So a new year is quickly approaching, and it’s time to plan your virtual sales kickoff.
But can you really make an annual sales kickoff the empowering event it should be if it’s held in a virtual space?
Every exec knows that the business climate of the past year has been tough on morale.
Many sales teams are still exploring how the shift to virtual experiences has impacted their customers.
Salespeople may be disillusioned with remote meetings, and VPs of sales are scrambling to get everyone motivated over Zoom.
But at Jelly Donut Events, we think differently.
We believe the stage is set to host the best virtual sales kickoff ever.
We’re here to prove that an expertly-planned online kickoff can energize your team and jumpstart sales in a way that outperforms in-person sales kickoffs.
Table of Contents
What is a Sales Kickoff?
A sales kickoff is a meeting at the beginning of a company’s fiscal year (or sometimes quarter) where the entire sales team gathers to discuss quotas, review sales strategy, and get pumped for the year ahead.
Sales kickoff events usually happen right after the final and most stressful quarter of the year.
Some sales teams will celebrate success while others will review missed targets.
But no matter the mood going into it, virtual sales training is most successful if the concepts and skills taught are reinforced through entertainment and friendly competition.
It’s definitely an investment to host such a major event, but a great sales kickoff will:
- Energize your sales team
- Help them understand their quotas
- Saturate them with crucial info points about your products or services
- Build camaraderie among your team members
- Present your go-to-market strategy
- Set the stage for the entire year’s worth of sales
But What is a Virtual Sales Kickoff Event?
The internet didn’t give us an answer for “when was the first sales kickoff ever held?”.
But we’re pretty sure sales kickoffs in some form date back to the days of travelling Sears Roebuck salesmen.
However, hosting your sales kickoff event online is a new idea for many companies.
A virtual sales kickoff is simply a sales kickoff meeting that happens on digital platforms instead of in person.
With the technology available today, there’s no reason not to go remote, especially given all its advantages over in-person events.
Five Reasons to Host your Sales Kickoff Virtually
1. There’s Room for Everyone
Every single one of your sales team members can attend a virtual sales kickoff, no matter where they are in the world.
It builds unity and boosts team spirit to see everyone’s faces in one place, even if that place is a computer screen.
2. You can train your team on the video conferencing platform they use for sales
These days, 75% of B2B customers prefer remote sales meetings, so it makes sense to train your sales reps in an online environment.
By hosting virtual sales kickoffs, you’re allowing them to get comfortable with the various technologies they’ll use throughout the year.
3. Virtual platforms offer unique ways to engage people
Believe it or not, video done right can actually engage people more than in-person meetings.
In a video conference, it feels like the speaker is addressing each attendee one-on-one.
Screen sharing, chat boxes, and gamification options allow everyone to see presentation details up close and join in the action.
People may even feel more natural talking with others from the comfort of their own home office.
4. Hosting a virtual event saves money and opportunity costs
Not only can every team member show up at your virtual event, but they don’t have to take travel days to do it!
When there are no airfare, hotel, or travel costs to host your virtual sales kickoff, your company may have the budget to serve every employee an unforgettable cup of coffee.
5. Hosting a virtual sales kickoff takes less time to plan
Coordinating a sales kickoff event definitely takes less effort when you don’t have to juggle travel plans and venue contracts.
You can even delegate the entertainment to a virtual events company like Jelly Donut Events and let us do our magic.
But just because a virtual event takes less time and money to plan, it doesn’t mean you’ll give your guests anything less than the VIP experience.
At Jelly Donut Events, we’ve helped hundreds of companies celebrate success and launch their upcoming sales year with unforgettable virtual kickoff events.
Here are our favorite team-building activities you can incorporate into your agenda this year:
15 Amazing Virtual Sales Kickoff Ideas
1. Choose a Cohesive Theme
Set a theme that aligns with the company’s overall direction for the year.
Whether it’s climbing Mount Everest, finding buried treasure, or cracking a secret code, your team will form lasting bonds if you create a virtual environment where they can work together toward a common goal.
2. Get Your Team Involved in Planning Your Virtual Sales Kickoff
Hype your event well in advance and promise your team the least-boring sales kickoff meeting of the decade.
Invite your salespeople to join in the planning; people like to participate in things they helped to build.
Poll your team members before the event; is there an external speaker they would love to hear?
Would they rather play games or taste lattes?
This way, you can sneak a little extra team-building practice into the virtual sales kickoff event experience.
3. Hire an Energetic Host or Comedian
A great speaker will emphasize the purpose of the meeting, not distract from it.
Brief your host on your event theme and the core values you want to communicate, and they will help drive your point home by introducing humor and getting everyone in a good mood.
4. Provide food and beverage. (Read: Coffee)
Feeding people is the most fundamental way of welcoming them into your community.
When your team members are all eating or drinking the same thing, you’ve broken the virtual barrier and are connecting people in an extremely tangible way.
You can mail snacks or drinks to everyone in advance so they can share them at the meeting.
