Out of respect for speakers’ time and to avoid any tech snafus during your virtual kickoff, conduct a tech dry run before you do a speaker dry run. The Virtues of Virtual. Do they need a better understanding of sales cadences? Some ideas to keep it going: Record your sessions. And, they will be able to pass that story along to others in their organization long after your presentation. Find out how to syndicate your content with B2C, Proving the Power of Situational Enablement, Deficit Learning and the Rise of the Just-in-Time Situational Salesperson, 3 Examples of Situational Enablement in Action, Image: 100 Powerful Marketing Words to Boost Your Brand (and 75 More to Avoid Like the Plague), Image: Everything You Need to Know About ATL, BTL and TTL Advertising. “Start the discussion with your ideas for the structure and key items to address versus the speaker giving you a deck they developed for a previous presentation, and then trying to adjust it from there,” Salfen said. Want more help Selling on Video? Almost 90 percent of sales have moved to a videoconferencing(VC)/phone/web sales model, and while some skepticism remains, more than half believe this is equally or more effective than sales models used before COVID-19. A virtual sales assistant can also refer to a contractor located overseas. Examples of the available activities include Online Office Games, which is a series of virtual team building games/activities like typing-speed races, spreadsheet pixel-art and print-paper origami, and Murder in Ancient Egypt which is a murder mystery that uses “escape the room” mechanics to solve puzzles and challenges. A 360-degree tour can help showcase your business or school from anywhere in the world virtually. Are you focused on deepening relationships with existing customers? It was a Wednesday early in the pandemic and Kelly Chuck, who spearheads the curriculum for LinkedIn’s onboarding program, had just started noodling some ideas for a possible virtual orientation. Featuring examples from Adobe, Salesforce, and the New York Times. To effectively plant your 10 Percent Message among all of those distractions, you need to overcome your buyers’ stimulation threshold with visuals and interactive elements—including color, size, and animation—to draw their attention to the most important information in your slides. The number and exciting title (‘A Global Phenomenon’) are the main focuses of the slide. So right before you share important information, use a priming slide to re-capture your buyers’ focus and prime their brains to pay attention to what comes next. Here are some interactive ideas to engage your team: When working with external speakers, discuss their presentation’s focus and format early on in the planning process before they develop their content. Then, and only then, do you ask a question that will provoke a dialogue. Provide speaker notes, branded decks, and run of show schedules to your speakers to drive consistency across presentations and bring out the best content. Virtually every online platform has interactive features. Managers can also use tools like. Give your employees the opportunity to learn directly from the people that matter most to your business: your customers. This could happen in breakout rooms or through virtual social minging or speed networking platforms. Live whiteboarding in another way to make your presentation more dynamic. One-page cheat sheets or recaps for every session keeps the material accessible beyond the live event. For people to absorb content in a virtual format. Reinforce concepts throughout the entire year to both help attendees retain the information and pass the knowledge on to those who didn’t attend. Examples of Salesforce’s goals in years past include: Once you’ve set your goals, you need to make sure the right people attend your virtual kickoff. In this selling environment, leaders can no longer measure sales reps based on traditional KPIs, like the number of face-to-face meetings or in-person demos they give. When hybrid events come back, virtual 360-tours could play a role in merging the in-person and virtual experiences. Well, now bringing people together isn’t so easy. At Salesforce, our sales kickoffs last a full week with multiple keynotes and breakout sessions. “The effects of COVID-19 will linger long after offices reopen, so all the reskilling of your sales team now will pay off moving forward.”, Drew Moldenhauer, Inside Sales Technology Leader, 3M, “Key performance metrics only tell one part of the story … Call reviews provide useful context on why our reps may, or may not, be hitting their numbers.”, Brooke Gerhardt, Sales Director, Armstrong Steel, Extend the life of your virtual sales kickoff. Your expectations have likely shifted, too, as have your territories. Your comment may not appear immediately. The example below is from Virtual Applicant Day at The University of Warwick. Then split the team into small groups and allow them to collaborate on which items they want to pick. How Virtual Meetings Impact Sales and Customer Interactions. Consider polling your organization to see what subjects are top of mind. Is it to raise morale, teach soft skills, or something else? And at the end of the event, ask for feedback. Data from the RAIN Group Center for Sales Research shows that collaboration is critical for sales success. 