4 Ways to Build an Engaging Sales Kickoff Agenda

Executing a sales kickoff (SKO) takes significant planning and a keen eye for detail; you want the entire event to go off without a hitch. The agenda or schedule of events is likely at the center of your event planning strategy, especially if you’re coordinating everyone’s busy schedule yourself or bringing a large, multi-location team together for a single event. 

While there’s no secret formula or universal template for an engaging sales kickoff agenda, there are a few steps you can take to optimize your schedule of events: 

Schedule Leadership Events First

If you’re like most sales teams, your calendars overflow with meetings, and you’re perpetually pulled in several directions; your leadership teams are often the busiest of the bunch. Your SKO is a valuable time to set distractions aside and reconnect as a team with leaders at the helm.

Whether you need to organize leadership-only meetings or coordinate day-of events for stakeholders to lead, prioritize leadership events before scheduling additional SKO activities. Check calendars well in advance and nail down leadership’s availability, then build the rest of your sales kickoff agenda around it. Proactive planning saves you the stress of last-minute restructuring or even cancellations if members of your leadership team have conflicting events. 

When it comes to the SKO itself, you should also offer leadership the option to pre-record instead of presenting on a live stream. This approach only works for keynotes and non-interactive events but can still save them time and add flexibility to everyone’s schedule. 

Switch Up Event Formats and Presentations

Whether speeches, pre-recorded promo videos, or live Q&A sessions, repetitive content makes it easier to mentally 'check out' or simply lose interest in the topic at hand.

Offer sales teams a curated combination of pre-recorded and live sessions sprinkled throughout each day's schedule. This approach keeps your audience from zoning out or getting bored during large chunks of similar activities on the sales kickoff agenda. 

Beyond the presentation method for each event, consider how to diversify the formats themselves. For example, rather than packing in four hours of one-sided speeches and presentations, followed by four hours of interactive panels and discussion sessions, switch off between each option throughout the day.

Make Personal Connections a Priority

Whether in-person or virtual, your sales kickoff presents a high-value networking opportunity for your sales teams. While it’s important to discuss strategies, goals, and action plans for the year, you shouldn’t let personal conversations fall to the wayside. Personal conversations are an important part of a successful SKO.

Create ways for employees and leaders from different teams to step outside their circles and make valuable connections, such as: 

• • Virtual icebreaker activities
  • Casual roundtable chats
  • Cross-team meet and greets

These events give folks a chance to engage outside their immediate circles and keep energy levels high for the entire SKO. You can also work interpersonal time into more structured events in your sales kickoff agenda by creating a chat room for each event or a virtual message board, where attendees can share their thoughts or ideas in real time. 

Always Have a Backup Plan for Your Event

As with any event, there’s no guarantee that your day will go as planned. That’s why it’s essential to develop a secondary SKO agenda or action plan in case of: 

• • Technical difficulties 
  • Last-minute cancellations 
  • Shifts in SKO priorities 

By preparing your staff and yourself to “expect the unexpected,” you’ll know how to respond to bumps along the way without leaving your sales teams hanging, or causing tons of unnecessary stress behind the scenes for speakers, hosts, or other staff members. 

No matter what your custom sales kickoff agenda looks like in the end, you’ll need a well-executed event planning strategy and a reliable event venue to bring it all together. 

Ready to Kickstart Your SKO Strategy?

You can count on 6Connex to help you execute your SKO strategy with a virtual event and a virtual venue to wow your employees left and right. For more information on how you can utilize the 6Connex virtual event platform, download our free e-book below, or contact us today to learn more about our virtual platform demo.

Related Resources

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

5 Key Benefits of a Virtual SKO

Why Approach Sales Kickoff Differently