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An annual sales kickoff is essential because it’s one of the only times that you can get your company’s sales reps, managers, and other sales leaders under one roof. A kickoff helps motivate leaders and their teams to hit goals they are setting for the upcoming year. If you’re the leader of the sales enablement team, you must take advantage of this opportunity.

What is a Sales Kickoff? 

A sales kickoff is a general assembly of your entire sales team held every year. This is your chance to re-motivate your employees. That way, they can contribute to the overall growth of the company for the upcoming years. 

With that in mind, they should leave the meeting feeling good about where the company is heading and the strategy it will use to get there. Moreover, they should leave excited about the upgrades on the products and services to come. Most importantly, they are energized and ready to sell, knowing that the company is setting them up to succeed in the coming years.

How do you make all of that happen, given the little time you have to prepare? Here are a few ideas on how to have a successful SKO. 

1. Conduct a Survey.

If you’re not clear what to address and what your reps need, conduct a survey. In there, you should ask the pain points that the kickoff should address, as well as the breakout sessions that they want to participate in or attend. 

The survey will ensure that the reps will be invested in the kickoff beforehand. It also shows that they’re willing to be trained and also what kind of training will be helpful. All of this gathered knowledge will give you more time to do team building activities, thereby allowing you to make the most of their time.

2. Make Sure it’s Fun.

Studies show that retention is much higher when the learning is conducted using fun activities. This kickoff is their break from the usual corporate setting, so give them that. Schedule a cocktail hour. Hand out shirts, wine glasses, and planners with the company brand name. Making company meetings more enjoyable boosts the engagement of the attendees. 

3. Prioritize Breakout Activities.

You can create inter-team or an inter-department collaboration with contests, group projects, and other social events. Groups should be created before the kickoff starts so that members will be equally distributed and that every group will have the right mix of different people.

4. Spotlight Sales Success.

This is one of the best ways to appreciate the efforts put in by everybody. It’s also an excellent way to motivate them to work harder, knowing that they produced beautiful results. Other than that, this is the perfect time to exchange best practices and tribal knowledge to ensure a win.

5. Highlight Product Enhancements.

This is the ideal opportunity to impress upon your reps the power of your product. You should collaborate with the product development/management team to deliver a presentation that will pump up your sales team to sell your product to the world. 

6. Hire a Sales Trainer

Last but not least, consider hiring an outside sales trainer for a day-long workshop. Sometimes it can be hard to get through to your reps when teaching new concepts if you’ve been the one training and managing them all year. An outside perspective and authority can help them absorb concepts that they may not have been open to hearing previously. 

You want to make sure that your reps, from the most inexperienced to the most tenured, not only connect with the content, but adopt the skills necessary to meet your future revenue goals. The key is to partner with a sales training firm that understands recent discoveries in behavioral psychology and leverages techniques proven to help prospects see maximum value.

Careful planning plus the tips found here will help you launch an unbeatable sales kickoff. This will help the company hit its goals for its growth and for the growth of its employees.

If you’re looking to re-energize your sales team during your sales kickoff, get in touch with Master Messaging for effective sales workshops and trainings.