SG EP 39
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[00:00:00] Richard Ellis: In Brainshark's state of Sales kickoff meeting survey, three out of four SKO attendees say their company's SKO does not merit an A Grade overall and 29% rate their SKO as C or below. Welcome to some goodness where we engage seasoned business leaders and experts to share practical guidance and tips to help new and future C-level leaders maximize their impact.
[00:00:26] Today we revisit a session we led on how to plan an engaging SKO. Check out the show notes for additional resources. Enjoy.
[00:00:37] So, uh, the season is upon us where we've got, uh, lots of companies thinking about their s ks and as I've interacted with different, uh, leaders and organizations, it spans from, oh crap, it's coming. January's close. We need to get our act together. To, oh, we've got a good plan already. Right? And there's everything in between.
[00:00:58] So, um, what we're gonna do [00:01:00] today is provide you with some practical tips and frameworks and best practices to help you design a really engaging. And game changing SKO for this, uh, this coming year. And so the agenda is as follows. We're gonna cover the five Ps of sko, which really kind of help put a framework around, uh, some intentionality for planning your kickoff event.
[00:01:25] We're gonna talk a little bit about some learning principles, uh, from adult learning that do apply at SKO, so we can make sure we're really maximizing the learning that goes on, uh, in, in and around all of those sessions. Um, and then we're gonna kind of double click a little bit, um, into that learning and into retention, right?
[00:01:46] Uh, I think we could all. Confess that we've experienced those situations where just going through a kickoff event is like drinking water through a fire hose, right? Only so you can only digest so much, right? And you [00:02:00] leave and you're like, wait, am I remembering anything, et cetera. And so we wanna make sure that, uh, we are maximizing a, uh, retention, especially when you have a multi two day, three day event.
[00:02:11] And then part of that is making sure that your sessions are interactive and engaging. So we're gonna give you some tips on how to shake it up so it's just not monotony and kind of the same thing throughout. And kind of the proverbial, you know, death by PowerPoint. It's just PowerPoint after PowerPoint presentation.
[00:02:28] 'cause that's not very interactive. It's not very engaging. Uh, and then we will bring it all together and just give you a, a framework and a tip, uh, and, and kind of a. A couple of remaining tips on designing your SKO depending on, you know, wherever you are. So that's the flow. Let's get into the five Ps starting out here.
[00:02:49] And, uh, here are the ps, right? You need to have purpose, you need to, um, optimize the place for learning and engaging. Uh, [00:03:00] and you need to drive practicality. What you're doing across the kickoff, um, you need to manage the pulses. Uh, we will talk a little bit about what that means. Uh, and then you also need to think beyond just the kickoff and think post kickoff, post SO or SKO.
[00:03:16] By the way, uh, speaking of sco, right, that's an easy, easy word to say. Uh, even though sedans for sales kickoff, a lot of times I'll, I'll have clients and partners call it a sco. Um, we're seeing a trend moving from sales enablement to revenue enablement and sales kickoffs to revenue kickoffs. And so we want to think about.
[00:03:35] As we apply some of these principles, um, remember the audience, uh, is likely gonna be broader. Let's walk through the five Ps. On the surface they might seem a little bit obvious and not rocket science, but there are some, uh, some tips we'd like to share and some things that, uh, have worked well and better than others.
[00:03:54] And it starts with really having kind of that compelling North star. Um, what is the main [00:04:00] objective, right? And purpose of your kickoff. Is it to grow, you know, new client acquisition and because that's the growth strategy and priority for the next year. It's all around prospecting and hunting and you know, getting new logos on your, um, customer reference list, you know, all of that good stuff.
[00:04:20] Or like another client of mine, they have a huge installed base and they're just not really. Um, doing a great job of upselling and cross-selling and cultivating their install base. And I'm sure we can all appreciate that. It's a lot easier to sell to existing clients than it is a brand new one. And so, you know, their focus is all about the installed base, but do you have a clear objective?