61% of reps and leaders wish their sales kickoffs were more interactive, according to a Brainshark survey. And this becomes an even greater challenge online. We get it. Have fun with it — and be sure to include your theme in the award categories or prizes. Take requests and suggestions. Our comments are moderated. Examples of virtual events hosted by businesses Treat your virtual meetings like panel discussions and appoint a moderator to facilitate interaction and keep attendees engaged. Your sales presentation needs to engage your buyers, hold their attention, and deliver a clear message that motivates them to take action. Virtual learning and team-building is still possible. © Business 2 Community. “To ask reps to lead with empathy and not make an ask at the end of the call is a real shift for them,” said Alison Gooch, Senior Director of Sales Development at Salesforce. Remote. How do you recapture the same magic — the same collaboration, the same activation — when you’re up against a new and virtual reality? So you get to drastically reduce your outgoings (not to mention, your carbon emissions), while spending more on curating the best virtual … Let your staff hear diverse viewpoints from multiple customers, partners, or leaders at once. Turning on your camera, for example, is one easy way to create more interaction. Anna Parini “Virtual” teams—ones made up of people in different physical locations—are on the rise. Use These 6 Opening Statements To Make Your Sales Interactions More Effective Written by Sean McPheat | Last time, we discussed how your ‘elevator speech’ could be full of mistakes and not do what it’s supposed to do, i.e. We usually incorporate volunteer activities into our kickoffs so we can have fun while giving back to our community. Have executive leadership translate the goals from the top down. Your virtual sales kickoff is over, but that positive energy can live on. Start your dialogue with a piece of data that’s related to an external factor that’s important to your buyer’s business. Plus, it can make your story more convincing. Facilitate leadership conversations with multiple leaders at the same time to discuss their vision for the year ahead. Call reviews and virtual ride-alongs with sellers ensure that employees are putting their learnings into practice. Virtual Sales Kickoffs: A Playbook for Skilling Up Your Teams. Salesforce.com, inc. Salesforce Tower, 415 Mission Street, 3rd Floor, San Francisco, CA 94105, United States. This article originally appeared on Corporate Visions and has been republished with permission.Find out how to syndicate your content with B2C, Tim Riesterer has dedicated his career to improving the conversations salespeople have with prospects and customers. But that’s not the worst of it. This also communicates that you. “Things are changing everywhere. After all, practice makes perfect. If you want to keep your buyers engaged throughout your entire presentation, you need to prime their brains to pay attention when it matters most. Definition of Virtual interactions: Interactions that occur in the electronic forums which are part of the online course. Keep in mind: A kickoff isn’t just a “one and done.” Participants in traditional curriculum-based sales training forget most of what they learned within 90 days, reports Harvard Business Review. 77% of salespeople say selling collaboratively with other departments, including marketing, finance, and extended team members, is critical to success. SocialPoint recently introduced 3-dimensional layered graphics to our popular Virtual Prize Wheel game.We thought this would be a great time to share that product enhancement, plus share many other recent Virtual Prize Wheel examples. Sales kickoffs often focus on metrics and selling strategies, but now more than ever, teams need to hone soft skills like. For instance, an expert on Sandler Methodology could teach reps to act as trusted advisors to their prospects rather than typical salespeople. The last thing most salespeople want in their presentations is unnecessary friction. Then take notes. ... for example, reducing travel—even if that travel is to another floor in a different part of the building. “We refreshed our shared values this year. Try them out and do let me know how they work. That won’t happen if they’re nodding off. You want attendees to absorb and act on what they learn in a kickoff. That means identifying the key moments where you want to attract more attention and, right before those moments, intensify the stimulus with a powerful “priming” slide. But adding friction can actually be a good thing. To be effective, your 10 Percent Message must be: Keep your 10 Percent Message simple and clear. The last thing your audience wants (especially in a virtual world) is slide overload. Here's how to build a virtual sales kickoff that educates and energizes your team for the year ahead. In a remote selling situation, your audience has all the enticing distractions of home and the internet right at their fingertips. But when you consider the number of people who binge-watch television shows, you know that’s not true. Your 10 Percent Message is the single, core message that you want your buyers to remember and act on after the call. We have attendees fill out a survey at the end of every kickoff. In fact, 88 percent of salespeople believe their prospects and customers are likely to multi-task during virtual sales calls. Learn how to pivot from an in-person gathering to a virtual event. open your conversation effectively with a prospect. Not only that—they stay engaged for the next 30 to 60 seconds. There’s a popular myth that people have a shorter attention span than 25 years ago. Example of an Interactive Comment Entry Contest Create a comment entry contest that matches your audience and aligns with your brand. Create ways for employees and leaders from different regions or departments to step outside of their circles and make valuable connections. 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