10 Tips for a Successful Sales Kickoff
Sales is the artful combination of structure and free thinking, process and people, and logic and emotions. Sales is more than science – it is an art.
Sales meetings and annual kick-offs are a critical component of a great corporate culture — an opportunity to build the skills of the entire team and motivate them all at the same time. That is why it is important that you ensure your meeting includes these 10 key components for maximum productivity and success.
Find a distraction-free zone. Many companies prefer to hold sales kick-off meetings in a remote locale. This cultivates fresh thinking, encourages bonding and keeps the temptation of day-to-day personal and professional responsibilities at bay.If the company budget will not cover flying all the sales people to a destination meeting, then consider simply using a unique space in your own town, such as a theater, funky warehouse, or convention center. The goal is to inspire and open their mind from the start.
Begin with energy. Begin your meetings on time (see point #5) and start with something exciting and fun. It doesn’t have to be an expensive A/V production with fireworks. Anything such as trivia games, sharing funny or personal stories, highlighting sales “wins” of the last year/month/week can get the meeting started off on the right foot. Don’t be bore them by click through a bunch of PowerPoint slides right from the start.
Engage them. Now that you have their attention, you need to hold it – not only during the course of this meeting but also long after you go home. Too many sales meetings are nothing more than a series of updates designed to help the sales manager do his or her job.Create a feeling of community with this group. You can do that by incorporating touch points throughout the sales meeting using mobile technology, social feeds, push notifications etc. before, during, and after the sales kick off. Make your sales team feels a part of the process. No one likes to be “talked at.”
Focus on productivity. Are your sales meetings productive? You have likely spent significant time, resources and materials to bring this meeting together. In order to get the most value, I recommend focusing on a theme or just one idea that you continue to underscore throughout the meeting. It can be a strategy or tactic that will improve their game, and motivate with some positive reinforcement or reward, you will see a gain in productivity and sales results. Announce ahead of time the agenda and topics to be covered so people can come prepared to the discussion.
Create a schedule and stick to it. Ultimately, salespeople dread taking time out of their schedule to attend meetings. Time is money. Not only is it important but also respectful to be mindful of your attendees’ time and stick to the schedule. When meetings do not use time wisely, attendees leave unhappy and will not take your next event seriously. Punctuality in starting and ending the meeting should be the easiest thing you do. If there are “parking lot” issues that need follow-up, schedule time back at the office to drill into those deeper with the appropriate individuals and not the whole group.
Scrutinize your content. Spend time focused on one or two key issues.Don’t try to cover every single issue. If you try to cover everything, you really won’t be digging into the important issues to the degree that you need to. Keep to a minimum the time allocated to supply-chain issues, volume updates, etc. Salespeople will see meetings that are nothing more than updates as a waste of time. This means you need to control the agenda and the flow. You’re much better off discussing one item well than five items briefly.
Include time for development. Allocate time in the meeting for a “personal growth/training” activity. (I see people rolling their eyes.) However, you are leaving opportunity on the table if your organization fails to use the time together – as a team – to help people improve their business knowledge, selling skills or product knowledge.Every sales meeting must stretch and challenge team members’ skills to keep them at the top of their game. Focus on prospecting, networking, lead generation, client meetings, presenting solutions or closing. The purpose of this time is all about ongoing skill development and is the key to creating value at the meeting.
Recognize performance. For most salespeople, the sales meeting is their biggest interaction with the company as a whole. Make sure they leave with a positive state of mind. Remember, the meeting is for their benefit.Salespeople (almost everyone) love recognition for their effort. Have a process in place that people can look forward to as being their time to shine.Remember, you must build motivation into every team meeting. The sales team has a tough challenge and needs to feel supported and recognized. This isn’t about big gifts or exceptional moments — the simplest “thank you” can have great meaning. Some companies prefer to sort the rewards into different categories. Make them fun, competitive, team-based, recognition-based or even externally focused, such as getting input or recognizing someone outside of the sales team in a cross-functional role.
Allow for discussion and input. A sales presentation without input from the customer isn’t much of a sales call. The same approach goes for how you conduct a sales meeting. Allow your front line people an opportunity to discuss what challenges or successes they are facing in the real world. They are the voice of your customer.Capture highlights from the discussion and share them back at the office with your proposal team, product management, operations support and others who may benefit.
Agree on quantitative next steps. You have shared your theme, engaged your audience and now your people need to know what is expected of them next. How will they take this new-found information and go back to apply it in their day-to-day work? We ask salespeople to be accurate with how they close a sale to ensure the customer knows what they will and will not be receiving. The same thing goes for how you run a sales meeting.Be sure to recap for the team via an email, or some other means, what the next steps are for anything decided upon. The sooner you distribute this information, the more salespeople will view it as important. Don’t leave things hanging.
Last but not least, if you begin feeling overwhelmed by the thought of planning your sales kick off all by yourself; then hire a professional! You are not expected to be an expert in meeting planning. It is time-consuming, takes coordinating of multiple moving parts and ultimately, may take you away from your primary focus. In addition, experienced professionals can help you to negotiate contracts on your behalf with suppliers such as the venue, transportation, audio-visual and others because they do this every day for a living. Event planners can assist you with important legal verbiage including rebooking clauses, complimentary amenities and other items you may not have thought to negotiate. In the long run, the investment you make in ensuring the meeting is professionally produced will be returned to you in the success of the end result.
Richelle Taylor is a Business Development Director with MotivAction, LLC and has worked in the performance improvement industry for 18 years. She has worked in operations and sales capacities with some of the most recognized brand names in the world.