[00:04:43] And I've seen just some, um, some. Not so clear, uh, SKUs, uh, over the years where, you know, there's not a big rallying cry around one objective. They're trying to cover too many things, right? But do you have a clear objective? [00:05:00] Uh, does the agenda and then all of the, uh, the supporting content align with that objective, which should align with your company priorities?
[00:05:08] Uh, and then are you thinking about, okay, uh, we're gonna invest millions of dollars in this kickoff. How do we prove value? Right? Is there gonna re. Be a return on this event and do we know which metrics, which leading indicators we're gonna measure? The biggest challenge is, I'll see, we're trying to cover too many things, right?
[00:05:26] Uh, one of my clients about 10 years ago, uh, said, okay, we have three priorities. We wanna sell, uh, more to new prospects. We wanna sell more to, um, existing clients, and then we want to sell more through partners. I, I asked them, I said, is there any other ways that you sell? And they're like, no, that's about all the ways.
[00:05:47] So you want to just do everything, and that's gonna be, that's gonna be your objective. Your focus is just keep doing everything. And so that's the challenge for you guys, is it's really hard to really come up with a [00:06:00] focus. Right. Um, I was back in production control days in my engineering background and, you know, uh, we would, we would, um, have priorities.
[00:06:09] Of production runs to satisfy, you know, high demand, um, for important customers. And we had a saying, it was like, if everything's hot, nothing's hot. If everything's a priority, nothing's a priority. And so it's, it's hard to really excel and emphasize if you don't have a clear objective. So that's the challenge, uh, for you guys, is to think about what that objective is that you can hang the rest of your strategy around.
[00:06:34] So that's the first is, is define the purpose. Rally around your, uh, leadership team. Be that advocate, right? Uh, and that catalyst to really drive focus. The second P is around place. And so this is all around just kind of thinking about how the location, the spaces can enhance and foster learning, or it can be an inhibitor, right?
[00:06:55] Uh, and then kind of an extension of a place. Is kind of the appropriate use of [00:07:00] technology. Uh, but just thinking about the overall environment, uh, and the spacing and the place, is it conducive to learning, to engagement, to networking, uh, to peer sharings? You know, you're creating that, uh. You know, just a giant water cooler effect.
[00:07:16] So a lot of times, a lot of value of these kickoffs is you got the east team and the west team, or the international team coming together with the national team. You know, we get to cur, uh, you know, collaborate and bond and learn from our peers that we don't sit with every day. Practicality is the second P.
[00:07:34] What do you expect your. Participants to do or think or feel differently? Are we driving some practicality out of the sessions? Right? I, I like to think about actionable content versus just knowledge transfer, right? Too often there's just lots of sessions that, uh, or you know, that, that are. Death by PowerPoint.
[00:07:55] Right. Um, an example is, I, I was attending a, a client's [00:08:00] kickoff and after my session I went and, and, and visited some of the other tracks and they had a, um, a partner, uh, session. So there's a, it was a session about their partner strategy, their channel partner strategy. And uh, at the end of the 45 minutes, you know, I was thinking if I were a sales rep, I don't know what I'm supposed to do differently.
[00:08:21] You know, is this just informational? Am I supposed to proactively reach out to these, some of these partners? Um, you know, what, what is my call to action? It just wasn't practical at all, and they didn't really tie it to the theme, uh, of the, uh, the session at all. So it was just like, it was kind of out there.
[00:08:38] And, uh, you don't want that, right? You wanna make sure that your sessions are tied to the objective, but then you wanna really orient them to actionable. What do you want them to do? Differently. So think about that. Call to action
[00:08:56] Pulse. Pulse is all about managing [00:09:00] energy levels throughout the day and throughout the week, right? And you can do that by thinking about the agenda and the flow of content and the types of session to manage energy throughout. Um, you wanna make sure you have varied session types, and we're gonna double click into this here in just a minute.
