A sales kickoff (SKO) is an annual one to three day meeting where a sales organization sets targets, launches messaging and trains reps for the year ahead.
What a kickoff is for
Most kickoffs fall in the first weeks of the fiscal year. Enablement and sales leadership build the agenda, typically mixing a strategy session, product launches, a keynote, training and awards. Its job is to change what reps do on live deals in the quarters that follow. Our sales kickoff field study read 79 real kickoff agendas and found 11% of scheduled minutes went to learning content; the median spend is $1,000 to $1,499 per rep (ATD 2023). Of about 4,800 first-hand accounts, 9 people describe using something from the kickoff afterwards. To close that gap, book coached follow-up on each rep's live deals before the event ends.
A two-day kickoff, sketched
A 60-rep team holds a two-day kickoff in February (illustrative). Day one opens with the year's targets and one behavior: every discovery call ends with the economic buyer named. Product news goes out as pre-reads. Reps then spend two sessions in small groups with a manager, applying it to deals they are working. Day two ends with each rep booking a coached call on one named deal for the following week, then awards.
- 01Targets and one behaviorEconomic buyer named on every discovery call
- 02Product news as pre-reads
- 03Two small-group sessionsApplying it to deals they are working
- 04A coached call bookedOne named deal per rep, the following week
- 05Awards
See also
- How to build a sales kickoff agenda: minutes by session type
- Sales kickoff follow-up plan: the 90 days after
- Forgetting curve: why kickoff content fades
- Spaced repetition: how to slow the fade
FAQ
What does SKO stand for? SKO stands for sales kickoff, the annual meeting where a sales organization sets its targets, launches messaging and trains its reps. Pharma and life sciences teams often call the same event a national sales meeting.
What happens at a sales kickoff? Most kickoffs combine strategy and targets, product launches, a keynote, training sessions and awards. In the 79 agendas our field study read, learning content took 11% of scheduled minutes, against about 29% in the agenda templates that published guides offer.
How long is a sales kickoff? Most run one to three days. The 79 agendas in our field study averaged about 535 scheduled minutes, close to nine hours, and that count includes meals, admin and travel.