If you are planning your first annual sales kickoff meeting, chances are your company is young and your team is small. It can be tempting to just put your head down, keep forging through the day to day and put the whole thing off. 

In a small team, a sales kickoff can feel like, “What’s the point? We all talk and meet every day anyway, there won’t be anything to do in a sales kickoff, and we’re all too busy to take time away.” 

And yet, no matter your size, nothing could be more important than coming together at the start of the year (and really the start of each quarter too) to review, plan and collaborate. Once you have a few salespeople you should begin the regular cadence of kicking off the year and quarters together in a slightly formalized way. It’s an important part of forming your culture, it’s good discipline to start early, and it helps ensure everyone is headed on the right path towards quota attainment. 

So if this is your first annual sales kickoff event, and you aren’t quite sure where to start, or how much time and money you should invest, here’s everything you need to know. 

What: A 1-2 day offsite meeting. Ideally followed by a 1/2 day at the start of each quarter. 

Who: Everyone in sales. Also consider guest appearances by leaders from marketing, product, operations and customer success.

When: The first week of January (and the first week of each quarter).

Why: To set the tone and goals for the year, review department and individual plans and progress, and help provide fuel to propel you toward hitting your numbers. You may also want to do some skill development and training during this time together.

Where: An annual sales kickoff should be held somewhere offsite that’s free from distraction, with everyone in attendance. Quarterly kickoffs can be held in a conference room at HQ, or virtually via video meetings if you are a remote team.

Your sales kickoff checklist

Keep it simple.

You don’t need paid speakers, an over-the-top exotic location or bells and whistles. Keep your first sales kick off pretty simple.

Have a theme.

Every great sales team has an annual sales theme. I don’t know if that is actually true, but I have never met a high performing team that didn’t have a guiding theme for the year. Rallying around symbols is an important cultural aspect for sales and your annual theme is a mantra to keep everyone focused on what matters most. Pick a theme that crystalizes what the point of the year is. To give you an idea, I’ve recently seen themes like:

* Best year ever* Work smarter* Hustle* Won’t stop* Just sell* Sell right* Land and expand* We win together* We learn, we grow, we win

As you can see, sales themes aren’t rocket science. They are just the mantra you want everyone to adopt for the year and should be picked based on a problem you need to solve, an opportunity to seize or a guiding principle you want to instill.

Have a point.

Similar to your theme, you need a point to bring everyone together. As a leader, know what to accomplish and why you are doing the offsite. Is it to boost morale? Update staff on the corporate strategy for the year? Align goals? Shift focus? Have your reps present their territory plans? Train and develop skills? You can’t do it all in a kickoff, so choose what’s most important to the team right now. Know what you want to accomplish and keep your content and presentation focused on that.