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

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) that successful sellers are using. So, find your sales BFFs, find out what they really need (not always what they say), deliver it in partnership with them, and help them evangelize it to other sellers. Being a strategic partner to solve a sales challenge will set you up to win. AND when it's proven to work, sales leaders will reinforce it because it helps everyone hit their number.

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 different things and creating their own materials for every meetings? Those would be signs that your messaging isn't resonating (or that there's a training opp).

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-in calls with sales teams to hear/answer their questions. This is ideally done in smaller groups or regional team meetings (<20 people) vs one big call. After kickoff, sales should have had time to digest this information. Now, they will have practical questions as they try out new messaging, materials, etc. This is also a great forcing factor to ensure they consume the information. * Pull through kickoff content into your sales newsletters, if you have them. Consider focusing on one key topic each time. * Stay close to sales leaders, so you continue to get the "real" feedback. Ask what's not working, so you can adjust and adapt the content. Ask what is working, so you can weave that into your sales newsletter. Depending on your business situation, you may want to have a standing invite to their monthly team call to continue sharing new updates and reinforcing the message. * About a quarter after kickoff, host a reinforcement training. Round up the sales leaders and reps who are most successful with this content, and have THEM lead it. It's most credible that way, so it's not just "our" content. * About 6 months after kickoff, consider a survey to see how seller's confidence has changed since pre-kickoff and where the gaps are. Then, react in 2H accordingly (and start planning next year's kickoff, too!)

Sales performance data can suggest a few things: 1. 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. 2. 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 regional-specific regulations or competitors). 3. At the sales stage level, where do you see dropoff? Do you have lower than expected conversion rates early, or late? Is it an opportunity to better refine ICP or qualified deals, or maybe a pricing/packaging issue later on? There are more examples; these are just a few. But, the biggest takeaway is that this data supports hypotheses. It does not actually answer what specifically is happening, why it's happening, and how to help remedy it. Be sure to talk to sales leadership and reps to better understand that.

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-kickoff and post-kickoff. We've also set KPIs to address specific gaps in confidence (ex 5+ customer proof points in x verticals to show the value of y) We've also had business metrics, like competitive win rate, as a product marketing KPI -- which shows impact over time.