5 Best Practices for Successful Sales Kickoff Meetings

The sales kickoff meeting, or SKO, is the highlight event of the sales cycle, where previous performers are honored, new strategies are introduced, and where salespeople, who often work remotely, come together as a team. The SKO can be scheduled for the beginning of the fiscal year or as part of the annual incentive trip, and is the place where the ultimate award — the destination for the next year’s incentive trip — is announced.

Following are 5 best practices for planning SKOs:

1. Include the Entire Team

Team selling is more important than ever, and the experts at Salesforce recommend that sales kickoffs include partners from other teams, such as solution engineering and customer success, who are critical to the sales cycle. Building these relationships and learning each other’s work styles is critical to working more effectively together throughout the year.

2. Choose an Inspiring Keynote Speaker

Many speakers' bureaus list recommendations of speakers who are experts in sales strategy, customer experience, peak performance, and other topics to energize sales teams. Some motivational speakers, like Lt. Col. Waldo Waldman, a former Top Gun pilot, develop their own specialized talks, like his “One Team, One Mission” speech, specifically for sales teams. One place to start your speaker search is the National Speakers Association’s directory; individual speakers bureaus also usually have their own online directories.

3. Address Attendees’ Emotional Wellbeing

The salespeople are just coming off the fourth quarter, which is a stressful period, so the SKO is an opportunity to check in about their state of mind. The experts at the teambuilding company Confetti suggest adding stress management training to the agenda, and including sessions that teach salespeople how to identify key stressors in the workplace, and how to best combat those moments of heightened stress. 

4. Create a Plan for AI

The SKO is the ideal place to agree onintroduce how the team shouldcan use AI, for example to offload some of the administrative tasks and time-consuming research., according to the experts at Forbes Business Development Council. “Strategize about what the salespeople can do when they are freed up,” said Julie Thomas, President & CEO of ValueSelling Associates. “Do your reps have the right skills to exploit that advantage and be more effective? Or will they just be making more bad sales calls?”

5. Introduce the Next Incentive Destination  

Many companies choose their sales kickoff event to announce the next incentive program, and unveil the new destination. It’s an opportunity to roll out the qualification criteria and answer questions so that everyone has the information they need from the start. In the weeks before the SKO, create a teaser campaign and send out a promotional gift or emails to build excitement. The rollout itself could be themed, even splashy, and should include promotional videos and a link to the program’s web site.