Sam Thompson is a Sr. Director at Kaltura. He helps companies and schools better engage their learners and workers online.
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Despite layoffs and fears of recession, business travel is bouncing back. Morgan Stanley expects 2023 travel budgets to reach 98% of 2019 levels. But don’t dump your virtual collaboration software, yet. That same survey expects virtual meetings to replace 18% of corporate travel, while Deloitte found that 3 of 10 companies will reduce travel spending to meet sustainability goals. There is also pressure to cut costs. As such, many companies are delivering internal events like sales kickoffs (SKOs) virtually.
The digital transformation of enterprise learning has its challenges. Sixty-two percent of learning leaders say scale or engaging learners is their biggest challenge. As a senior director of enablement in a company that offers virtual event solutions, I help companies create virtual learning events. Here are five ways I’ve used to boost engagement, at scale, through virtual SKO events.
1. Become a marketer.
For many SKOs, experience is an afterthought. That’s a mistake. Sales kickoffs set the tone of the entire sales organization for the year. SKOs help align everyone around company vision and go-to-market strategy and articulate the company’s growth goals. They can build confidence, trust and excitement.
As leaders, it can be helpful to think of employees as customers. Customers want a good experience. So approach your virtual event as a marketer would.
Theme
A theme is the connective tissue that drives the overall message. SKO themes can be fun, like current events or popular culture. Connect the theme to the goal of the SKO. It should enhance and make it more tangible.
Brand
Create a branded experience. Session names, descriptions and copy should connect to the theme. Build a templated slide deck, design images and videos. Deliver a cohesive experience.
Communication
Because SKOs are mandatory, your communication strategy is about building excitement. You want employees to join prepared, curious and excited. Lean in on the theme to drive messaging.
2. Engage them early.
Communicate the goals of the SKO. Each touchpoint should include calls to action to complete prerequisite activities that introduce, inform and align learners to the goals of the SKO. These activities can vary:
• Watch a relevant video or complete a video quiz.
• Read a related industry article.
• Complete a self-directed online course.
• Prepare for a group SKO activity.
• Record a video on prospecting tips to share with the team.
The key is to measure engagement and to use leaderboards to highlight it. Sales folks tend to be competitive, so leverage that competitive spirit. A little competition can be fun, and when things are fun, people are more engaged. More engagement can improve learner outcomes in your virtual events.
3. Create a run of show.
A run of show is a cue sheet or step-by-step flow of the event. It details the time each session starts, how long that session is, who is bringing people live, what content is needed to be played and any other details event producers need to put together a seamless, engaging virtual event.
The run of show helps you visualize how everything fits together. Maybe you start with a keynote webcast or show off a company karaoke video recorded for the SKO. Then you transition to a panel discussion on strategy or Q&A with a customer. You’ll find places to add a quick video on tips and tricks or something fun, such as sales meetings gone wrong. Variety breaks up the event and makes it more interesting.
4. Include sales reps and customers.
Sales kickoffs are meant to be a bit of corporate rah-rah, but that doesn’t mean it’s a C-suite show. SKOs do need to map out the company vision for the upcoming year. They also need to provide real, practical value for the sales organization to do their jobs better. Some of the best presenters for that are the sales representatives themselves.
Sales reps can speak about challenges and successes they have in pursuing opportunities—prospecting techniques, objections, value for specific customer personas, deal sizes and potential upsells. These types of sessions work well with smaller groups to encourage conversation. A benefit of virtual SKO events is that reps from different regions and verticals can engage one another in group discussions.
Perhaps the best way to keep sales folks engaged in your SKO is to include customers. By hearing how customers use your products and services, sales reps can better understand the space they operate in and the value they offer. Additionally, customers are the best people to speak about their challenges and how your products help them address those challenges. Customers can join live for questions and answers or even prerecord an interview session to be shared during the SKO.
5. Keep the learning going.
A key advantage of virtual SKOs is they provide a space to continuously engage learners before and after the event. With in-person SKOs, the follow-up can be a bit challenging. Were sessions recorded? Where do you go to watch them? What forum is there to continue a learning journey?
With virtual events, sessions are easily recorded and can be shared automatically on the event site. All presentation material can be included as downloadable attachments for reps to use later. Additionally, the SKO can span a longer period of time, with webinars taking place weeks after the main event. This also unifies all engagement data so enablement leaders have a single source of truth to assess understanding and measure return on investment (ROI) for all enablement activities that took place before, during and after the SKO event.
It’s not always easy to peel sales representatives away from their daily activities. When we do, we have to be thoughtful. The content must be practical as well as aspirational. We have to make it fun and exciting. It has to be a good experience. In short, leaders should take a marketer’s approach to their virtual events. By doing so, virtual SKO events can be as effective and engaging as in-person events, often at a fraction of the cost.
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