your company. You have everything you need, from the team to sales, pricing, and technology—all you have to do now is paddle your way to the medal. So, rather than putting it off until tomorrow, make it happen today.
Be the Difference
It expresses clearly how all of your organization's teams work together. As a result, everyone must work together to make the difference they desire.
Relentless
Pursuing your goals ethically and with integrity at all costs. We feel that the issue that keeps most salespeople from achieving the degree of success they desire is that they are scared to come out of their comfort zone. Children are an excellent example; they are completely relentless. Moreover, they don’t care about others’ opinions and have no fear of failing.
However, over time, we learn that being incorrect and failing are negative things and that we should care what other people think. So this circle's bubble is referred to be the comfort zone, and it is this bubble that prevents us from breaking rules and generating significant sales success.
Elevate
A theme of raising success tells your team that even if they're winning, there's still room for improvement. Mountain climbing, action sports, and extreme athletes can all be used as inspiration for visuals.
Unlimited Possibilities
A theme that reminds your staff of the immense prospects that lie ahead of them inspires and motivates them. Visuals and activities focused on the ocean or maps will get your team thinking about their boundless possibilities.
A sports-themed event
This allows you to incorporate instances of teams working together and leveraging each other's abilities to overcome the competition.
Spy-themed
Successful teams are eager to learn about the competitors and the factors that contribute to their success. A spy-themed event offers a wide range of fun activities while also underlining the significance of keeping an eye on the external competition.
Back to the Future
Reminding your sales staff of prior accomplishments and how to repurpose that energy to plan for future success is a great approach to re-energize them after a difficult year. This style of event blends past success tales with real demonstrations of future achievement.
Encouragement
Motivate your team by selecting a theme that allows guests to express themselves through their unique interests. Include agenda topics that allow attendees and external speakers to share success stories from areas other than their employment in your sales department. Encourage the team by telling them that their enthusiasm is the key to their success.
Examples of Sales Kickoff Meeting
Following we have listed examples of how you can schedule your sales kickoffs meeting. Let’s have a look:
Day 1:
Day 2:
Checklist of Sales Kickoff Meeting
Here’s the final checklist of sales kickoffs meetings for your reference:
- Choose Specified Date and Time
- Select Location for the Event
- Determine Theme and Content
- Choose and Decide on Guest Speakers
- Arrange and Organize travel and Accommodations (if applicable)
- Gather applicable tools and technological equipment
- Arrange and Supply Meals, Drinks, and Refreshments
- Plan fun and social events
- Strategically Plan Sales Kickoffs Meeting and training for teams
How Deskera Can Assist You?
Whether you are a sales manager or running your own business, there are tons of duties and responsibilities that you have to fulfill. Using the Deskera CRM system, you can manage your contacts, leads and sales deals. You can use the CRM system to manage all customer data and manage your leads and deals.
Doing so will help you to save the time taken in transferring customer data between the different systems. Having a good CRM system will help you manage your financial and sales reports and be prepared to kick-off your meetings.
Deskera can also assist you with real-time updates about your business like cash flow status, customer satisfaction, inventory management, sales, purchases, purchase orders, customer tickets, customer satisfaction, managing leads, revenues, profit, and loss statements, and balance sheets.
Moreover, it would also help in integrating sales methodology across different platforms onto one system so that you have a consolidated list for email campaigns, leads management, and sales pipeline to mention a few.
It will also help you to sync between your orders, payments, taxes, refunds, product variants, sending out invoices and reminders, facilitating invoice management, and even undertaking follow-ups and advertisement campaigns.
Such a consolidated platform will help you to improve your sales through building effective sales compensation plans and also facilitate faster and well-informed decision-making. It will help you in strengthening your opportunities and being braced for the threats.
Deskera books and Deskera CRM will also be able to ensure the highest customer satisfaction and thereby an increase in net revenues and net profits.
Final Takeaways
We have finally reached the end of this comprehensive guide. Let’s learn all the crucial elements for future reference:
- A Sales Kickoffs meeting is an annual event hosted to motivate the entire sales team, generate best sales practices, celebrate past successes, and plan upcoming sales goals and objectives.
- Having everyone on board in the sales kickoffs meeting is a perfect opportunity to educate and train them about your product and services.
- Make sure to clearly define your targets for the coming year. Without all this information, it will be completely pointless to organize the kickoff meeting.
- Send pre-work that outlines the agenda, theme, and even certain resources that may be seen before the event to all team members to prepare them for the sales kickoffs meeting.
- Your sales launch meeting is an excellent time to recognize achievements, evangelize success, and motivate the rest of the team by sharing success stories from internal team members or clients.
- A good theme helps you to add entertainment value to your meeting by integrating skits, material, and incorporating stories and jokes while making your event relevant.
- Have a solid plan in place for requesting input, whether through a survey or otherwise, as well as a strategy for reacting to and acting on the feedback you get
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Niti Samani
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