Four Essentials for a Successful Sales Kickoff Rollout

These tips are true for any rollout to Sales, but especially so if being done that one time a year that you bring everyone together for a Big Bang in-person offsite of training, content, and motivation. The stakes are high, after all.

You should be able to execute all four of these principles within 2 hours allotted to 6sense. That may sound like a lot, but this is going to save each seller dozens of hours a year in time they would otherwise waste trying to prioritize their accounts, so the ROI on getting this right is huge.

1. Fire 'em up! You've made a healthy investment in time and money to get to the point where you're ready to roll it out to Sales, you need to generate enthusiasm! Could be loud music, a passionate introduction from a Sales leader, or a 90-second motivational video we put together for the purpose, just make sure the audience is excited about what's to come.
2. Acknowledge skepticism. "But Ami, doesn't this contradict tip #1?" Yes and no. You absolutely want to get everyone excited about 6sense, but sellers are naturally skeptical of being sold to. Overpromise, or fail to acknowledge the reality of how the solution works, and you will end up with sellers convinced that this is another Marketing tool that doesn't help them open opportunities or close deals. 6sense absolutely will help those that embrace it, but expectations need to be carefully communicated. This post about how sharing the Model metrics report with Sales will help explain what they can expect by focusing on in-market accounts. This post talks about finding the balance between explaining how 6sense's AI will help them do their jobs without making it seem like black magic that they can't understand. And if you have a Sales leader that an deliver this message to the sales team, that is even better than it coming from Marketing even if Marketing understands it better.
3. Use immediately! Sellers will hopefully want to get their hands on 6sense immediately after seeing it, and you should let them get in there and start using it. Don't show it off first thing in the morning, stack a full day of training on top of it, and hope they use it that night or the first day after SKO. Our recommendation: block out 45-60 minutes after the training for them to start using it then and there. Better yet, announce a contest and reward the winners handsomely (more in tip #4). There is a decent chance --although no guarantees!-- that someone will book a meeting during a 45-minute prospecting contest. One of the best things that can happen right after rollout is for one of your sellers to have success with it right out of the gate. Reward it, and share it far and wide. If you're looking for contest ideas, you can find a bunch in this post.
4. Real rewards for early success. Again, you've made a healthy investment, now is not the time to scrimp. In fact, your sellers' perception of the initiative is directly proportional to the prizes offered. Read this post for the Do's and Don'ts of spiffs to drive adoption.

Follow those four tips and you'll have a successful rollout. As always, 6sense wants to help with your rollout, so if you have not reached out to your CSM about ways in which we can help, do that now. If I'm not already booked, inquire about the Ultimate In-Person Sales Kickoff Experience (UISKE).