[00:09:17] Um, and, and make sure that you have some engaging. Activities and strategic breaks used to manage energy levels, et cetera. So very common is for post-lunch there to be, you know, that, um, that lull, right? Uh, we, we, we have a long morning we go eat lunch and then it's just like, okay. And I, I have seen, uh, people like nodding off in that first session post-lunch, right?
[00:09:43] And so a couple of ways to do that is just think about, you know, day one after lunch. Um, do you need to manage not only the engagement, but also the attention? It's the first day people are exciting to be there with their peers. You wanna make sure that, you know, [00:10:00] as part of lunch, they're not just kind of, uh, losing track of time and, and end up with side conversations and they don't end up going to the breakout sessions.
[00:10:09] Right. So a good tip is to bring everybody back to the main ballroom. Uh, for something right after lunch that could be like a partner, um, you know, panel discussion. You know, get everybody back in there for 30, 45 minutes, make sure they have butts in seats, uh, and then dismiss them and say, okay, now everybody go to your, your breakouts, uh, uh, as, as appropriate.
[00:10:32] So that would be one idea. Uh, day two poach post lunch, right day and a half in. Energy's dragging. You know, that's a great time to do something really exciting. Um, that might be, you know, have some workshops or something that's more interactive with role playing and more rather than the what to do, but the how to do it and some really intentional, uh, energetic and, uh, interactive type sessions planned for right [00:11:00] after lunch on day two.
[00:11:01] Then finally post SKO. Um, again, this is one of those things where, uh, we see some, uh, some companies do this well and some not so well. A lot of times, you know, we'll find companies that are just racing to get the whole thing. Pulled off in the first place and they just don't have time to think about what happens afterwards.
[00:11:20] And they're like, okay, well let's just get this done and then we'll think about how to reinforce or follow up. Um, but you know, our advice is really to think from the the get go. What is your objective? What do you want out of that, right? In terms of the due difference, right? Um, make sure it's practical.
[00:11:37] And then as part of your SKO planning, have a 30, 60, 90 day post SKO follow up, right? Because you can't cover everything. This is a good, uh, opportunity for those of us in enablement where, you know, when we're starting to put this agenda, you're gonna get marketing that wants to go deep in this area, or product wants to go deep in that area, and you can't say yes to [00:12:00] everybody.
[00:12:00] So, having a plan post SKO, say, you know, okay. We can't go deep here. We can touch on that and do a little teaser, and then we'll have a spirited post, SKO follow up webinar or something like that. And so, uh, sometimes we have to say no. Uh, but if you have a post SKO plan that you can slot some of those follow up activities to go deeper, uh, or get into that you didn't have time for, uh, that makes everybody feel comfortable and usually you can accomplish a lot more.
[00:12:28] Think through, you know, what needs to happen to reinforce that? 'cause if it's, if you're driving a sales priority and some call to action and you want your, your sales reps to start doing something, knowledge, skills, discipline, putting those in place, are you equipping the managers to reinforce that afterwards?
[00:12:46] Right. Um. Leadership to reinforce that, other enablers to follow up on that, et cetera. All right, so those are the five Ps. Uh, good way to just kind of use that as a checklist and kind of [00:13:00] as you know, some, uh, some guiding principles for your overall structure and framework for bringing together an SK.
[00:13:07] Let's move into adult learning theory. And so, um, we, we've gotten into this, you know, as, uh, as we've had to write training content, lead training events, all of that good stuff over the years. And there's about eight or 10 adult learning principles that you'll see most experts write about. And what we found is that there are five in particular that, uh, really apply to these types of SKO or revenue kickoff events.
[00:13:34] Okay, the first one is that adults in general desire relevance. And so you wanna make sure that what you are doing is, um, relevant to that particular person and their role. And so this is a particular challenge as we start to in, in expand the audience to customer success, customer support. Marketing, et cetera.
