How to Make Your SKO Collaborative and Social

A Sales Kickoff (SKO) is a great opportunity to align and inspire an organization to crush their goals. Karen Harrison, who led several SKO activities and workshops at Titus, outlines the steps to take to ensure a collaborative and successful SKO.

Beforehand:

• Align with each function on message and outcomes – each presentation and activity should align to corporate goals
• No death by Powerpoint! Try to make the work as collaborative and social as possible – especially when flying people in
• Put your foundational learning in pre-work, and use the time together to practice, communicate and collaborate

Pre-work (FOUNDATIONAL KNOWLEDGE):

• Executive Video – CEO setting the tone and expectations
• “Empowerment” video for theme – pitches – REPURPOSE CONTENT
• New corporate messaging framework
• Competitive intelligence documents
• Discussion Huddle for attendees to ask questions

SKO Agenda

• Setup:
  • Mix the tables up so that folks are with other employees they aren’t normally with. Provides great perspective.
  • Idea/discussion walls where attendees can write their thoughts, challenges and desires on the upcoming year and what they feel they need to achieve their goals throughout the day
• Introduction:
  • Set the tone and value of the event
• Workshops and activities weaving in the corporate messaging framework:
  • Customer Storytelling (tailored stories with buying personas)
    • Team works on assigned persona and business case to tailor corporate pitch that would resonate with client, tying in a customer story
  • Competitive Messaging Challenges
    • Whiteboard Challenge: CMO had a competition and we voted at each table, finished with a whiteboard-off with top performers
    • Best boot camp pitch – and the non-salespeople were engaged and kicked butt!
  • Competitive Intelligence
    • Role-play central! I dressed up as Laverne, a lover of our competitors, and attendees would watch a role-play interaction with a rep and the audience would provide objections
    • Ran a mock Jeopardy episode
  • Top sales leaders fireside chat – best practice sharing

Post/Recap

• Assigned Corporate pitch certification to all customer-facing staff (with winner at SKO boot camp as the golden example)
• SKO surveys on content, delivery and competency

In Summary:

• Align functions so that the event flows well into a cohesive story
• Use foundational learning as pre-work to maximize collaboration and practice
• Feedback – content, delivery and competency

Other SKO resources:

Modern Sales Kickoffs video

Guide to the Ultimate Sales Kickoff

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