Virtual Sales Kick-off
Mar. 18th, 2021 02:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerOne of the things you do in professional sales jobs is the Sales Kick-Off. SKOs, as they're called for short, are annual events (usually) in which the whole sales team gets together for guidance from company leaders on sales strategy, product knowledge, and not a small bit of team building.
At my current company the SKO is usually in February. Last year's SKO got in right under the wire before the Covid-19 pandemic shut down in-person gatherings. This year it's not yet safe to resume large in-person gatherings so we went virtual. And we pushed back the date a few weeks to get things ready. It ran Tue-Wed-Thu this week; so as I'm writing this blog we've actually just wrapped it up. And wow, was it a good one!
SKOs are a valuable and very important event in selling. That said, there are a few key areas in which they always, predictably, fall short of what they could be. Among the shortcomings are overpacked agendas, long hours of "death by powerpoint" presentations, and multi-day schedules that leave everyone feeling completely exhausted at the end. See, for example, how I felt exhausted in Feb 2020, in Feb 2019, in Feb 2018, etc. This SKO actually had none of that!
One big thing we did right was align to the strengths of what virtual events do well. The biggest change was that we recorded almost all the presentations ahead of time. "Wait, what?" you might ask, "Aren't recorded presentations way less engaging than live?" Well, when you're all sitting in a big room, they are. But when you're all sitting at home watching on small screens, pointing a camera at a person on a stage in a live hall is close to the least engaging thing you can do. Prerecorded video forced us to craft and refine our content, practice it, and get it down to time. We ran two broadcasts of most sessions, one timed for US staff and the other timed for Europe. Oh, and with a professional production company to help us (we spent $ saved on not flying everyone to Las Vegas by hiring video pros) the videos looked great and were engaging.
At the same time we avoided doing some of the things that virtual conference systems do poorly. I mentioned above not simply pointing cameras at people to speak live. It's hard enough stage-managing people and technology at a live show, let alone if dozens of presenters are presenting from dozens of home environments. Beyond that a big change we made was to minimize interactive events. That was strange to me because I've been an advocate for interactive events in the past. They work great to help solidify knowledge attendees are learning. They also break up the death-by-powerpoint that marathon days can otherwise turn into. But as great as they are for in-person SKOs, they'd be extremely difficult to put on and likely unsuccessful when done remotely. So we didn't do them.
Finally, one general thing we did right— virtual or otherwise— was not to overload the schedule. Sales conferences, like I've written numerous times before, often wind up being a series of 12+ hour work days— and that's before the extra-curricular activities. That's a big part of what runs everyone so ragged at SKOs. This year we had three, 5-hour days. Wow, what a difference a reasonable schedule makes!
At my current company the SKO is usually in February. Last year's SKO got in right under the wire before the Covid-19 pandemic shut down in-person gatherings. This year it's not yet safe to resume large in-person gatherings so we went virtual. And we pushed back the date a few weeks to get things ready. It ran Tue-Wed-Thu this week; so as I'm writing this blog we've actually just wrapped it up. And wow, was it a good one!
SKOs are a valuable and very important event in selling. That said, there are a few key areas in which they always, predictably, fall short of what they could be. Among the shortcomings are overpacked agendas, long hours of "death by powerpoint" presentations, and multi-day schedules that leave everyone feeling completely exhausted at the end. See, for example, how I felt exhausted in Feb 2020, in Feb 2019, in Feb 2018, etc. This SKO actually had none of that!
One big thing we did right was align to the strengths of what virtual events do well. The biggest change was that we recorded almost all the presentations ahead of time. "Wait, what?" you might ask, "Aren't recorded presentations way less engaging than live?" Well, when you're all sitting in a big room, they are. But when you're all sitting at home watching on small screens, pointing a camera at a person on a stage in a live hall is close to the least engaging thing you can do. Prerecorded video forced us to craft and refine our content, practice it, and get it down to time. We ran two broadcasts of most sessions, one timed for US staff and the other timed for Europe. Oh, and with a professional production company to help us (we spent $ saved on not flying everyone to Las Vegas by hiring video pros) the videos looked great and were engaging.
At the same time we avoided doing some of the things that virtual conference systems do poorly. I mentioned above not simply pointing cameras at people to speak live. It's hard enough stage-managing people and technology at a live show, let alone if dozens of presenters are presenting from dozens of home environments. Beyond that a big change we made was to minimize interactive events. That was strange to me because I've been an advocate for interactive events in the past. They work great to help solidify knowledge attendees are learning. They also break up the death-by-powerpoint that marathon days can otherwise turn into. But as great as they are for in-person SKOs, they'd be extremely difficult to put on and likely unsuccessful when done remotely. So we didn't do them.
Finally, one general thing we did right— virtual or otherwise— was not to overload the schedule. Sales conferences, like I've written numerous times before, often wind up being a series of 12+ hour work days— and that's before the extra-curricular activities. That's a big part of what runs everyone so ragged at SKOs. This year we had three, 5-hour days. Wow, what a difference a reasonable schedule makes!
no subject
Date: 2021-03-19 01:18 pm (UTC)Beyond the directly work related thing, the chance to get away from your chronic work environment without being dinged for a "vacation" is actually an important mental health change of location. At least, in the old you must be there in person world.
Forced rethinking can have up and downsides but I'm hoping mostly up sides.
no subject
Date: 2021-03-19 02:42 pm (UTC)There's a balance to strike. You need employees ready to focus on the material and take everything seriously. If the trip tilts too far toward being a party it becomes counterproductive. I think that's a big part of the reason my company switched from places like Mexico to Vegas a few years ago. My previous employer had held an SKO in Mexico, too, before deciding it was a bad idea; a few employees had treated it like a boondoggle. They moved theirs to wine country near San Francisco.
I'm almost glad we didn't have to go to Las Vegas this year. The fancy hotels are all much too big— it's like a mile to walk from your room to where meetings are held in the hotel conference centers. And Vegas itself holds little attraction for me anymore. Yeah, the extracurriculars are fun... but just for a bit. I'd almost rather we hold it at, say, the Hilton in Omaha. As long as there's decent food to eat and a few decent bars to gather at informally for socializing at night I'd be good.