How to Extend the Life of Your Sales Kickoff on a Virtual Platform

As virtual and hybrid events take center stage, many business leaders are looking for new ways to capitalize on the trend to deliver more value to their employees and customers alike. 

Events like sales kickoffs (SKOs) are essential to fostering your company culture — and ongoing revenue growth. Yet, traditional in-person events are complex and often expensive. Plus, they require travel and a significant time commitment from each attendee. 

What happens if someone can’t attend a sales kickoff meeting? Or, what happens if your event budget is too tight to accommodate all of your employees? A virtual SKO can answer these questions, and solve for many other internal pain points to deliver lasting value for your organization. There are several ways in which going virtual can extend the life of your SKO.

 

How a Virtual Event Platform Can Extend the Life of Your Sales Kickoff

 

1. SKOs Give Teams New Ways to Engage

If you’re weighing the benefits of transitioning to a virtual SKO, you may worry that your sales teams won’t feel connected to you or their colleagues, especially if they’re planning to stare at a screen all day. While lecture-style events can lead to a lack of attendee engagement, your virtual SKO doesn’t have to be a one-sided conversation. 

Sales teams love to engage with their peers to network, ask questions, share ideas, or simply get to know one another. In-person SKOs can only connect employees who live in the nearby geographic area, unless you pay to fly everyone to a central location. 

Virtual SKOs make it easy for sales teams worldwide to connect in one space, and the right digital platform will allow you to do more than put them all on the same video call:

    • You can host interactive discussion panels and networking events that encourage conversations.
    • The virtual format gives various teams the opportunity to connect with each other in a convenient, accessible environment.

To keep conversations flowing and attendees engaged, you can also create various employee lounges where sales reps can submit questions directly to leadership or participate in moderated chats about the session presentations or other relevant topics. You can also set up a “meet the team” room or wall, where your team members can share videos or pictures.

 

2. You Can Make Your SKO More Accessible

Business trips, conferences, and other work-related travel opportunities are often equal parts exciting and stressful — for you and your teams. When it comes time to align everyone’s busy schedules with yet another trip or a long day of in-person SKO events, you’ll likely run into more than a few roadblocks. 

What happens when a key sales team member can’t make it to the SKO due to scheduling conflicts, time off, or another engagement? It's often virtually impossible to find a location and time that’s ideal for everyone. 

A virtual SKO gives teams and event planners much more flexibility:

    • Attendees can call in remotely from anywhere.
    • Team members can pop in or out of live events depending on their availability.
    • If attendees can’t make the day-of-event at all, they can still access all of the sessions and content on-demand after the fact.

This flexibility isn’t just beneficial for overbooked employees; it’s also helpful for new hires who join your team in between annual SKO events. Rather than ramping up on sales goals and strategies ad-hoc or chasing down disparate information, they can log onto your event platform and “attend” the SKO as part of their onboarding or training process. 



3. Virtual Venues Allow You to Create an “Always-On” Content Repository

Planning and executing an SKO takes significant internal efforts. The assets you create for your event — like slide decks, video presentations, and more — shouldn’t simply be tossed aside after your day-of activities come to a close.

When you hold an in-person SKO, it’s challenging to find ongoing opportunities to showcase or reference your event content down the line. However, if you host these events virtually in an environment employees can access anytime, your content’s shelf life multiplies exponentially. 

A remote, always-on environment gives team members continuous access to downloadable content and recorded presentations from the live event. Whether they missed the original SKO, onboarded after your annual kickoff, or simply want to refer back to the day’s events, a virtual platform makes access quick and easy for everyone. 

 

Looking for More Ways to Deliver a Next-Level Virtual Sales Kickoff?

At 6Connex, we believe a successful SKO delivers the perfect mix of high-value content and dynamic engagement features, all supported by an impressive backend system that’s reliable and easy to use. 

Our virtual event environment helps employers and event planners deliver next-level virtual and hybrid events like sales kickoffs, benefits fairs, career fairs, and more. 

 

For more information on how you can take your SKO to the next level, download our free e-book below, the Ultimate Sales Kickoff Playbook. Contact our expert virtual event planners at 6Connex, or request a virtual platform demo today!

 

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Related Resources

4 Ways to Build an Engaging Sales Kickoff Agenda

5 Key Benefits of a Virtual SKO


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