Meetings can have a negative connotation to it. In a meeting, employees will be told what they are doing wrong and what they must accomplish to ensure growth for the company. And while meetings can be perceived as negative, companies can make use of an event to ensure growth and team building and display a strategy of how each individual in the team can improve and grow within the company.

Sales kick-off meetings(SKO) are crucially important for any team within the business. The once-a-year meetings must have an agenda that focuses on instilling motivation, strategy, and team building among the members that will be attending. These meetings allow the management team to sit with an entire team and express their gratitude and vision for the year ahead.

These meetings will greatly benefit the team members and the management. The team members can ask multiple questions and concerns they have for the year, while the managers can provide confronting feedback and a goal for the year ahead.

Key Components of a Sales Kick-Off Meeting Agenda

Some certain aspects and tasks must be included in an SKO to ensure the success thereof. These key components will provide the team with the best results. The more managers and planners can include these components in the agenda, the higher the chances of a successful sales meeting will be.

Sales Goals and Objectives

Sales teams and managers all need set goals. These goals and objectives will provide the team with direction and guidelines as to what the business wants and needs. Clear goals can be created by simply observing and determining where the business wants to grow.

Objectives must be specific, clear, measurable, achievable, relatable, and timed. Once an objective has been set and the team understands the reasoning behind the goals, they can fully work to achieve it within the set time frame. Other forms of goals can be, growth goals, aspirational goals, company goals, business goals, and organizational goals. All must be clearly stated and communicated to the team. 

Team and Individual Performance Evaluation

A team and individual performance evaluation play a key role in the growth of the individual or the team within the company. The evaluation aims to give the team valuable information, such as its success and failure rate. Both sides of the coin must be evaluated to ensure the team knows their strengths and weaknesses. Expressing areas of improvement must be done in breakout sessions to ensure that the employees are not manipulated. 

Employees are well aware of the negative evaluation, and even though this aspect of the evaluation is important, individuals and teams must be aware of the positives. This will uplift their motivations and ensure that they are on the right track toward growth within the team and the company.

Product/Service Overview and Training

A company can only grow if the sales team and individuals sell the service or products of the company. And with high sales revenue comes a strong team that knows the products and the clients they sell. Some forms of training can include technology training through internal speakers to ensure that the team is comfortable with the different systems that are in place. 

A product or service training and overview provide the team with key points and strengths of the product or service. This will be used to convince the customer of the need for the company’s services or products. The sales team must have all valuable information of all products they are acquired to sell. This will ensure an accurate and convincing conversation from the teams’ side. Product training can be used to create a solid plan on how to approach customers with the new products. 

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Sales Strategy Review and Planning

A sales strategy is a guide as to which the team approaches and organizes its sales. The team will generate new action steps or base decisions on the company’s strategy. The sales strategy will include rules, objectives, and processes that the team must use.

Deciding on a set strategy is important within corporations; however, reviewing and planning on adjusting the strategy is necessary for every successful and growing business. By simply taking the time to review the strategy, the team can identify its weaknesses. The team can improve their strategy and increase their sales by improving the weaknesses or the lack of a specific area.

Action Plans and Next Steps

Action plans and next steps refer to the company and team’s direction and play a significant role in the company’s future success. Planning without action will leave the team with unique ideas, but the lack of execution will leave them stagnant. The team will not grow, and the same problems will occur at the next meeting.

Action steps are easy and small steps in the direction of growth. These next steps will provide the entire team or individuals with direction. Action steps provide a clear next process that must be taken to ensure that there is growth.

Best Practices for Designing an Effective Sales Kick-Off Meeting Agenda

Designing a meeting agenda for a sales kick-off will display the entire duration of the meeting with activities, conversations, and other set tasks and objectives. This set the tone for what the meeting will focus on. The team members and management will both be able to prepare beforehand as the agenda would be sent out first.

Analyzing Sales Data and Metrics

With the development of technology, teams will have access to better information daily. These metrics will display all needed sales data metrics that can be used to improve sales strategies and improve sales revenue. Determining the best metrics to use will be the only problem managers face when analyzing data. Companies will be able to see industry trends and evaluate the current opportunity that lies within the metrics.

The management team must identify the key performance indicators and sales data. Once they have identified these metrics, an evaluation can occur, which will provide key information on where the team is lacking and what areas the team is thriving in. The team will improve their unacceptable areas by simply using these kick-off meetings to work on strategies to improve the negative areas.

Customizing the Agenda to Meet Sales Team Needs

A sales team meeting can only be deemed successful if it meets the goals set beforehand and if the sales team’s needs have been met. It is of utmost importance that the sales team have time to speak their mind and clarify their needs.

This will give the managers valuable information on what the sales team needs and wants from these meetings. The event can be planned and evaluated by setting a sample agenda to determine the success. Some customizations might be in the form of networking between event members or adding event materials that can be taken home. 

