8 Virtual Sales Kickoff Ideas To Engage Your Sales Team

A Successful Sales Kickoff For Your Business

The sales team is a vital part of any organization or company. As teams look to online alternatives to face-to-face meetings, many salespeople are opting into virtual sales kickoff events. 

These interactive events allow entire sales teams to come together to share best practices, receive product updates, and introduce new sales strategies. 

While sales reps might not be able to physically "high five" each other like they could with an in-person event, a virtual sales kickoff meeting is an essential method for team-building, instilling confidence in each sales rep, and helping your team close more sales. 

Virtual SKO offers several unique opportunities compared to their traditional counterparts, including: 

• Cost-Effective: You don't need to pay for travel or accommodations for your entire sales team. This results in huge savings compared to in-person events. 

• ​Information Retention: Most sales reps will forget information shared at a sales kickoff meeting within a few weeks. Virtual sales kickoff events provide tools so team members can review recordings and presentations throughout the year. 

• More Frequent SKO: You can utilize several virtual sales kickoffs throughout the year instead of relying on a single "big" event. This means you can share more information that is relevant to the needs of your salespeople more frequently. 

• More Time To Sell: Many sales kickoff meetings eat up a week that could have been used for selling. Virtual sales kickoffs provide the same information as in-person events without pulling your team members away from their sales activities. 

• Better Tracking: You can use tools provided in a virtual event platform like polls, surveys, and tests to determine what information reps need to be reminded of during future sales kickoff meetings. 

8 Sales Kickoff Ideas To Improve Your Virtual Sales Kickoff Meeting

1. Set The Sales Kickoff Agenda Early

Your sales team will attend your event from their computer, and since they have a busy schedule, you should be sure to publish the plan as early as possible to build excitement around the event. Sales leaders should take the lead by delivering the plan to the sales organization to make sure everyone is on the same page for the upcoming year. 

The agenda should include daily events, explanations of what participants will learn, and how the information at each presentation will benefit attendees. You should also have a plan in place to promote the event on social media so you can build more public excitement as the virtual kickoff date closes in. 

2. Develop Engaging TEAM-BUILDING Activities

It can be tough to get your team to engage with each other online, but you can encourage communication with interactive team-building activities like: 

• Picture Sharing: Get everyone laughing as you share funny or surprising pictures that each team member submits before the event. Your team can guess where the picture was taken or who else was involved when the picture was taken. 

• Trivia: Create friendly competition among your sales team with teamwork and collaboration to win a game of trivia!

• Virtual Bingo: You can create online bingo cards for everyone to use during a breakout session with bingo. 

3. Build A Sales Kickoff Theme

Sales leaders can build a great experience for all participants by building their virtual sales kickoff around a specific theme. The theme can help everyone unite around a silly theme with costumes, music, and other activities. 

4. Invite Influential Guest Speakers

Outside speakers can bring a wealth of knowledge to your sales team. Not only can a guest speaker offer a fresh perspective and new voice that your team will listen and learn from, but the outside speaker can also generate excitement on social media that sales reps will share. 

5. Schedule An Interesting Keynote Speaker

Similar to guest speakers, a keynote speaker will be the focus of any sales kickoff agenda. The keynote speaker should be an outside speaker who is a proven expert in their industry. 

The keynote speaker needs to have an experience that the sales team will resonate with, and the speaker should also provide a fresh perspective to help your team through the sales process. 

6. Offer Smaller Breakout Rooms

Your virtual sales kickoff meeting should include breakout rooms for smaller groups to discuss specific topics. Each breakout room should be based on region, learning needs, or specific information to ensure participants takeaway the exact information they need. 

7. Celebrate Success With An Awards Show

Everyone loves to celebrate their success, and your sales kickoff meeting should include a virtual awards show to highlight the success of individual sales reps or an entire sales team. 

Sales leaders can present awards virtually along with sending a gift basket or other prizes to winners. This is a great way to motivate team members for the upcoming year and celebrate your team's success from the past year. 

8. Provide Exceptional Swag

Everyone loves swag like t-shirts, water bottles, and pens. You can use merchandise and swag as prizes for sales reps who participate in breakout rooms or provide more oversized items to team members who win more significant team-building events.

Get Ready To Sell With A Virtual Sales Kickoff Meeting

Virtual sales kickoff meetings allow teams to share best practices, receive product updates, and introduce new sales strategies without having to be cooped up in a conference room for hours on end. 

It is important that the team feels confident enough in their skill set to take this meeting online - it's just as effective!

Talk with our team today to learn how BeaconLive can deliver the best online platform to host future virtual sales kickoff meetings today!