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John McMahon on Building a Better SKO

6m 26s

John McMahon on Building a Better SKO

In this episode, John McMahon shares insights on how to conduct an effective annual sales kickoff for enterprise software companies. He emphasizes that the event's primary goal is to motivate the sales team, with secondary goals of aligning them with company strategy and providing extensive training on knowledge and skills. A key, often-underappreciated benefit is the informal transfer of information between reps, which can more than pay for the event's cost. When introducing product updates, McMahon warns against presenting them unless they are genuinely exciting, clearly differentiated, and realistically deliverable, as salespeople are highly skeptical of late or unfulfilled promises that can demotivate them. For leaders like CEOs and CROs, the best advice is to be intimate with the daily, weekly, and quarterly struggles of reps and to communicate how the company will make their jobs easier, improve their performance, increase their income, and support their career aspirations. Without this intimacy, presentations fall on deaf ears. Ultimately, motivation comes from offering reps a "platform of opportunity," where they see themselves as special individuals on a special team, and they are eager to commit fully when goals are clear and training equips them to succeed. The episode concludes by reinforcing that combining the right knowledge with skill development is essential for achieving these objectives.

Transcription

1105 Words, 5879 Characters

English
Speaker 1welcome to the revenue builders podcast with john mcmahon and john kaplan this podcast is brought to you by force management force the solutions help companies meet the revenue goals that drive funding and higher valuations how many of you will head off to your sales kickoff soon today john mcmahon shares his point of view on motivating reps at your skl john kaplan's asking the question
Speaker 2an annual sales kickoff and again i think if we're talking about an enterprise software company that's what you and i know yeah but the major themes have to be you know motivating your sales team you're going to get your whole sales team together on an annual basis sometimes i mean as you know i used to do it almost on a quarterly basis if we were small i definitely did it on a quarterly basis but first and foremost has to be to motivate the sales team yeah second is you know what do we need to achieve next in order to get to where we want to be in the future next year so aligning the sales force with the company's goals and any changes to the strategy for the new year and then most important is training training training and training them on knowledge and the skills needed so they can succeed in the new in the coming year one of the biggest benefits though that i think most let's say ceos or cfos don't get right about and maybe even a lot of cro's haven't thought about is when you get a bunch of people together and you're trying to train them there's amazing transfer of information between different parties and i think that's the priceless piece they everybody focuses on you know we're going to put everybody on an airplane get them to a hotel you know spend a lot of money on food and drinks but you know what do we really get out of that and what i found is it's amazing the amount of information that gets transferred just between the sales reps so it's not just about me and my team as the cro training my sales people but sales people are training other sales people they're trading ideas so there's this priceless transfer of information that in in my experience more than pays for the event most people use like these
Speaker 3kickoffs to introduce product updates and roadmaps by chief product officer this can either be really awesome or it can really suck give me your give me your uh give me your experience and your insights here well you want to motivate the sales team so if you
Speaker 2have something exciting to talk about from a product standpoint then you put the chief product officer up there or somebody else that can really explain what that product can do in the use case for the specific persona you're going to call on and what the benefits are to that company and why we're clearly differentiated to sell that new product you know to that customer if you don't have those things and don't have them laid out don't present it there's nothing to present that just dreams because in general most sales forces and most sales leaders are very very skeptical about when are you going to deliver that product so if it's a calendar year and you say you're going to deliver it next year they they think you're never going to deliver it next year they think it's the year after they just don't believe it because for the most part products come out too late and then they typically don't do what they say they're going to do so don't make promises that you really can't keep because that's one way to demotivate the sales force when it comes to the
Speaker 3products you're going to deliver one of the big components you're always going to get the leaders the you know the ceos and the cro's are gonna uh you know you're always going to get the leaders you know get up and talk to the organization what is the best advice that you give to these people
Speaker 2understand though you know what's going on in the in the minds of those sales people like i just said you hit it with the word intimate if you're intimate with them you understand the daily the weekly the monthly and the quarterly struggles that they go through so tell them why it's going to be easier for them to do their job tell them why they're going to be better at their job tell them why they're going to make more money and tell them why they're going to be able to achieve their career aspirations and if you can't explain those things because you're not intimate so you're just throwing up a bunch of freaking slides or just standing up there giving a little bit of a tap dance as the cro or the ceo it's really going to fall on deaf ears you're not motivating that's the number one thing you have to motivate them i always think that people are looking to stand on what i call a platform of opportunity right the reason i'm joining company a versus company b or c is because i want to stand on a platform of opportunity and that platform of opportunity i believe is going to take me up and i think anybody wants to be a special person on a special team and when you define goals that say when we achieve these goals you are going to be a very special individual on a very special team that's how we're going to achieve this opportunity most people want in if you if you hired the right people they want in on that if you hired the wrong people they might not want in on that but if you hired the right people what i found is they want in and they want all in now tell me how i'm going to do that which is what happens in the training right in the development so it's it's a combination of giving them the right knowledge and then training them on the right skills to achieve that
Speaker 1thanks for listening to today's episode if you enjoy the content please subscribe rate and review the show to help us reach more people this show is brought to you by force management where we help companies improve sales performance executing the growth strategy at the point of sale check out forcemanagement.com for more information