Leveraging Technology and Interactive Activities

Technology is an amazing tool that has brought life to business meetings and events. Most meetings will have a speaker talking the entire time without any visual representation or interactive information. Speakers can leverage technology by displaying critical information on a screen. The team will be able to follow the information by reading and hearing it from the speaker.

This can increase the effectiveness of the meeting. The speaker must incorporate interactive activities with technology. The team will have a longer attention span if they know about the interactive activities. This will allow the team to ask key questions and provide valuable information about what they have experienced dealing with customers.

Incorporating Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Topics

Most teams are diverse, with different cultures and backgrounds. There are methods to incorporate these topics into the meeting; however, it must be done carefully. The extensive focus should be on the training of these topics. Once these are added, and the team has turned these hard conversations into a team culture, the sales team and corporation will be stronger than ever.

Common Mistakes to Avoid in Sales Kick-Off Meeting Agenda Design

Common mistakes can be avoided if the management and planning team have access to avoid it. Most teams struggle to avoid mistakes due to the lack of knowledge of these different common mistakes. Here, however, is a list of mistakes to avoid.

Failing to Set Clear Objectives and Expectations

Setting clear and concise objectives and goals is a primary focus point any business should have. These will provide the team with direction and guidance, and the lack of goals and objectives will leave the entire team moving in their own direction.

A team needs guidance and set expectations to ensure that they know what is expected and where the company is heading. Not only will they be able to add more value, but each member will be productive in knowing what to do due to the set expectations and goals.

Overloading the Agenda with Too Many Topics

Managers will focus on every topic and area of improvement in one set meeting. This will not add any value to the meeting due to the oversharing of information and details. The employees will not be able to process all aspects and problems, let alone fix every problem that has been shared throughout the meeting.

The key is to determine a few of the major topics that need attention and schedule it within the meeting agenda. This will provide the team with more time to deal with the issues and provide solutions. The solutions will allow the team to fix what is broken without having to focus and adjust to too many responsibilities and problems at once.

Neglecting to Incorporate Team Building and Motivational Sessions

Kick-off meetings can be held through a virtual event or in person. However, a team building and motivational session must be included for both. The sales leaders will be able to improve the sales process by motivating the team to improve. These team-building sessions will ensure that the company moves as a team and not as individuals competing with one another. Fun activities can be a different choice for team building; the key message, however, is to turn attendees into teams. 

A guest speaker can motivate sales professionals with stories and innovation that will lead to productive, goal-driven work. The entire team can benefit, and the annual kick-off meeting will be the meeting that set the tempo and motivation for the year. The company CEO can make an appearance to speak on behalf of the business, which will allow attendees to meet the company leaders.

Ignoring Feedback from Sales Team Members

The sales managers and the entire sales teams know the customer’s questions and queries. They deal with sales activities and requests daily, equipping them with valuable customer information. these meetings allow salespeople to inform and educate the rest of the team on methods of improving their strategy by simply listening to the feedback that the entire sales team has to deliver.

FAQs

What are Examples of Sales Strategy Meeting Agendas?

Common sales strategies include communicating and celebrating wins and losses or diving into metrics displaying the team’s strengths and weaknesses. Other forms of meeting agendas can be in the form of focusing on obstacles and training sessions on important products or services. Others include market strategy and networking events to the sales team agenda. 

What are Example Themes for Sales Meetings?

Sales kick-off themes are set themes for the sales kick-off agenda. This will ensure that the meeting is fun and exciting, with some team-building activities included. Examples of themes are, Focus on the future, above and beyond, find your mojo, or stop selling and start closing.

Final Thoughts

Sales kickoffs are an important aspect of any team. The sales kickoff agenda can either be a virtual event or an in-person event. These meetings are used to speak about product training, annual sales improvement, and other strategies that can impact the marketing team. Annual sales kickoff meetings can be used to boost morale and team building which can be done through a customer speaker or guest speaker that can motivate the team. 

The key message for a team meeting should be to leave a motivated sales team that will impact the way the customer views any product or service of the company. Some meetings have event themes and other corporate events solely focus on crucial opportunities and methods the internal teams can use to grow the business. These annual events are a great way to build a team and ensure company growth. 

Sabine Ghali

Kelly Murphy

PRESIDENT & FOUNDER

Certified Meeting planner with 20+ years of event management experience, founder of ConferenceSource, expert in meeting facility sourcing & contracting in North America, Europe, South America and Asia. Kelly will manage your budget as if they were her own, negotiating the best possible rate and hotel contract to benefit and protect every client and exceed all expectations for all planning aspects for sales meetings, educational meetings, product launches, incentive trips down to a small board of directors meeting. We make meetings easy understanding your meeting objectives and delivering meeting matched components.