How To Modernize Sales Kickoffs In The New Normal

It’s no secret that 2020 has forever changed the world. The cultural, workplace, and economic shifts that we’re still undergoing have resulted in different buying habits, different peak hours of operation, and different customer needs. If you run a business, you may be left wondering how this “new normal” is going to influence you and your work as well as how you can grow and adapt to work best with it. In particular, sales kickoffs seem to require an entirely new skillset with a completely fresh digitally-based strategy. The following will explore the information, skills, and techniques you need to manage a sales kickoff post coronavirus outbreak.

Be Aware Of Your Aims

You can’t hit a target if you haven’t laid eyes on it. Take a moment before you begin strategizing to think about your aims for the kickoff. You want to adapt smoothly to the new normal, you want to increase revenue, and likely, you want to diversify and protect yourself against any completely uncontrollable sudden shifts in the future. You’ll probably also have specific aims that relate to how your particular business was affected by the pandemic. You might need to also come up with creative solutions to incoming problems, like delays in shipments or limited products being available.

Bolster Your Team With A High-Energy Theme

Virtual sales kickoffs can be boring or you can find a way to make them fun. There are specific vibes and feelings you can create that work better in a remote situation than in person. Experts at SalesHood.com emphasize including your team in the naming and brainstorming session, this will also help invigorate them as, after this year we’ve had, everyone could benefit from feeling a little more in control.

Planning Your Sales Kickoff

A sales kickoff should be designed to get your front-line sales team pumped up, informed, and ready to do their best work. Given the year we’ve had, many members of your sales teams might have extra worries that they’re carrying around. Maybe you want to throw in a keynote speaker who addresses managing stress and anxiety in uncertain times. Maybe you want to let people address their fears with a Q and A session. Maybe you want to have a meditation teacher come in and give everyone a fresh start to the kickoff, by helping your salespeople leave their stress outside.

Video Is Crucial

Video is one of the most important aspects of virtual sales kickoffs. You might even want to hire a content writer to sort out your scripts and a video production team to tackle the visuals. There are countless high-quality videos online so people’s standards of what makes a good video has gone through the roof. You need stellar sound quality, good picture, but also clean and aesthetically pleasing backdrops, and people who are comfortable being on camera in the videos. Be prepared that this could take a team a bit of time to put together. You might want to begin the video production process several months ahead of the sales kickoff to make sure that any COVID-related delays can be handled without sacrificing quality.

The Elephant In The Room

Great sales requires an engaged salesforce. There’s a lot of stress and frustration floating around in the air right now, and you won’t do yourself, your bottom line, or your team any good if you don’t address it. People are worried about job security. They’re worried about the economy. They’re worried about their children’s education. They’re worried about their ageing parents. This means that right now, part of your job when organizing a sales kickoff is to ease them up when and where you can. This is a time to emphasize the communal aspects of your work, the connectedness and friendships developed on your team, the idea that everyone is going to get through what’s going on together.

Make sure that some educational speeches or videos make it clear what changes should be made to adjust to the precautions needed to reduce the spread of coronavirus. Each member of your sales team needs to feel confident in the alterations you have made to their daily work. They need to know that you’ve taken their health and safety, and the well-being of your clients and customers into account.

With the above tips kept in mind, you’ll be able to plan a sales kickoff virtual event that gets your sales team fired up, but also helps keep the more intense doubts and anxieties at bay. Businesses around the globe are undergoing intense change, but with the right sales kickoff, you can make sure your sales teams are ready to face these changes and roll with them.