[00:13:58] What I've seen [00:14:00] is, um, we've expanded the audience, but sometimes the agenda and the sessions don't follow suit. And there's a lot of, uh, sessions where marketing will be sitting in there or customer support and they're like, I don't really understand how this relates to my job. And so think about your audience and think about the different roles and make sure that there are the right sessions that are relevant to their day to day.
[00:14:23] Okay, that's the first one. And we love relevance. If it's relevant to me, I'm gonna be interested. If it's not relevant to me, I'm gonna tune out or I'm gonna go find a coffee shop. Secondly, adults like ex uh, to utilize their experience and the experience of others. And this is, you know, especially true when we're talking about sales.
[00:14:42] Uh, I don't know any salespeople who don't love hearing. Other good, bad, and ugly stories from other sellers, right? I want to know what not to do, uh, based on your experience, you know, where you shot yourself in the foot, right? Uh, that's the bad, right? But I also wanna know what's leading to your [00:15:00] success.
[00:15:00] Uh, I wanna take some of those practices. Um, into my own wheelhouse. And so when you think about the sessions, think about how can we leverage, uh, each other's experience, uh, the audience's experience, uh, and then other SMEs experience and really find ways to draw from, uh, kind of that, that hands-on experience.
[00:15:20] Um, I've seen companies do a great job of. You know, highlighting successful sellers and sales executives, uh, in a panel discussion. And that always goes over well in the main stage. You know, you'll often see a customer panel and that's great. That's fun. We like to hear from the voice of the customer.
[00:15:37] You'll see partner panel discussions. That's great. We wanna see how we, um, add value to our partners, how they add value to us, how we can go to market together. Um, I don't always see. Sales exec panels. But every time I do, that's one of the favorite sessions. 'cause I love hearing how they grew that account, how they landed and expanded, you know?
[00:15:58] Uh, so whether it's live [00:16:00] account strategy work or a deal strategy, uh, think about integrating some of that stuff into your, uh, your SKO. So it's not all just one way, you know. Uh, presentations. And then, you know, what goes along with that learning by doing is we, as adults, we're, we're practical, we're problem solvers.
[00:16:19] We like to solve problems that we have. And so think about, um. If it's a marketing audience, what are the marketing, uh, marketer challenges that they're facing or will face for the year? Maybe you're pivoting to industry-based marketing or account-based marketing, and that's new. Well make sure you have some sessions to help them, uh, overcome some of those challenges.
[00:16:40] If you're thinking about sales, what are the biggest, uh, challenges that they're facing today? Is it creating urgency? Because deals are getting solved, uh, stalled we'll make sure you have some sessions really geared towards helping them solve those problems. Um, so all of that good stuff, uh, really can help, uh, align to [00:17:00] our learning of principles, uh, but also be a lot more intentional and directed at moving the needle.
[00:17:06] As a result, we like to think about if we've got a great main objective. Right. So that might be, uh, you know, some of the things we talked about today, cross-selling, you know, that's the main thing is we want to equip the team to do better cross-selling and expansion of existing accounts, right? Um, it could be a couple of priorities, uh, but, but that next level down, uh, if you could think about a little bit of a pyramid structure, you know, there's gonna be probably some need for some.
[00:17:35] Why are we doing this? Uh, a lot of times you'll see this covered on the main stage and day one, you know, Hey, there's a great market opportunity, right? Or we've expanded our products direction, we're gonna update you on the product roadmap. And as a result, you know, that creates, uh, this great opportunity for us.
[00:17:53] You know, and there's a lot of why behind why we're doing what we're doing and why we're focusing on this sales [00:18:00] play or this sales strategy. Um, there needs to some. And you know, a lot of times we'll over rotate on the what? So what does that mean? What is it? Tell me more about it. And so, um. You know, that can be product changes, right?
[00:18:16] You know, what's going on in product and the product roadmap, or what's going on in marketing that's gonna help give us better air coverage and create more demand and help us fill our funnels. Or what do we need to think about in terms of our sales strategy? Okay? We're shifting, uh, our sales strategy a little bit, you know, for the lower end of the market, we're now gonna sell through channel partners.