Our favorite way to do this is to incorporate Coffee…
…or a Latte Tasting Event into your virtual sales kickoff.
Before the meeting date, we mail each of your sales reps a kit of nine pour over drippers covering three different roasts. Nobody needs a grinder, a scale or any special gear, just hot water and a cup.
During the event, I teach your team the science of brewing and how to pick out the flavour profiles in each coffee.
This doesn’t have to happen all in one time block. We’ll work with your coordinator to introduce a new coffee at strategic moments, like after a technical presentation, when your salespeople most need a pick-me-up.
5. Break for Tai Chi or Yoga
One of the downsides to a virtual meeting is that it usually means you’re sitting and staring at a screen.
Get your sales reps physically in sync with each other by adding group tai chi or yoga to your agenda.
This will get everyone’s blood flowing and their minds alert to soak up information in the learning sessions ahead. It might be so effective that your sales leaders move to start every day with gentle exercise!
6. Icebreaking Speed Games
Effective salespeople need to be quick-witted and personable.
Help your sales team sharpen these skills by punctuating your training sessions with speed games.
Pair off members or divide them into small groups and choose a virtual game to play.
These exercises will build trust among different team members.
7. Fire Up The Competition
If you want to get your sales organization revved up and ready to sell, inject some healthy competition into your meeting.
Targets and rewards drive most salespeople, so run short competitions with prizes throughout the day.
These could be virtual or physical games like a workout challenge or scavenger hunt.
8. Learn a New Skill Together with a Lock-Picking Event
Customers are like padlocks. Occasionally they’ll show you the key, and you can land the deal quickly.
But more often, you’ll have to pick them open through detailed questions and analysis.
Bring this metaphor to life at your virtual sales kickoff by treating your team to a learn lock-picking class!
The learn lock-picking class from Jelly Donut Events is hosted by a physical security professional. We can accommodate up to 2,000 participants, so you can get your whole team involved.
Before the event, we mail each member of your team a kit of professional picks, tension bars and transparent practice locks. Everyone works through increasingly difficult locks, and by the end of the session everyone picks their first lock.
9. Invite Customers To Join Your Virtual Sales Kickoff
Invite customers to your virtual sales kickoff to give your teams feedback on their performance.
Customers can help your reps understand how they use your products in their everyday work and what features they’d like added.
If your team is open to constructive criticism, you can even invite lost customers to join and chat about why they passed on your offer.
10. Roll Out The Magic Carpet
The top performers on a sales team can work all kinds of wizardry, and after attending a Learn Magic virtual kickoff, they’ll even be able to do real magic tricks.
With this unique virtual sales kickoff idea, you can bring in a professional magician to work with your sales managers and create a highly customized event.
Your company’s reps can present their dazzling sales strategies and enchanting new products. Then Justin pulls your entire team together and teaches them to perform real magic tricks on the virtual stage.
This team-building event will leave everyone confident of success in the upcoming quarter.
11. Role-play Over Tea
Role-playing is a feature of many successful sales training programs, but it can be hard to get into character on a virtual platform.
Our solution? Add tea to the mix.
This is another situation where a shared physical experience will enhance the virtual connection between your team members.
Pair your reps off, give them a scenario to role-play and a tea to taste, and let the rest of the group watch and give feedback.
This experience simulates real meetings at a café with customers, and the warming and delicious teas will set your sales reps at ease.
12. Raffle Off Prizes Throughout Your Virtual Sales Kickoff
Nothing motivates salespeople like the thrill of winning, even if it’s a door prize.
You can raffle off some small prizes and a few that are no-joke amazing, like an iPad, a high-end gift card, or even something as simple as an Amazon Fresh delivery.
This will keep the excitement high throughout your event.
13. Give Every Team Member A Care Package Or Swag Bag
Okay, so we know you can’t send each of your sales reps on vacation to the Bahamas. But every member of your team should get some physical token of your thanks.
Think beyond branded baseball caps and pencils when planning your gift bags, and fill them with items that align with your newest products, company values, or virtual sales kickoff event theme.
The more you can make your sales reps feel appreciated, the more they’ll be motivated to push new limits for your company.
14. Leave Space For Mingling After The Virtual Sales Kickoff
You don’t need a tight structure for every second of your meeting agenda.
Your virtual sales kickoff will feel more like an in-person event if you leave some space for attendees to mingle and interact person-to-person.
This will help your newer sales reps find mentors and build relationships that last beyond a one-day event.
15. Ask For Feedback
After a successful virtual sales kickoff, every rep on your team will leave knowing that their skills are valued and their opinions are wanted.
While they’re in a positive mood, ask them to share which elements of the event were helpful and where there’s room for improvement.
Video conferencing platforms like Zoom record your meetings, so you can send the video to your team members for future viewing.
This is another good time to send a survey asking what they thought of the event.
Chances are, if you use some of these ideas, your team will leave equipped to make more sales and eager for the next event.
Sales kickoff themes that actually work
A theme is not decoration. It is the thing that stops your kickoff feeling like eight disconnected presentations in a row.
