What people get wrong about Sales Kick-Offs
What people get wrong about Sales Kick-Offs
Take SKOs beyond a half-drunk infotainment for Sales
Hey, Toni from Growblocks here! Welcome to another Revenue Letter!
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I love Kickoffs.
But I think almost everyone does them totally wrong.
The standard agenda goes like this:
Announce new targets for the year.
Bring in the CEO to tell everyone why those goals are totally doable
Have the CRO do the “rah-rah-rah”
Beers.
Those are the Kickoffs that I don’t like btw.
Not only because I am not and never will be the “rah-rah-rah” CRO.
But also, if this is meant to be a motivational event:
Why are we only motivating the sales team?
Why do we think that one motivational event can last a full year?
Turn it into a GTM Kickoff
So, kickoffs shouldn’t just be “a Sales thing”.
They should be a Go-To-Market thing.
There’s no reason why you should be excluding everyone.
What you’re building is incredibly difficult.
Marketing, CS and even Product teams are the unsung heroes behind your ARR.
And it’s not about “inviting” them. It is about making them a full part of it.
And sure, there is “alignment”. But it’s much more about stopping to make everyone feel like Sales is the team that delivers revenue.
They are an important part of it. Sure. But so are the other teams.
Secondly, kickoffs have always been a great place to promote or call people out for their contributions.
And just like recognition plays a huge role in an SDR or AE’s motivation, the same can be said for the rest of the GTM teams.
The team and I used the GTM Kickoffs to put all the top performers on a pedestal.
And we used it to announce A BUNCH of promotions.
It was always like the Oscars. Every announcement had the chance to go up to the stage and do a little speech.
You could clearly feel how the positive energy in the room was just spiking.
And you could also feel like everyone struggling, realized that they absolutely had a shot to also be on that stage - I mean, all the other folks did it. So why not me?
This is gold.
And then: They don’t happen often enough
Kickoffs are great, but why do we wait 12 months to regroup and realign?
Our plans keep changing.
Our product’s evolving.
Our customer needs shift.
And our strategies shift with them.
So targets you presented at the kickoff at the beginning of the year probably look a lot different in Q3.
So how could this be done a lot better?
Run them quarterly.
Now you have 4 opportunities to motivate and get everyone excited about the goals for the next 3 months.
And you don’t need to fly everyone in all the time.
And you don’t need a massive budget every time either.
I have seen small celebration budgets turn into the best parties and activities.
How I have run it:
If you’re looking for inspiration, here is my usual agenda.
Section 1: 90 min max
Go through the past Q
Hit/Miss CRO/VP Sales gives a speech on why we hit or missed
AE shout-outs (people above 100%)
SDR shout-outs (people above 100%)
CS shout-outs (people above 100%)
Marketing (harder to do, it’s always less personal)
Promotions
Go from Junior to Senior
E.g. first SDR promotion, and with the VP promotion.
Break (15 min)
Section 2: 60 min max
Look to the future now
New company targets
(we showed even which AE got what Quota on the slide)
Same for CS & Marketing
Talk about exciting things that will help us to hit that target
Product update
Marketing campaigns
Coaching etc.
Party (starting at noon)
P.S. Ok you’ve had your kickoff. The entire GTM knows their targets. But how sure are you that you’re gonna execute this year? Growblocks can help. Build a revenue plan, forecast leading revenue indicators and find revenue leaks across your entire bowtie. Book a demo or email me and I tell you more.