[00:18:35] That's new and different. That's a lot of what. Um, but you also want to, you know, include the how, right? And this is the biggest gap, uh, that we tend to see is there's a lot of why. Uh, there's mostly what and there's very little how. And so just kind of our, our, our advice to you guys is to kind of think about, uh, are we balancing our approach [00:19:00] here so that we are providing what.
[00:19:02] And how, right. And so where that might come into play is, especially if you have a revenue kickoff and you've got a marketing audience. And now you are based on the product changes because of the market opportunity. What does that mean for marketing? Right. Okay. Well, we're improving our marketing efforts, uh, and we're gonna be dialing in, uh, our focus in these three industries.
[00:19:27] Okay, well now let's teach the marketing and equip them, uh, the marketing department with somehow how, how to go. Pivot and start, you know, designing campaigns that are really industry focused. Right? That's just one example. Um. You could have how around selling guidance, right? Uh, if we're seeing trends and a need to sell to executives, uh, better than we've been, which is a big trend right now.
[00:19:52] Uh, Gartner recently did a study of B2B transactions and found that over 80% of transactions done in the last two and three years, and B2B [00:20:00] involved in executive decision maker. So if we're not at, at the executive decision maker level, we're at risk, right? Because our competitor probably is. So maybe. We need to make sure that we're guiding our team on how to get to the executives in the first place, and then how to engage them and meet them where they wanna be met, right?
[00:20:21] Talk their language, et cetera. Um, leading guidance, right? If we are changing the sales strategies, right, how are we equipping sales managers to coach and lead differently? So just kind of think about the why, the what and the how as a pyramid, and you don't have to kind of. Have, okay, we're gonna have, you know, this out afternoon's all about the what and tomorrow morning's all about the why or the how.
[00:20:50] Uh, tip number two for maximizing retention across multiple days is think, uh, macro and micro retention strategies. [00:21:00] Uh, so tip number two is macro retention strategies. And this is kind of thinking about the whole event and the whole experience. Uh, the objective, the theme, the, you know, and how can you bring that all together with gamification and challenges and social events so that it really, uh, emphasizes what you're wanting, uh, the team to internalize and do.
[00:21:24] We have one example, Heather. Uh, uh, one of my partners worked, uh, with a client who they had a couple of sales plays that were critical for the success of the upcoming year, and they wanted to rally around these plays and have everybody know what the play is. Why we're running these plays, how to run the plays, et cetera.
[00:21:45] And so since they were talking about plays, they used a, a football theme, right? And so everything was about football and playbooks and running plays, which, you know, that's not, um, you know, so out there, I mean we've seen that kind of [00:22:00] stuff done before. But what I thought was really cool was when it came to the events, they actually had, uh, some of the events out on a literal football field near the convention center.
[00:22:11] And so they took it to the next level right of experience. And so they were out on a football field, networking, uh, doing some social activities, et cetera. And so, uh, anyway, just kind of think about that overall. So it's memorable. So when I go, uh, drink water from a fire hose and you know, then I, you know, I'm drinking a lot at the bars and networking and there's just so much.
[00:22:32] But next week, take a deep breath. There's no way I can forget what the focus was. It's we're running these two plays and this is how I'm gonna do it, and I know how it all fits together. So that would be an example of a macro strategy of not just having kitschy themes that are fun and interesting, but it really does tie tightly to the, uh, the mission or the objective.
[00:22:55] Uh, and then your micro strategy is taking that down to the level of [00:23:00] each individual, uh, session. And, um, uh, most of you are probably already doing this well by requiring every session to have clear learning objectives. Um, but again, I I, I've just experienced too often where all go sit in sessions, uh, and then it just seems like a one-off and doesn't seem like it ties to the priority at all or anything we really talked about on day one or the objective.
