What Makes a Sales Kickoff Effective?

A sales kickoff is the single best opportunity to position the year or the quarter for the strongest possible outcome. The 10 practices below offer a map for doing exactly that.

Key Takeaways

• An effective sales kickoff is honest about the challenges ahead, clear about how the company differs from its competitors, and built around one new capability that sellers practice in the room.
• Sellers with self-efficacy coach themselves, and a kickoff can help build it rather than rely on directive communication.
• Teach one new capability, set the context for why it matters, and have sellers practice it.
• Sellers need both soft skills and role-specific skills, so give them equal weight.
• Common payoff incentives and a clear link between this quarter and a longer-term goal keep the whole team moving together.

How Should a Sales Kickoff Begin?

Recognize Recent Accomplishments

Recognition draws attention to sales professionals who put good practices to use. It also builds morale. Recognition for good work is one of the 12 workplace conditions Gallup’s Q12 engagement survey links most closely to performance. Forrester also advises sales leaders to celebrate during the kickoff, including the sellers behind new logos, renewals, and growth.

Recognition is important because it brings team-wide visibility to a seller’s win while illustrating that there is a connection between the selling methodology and a closed deal. Starting the sales kickoff this way not only sets a positive tone, but it also primes the team for learning new capabilities.

Provide an Honest Assessment of Challenges Faced and Ahead

Authenticity is everything. Everyone can see through simplistic attempts to generate excitement. Make the message “Yes, there are difficulties, but we are equipped,” rather than positivity for the sake of positivity.

How Does a Kickoff Give Sellers Something to Believe In?

Build From the Inside Out, Not From the Outside In

Successful sellers tend to have self-efficacy: confidence in their own ability to carry out specific selling tasks. Building from the inside out means using the sales kickoff to help sellers develop that confidence from within rather than relying on directive communication. Because confidence tends to follow success, give sellers a chance to succeed at the new skill in the room. Self-efficacy looks like good self-coaching.

“I’ve tried to shape Challenger as not another thing you have to do, but reshape how you do things today. Force feeding it has never been the option.” — Shawn Dooley, Senior Customer Success Enablement Manager, Iterable

Restate the Company’s Identity in Relation to the Competition

Identity is more than just what the company does. It’s who the company wants to be. A sales kickoff is the perfect time to offer clarity on how the company’s identity and capabilities differ from competitors. Without a clear definition of “who we are,” the seller cannot articulate their value to a customer.

How Should a Sales Kickoff Build New Capabilities?

Build New Capabilities

Effective sales kickoffs are a bridge from the old to the new. Therefore, offer one new capability to help sellers meet new objectives. Begin by setting the context for the new capability and explaining its importance. Keep this portion interactive by having sellers practice. Skill building creates a sense of empowerment in the team. Empowerment increases momentum.

Teaching one capability well also protects sellers from overload. Gartner found that 72% of sellers feel overwhelmed by the number of skills their job requires, and overwhelmed sellers are 45% less likely to attain quota.

“When you put those behaviors into practice … our teams are better able to actually apply some of those behaviors in the moment with their customers in ways that they weren’t able to previously.” — Amber Boll, Director, Sales Global Process Owner, Rich Products Corporation

Balance Soft Skills With Role-Specific Skills

Soft skills apply to every interaction. Conversational, relational, and interpersonal skills are all soft. Role-specific skills are more specialized. These include prospecting, negotiating, and opportunity qualification. Use the kickoff to give equal weight to both, because in today’s setting sellers need both soft skills and role-specific skills.

Rethink the Role of Technology in Selling

Technology has long had a role in selling. Until recently, technology acted as a repository. Sellers recorded information in CRM systems. Today, forward-focused leaders are using technology and AI to determine areas for improvement in the seller’s skill set. A sales kickoff is a good place to introduce the idea of using technology differently within the sales team.

Gartner’s 2024 survey of 1,026 B2B sellers found that sellers who effectively partner with AI tools are 3.7 times more likely to meet quota.

How Does a Kickoff Align the Team Around the Strategy?

Look for Ways to Boost the Common Payoff

Sellers have personal incentives to win. As a result, their efforts are focused on their pipeline. This makes sense, but sales leaders can simultaneously boost the performance of everyone with common payoff incentives that reward total team performance. This encourages cooperation across the team. Use the kickoff to introduce common payoff incentives.

Build a Chain That Leads to a Bigger Outcome

Assign a sense of higher purpose to the task of selling. Some leaders do so by using the kickoff to illustrate how accomplishments this quarter are in service of a larger, downstream goal such as “getting back to growth” or “reclaiming market share.” Sellers need to see that there is both a near-term and a long-term plan.

Create Momentum Around the Strategy

Help sellers see how the new capability will serve them. Doing so means illustrating how the skill fits within a broad strategy. This approach is the process of building the case for change and earning team buy-in. Subsequent sales kickoffs serve as an opportunity to look at the outcomes and impact of the capabilities built.

How Does a Kickoff Turn Into Lasting Behavior Change?

A kickoff starts the change. The weeks after it decide whether the change lasts. Gartner research notes that sellers begin forgetting what they learned in training soon afterward, and recommends consistently reinforcing the learning and verifying that sellers apply it.

That is why Richardson treats a kickoff as one stage in a longer development journey. In Accelerate Prism, a kickoff is a natural place to Activate a new capability. Reinforce strengthens it through continued practice, Sustain supports it through manager coaching, and Signal gives leaders visibility into progress.

Use the next kickoff to look at what stuck.

“It’s a behavior change, right? So you can’t expect results right away. But the more consistent you are with training and bringing people along with you, the more it becomes part of that normal language.” — Darnetta Daire, Sales Enablement Manager, Hollister Incorporated