Categories: Sales Kickoff
Force Management just participated in Software Executive Magazine’s Executive Forum in New York. The event brought together executives from high-tech companies who shared best practices on things like driving customer success, building an effective channel program, and setting your organization up for a successful exit. One panelist mentioned his distaste for the traditional sales organization, specifically around the high-dollar investments companies make in salespeople that fail to show that their worth that spend.
His point was not lost on the audience who laughed at his frankness. To be honest, if your sales reps aren’t justifying their commissions and salaries, then it’s likely time for a change. (Call us. We can help.) However, the point-of-view made me shutter a bit. After all, we champion the salesperson and companies who know how to drive sales effectiveness and productivity. We’ve worked with some of the best. Still, the reaction from the crowd reiterated a common theme that we often try to combat when we work with sales organizations.How are you setting your sales teams up to execute at the buyer level?
We often have this conversation with prospective clients when it comes time to plan their sales kickoff. We get calls from all sorts of companies who need a keynote, who want to have a compelling program at their kickoff event, who are looking for a way to motivate their reps. Our response is often, “What is your kickoff’s objective?”
You see, it’s not that we hate sales kickoffs (despite the title of this blog!). It’s just that we dislike the way many companies approach them. A motivating keynote is a great thing to have. We have some of the most motivating speakers in the space. However, that speech isn’t going to move the needle in your sales organization. Sure, it makes everyone feel good, but it’s not doing anything to help your people execute with the buyer. We find that too many companies, focus on the kickoff event and not enough on the objectives of it and what you want to accomplish during it.
- What will be different for your sales teams after the kickoff?
- What do you want them to do differently this year?
- How are you using that event to equip them with the tools, processes and content to do so?
Think about why you are inviting people to the sales kickoff and what you want them to get out of it. Then, come up a specific plan to execute against those objectives. And, perhaps most importantly, have a plan of attack to reinforce concepts post event. Remember, the sales kickoff is a moment in time when you have a captive audience. How are you going to use that time to enable your teams and move the needle?