[00:23:27] And it was like, well, is this just, uh, we're just taking advantage of people bit, you know? Being together, how does this really fit? So make sure that, you know, every individual session does tie back to the why, the what, the, the how of your overall core objective and message. Uh, and, and just encourage those, um, those presenters to emphasize that, right, uh, and make it practical and make it actionable and clearly articulate what they should do differently as a result of that session.[00:24:00]
[00:24:00] And so towards that end, you know, we do have, uh, a little bit of a bonus tip here in terms of retention tips for presenters. 'cause a lot of times we'll have knowledge experts, SMEs presenting topics, uh, in breakouts. Um, and, you know, you might have product leaders, uh, and, and others that are. You know, presenting, you know, um, some content around product direction or what have you, but they're, they're not always the most gifted, uh, presenters.
[00:24:30] Right. Uh, and a lot of times, you know, we'll be sitting through some presentations that are just kind of dry, uh, and then ultimately, you know, they don't hit the mark and they're not memorable. And so we don't want that. And so if you know you've got some presenters that, uh, are a little bit dry, you can use these.
[00:24:46] These four tips to help them maintain, uh, attention and memorability. Um, and so the first is, uh, what's known as the serial position effect. And so what that means is, you know, [00:25:00] if you think about, you know, up here is high attention, high memory, and, uh, down here is, you know, the time during your presentation, right?
[00:25:10] Uh, what tends to happen is it looks like this. And you can kind of think about that presentation in thirds. So the first part of the presentation that's called primacy, and that that means that, you know, we as individuals tend to recall the first thing we're told. So out of the gates how they kick off that presentation tends to be remembered.
[00:25:32] Uh, and then likewise at the end, uh, that's the law of recency. We, we tend to remember and recall the last thing we're told, uh, but this mess in the middle tends to get forgotten and lost if we're not careful. And so you want to think. Of this valley of forgetfulness and be intentional around reminding them a couple times of the point of your presentation or what you want them to take away and create some of those memorability spikes [00:26:00] along the way, uh, so that we, um, we can really maintain, um, you know, their, uh, their memorability there because if they don't remember what you're teaching, then why are they there in the first place?
[00:26:11] And so that's serial position effect. Uh, just kind of think about some of those, you know, middle of the presentation, how can we remind them what we're talking about? Stories and analogies always bring the message to life. And, and again, not, again, not everybody is, is a gifted storyteller, but you can help people, uh, think about a story or an analogy to, to bring some memorability to it.
[00:26:35] Making the audience do work or apply it in some way in real time is, um, if you've got the time for it. Uh, a simple exercise, uh, really just kind of creates a little bit of muscle memory and helps to really retain some of that retention. Uh, and then finally, repeat, repeat, repeat, right? Kind of the old adage.
[00:26:54] Tell 'em what you're gonna tell 'em, then tell 'em, then tell 'em what you told them. It kind of fills in that [00:27:00] forgetfulness in the middle and reminds them of the purpose of it, but make sure they do have a purpose in their presentation. It's not informational, but why are they learning this? It's so that they'll go do this differently, think differently, behave differently, et cetera.
[00:27:16] All right. So, um, we'll provide this as a lead behind. Uh, you'll get those interactive, uh, tips for, you know, kind of not so engaging, uh, presenters as I like to think about 'em. And then the, the final kind of movement here before we tie it all together, is all about interactive and engaging sessions, right?
[00:27:34] And so as you think about designing, uh, your flow and, um, thinking about all the content that, uh, you need to pull together and all the sessions you want to deliver, think about different session types. And so we have a little bit of a matrix here where we have interactivity. On the bottom axis. And then we have a level of engagement here.
[00:27:58] Where up here is high [00:28:00] level of engagement. And so, uh, I wanna just kinda lay out, um, what tends to be used. And the purpose of this is to be intentional about using different session types and flavors, um, judiciously and purposely, right, so that you can maintain, um. Not only the engagement, but then the recall and the application.
