During the next round of sales kickoff (SKO) meetings, sellers will seek answers to probing questions. Will there be shortfalls, layoffs, and reorganizations? Better products, achievable quotas, and more support? CSOs/CROs, together with sales enablement leaders, must address these questions and emotions. They must also use their budgets creatively to drive the agenda and energy of this meeting.
Forrester’s 2022 Global B2B Revenue Leadership Online Survey revealed that more than half of respondents went into this year expecting budgets to increase by at least 10%. And one-third expected increases of more than 20%. However, with recession-driven budget cuts expected in 2023, many CSOs/CROs are already reducing SKO spend and considering hybrid sales kickoff options. Whether in-person or hybrid, the best sales executives do the following four things well during the sales kickoff.
Celebrate during the sales kickoff
No matter how the previous year went, there are always bright spots to celebrate. These accomplishments validate the combined results of the sales team and colleagues in marketing, customer success, and product. They also demonstrate how team-selling success is achieved throughout the revenue engine. During the sales kickoff, celebrate:
- Achievements of customers with your products
- Attractive new logos, renewals, and upsells – and their sellers
- Boomerang wins or key takeaways from named competitors
- Completion of critical product launches and support projects
- President’s Club winners and examples of organizational culture
Communicate performance expectations
Sales kickoff attendees will feel excitement, curiosity, skepticism, and anxiety all at once. They’ll wonder about the aggressiveness and achievability of the new plan, budgets, headcount, organizational changes, and the level of support they’ll receive. Don’t leave these unaddressed. Communicate the journey of past, present, and future:
- Prior bookings/revenue achievement, with the attributes of winning deals
- Objectives and desired outcomes in the coming year (plan description and goals)
- Improvements – what you’ll start, increase, decrease, or stop doing (when and why)
- How improvements affect sellers (territories, quotas, compensation plans, pipeline)
- Growth pathways (new logo, expansion, renewal, price increases, upsell, cross-sell, new products, feature enhancements, region and segment penetration)
Educate client-facing team members
Education is empowering. And sellers need to know about customer preferences, buying motivators, purchasing journeys, industry and category insights, and competitive updates. They’ll combine those learnings with training, coaching, positioning, and success stories to improve selling effectiveness. You’ll also want to educate them on:
- New product launches, releases, enhancements, and commercial updates
- Winning plays sellers should run to achieve goals (examples, scenarios, role plays)
- Sales support improvements (methodology, process, tech, data, meetings, reporting)
- Current/future customer and client-facing resources available and how to use them
- Quarterly calendar with integrated, cross-functional activities (product releases, marketing campaigns, demand initiatives, events, training)
Motivate sales kickoff attendees
CSOs/CROs must first set the motivational context in the sales kickoff meeting, then rally others around the goal and the path ahead. As they do so, they build positive momentum. A good SKO needs a lot of energy and inspiration. So, find the right motivational methods to activate your team’s passion. Examples may include:
- Event theme that reinforces the behavior, culture, and results needed
- Pre-meeting messaging, teasers, hype, conversational buzz, or tangible items
- Memorable moments planned at key points, delivered in varied programming formats
- Internal speakers (executive, top seller, award-winning team member)
- External guest speakers (client, prospect, partner, analyst, industry association, investor)
Beyond a pending recession, longer-term trends in B2B buying, digital selling, and technology have transformed B2B sales. The sales function simply doesn’t operate the way it once did. And your 2023 sales kickoff must reflect those changes.
