Just leaving the JW Marriott in Austin I spotted 3 Sales Kick Off events taking place. This is the trend across sales organisations, whether a start-up, SME or Enterprise it is an important time of the year to setup for a great 2016. In the video below Steve Ballmer of Microsoft encapsulates the purpose of these events in 4 words. Whilst you might not have your own SB here are a few tips to ensure you and your team get the most out of the event and not just enjoy the bar:

• Educate the team with goals and new initiatives: 
  • What are your competitors doing (most industries can be helped by Gartner to find this out)?
  • The Economic forecast.
  • What is new and upcoming in your industry? Even if you don't have the product to keep up you must design messaging to handle objections.
  • What went well last year and new expectations for 2016.
  • Ensure you use real evidence to support any of the above and make sure they have been discussed with both sales and marketing before going live.
  • Inform your team of new products and marketing messaging.
• Do the basics right as a team: 
  • Whether updating opportunities within a CRM or ensuring you have the latest presentation, the SKO is a great time to get this done, as a team together.
• Engage the team with new ideas and presentation techniques:
  • Make sure everyone knows the agenda and have contributed or mentioned. 
  • Use guest speakers, partners or customers to speak and present. 
  • Homework. Make it fun. Ask each team member to write a short blog post to reflect on the previous day. Use Google Forms as an easy way to administer and reward the best with a place on your website and prize. 
• Motivate to exceed 2015 numbers:
  • Explore methods to keep your team motivated throughout the year, you can't just manage you need to lead. Share ideas with other colleagues. 
  • Gamification and incentives are great ways to motivate.
• Build your team:
  • The SKO is a great opportunity to bring your team together and allow all moving parts to socialise. Ensure sales spend time with support or marketing etc. 
  • Be mindful that junior employees relish the opportunity to mix with the senior leadership team and this is a great opportunity to motivate them for the new year. These individuals are the future of the company. 
  • Reward previous year outstanding performances and contributions. 
• SKO Follow-up:
  • It is easy to come away from a fun and motivating event and for the talk not to translate into results. Defining basic goals for the upcoming weeks and then having a refresher two weeks later can keep the momentum up. 
  • Beyond the subsequent weeks make sure you can measure the results in subsequent years. 

Any feedback or what worked for your SKO would be greatly received. Best wishes for 2016!