The good ones do two jobs at once. They give the day a shape, and they say something true about where the company is going. The bad ones are a slogan nobody repeats after the first coffee break.
A few that hold up:
- Cracking the code. Works well for a year focused on a difficult market or a complex product. Pairs naturally with a lock picking session, since the metaphor does the work for you.
- Back to basics. Honest and effective after a rough year. The message is that fundamentals win, and nobody has to pretend the last twelve months were great.
- New territory. For a genuine expansion year, whether that is a new region, a new segment or a new product line.
- Sharpening the craft. Frames the year around skill rather than targets, which lands better with experienced reps who have heard every motivational speech going.
- One team. Obvious, but the right call when sales and marketing have spent the year quietly blaming each other.
Whatever you pick, carry it through the invite, the agenda titles and the activities. A theme mentioned once in the opening slide is not a theme, it is a title.
Sales games to play at work
Games at a kickoff are not filler. They are how you stop a day of presentations turning into a day of people answering email with their cameras off.
The trick is choosing ones that reward the same instincts good selling does: listening, quick thinking, reading a room.
- Pitch the ridiculous object. Give someone thirty seconds to sell a stapler, a houseplant or a single sock to the group. Genuinely useful practice, and reliably funny.
- Objection tennis. One person raises an objection, the next has to answer it and immediately raise another. Rapid, competitive, and closer to a real call than most role-play.
- Guess the deal. Read out an anonymised summary of a closed deal and let the group guess the value, the industry, or who closed it.
- Two truths and a target. Each rep shares two real things about their year and one invented. The group guesses. Doubles as a quiet way to share wins without anyone bragging.
- Speed rounds. Pair people off for ninety seconds with a prompt, then rotate. The only format that reliably creates one to one connections rather than group ones.
For more options that work in any meeting, we have a full list of games for virtual meetings covering five, ten and fifteen minute formats.
The Three Pillars Of An Awesome Virtual Sales Kickoff Meeting
Remember, when you’re planning your company’s virtual sales kickoff, you should design your agenda around these three key elements: Education, Connection, and Energy.
Education And Information
Help your sales team fall in love with your product all over again by catching them up on the latest iterations.
Review your company’s core values and differentiators, introduce targets for the next year, and equip your team with unstoppable strategies for closing sales.
Personal Connection
Isolation stifles productivity, but your sales team will climb to new heights with a close-knit company culture.
Let your reps know that their individual skills are valued and they’re contributing to something bigger, and they’ll take the extra mile at a run.
Create opportunities for socializing and bonding in the virtual space so your reps can get to know each other personally.
Energy And Fun Elements
One of the best ways to show your reps that they matter to your company is to break up the monotony of spreadsheets and presentations by introducing fun elements into your virtual sales kickoff event.
Present great prizes to your top performers, bring in a comedian or motivational speaker, or incorporate a creative problem-solving activity to convert your virtual sales kickoff event into the optimal learning environment.
Virtual sales kickoff questions
How long should a virtual sales kickoff be?
Most virtual kickoffs work best across one day or two half days.
A full two-day virtual agenda is difficult to sustain, because attention drops sharply after the first few hours on screen. If you have two days of content, split it across two mornings rather than running two full days back to back.
What should be on a virtual sales kickoff agenda?
Education, connection and energy, in roughly that order of volume but interleaved rather than blocked.
A morning of pure presentation followed by an afternoon of pure fun tends to lose people before lunch. Break the content up with something hands-on every ninety minutes or so.
How do you keep people engaged during a virtual sales kickoff?
Give them something to do with their hands. Presentations compete with email, and email usually wins.
A shared physical activity, a tasting, or a short game resets attention in a way another slide cannot. It also helps to keep the whole group together rather than fragmenting into small rooms, which tends to drain the energy rather than build it.
What is a good sales kickoff theme?
One that says something true about the year ahead. Cracking the code, back to basics, new territory and sharpening the craft all work because they describe a real situation rather than just sounding motivational.
Carry it through the invite, the agenda and the activities, or it is just a title on a slide.
When should you hold a sales kickoff?
Usually the first few weeks of the fiscal year, which for most companies means January or February.
Book any activity that involves shipping at least two weeks ahead, since kits need to arrive before the date.
Keep Your Virtual Sales Kickoff Event As Interesting As Possible
Information and education make up the meat of a virtual sales kickoff’s menu.
But goals and numbers will be much more digestible if you break them into bite-sized pieces and serve them with fun, creativity, and time for reflection.
Contact us now if you’d like to bring our interactive and one-of-a-kind events to your virtual sales kickoff!
Next Steps…
At Jelly Donut Events, we specialize in unique virtual sales kickoff event experiences.
All of our virtual events are designed to empower and motivate your sales team so they can start the year as their best selves.
If you’d like to chat to us about how we can help you achieve your sales team goals use the below form to reach out to us. Alternatively, send us an email at [email protected] or call us at +1 (877) 411-3658.
