How to Have an Outstanding Hybrid Sales Kickoff

Sales kickoff season is almost here. Every year, you gather your team together from across the country or around the world. It’s a chance to celebrate the successes of the past year, crank the energy up, train your sellers, and motivate everyone for the next twelve months. Go team!

What are you going to do this year?

This meeting might be the most important one you’ve ever planned. But will you meet in-person? remotely? or a hybrid? The level of economic uncertainty remains high and air fares are skyrocketing. We’re all facing Zoom fatigue, time zone conflicts, and shrinking budgets. Companies around the globe are rethinking sales kickoffs and training sessions to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. Some of your team may be able to travel while others prefer to stay remote.

Sales leaders, sales enablement managers, and sales trainers are wondering how to roll out new plans, launch products, train on messaging, and get new hires up to speed in a turbulent world.

You’ve got to keep your teams on track and a great national sales meeting is critical. Now that 90% of B2B sales are virtual, it’s more important than ever to make sure sellers have mastered the techniques of virtual selling. Teams must share goals for the upcoming year, align on key initiatives, and learn new strategies and tactics for succeeding in a hybrid world.

But planning a hybrid sales meeting when you’ve relied on in-person sessions may feel like an impossible task. You may not be able to bring everyone together for several days of training, breakout sessions, and banquets.

This year is an opportunity to rethink every aspect of your meeting—from subject matter expert presentations to handouts to role play to networking. We want to take what we've learned from the past two years and build a better kickoff. You need an efficient and engaging way to run your meeting.

There are several proven tactics that you can employ to adapt a live sales meeting to a hybrid one. Follow the steps below to plan and deliver an outstanding kickoff that will set your team up for success, ramp up the energy, and give your reps a boost for the next sales cycle.

Leverage the Right Technology to Deliver the Right Content

A successful hybrid sales meeting depends on a technology solution that allows every participant to connect without the benefit of sitting side by side. You know you can’t rely solely on video conferencing or streaming. Simply hosting several long, grueling days of calls is not the way to run a hybrid sales meeting.

Fortunately, you’ve got a lot of other tools in your toolbox. Don’t be afraid to use them. Tap into mobile, interactive learning platforms, peer-to-peer networking, and asynchronous video technology to deliver the information your sellers need in the most engaging way possible.

Use a 3-Phased Approach

When almost every industry has been disrupted, it’s essential to plan a sales meeting that prepares your team for success. Use a three-phased approach to ensure that sellers get the kickoff they need to be productive in a hybrid world.

Phase 1: Before the Meeting

>> Start Early

A benefit of not needing to bring all sellers in from the field is that you don’t have to cram everything into a few days, and can minimize time away from selling. You can start to distribute relevant content to your team days (or weeks) before the meeting.

Roll out product information, messaging, new hire introduction videos, sales presentations—and anything else you want to cover. This approach saves you time during the meeting because you can refer to content reps have already seen, and helps them absorb the information at their own pace.

>> Rethink the Agenda

You can’t simply host a three-day Zoom call. People will zone out and experience screen fatigue after just a few hours, and you can only see so many slides before you’re ready for a new format. The key is to identify which content must be delivered live and which can be presented asynchronously. Make as many components of your meeting interactive as possible.?

Phase 2: During the Meeting

>> Put People First

As the stress and pressure of selling in a pandemic wane, you must prioritize the human element of your meeting. The kickoff should center on fostering connections. After months of working from home, the last thing your sales reps need is more talking heads and one-way lectures. Incorporate simulated customer interactions and role play, best practices, opportunities for sharing, and activities that allow for lots of interaction and reconnection.

>> Mix It Up

Maximize engagement and make the most of participants’ time by presenting a mix of live and pre-recorded content. You might be tempted to build structured courses to replace your in-person meeting. But you can still deliver a highly engaging experience for reps to learn and share ideas with one another. Above all, you must avoid leaving your audience distracted and bored. Bring your meeting to life by interspersing live presentations with pre-recorded video exercises and user-generated content created by top salespeople and trusted SMEs.?

Phase 3: After the Meeting

>> Capture Content

The national sales meeting is a great opportunity to introduce new products and features that can energize the team. Capture any live presentations on video and break them into small, searchable clips. After the meeting, reps can easily refresh on these topics as they need them. This just-in-time approach to learning ensures reps have access to content when they need it most.

>> Reinforce Learning

Research confirms that 80% of learning is lost within 30 days of a live training session if it’s not properly reinforced. Don’t lose the investment you’ve made in your hybrid event. Serve up reinforcement exercises after the meeting on a regular cadence. Package meeting content and make it available on-demand in a dedicated channel, and develop knowledge checks that ensure knowledge is being retained. Over the following weeks and months, help reps build proficiency and reinforce newly acquired knowledge so they can articulate value, differentiate the company, and handle objections.?

Invest in the Right Tools and Content

Don’t let time zone conflicts and geographically dispersed teams disrupt your national sales meeting. Even when your sales force is working remotely and can’t travel, there are still ways you can meet your goals, maximize the value of your kickoff, build connections, and recognize your top performers. Empower your organization with mobile, interactive technology and content built for the way today’s hybrid teams work.

Learn More

To learn how to have an outstanding kickoff, download your copy of Re-Thinking the National Sales Meeting today.?