How to Pull Off a Kick-Ass Sales Kickoff

Other than compensation, a sales kickoff event is often the largest line item in the sales budget. When you consider the cost of travel, lodging, venue, meals, entertainment, A/V, and time taken out of the field, it often runs into the millions of dollars for a 2-4 day event. It naturally follows that delivering a high-quality kickoff is extremely important both on the investment side of the equation and also on the return, in terms of effect on quota attainment for the year.

At Synopsys, our NPS score from last year's kickoff was a dismal -1. Yes, that's a negative sign in front. This year, our NPS score was an astonishing 52. Even our Marketing director said, "That kind of change is unheard of!" So how did we do it?

Having participated in every style of kickoff from an ordinary training event to something that would put a Broadway show to shame, I would like to share some tips that might not usually make the "top 10" on a Google search of SKOs. (aka Sales Kickoff)

Sidebar: My tips come not just from experience and observation, but also from very detailed post-kickoff surveys I have been doing for the last 6 years. I've combed through pages of feedback from actual sales reps to pick just two things for you to think about as you plan your kickoff.

Tip #1: Authentic Inspiration

Most SKOs have an "inspiration" component. The idea is to inspire sales reps to reach the lofty goals sales management has set for them. I find 2 common approaches that don't work well:

1. Hire an inspirational speaker: Often, this is someone who has done something amazing, like climbed Mt. Everest with only one arm or built a successful company from scratch with only $20 and a case of beer. The mistake in this approach to inspiration is that sales reps can't relate to the speaker. The speaker might be momentarily inspirational, but cannot drive change in rep's behavior.
2. Tell stories of the largest closed deals: Don't get me wrong, I love a good story. However, simply having the account team that closed the largest deal tell their story often miss the mark on relevancy. These accounts are not representative of most reps' pipeline, and the circumstances that led to the win may be so rare as to be unrepeatable.

What does work is what I call authentic inspiration. This is the type of inspiration that is from the heart, relevant, and repeatable. It's the type of storytelling, best coming from a well-respected sales rep, that illustrates the values you want other sales reps to have, perhaps teamwork, grit, consistent execution, or sales acumen.

One of the best stories I've heard from a sales rep involved a masterful execution of uncovering the customer's hidden pain, challenging closely-held assumptions, and bringing diverse stakeholders together to deliver a long-term solution that outclassed the competition. That rep tailored his messaging to appeal to everyone from the end user to the executive buyer. This type of inspiration led to plenty of hallway and reception chatter among other sales reps as you see the "aha" moment hit them.

Tip #2: Practical Networking

I've yet to attend a SKO where the organizers did not try to plan something "fun" or entertaining as part of the agenda. I've seen everything from a golf driving range to flame-throwing belly dancers. The goal is typically to encourage networking as well as to decompress after focusing on "business talk" all day. Typically, these events fall flat due to a few simple oversights that prevent actual networking from taking place.

1. Excessively loud entertainment: You've spent hundreds of thousands of dollars hiring the best entertainers, DJ, whatever. You want the attention to be on them (and by association, on you). Wrong! The most common complaint is that people can't hear each other, are stuffed into an overcrowded room where they can't walk around, and would frequently just stare at the entertainment or talk in small huddles that don't allow others to join in the conversation.
2. Layout not conducive to networking: At a driving range, the same people tend to hang around a tee. At a sporting or musical event or a sit-down dinner, people tend to stay in the same seats. Many well-intentioned events actually encourage cliquish behavior and do not build up your organization.

What I've seen work well is an approach where the venue and entertainment supports networking rather than take away from it. For example, one terrific venue was a low-key beach club in Miami where people could congregate near the food/drinks if they wanted to, or wander a bit farther away from the crowd to have more meaningful conversations. We kept the speeches and toasts short so people had more time to talk and mingle. The food was served buffet style so people ate when they wanted to and weren't stuck to a particular spot at a dining table.

The time we had a sit down dinner, we did assigned seating to break up the usual groupings and that worked very well. We also communicated the intent of the dinner was to facilitate networking. When you give people clear objectives, you're more likely to get results.

Other Tips

While authentic inspiration and practical networking were two of the most important factors, there were many other that I will list here. Perhaps you can use it as a checklist to compare with what you have planned.

1. "TED Talk style" - No matter how senior the executive, we kept all talks down to 30 minutes or less. Same philosophy as real TED Talks, if you can't make your points concise enough, you are probably rambling and people won't care.
2. Variety - rather than having executive after executive march across the stage, we interspersed talks with win stories from the field. These were very well received and often served to reinforce the themes in a tangible way.
3. Consider your audience - It's easy for product managers, the operations team, and other SMEs to go too deep into their topics and lose their audience. Sales reps look for practical ideas to accelerate and close the deal; they don't care about the intricacies of each feature. If a talk doesn't have a clear "WIIFM" (what's in it for me) from a sales rep's perspective, either modify it or take it off the agenda.
4. On-the-spot practice - Interestingly, the two practical sessions we ran were the highest rated. These were sessions where we taught a method, and the reps practiced it right there at their tables. You can imagine after listening to speakers for hours that having a chance for them to talk and practice would generate a lot of energy. Next year, I will build in more of those into the agenda.

Don't be Afraid of Change!

I encourage you to take a fresh look at your next sales kickoff, from venue selection to agenda. Starting with last year's template might NOT be a good idea. If you have survey data to review, terrific. Brainstorm on what "great" looks like, not just "good enough". Involve actual sales reps in the planning and make sure it's not going to be a waste of their time.

Best wishes and let me know how it goes!