GETTING READY FOR YOUR VSKO - PART 1: Your next virtual sales meeting can't depend on your online meeting platform alone. Nor can it sustain long, grueling days of live video. The best are creating a blended solution that leverages mobile, interactive learning platforms, peer-to-peer networking, and asynchronous video technology to deliver the insights salespeople require in the most engaging way possible. To get ready for your VSKO, think of your meeting in three phases: Design, Engage and Sustain.  The following are some helpful tips to ensure that your sellers get the kickoff they need to be productive in the coming year. ​

DEFINE:
Rethink the Agenda 
You can’t simply host a three-day Zoom call. People experience screen fatigue after just a few hours, so you need a new format. The key is to identify content that needs to be delivered live and which can be presented asynchronously. 

• Select the most dynamic speakers and hot topics that are likely on the minds of your audience.  
• Prepare and present these topics with short live video sessions. All other content must be delivered via pre-recorded video or internal podcast.
• Go deep on your webinar platform's functionality by using whiteboards, quizzes, polls, small panels, and breakout sessions to convey information effectively. A popular VSKO ratio is 40% live and 60% pre-recorded.  

Start Early 
Good news. Planes, trains and automobiles are not part of the meeting planning this year. Fill that energy instead by distributing relevant content to your team weeks before the meeting with a schedule for their completion.

• Distribute product information, messaging, new hire videos, and sales presentations in advance.
• Be clear on the intent and fit with the overall VSKO agenda. This allows you to refer to content reps have already seen. 
• Use intermittent testing to verify completion.  

Pull content from within
For your VSKO, you can’t present everything live. So content needs to be bite-sized and come from SMEs and reps in the form of presentations, competitive insights, or any assets they think might benefit the team as they prepare for the coming year.  

• Hold a competition for the best presentation or value prop.
• Ask salespeople to record themselves and vote for the best submitted video.
• Incorporate knowledge checks and quizzes to ensure reps absorb the content.  

​Click here for help with your upcoming VSKO or email Bill Walton at bwalton@billwaltonsalestraining.com

The year 2021 is upon us. Sales Leaders and learning partners need an easy-to-execute and engaging platform to kick off the sales year. 

​Click here for help with your VSKO!

Bill Walton Sales Training is supporting national and regional sales teams with meaningful virtual sales kickoffs (VSKOs) in the era of remote selling. Kickoffs always feature packed agendas and late nights. But that's different this year. What's required is something totally different...

• High performing organizations are delivering crisp, meaningful agendas with bursts of relevant content delivered over a tech-enabled web platform. 
• What happens before and AFTER a VSKO is what making the difference for sales organizations

                       To get ready for your "VSKO" keep it simple - Define, Engage and Sustain

​DEFINE: Define what you need your sales organization to do more of, less of or differently in 2021. BWST is helping clients forge a link to their 2021 business objectives. As part of the Define stage, we assess the needs for technology, communications, materials and logistics needed to support the experience. Part of the Define stage is meaning pre-work which should include video and a message from management.
ENGAGE: Engaging your audience in a remote environment has to be hard hitting, interactive and portable. BWST is helping clients by supporting agenda development and time utilization. The focus needs to be on burst of relevant content with a premium placed on team interaction. We work with clients to determine the proper ordering and pace of content while recommending the right training and action learning. 
SUSTAIN: Ensure your SKO lives on well into the sales year. Make sure immediately after your kickoff that you distribute a post-experience video with leader messaging. Many clients are reinforcing metrics to hold teams accountable to the commitments they made in the VSKO. The first 90 days post-VSKO are critical so coach to the right effort and help salespeople get deeper into the sales process with prospects. 

Click here for our "just add water" VSKO solution or download our flyer on Virtual Sales Kickoffs below:​