A Sales Kickoff so Graceful it Looks Effortless
You may have come across a gem of an old Italian word – Sprezzatura.
It translates into English as ‘The art of performing a difficult task so gracefully, that it looks effortless.’ The art within the art. In fashion, In music, In design, In sport. And yes, in sales kickoff too. It’s the gift of the gifted and the great. Those who make their medium look all so… easy. Those who make success seem simple. Like it’s natural. Inevitable.
You can also apply the concept of sprezzatura to events. To the ability to take an idea and transform it into moving parts so seamlessly interconnected, so frictionless and so translucent that the actual event mechanics become immaterial. So all that’s left is the emotional response. Inspiration. Collaboration. A shared vision. For example – your annual Sales Kickoff. Because annual Sales Kickoffs don’t just happen.
Illuminating the Year Ahead With a Stellar Sales Kickoff
What at face value might appear a simple, straightforward get-together, if it’s going to live long in the memory and deliver the valuable results that you really want, needs expert planning. Only an experienced hand, a steady but light touch, and a keen understanding of event planning will do. To rouse the troops, to light a fuse of the year ahead, you need an organiser able to read the room long before the room even becomes a reality. And you need to pull all of this planning together in a carefully curated series of activities. Before, during and after your Sales Kickoff event
Why?
Because if you’re going to encourage sellers along the Behaviour Change Adoption Curve, from identifying the change you want your salespeople to aspire to, to them living that change, you can’t just use a Sales Kickoff to instruct them. You need your Sales Kickoff to inspire them.
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The Anatomy of an Inspirational Sales Kickoff
Investing in the right kickoff partner will pay handsome dividends. You’ll get a focused, energised and more intimately bonded sales team ready to take on the year ahead. A team with a shared commitment, and perhaps more importantly than anything, a far more profitable vision. Here’s what that more profitable Sales kickoff might include.
Pre-event
A high-value kickoff doesn’t just begin when it begins. To get maximum return on room time, it’s always wise to share important information ahead of the event:
- New product info
- Changes to sales processes
- Briefings on changing competitor and sector environments
- Essential comms from other departments.
Why spend precious time working through activities that could be given more attention in advance? And what better way to set the scene for your IRL event than by ‘seeding’ your sellers with core information ready to be explored in depth with colleagues at the event?
Maximizing Together Time
For maximum impact, any successful Sales Kickoff event needs to carefully blend three important ingredients.
Inspiration
Inspiration can come in many forms – from motivational speakers to supercharge your sellers, to key business leaders breaking down wide-horizon organisational goals into achievable missions. There’s nothing more energising than when leaders make their visions real, recruit a commitment, and then invite people to feel part of the journey. And what about getting your customers involved too?
Imagine how good it would feel to have a client singing your praises in front of your colleagues. A delighted client there to share their sales experience and publicly acknowledge your hard work and commitment. And of course, in walking the room through their positive sales experience your clients are also educating other sellers on the sort of sales best practices that they can apply too.
Interaction
This brings us to perhaps the most important part of any face-to-face Sales kick-off event – interaction.
According to Gartner, 69% of employees regularly seek new ways of doing their work from their co-workers. Put simply – your salespeople are hungry to learn from each other. And while VOC (voice of customer) offers some key opportunities to pick up important tips, there are plenty of ways that your sellers can educate each other.
Interviews with top performers, one-to-one successful sales tactic exchanges or even pre-recorded videos where stellar sellers share their ‘sales secrets’ – get creative. It’s worth it. Peer-to-peer socialization of change, where sellers share their practical, proven tactics, improves the application and learning of new behaviours by 14%. Gartner.
Post Event
Your event won’t end the moment everyone goes their separate ways. On a sales team and individual seller level, strengths need to be strengthened and any weaknesses identified and addressed. Assessments, quizzes, and evaluation surveys are all useful ways to identify knowledge gaps and tackle them with coaching and e-learning.
Your Next Sales Kickoff
It’s one thing being told how to put together a successful Sales Kickoff – putting it all together in a way that moves your sellers along the Behaviour Change Adoption Curve is another matter altogether. It takes experience, it takes chemistry, it takes a keen understanding of how the ambition and energy of your sellers can best be aligned with your wider corporate goals – so everyone has a great year. It takes sprezzatura. In our finest Italian accent… a little DDG ‘sprezzatura’ perhaps.
Contact us today and let’s look at how we can make your next Sales Kickoff so graceful it looks effortless.