How events can help sales teams navigate economic challenges
How events can help sales teams navigate economic challenges
Vaibhav Chauhan, Head of Revenue · 2/15/2023
In our rapidly changing economic landscape, sales teams are facing unique and multifaceted challenges. The economic situation has affected businesses and consumers alike, making sales more difficult. The uncertainty in the market has resulted in decreased demand for some products, changes in buying behavior, and increased competition. Sales teams are being asked to be more creative and flexible in their approach, finding new ways to sell in a challenging market.
Not only are budgets tightening, but remote work and virtual sales processes are still relatively new—meaning teams are tasked with the challenge of staying engaged and making a meaningful impact in the face of these challenges. This shift in work style has brought new challenges to the sales process, such as lack of face-to-face interaction, difficulty building relationships with clients, increased competition, and difficulties with retention.
Navigating the world of sales in 2023 can be overwhelming, but that only makes it more important for teams to stay motivated and engaged. Sales leaders must provide support and resources to help their team stay focused and energized despite the difficulties they’ll face. This includes fostering a positive team culture, setting achievable goals, and recognizing and rewarding their team's successes.
How can events help with navigating sales challenges?
Sales teams play a critical role in driving the success of organizations. To be effective, they need a combination of training, resources, and opportunities to build relationships with customers.
In an economic situation where customer recurrence, lower acquisition costs, and higher efficiency are essential, organizations need to devote as much effort as possible to doing more with the team and resources they already have in place.
Events are a simple, impactful way to accomplish a wide variety of goals within your existing team. Depending on how events are planned, they can be used for everything from improving skills, getting face time with customers, networking with colleagues, and much more.
Let’s take a look at some of the benefits of events in more detail.
Building Relationships
In-person gatherings provide an opportunity for sales team members to build relationships with each other and to strengthen their connection to the company. They allow team members to network, collaborate, and learn from each other in a supportive environment.
Enhancing Communication
In-person events and meetings can be more effective for communication than virtual gatherings. Face-to-face interactions provide a more personal and engaging experience, which can improve the flow of information and the quality of discussions.
Motivating Salespeople
In-person events can be a great way to motivate and engage salespeople. They provide a platform for recognizing and rewarding top performers, and for celebrating the team's successes. This can help to increase motivation and build a positive company culture.
Improving Product and Industry Knowledge
In-person sales trainings and customer-oriented events can provide salespeople with valuable opportunities to learn about new products and industry trends. They can also provide opportunities for hands-on demonstrations and product testing, which can help salespeople to better understand and communicate the features and benefits of the company's products.
Driving Collaboration
In-person events can provide opportunities for cross-functional collaboration and knowledge sharing. They can bring together different departments, such as sales, marketing, and product development, to work together on projects and initiatives that can drive growth and success.
Common types of sales events
Each of the benefits described above can be woven into a single event, or split up across various events throughout the year. To help you identify what kind of events can help you achieve your goals, let’s go over some of the most common events for sales teams.
Team building offsites
A team building offsite is a company-sponsored event that takes place outside of the office with the purpose of improving relationships and communication among team members. These events often include activities like ice breakers, games, co-working sessions, brainstorming, outdoor adventures, and social events. All of this is intended to promote teamwork, trust, and camaraderie, ultimately making your organization more effective by improving the social bonds and lines of communication between employees.
Client and customer-oriented events
These events are focused on building relationships with and promoting the company's products or services to customers. They often involve presentations, demonstrations, and interactive sessions to educate customers about the company's offerings and to gather feedback. Customer-oriented events may include trade shows, conferences, or product launches, and are designed to deepen the relationship between your individual team members and the clients they serve.
Incentive trips
An incentive trip is a company-sponsored trip that rewards salespeople for meeting or exceeding their sales targets. These trips can be to a luxury destination and may include activities like sightseeing, parties, workshops, and group dinners. Incentive trips are used to motivate and engage salespeople, and to recognize and reward their hard work.