[00:28:20] And at the end of the day, you know, move the needle and drive change. And so kind of here on the left, starting with low levels of interactivity, you know, you have your keynotes, right? And so executive keynotes, it's not real low on engagement. It's, it's kind of up there a little bit because people are interested in what our execs have to say.
[00:28:39] We wanna see, we wanna learn about the leave. You know, what, you know, the, the look back and then the look ahead and the market opportunity and we wanna be excited. So there is some engagement there. It's not very interactive, right? Um, same with guest speakers. It's no more interactive, but it's a little bit more engaging because [00:29:00] they're different.
[00:29:00] Sometimes they're more entertaining, et cetera. So that kind of bumps that up a little bit. When you start to move up the interactivity, uh, now instead of just one presenter speaking at us, uh, a panel discussion. Can be a little bit more interactive, right? And so, um, that, that's just a different dynamic when you have three or five people in a panel discussion up on stage.
[00:29:24] So that interactivity moves forward and the engagement moves up just a little bit. And so, as I mentioned before, you know, common panel discussions are with customers, you know, top best customers, why they like us, why they bought us, um, you know, why they prefer us over their competition, you know, all of that good stuff.
[00:29:42] Partner panel discussions, I would encourage you to think about top seller panel discussions, right? Uh, I'll often get the question, Hey, uh, what's your opinion on just allowing the audience to just have ad hoc questions? And, um, we tend to discourage that. Not that we don't want to hear what the [00:30:00] audience wants to hear, uh, or, or wants to ask, but because.
[00:30:04] You know, they could get way off topic. They can kind of, you know, I, I, I'll see people ask questions and it sounds like they just like to hear themselves talk, right? And, and so it's just not very efficient and as a result, not very effective. And so, uh, we do encourage hearing from what the, the audience wants to know about, but do that by soliciting questions in advance.
[00:30:25] Give them a heads up. We've got, um, you know, a panel discussion with 30 minutes with our top customers. What would you like to know or with our partners, what would you like to know? Uh, Robert? Yes, the 10 minute monologue disguised as a question. Oh, I know we've all seen that. So definitely discouraged, you know, the roaming mic in that, uh, that session, especially if it's in a big kickoff, uh, arena.
[00:30:49] Now if as we move up the interactivity, um, you kind of see. That you have these typical 40 minute presentations or six minute presentations, these tend to [00:31:00] be your breakouts. The reason they're a little bit more interactive is 'cause they tend to be in small rooms, right? You know, you might have 20 people, 15 people at a time.
[00:31:08] It's a little bit more intimate, and because of that you can do some real time q and a, right? And that's a little bit more interactive. So they can take questions, they can answer things, right? They can prompt some things from the audience. So there's a little bit more interactivity there. Uh. Not too engaging, just because we're not having the audience do anything.
[00:31:28] It still tends to be a little bit of a one-way knowledge transfer. Um, but if you kind of think about, and, and sometimes, and sometimes that's important, right? You, you just gotta teach, right? You gotta share information, you gotta update the team, right? Uh, so some of these are necessary. I'm not saying don't do those, but I would say balance those with some more interactive.
[00:31:50] Um, sessions like an 80 minute workshop where you're doing some real problem solving, right? So this could be, Hey, we've learned some things the first day. Now day two, we're [00:32:00] gonna apply that in real time in some working sessions, and we're gonna apply them to our top account, right? And we're gonna do some account strategizing.
[00:32:08] Account planning together based on what we've just learned. If we learned about product updates, now how to, how does that inform my white space and my top accounts and my relationship strategy? Go meet with new buyers to talk about our new product, right? And so bringing it all together into some.
[00:32:26] Tangible and practical ways of applying that, uh, in something that like an 80 minute workshop can really, you know, it's highly interactive and highly engaging. Um, and same thing with just kind of different kinds of application oriented breakouts that could be applying what they learned and practicing with role play.
