Maximising Sales Training at Sales Kickoff
This blog looks at how to set up your training for sales kick off with the goal of behaviour change when the team returns to work.
Sales kickoff training is not like a normal session.
You’ve got a big audience.
A packed agenda full of topic changes.
A lot of energy, and usually a lot of information.
Training amongst all this can be lost.
This blog looks at how to set up your training for sales kick off with the goal of behaviour change when the team returns to work.
1. Diagnose a specific gap
Understand where reps are struggling
Review call recordings.
Speak to managers.
Look at where deals are getting stuck.
Look at what is showing up repeatedly in coaching.
Relevance is essential to capture attention.
2. Limit the topics
Once you know the gap, pick one or two behaviours you actually want to change.
For example:
getting from technical pain to business pain
handling a specific objection
creating stronger next steps
multi-threading earlier in deals
You have limited time.
Trying to squeeze discovery, negotiation, MEDDPICC and objection handling into one sales kickoff training session usually means none of them get enough depth.
People should leave knowing exactly what you want them to do differently.
3. Make the training specific to your sales team
Generic sales training loses people quickly.
Use:
their deals
their objections
their buyer personas
their language
If you’re teaching discovery, use a live situation they're facing with customer quotes.
If you’re teaching objection handling, use the objections they hear every week.
The closer the SKO training feels to real life, the easier it is for reps to picture themselves using it afterwards.
Pressure test the content with managers & reps.
4. Make the sales training fit the wider SKO theme
The training should not feel like a random standalone session dropped into the sales kickoff agenda.
It should connect directly to what the business is trying to achieve at SKO.
If the theme is moving upmarket, the training should help reps sell to bigger buying commitees.
If the business is launching a new product, the training should help reps position it in real customer conversations.
The strongest sales kickoff training reinforces the same message leadership is already giving from the stage.
The whole event should point in the same direction.
5. Adapt the SKO training to the people in the room
An obvious one, but not everyone at a sales kickoff does the same job.
An SDR, commercial AE and enterprise AE might all need the same core skill, but they will use it differently.
Adapt exercises by role, segment or sales motion.
People will lose concentration if it doesn't apply to them.
Ensure the exercise groups have a similar skillset to challenge one and other.
The framework will be consistent.
But the application should feel relevant to the person practising it.
6. Keep the teaching short
Reps do not need 40 minutes of theory before they practise.
Explain the concept.
Show them what good looks like.
Then get them doing it.
A strong SKO sales training session should move quickly between:
Teach → Demonstrate → Practice → Debrief
If people are sitting and listening for too long, you’re losing them.
7. Build practice into the sales kickoff session
This is where the learning actually happens.
If you’re teaching discovery, let them practise discovery.
If you’re teaching objection handling, give them objections.
Use:
paired role plays
table exercises deconstructing deals
call clips & debriefing
live demonstrations
peer feedback
Repetitions are even more valuable here when most of the day is spent listening.
8. Use the managers in the room
Managers should not just sit at the back and watch.
They are the people who will reinforce the SKO training afterwards.
Use them to:
coach exercises
lead table discussions
give feedback
run debriefs
reinforce what good looks like
This also gives managers practice coaching the behaviour before they need to do it back with their teams.
9. Plan for lasting impact
The training should not only appear once at the kick off.
Plan your approach to continue the behaviour change afterwards.
What is the managers role?
What will reinforcement look like?
How are you measuring the behaviour change & what is a successful outcome?
What systems can help reinforce the learnings?
The goal is behaviour change
A great SKO session should naturally be engaging.
But the objective is that reps leave knowing exactly what good looks like, having already practised it, and being able to use it when they are back in front of customers.
That is what makes sales training at SKO useful.
The Lennox Academy helps sales teams design and deliver practical sales kickoff training built around real sales behaviours, manager involvement and long-term reinforcement.