Podcast Summary

Key Points:

  1. The primary purpose of an annual sales kickoff is to motivate the sales team, followed by aligning them with company goals and strategic changes for the upcoming year.
  2. Training is a critical component, focusing on both knowledge and skills needed for success, but an often-overlooked benefit is the priceless peer-to-peer transfer of information among sales reps.
  3. Product updates from the chief product officer can motivate or demotivate; they should only be presented if they are exciting, clearly differentiated, and realistically deliverable, as reps are skeptical of broken promises.
  4. Leaders (CEOs and CROs) must be intimate with the daily struggles of salespeople to effectively communicate how the company will make their jobs easier, improve their performance, increase earnings, and help achieve career goals.
  5. Motivation is tied to offering a "platform of opportunity," where reps see themselves as special individuals on a special team, and they want to go "all in" when goals are clearly defined and training supports their achievement.

Summary:

In this episode, John McMahon shares insights on how to conduct an effective annual sales kickoff for enterprise software companies. He emphasizes that the event's primary goal is to motivate the sales team, with secondary goals of aligning them with company strategy and providing extensive training on knowledge and skills. A key, often-underappreciated benefit is the informal transfer of information between reps, which can more than pay for the event's cost.

When introducing product updates, McMahon warns against presenting them unless they are genuinely exciting, clearly differentiated, and realistically deliverable, as salespeople are highly skeptical of late or unfulfilled promises that can demotivate them. For leaders like CEOs and CROs, the best advice is to be intimate with the daily, weekly, and quarterly struggles of reps and to communicate how the company will make their jobs easier, improve their performance, increase their income, and support their career aspirations. Without this intimacy, presentations fall on deaf ears.

Ultimately, motivation comes from offering reps a "platform of opportunity," where they see themselves as special individuals on a special team, and they are eager to commit fully when goals are clear and training equips them to succeed. The episode concludes by reinforcing that combining the right knowledge with skill development is essential for achieving these objectives.

FAQs

The main themes are motivating the sales team, aligning them with company goals and strategy changes for the new year, and providing extensive training on knowledge and skills needed for success.

When sales reps gather, they trade ideas and insights, creating a priceless transfer of information between them. This informal learning often more than pays for the event's costs.

Product updates should only be presented if they are exciting, have clear use cases for the target persona, and show clear differentiation. If not, avoid presenting them to prevent skepticism and demotivation.

Sales forces are skeptical of product timelines, so unfulfilled promises can demotivate them. It's crucial not to make promises you can't keep.

They should be intimate with the sales team's daily struggles and explain how the company will make their jobs easier, help them earn more, and achieve career goals. Without this, their talks fall on deaf ears.

It's the belief that joining a company offers a path to personal growth. Leaders should define goals that make reps feel they'll be special individuals on a special team, which motivates them to go all in.

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Transcription

1105 words