Categories: Sales Leadership | Podcasts | Sales Kickoff
Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan and five-time CRO John McMahon recently had an in-depth discussion on the Revenue Builders Podcast about sales kickoffs. Combining their years of experience, they hashed out what works and what doesn't when it comes to planning and leading a kickoff event as a revenue leader. Listen to the full podcast conversation here.
Today, we're sharing the top leadership tactics that Kaplan and McMahon have seen make a successful SKO that drives productivity, revenue and valuation. Keep reading for four things that all the best SKOs do.
1. Motivate the Sales Force
The sales kickoff is the rallying cry for the year. It's your best opportunity to set into motion the momentum you need to reach your revenue goals. When it comes to the messaging and the keynote speech, however, John McMahon suggests that leaders should take their motivation one step further.
"It's more than just telling them that they're gonna make a lot of money," says McMahon. He implores leaders to share the "why" and the "how" of the sales strategy to truly get the whole team bought in and fired up.
Kaplan notes that top performers are evaluating their career future during the sales kickoff presentation. They want to know not just your plans for the company, but how you plan to help them grow and achieve their career aspirations.
The two recommend that sales leaders take the time to understand their team's challenges, tailor their presentation to be relevant to their day-to-day, and demonstrate how they plan to invest in their sales force to enable them to reach the goals laid out for the year. Discover more strategies for planning a SKO that is actionable and relevant.
2. Adress the Customer Journey
There are two types of alignment that we often discuss in relation to sales - internal company alignment and alignment to your buyer. A great SKO addresses both. Kaplan and McMahon stress the importance of using this time to align your cross-functional teams on how they can better collaborate and communicate throughout the customer journey.
McMahon points out that leaders have a responsibility to create partnerships between Customer Success and Sales through compensation packages, communication and establishing a process for the sharing of information. The SKO is a prime opportunity to get these teams face-to-face and build the rapport needed to form strong working relationships.
"You have to show an organization what good looks like," says Kaplan. He suggests bringing customers in to your SKO, providing an opportunity to demonstrate how a successful customer engagement looks from all sides.
By addressing retention and the customer lifecycle at your SKO, you can improve the impact and longevity of your sales strategy throughout the year. Check out our resource on aligning Customer Success with Sales to improve recurring revenue.
3. Equip Sellers With Relevant Skills
Don't make the mistake of letting your SKO be all talk. In order to drive execution of your topline sales strategies, you need to leverage this opportunity to teach and reinforce the critical skills your sellers will need to deliver on the forecast. As John Kaplan states: "The most important thing is training, training, training, and training them on knowledge and the skills needed so they can succeed in the coming year."
McMahon points out that many leaders miss the mark because they assume what skills will be needed, or reinforce the same things every year. "You need to be intimate with what they're weak at and train what they're weak on," he says.
Both agree that leaders should be actively involved in studying win/loss themes, the engagement model and manager feedback to understand where the gaps are and be intentional about filling them. Not only will this improve sales outcomes, but it will help the sales force to feel more supported and enabled to grow - making them even more motivated to deliver.
Read more on how to determine where your sales team is struggling the most.
4. Enable Managers to be Great Coaches
"Frontline managers- that's like the lifeblood of the company, and they're sometimes the last people to get trained," Kaplan says. Managers are often left behind in SKO training sessions, assigned to guide and reinforce without training initiatives of their own.
The most successful SKOs start manager training early, equipping them with coaching skills before the seller training even begins. Coaching and developing talent is a skill separate from sales, and one that managers need ongoing training and reinforcement to master.
McMahon and Kaplan discuss the importance of teaching managers to forecast accurately, assess seller performance according to clearly defined company targets and recruit top-tier talent.
Our front-line manager training resource guide is a great place to start helping sales managers driving greater impact.
Tactical SKO Planning Tips
The most successful sales kickoffs are headed up by leaders who take an active role in setting priorities, ensuring that the agenda is relevant and impactful and outlining clear action items for after the event. We created our Leader's Guide to Planning an Impactful Sales Kickoff to help you plan a SKO that shows clear ROI, driving execution and revenue all year long.