Sales kick offs
A sales kick off is an annual event that takes place at the beginning of a new sales quarter or fiscal year. The purpose of the event is to provide salespeople with the training, resources, and motivation they need to achieve their sales goals. Sales kick offs typically include keynote presentations, product demonstrations, and team building activities, and are designed to build enthusiasm and support for the company's sales initiatives.
Sales trainings
Sales trainings are an essential part of the professional development of salespeople. They provide salespeople with the knowledge, skills, and tools they need to succeed in their role and to meet their sales goals. A well-designed sales training program can help salespeople to improve their performance, increase their confidence, and better understand their customers' needs and preferences.
Sales trainings may include a variety of learning formats, including classroom-style sessions and interactive workshops. Classroom-style sessions may include lectures, discussions, and role-playing exercises, and are designed to provide salespeople with a comprehensive understanding of the sales process, best practices, and industry trends. Interactive workshops, on the other hand, are designed to be hands-on and involve group activities and exercises to build skills in areas such as negotiating, overcoming objections, and closing deals.
Quarterly Sales Meetings
Quarterly sales meetings can sometimes be interchangeable with a quarterly kickoff or team offsite, depending on your approach. These meetings take place once every quarter and provide a platform for sales representatives to come together and discuss the challenges they’ve faced in the previous quarter, then strategize for what’s to come. The objective of these meetings is to strengthen and align the sales organization.
Annual Sales Conference
An annual sales conference should take place once a year and provide a platform for sales representatives to attend educational workshops and training sessions. It can be combined with, or swapped for, a sales kickoff—but some companies treat them as two separate occasions. The conference can provide opportunities for networking with industry leaders, as well as other sales representatives from different regions.
Creating your sales event strategy
Now that you’ve begun to get a feel for the potential benefits of events and what kind of options are available to you, it’s time to begin exploring how you’ll craft a strategy that meets the needs of your organization.
Four key factors for your events strategy
Audience
Who’s attending your event makes a massive impact on your strategy. How you create an event for an entire sales organization should differ greatly from how you create an event for representatives serving a specific vertical or region.
Goals
Determine the sales goals you want to achieve through the event. Are you looking to help the team bond, improve processes, teach new skills? What’s your top outcome? How are you going to achieve it?
Budget
Great events don’t have to be expensive. Save money by using your own office space, choosing a destination most of your employees are already based, or partnering with a planning service to identify your most affordable options.
Cadence
When is your sales kickoff? How soon after it will you have additional events like offsites or strategy sessions? Will individual teams within your sales organization have quarterly events separate from organization-wide events, and how often? Answering questions like these will form a basic outline that you can use to start fleshing out what an event strategy might look like.
Annual sales event strategy example
Your strategy will inevitably look different depending on the needs of your team or organization, but the following example can be used as a simple starting point.
Q1
Kickoff event to start the year off on a high note and build team morale.
Sales leadership summit to review the prior year and set goals for the upcoming year.
Sales training to improve the team's skills and knowledge.
Pipeline review to analyze past performance and plan for the coming months.
Q2
Tools and tech review to assess the effectiveness of current sales tools and identify areas for improvement.
Sales enablement training to provide the team with the tools and resources they need to succeed.
Mid-year OKR planning to review progress and adjust goals as needed.
Team building retreat to boost morale and promote teamwork.
Q3
In-depth strategy review to evaluate and optimize the sales process.
Sales coaching and mentoring sessions to improve individual performance.
Q3 business review to assess performance and set the team up for strong EoY results.
Client appreciation event to build relationships and promote customer loyalty.
Q4
Year-end celebration to recognize and reward team achievements.
Annual planning session to begin exploring goals and objectives for the following year.
Sales performance review to assess results and identify areas for improvement.
End-of-year training to fill any identifiable gaps in the team’s skills.
Events keep sales teams motivated in times of change
In today's rapidly changing business environment, it is essential for sales leaders to keep their teams motivated and engaged. With constant disruptions, a burned out workforce, and increased revenue target pressures, maintaining high levels of motivation is a challenge for many leaders. But by taking proactive measures through engaging events and experiences, leaders can create a sales organization that thrives in an uncertain and digital-first world.
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