AMA: Veeva Systems VP of Marketing, Katie Duzan (O'Brien) on Sales Kickoff

The "one and done" model for kickoff does not work, so it's a great question. What happens AFTER kickoff is equally, if not more, important than sessions at kickoff. Follow-up resources and activities: Immediately after kickoff, be sure that Sales has access to the content shared, so they can refer back to it. Content should be easy to find in a single place. Ideally, a sales leader emails this notification out to their teams to reinforce the importance. About 3-4 weeks after kickoff, have check ...Read More

One idea (I can't take credit for it) that we've implemented was sales confidence as a product marketing KPI. It can be a leading indicator to a change in win rate (if you have longer sales cycles). So, before kickoff, survey sellers and sales leaders to ask 1) their overall confidence to sell certain products, 2) known support needed (usually customer evidence, competitive battlecards, etc), and 3) their belief that product marketing partners with them. We've set KPIs for field confidence pre-k ...Read More

In addition to my answer about post-kickoff activities, I think it really boils down to finding your sales evangelists and go from there. It's understanding your sales persona. :) If it feels like "product marketing content," they probably won't use it. From their POV, they've got a number to hit and what does product marketing really know anyway? They're the ones in front of customers every day actually selling the stuff. Instead, it has to feel like your company's materials (not PM materials) ...Read More

Sales performance data can suggest a few things: At the product level, which ones are not meeting targets or are taking LONGER than expected to close? This could, for example, highlight a need for more education on newer products, a need for more competitive differentiation, or even a product/market fit disconnect. At the regional/territory level, do you see a large variation in sales performance? Focus where there are gaps and learn why. It could be training, leadership, or a local issue (like ...Read More

First, be sure that you know the company strategy and sales goals, and actively partner with the folks setting those. They should be part of creating or validating the messaging. If messaging is entirely a siloed activity, then it probably won't resonate. Monitor usage of the materials where your messaging appears -- website, pitch decks, one-pagers, training documents, etc. Are you hearing it pop up in sales calls? Organic usage of messaging is a great sign. Or is everyone saying entirely diffe ...Read More