Hosting a Memorable SKO: Objective #2 - Applaud Excellence

As I mentioned in my first post of this series, the annual Sales Kick Off (SKO) is an incredible opportunity to start the year off strong.  The success of an SKO depends on its ability to achieve a few important objectives including educating, applauding, entertaining and inspiring the sales organization.  In my previous post, I shared some best practices on the objective to educate sales professionals and the broader sales organization.  In this post, I’ll talk about the second objective that I have learned is a key ingredient to a successful SKO: applauding the exceptional contributions and successes of individuals in the organization. 

Although President’s Club is typically the main event used to recognize attainment of sales goals, there are various other ways individuals contribute to growth.  SKO is a great option to recognize those individuals in the background.  A Sales Kick Off creates an opportunity for employees who excel in areas beyond quota attainment to be recognized. The revenue leaders who make President’s Club can also be acknowledged, of course, at SKO as it will highlight their excellence to a broader audience. The SKO is a prime opportunity to literally applaud those individuals within the organization that embody behaviors that achieve desired results. These individuals can be in any role within the sales organization. 

Sales support people are an often-overlooked group that is a great option for recognition at an SKO for their role within the organization. Sales support includes individuals from groups such as sales engineers/architects, renewal coordinators, business development reps, marketing team members, recruiters and sales operations employees. Ideally, event coordinators should plan in advance to have sales professionals nominate sales support team members for recognition at SKO.  Receiving the reward becomes even more meaningful for support team members, knowing that the sales professionals they support acknowledged their efforts through a nomination. Awarding support teams helps encourage ongoing engagement and the desire to go above and beyond. 

Additionally, if you have some specific themes or ideas highlighted within the SKO mainstage presentations, you can give awards to individuals who align with those ideas. For example, if one of the keynote speakers talks about the importance of ongoing education and training in the sales organization, create an award to recognize someone from the learning and development team who has exceeded expectations.  

Another remarkable way to applaud some individual sales professionals is to have them receive an award from an actual client they have worked with. Using some advanced planning, it’s possible to request customers who truly value your sales professionals to come in and say a few words and present an award. If you have sales professionals who are masters at being customer advocates and creating customers for life, having an actual customer recognize them is far more meaningful than an award handed over by a sales leader.  

Photo by Ariel Besagar on Unsplash

Having a client come in to say a few words about how their sales professional helped them achieve their goals not only highlights the notable efforts of the sales professional, it sends a powerful message to all SKO participants that the organization puts tremendous value on customer experience and perception. More than likely, those who are able to earn this customer recognition are also the ones who are meeting or exceeding their revenue goals.  The added bonus, here, is that the customer who presents the award realizes that at your company, the CUSTOMER’S perspective informs how employees are recognized and rewarded. This reinforces the idea that your organization is truly “customer centric.”  

Finally, It’s a good idea to do a quick video interview with each winner announced at SKO, asking them to share the story about why they were recognized. These video snippets become assets to add to your content management system for sharing with those who could not attend the event or with new hires during the onboarding process. 

Sales Kick Off is a GREAT time to recognize individuals who exhibit the mindsets and behaviors that result in individual and organizational success. When you achieve the objective of applauding select sales professionals, not only does it reward those who exemplify excellence, it cements the standard of excellence in the minds of those who have yet to achieve it.  It gives them something to strive toward.  Be thoughtful and deliberate about the behaviors and achievements you want to applaud at your SKO, achieving this objective can create the positive momentum you need to accelerate growth in the year ahead.