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Our Top 5 Sales Kickoff Resources

Our Top 5 Sales Kickoff Resources

Categories: Sales Kickoff

SKO season is quickly approaching. If your company is making strategic shifts that you need to align your sales organization behind, the time to start defining your execution plan is now. 

There are good SKOs, great SKOs and ones that unfortunately fall flat. Help your enablement team avoid common mistakes that will negatively impact seller engagement and outcomes. Here are our top resources that sales leaders like yourself have found the most value in:

1. SKO Discussion: The Good, The Bad & The Game Changers

What separates the best SKOs from the rest? In this Q&A discussion, hear valuable tips and steps you can take now to execute a sales kickoff that gets your entire team aligned, equipped and motivated to execute. What makes some SKOs beneficial for salespeople? What are the steps leaders can take to equip managers to make an impact at the SKO and after? How do leaders successfully minimize skepticism from salespeople to improve engagement and participation? Facilitators Brian Walsh and Antonella O'Day share what they've seen work best and key challenges to avoid.

[Watch the Conversation]

 

2. Five SKO Mistakes to Avoid

Your SKO should be viewed as a strategic event that launches the sales team on the plan for success for the next year. While your enablement team can handle the day-to-day of SKO planning, they need your input on the overall strategy and design to make your event impactful. Now is the time to get busy — waiting limits your options. As a sales leader, not getting involved in the SKO strategy soon enough is just one of the critical (and costly) mistakes we cover in our recently updated webinar on, “Five SKO Mistakes for Sales Leaders to Avoid.” 

We sat down with Force Management's Chief Operating Officer Dave Davies, to discuss how to define the path for sales success, so you won’t be forced to compromise on SKO efforts. He covers each of the five most important elements of a successful sales kickoff that are too critical for sales leaders to neglect.

[Watch Now]

 

3. Get Beyond the Event of the SKO

Whether you need to ramp your sales teams up on new product roll outs or are hoping to use next year’s SKO to improve your ability to predict the business — consider what’s achievable in a SKO-type forum. Visualize what success looks like and the outcomes you need to achieve. Think about what needs to happen beyond the “event” itself.

When you take the time to think beyond the event you won’t be forced to compromise on what you launch. Remember, you can only achieve your desired outcomes if what you roll out is significant enough to equip sales to move the needle. Before the event planning begins, consider, how are you going to use your SKO to align your sales organization around the critical outcomes you need to achieve next year?

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4. Critical Concepts Sales Leaders Must Communicate

Seller retention and engagement is often an overlooked potential outcome to a company's sales kickoff. Since your salespeople are your most important asset, keep the focus on them throughout your SKO journey. Help them feel informed and included in what’s next so they’re more inclined to execute and drive results. It all comes down to how well you’re communicating critical concepts to your salespeople right now.

In the middle of product announcements and new process rollouts, there will be a handful of people who are going to use the SKO to determine if they want to sign up for another year of selling for your company. This group often contains your top performers who have many options when it comes to companies to work for. Provide clarity to your entire sales team on where your company is headed and how this direction will impact your people. 

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5. Set an Effective Adoption Plan Around Your Sales Kickoff

The actual SKO event, whether virtual or in-person, will likely only last for a couple of days at most. Which is why we often say that what happens after the SKO event or training is almost more important than what happens in the actual SKO. What is your plan to ensure salespeople continually focus on consistent adoption and execution? How will you support your managers in celebrating success, reinforcing critical concepts and course correcting front-line challenges?

Ensure you’ve got a ready-to-launch plan that you, your sales managers and your reps are working towards. Here are a couple of best practices we encourage our clients to put forth.

[Learn More]

 

Ultimate Sales Kickoff Resource Guide

Whatever you train your sales team on to help them achieve critical sales objectives next year, commit to making it happen. Understand the steps you need to take throughout your SKO journey to own its success.

To help sales hit company growth goals, the most successful sales leaders often use their SKO as a jumping-off point for a broader sales initiative. If you need to take a similar approach — act now. Use time to your advantage, leverage these resources to define how to move forward with a strategic initiative tied to your sales kickoff event.

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