[00:32:44] Uh, or breaking out and doing some peer-to-peer, uh, you know, uh, collaboration and things like that. And so, um, my, my message to you guys is to kind of think about all of these types being in play. [00:33:00] Then thinking about all the different topics you need to cover and the why, the what and the how, uh, and orchestrate, you know, your agenda so that you can, um, manage the pulse, right?
[00:33:12] Manage en energy levels, retention and engagement and interactivity. Apply some of those learning principles of problem solving and it's relevant to me, uh, and just have a varied learning experience because that's gonna take your, your kickoff to the next level. And so that brings us to kind of the final, uh, tip here is, um, just designing your SKO thinking back and reflecting on those five Ps.
[00:33:37] Kind of think about the different slots you have in the morning and the afternoon and start to dial things in. And so a completed example might be something like this where you have Okay. We've landed on our main theme. Our main objective is to really accelerate new logo acquisition. We need to fill the funnel and we need to lean into prospecting.
[00:33:58] And our theme to go along [00:34:00] with that is fueling the future. Power up your pipeline. Right? Something that, eyes to that. Right? And so you're starting to kind of bring this all together and then start to kinda lay out some things here where you know you're gonna have. Uh, probably something interesting like a hype movie in the min, in the in the morning and a CEO keynote, uh, or a CMO talking about the market opportunity.
[00:34:21] And that's why we're leaning into prospecting and filling our funnel. Uh, you might do some loop back, you know, that's pretty typical stuff. But again, think to those, those post-lunch sessions right after, uh, after lunch on day one, it's important that people don't just escape and start doing their own things and never make it to the first breakout.
[00:34:41] So maybe bring people together for a panel discussion. Get them back in the main room. Rally around that. Uh, okay, everybody's here. Uh, we've got their attention. We got a great engaging customer panel. That's interesting. Now, okay, everybody, you're dismissed to go to your breakouts and maybe you have multiple breakouts at each time [00:35:00] slot that they can choose from to choose their own adventure, right?
[00:35:03] Uh, and then you close out the day. That could be back in the main ballroom, and then you have your evening activity, right? So just kind of think about that, you know, uh, day two shaking things up with a partner portal. In the morning, a motivational people, uh, speaker, you know, on day two to get them back in, uh, for that post-lunch lull.
[00:35:24] Uh, maybe you bring people together and have a top sales performer panel, right? And then you get back into your breakouts and now we're on to, uh, or two days in. And so maybe here is how you have less of these 45 minute death by PowerPoints and you have more, uh, roll up your sleeves, do something.
[00:35:41] Sessions, right? Like work, workout, uh, workshops, uh, collaboration sessions, strategy sessions, things like that, uh, to just really manage the, uh, the energy, right? And then you close it out. You might have team dinners, and then oftentimes, you know, we'll see two day events look something like this. Uh, [00:36:00] and then maybe there's an optional third day where you have functional teams, or the east team wants to get together and have their own time.
[00:36:05] The we West teams in another room, you know, you could do that kind of thing. So, uh, just kind of planning it out at this high level of, kind of how you wanna do it. Uh, thinking about all the principles is a great way to kind of create your grid. And then when you get the call for, for topics, you could start slotting them in and figure out, okay, now how many breakouts do I actually need?
[00:36:26] Uh, and you can slot, slot things in not only the, um, the, the grid that I just showed you, which you could download and fill out, but there's also an assessment based on what we've learned today. That you can take and just kind of see, you know, what your level of readiness is for SKO. And a lot of times that can be just a great alignment mechanism if you've got multiple people coming together to, um, to plan and create this, uh, this kickoff event.
[00:36:53] So definitely take advantage of that, uh, that download, that assessment. Well, if there's no questions, then [00:37:00] uh, we'll give you back the rest of your day. We really appreciate you. Spending an hour of your Thursday with us and hope you all have a great rest of your day and a great weekend.
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