The End of the In-Person Sales Kick-Off Event?

Due to the significant economic downturn in 2009, some companies have replaced their large in-person sales kickoff meetings, and even many of their training sessions, with virtual meetings. How effective are these virtual meetings? Do they impact sales productivity? Is it really worth giving up the Las Vegas or Florida gathering altogether?

Here is some anecdotal insight from some of my Sales Advisory Service clients in response to these types of questions:

• "We had a virtual kickoff last year. It was extremely painful: Logistics were difficult, our regular speakers were not dynamic enough in front of a camera for the virtual audience, and we weren't able to replicate the in-person networking and bonding. Next year we're returning to an in-person sales kickoff event."
• "We are planning a virtual event for later this year."
• "We leverage 100% virtual training for new hires, and we're considering extending this to our kickoff meetings."

Although several companies indicate negative results for the success of their virtual sales events, there is no question that the use of virtual events will play a greater role among sales organizations for training their teams. Drivers are obvious, including the reduced costs for travel and venue and the reduced time that sales folks spend traveling to events. Companies need to improve their ability to develop and execute these events; for example, invest in marketing of the event beforehand, develop a curriculum that is better suited for a virtual environment, and try not to replicate all aspects of an in-person event in a virtual environment.

However, don't abandon the in-person events just yet. Spending 8 hours sitting in front of a computer attending a virtual, live event will not capture the full attention of your average sales rep. And if it does, that sales rep may be better off in a software development role versus sales. Direct, b-to-b sales people enjoy directi interaction with other human beings; especially those people that can help them reach and exceed quota. And regardless of the bad press that the large sales meetings get, they offer significant value to the sales organization in increasing and better leveraging tribal knowledge: return on your investment that cannot be replicated in a virtual environment.

Please feel free to share your experiences with virtual sales events below.

Sales Enablement Not Working?? "Say It Ain't So, Joe!"

Much focus has been given to the topic of sales enablement during the past couple of years by consultants, research firms, marketing and sales automation vendors, and marketing and sales operations teams. Not to mention the associated financial investment that accompanied these efforts. So with all of this attention to the discipline of sales enablement, how much of an impact has it had on sales' relationships with customers?

First of all, here's IDC's definition of sales enablement to ensure that we're all on the same page:

• "The delivery of the right information to the right person at the right time in the right format and in the right place to assist in moving a specific sales opportunity forward"

As one of many indicators of sales enablement's progress, IDC tracks IT buyer experience with sales and marketing teams on an annual basis. In early 2009 IDC's Sales Advisory Service provided the following output from a survey of 200+ IT buyers: IT buyers indicated that over 50% of sales reps are unprepared for their initial customer meetings. (57% to be exact) The same buyers indicated that sales folks need to "put away the generic pitch" and engage in more of dialogue with customers. This is old data and not applicable any longer, right?

IDC recently completed an update of this study. IT buyers now indicate that ~54% of sales reps are unprepared for their initial customer meetings. A marginal improvement over 2009, if you could call it that. "Say It Ain't So, Joe!" Why hasn't all of our effort and investment in sales enablement paid off!

Well, bad economy aside, I do see some reasons why we aren't seeing greater levels of improvement in this study year over year. Here are just a few of those reasons:

1. This data is an average across all IT buyers surveyed, and includes IT buyers' views on many different vendors; many of which have yet to even begin a comprehensive sales enablement initiative. A question for you. . . Are you surveying your specific customers to gauge their level of satisfaction with your sales teams' knowledge?. . . . And gauging to what extent this impacts revenue, share of wallet, etc? How has this trended over time?
2. Sales enablement initiatives are only in the early stages of execution. Many companies are just starting to put the right resources in place to support this effort, from a people, process and technology perspective. (contact me for a copy of a recently published document regarding guidance for a sales enablement organizational framework)
3. Sales reps still need to be held accountable for leveraging all of the resources that a company provides to aid in their success. They say that "you can lead a horse to water, but can't make it drink." Well, the horse will eventually have to drink the water to survive.
4. Sales enablement is not the panacea for all of sales' productivity challenges. Other key elements for productivity improvements as detailed in IDC's Sales Productivity Framework include: customer intelligence, sales management, sales methodologies and talent management.
5. Let's refocus our analysis on the customer. Customers are becoming more sophisticated about technology solutions and vendors prior to sales even having that first meeting; and IDC customer experience data proves this statement. Thereby increasing the importance of "Customer Enablement" before, during and after real-time customer engagement. Yes, marketing (corporate, product and field marketing) do matter. . . and more than ever.

Let's be clear, sales enablement must remain a top priority for your organization in 2010, for sales and marketing. However, sales enablement should only be part of your overall strategy for sales productivity improvement; and development, execution and governance of these initiatives across large, complex organizations takes a lot more than one visionary and some great PowerPoint slides.

Please feel free to comment on this topic below as well as sharing what you're seeing "in the field".

Also, our Sales and CMO Advisory teams will be at the upcoming IDC Directions events in Boston, MA and Santa Clara, CA in the next couple of weeks, presenting more insight into how sales and marketing teams can improve their productivity and overall effectiveness. Go to the link above to find the agenda and more details!