How to Make Your First Sales Kickoff Event a Success

No matter your company’s size, there’s nothing more important than getting together with your sales team at the start of the year to review, plan, and collaborate. A great kickoff sales event is just the right amount of business and fun, so your team comes away with renewed excitement for the coming year and the sense of having bonded as a unit.

Plan for a half or full day away from the office in a location where the team can feel relaxed and candid. Make sure everyone on your sales team can attend, along with a few special guests, such as leaders from marketing, product, operations, and customer success. The meeting should, ideally, take place in the first half of January and cover goals for the year, review department and individual plans and progress, and provide fuel to propel your team toward hitting their numbers. This time together can also be incredibly useful for skill development and training.

If you’re new to planning an annual sales kickoff, here are some science-backed ways to make sure you get the most out of your time with the sales team:

● Best year ever

● Work smarter

● Hustle

● Won’t stop

● Just sell

● Sell right

● Land and expand

● We win together

● We learn, we grow, we win

As you can see, these themes are pretty basic—just pick a simple mantra that will mean something to your team and help them focus on what matters most right now.

Similar to your theme, you need a point to bring everyone together. As a leader, know what to accomplish and why you are doing the offsite. Is it to boost morale? Update staff on the corporate strategy for the year? Align goals? Shift focus? Have your reps present their territory plans? Train and develop skills? You can’t do it all in a kickoff, so choose what’s most important to the team right now. Know what you want to accomplish and keep your content and presentation focused on that.

Also, when it comes to meetings, shorter is sweeter. The Harvard Business Review notes that executives today spend 13 more hours a week in meetings than they did in the 1060s, and 65% of senior managers reported that meetings were actually keeping them from working. A long, drawn-out meeting that loses track of your original objectives could actually work against the reason for your meeting: making your team the best it can be. Respecting everyone’s time is just as important as respecting their ideas.

You don’t have to book the fanciest hotel in town for your team meeting (but you can!). However, your meeting should be someplace where the team feels relaxed, comfortable, and ready to put their best ideas forward.

The first week of January has already come and gone, so if you haven’t already planned your annual sales kickoff event, now’s the time to act! Make sure you start the year with a kickoff event that’s as fun as it is beneficial.

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