Even the smallest sales kickoff meetings have a cost. Some studies report the average SKO cost being between $1k-$2k per sales rep.
How do you make sure your investment is worth it?
While your SKO investment could be measured against overall company success, measuring against individual sales reps provides a deeper level of insight and helps identify potential areas for improvement.
Your Sales Kickoff Budget
When considering what to include in your SKO budget calculations, include everything! All aspects contributing to the financial commitment of the event should be counted against your potential return.
Include costs like:
- Venue cost
- Room and board
- Travel expenses
- Giveaways
- Food and drink
- Speakers and hosts
- Entertainment
- Sales enablement technology costs
Measurable Impact
Revenue is one of the most obvious ways to measure impact after your sales kickoff meeting.
Measure revenue both at the company wide level, as well as the individual sales level. To measure at the company wide level you compare the overall cost for the event to the revenue generated directly from the outcome. To measure at the individual level you can compare the sales kickoff cost per sales rep to the individual revenue they’ve generated as an outcome of the event.
By measuring revenue both ways you’ll be able to get a better understanding of your success. For instance you may find that your SKO didn’t produce a positive ROI overall, but several of your sales reps did. You can take this opportunity to further investigate what made these individual reps successful over their counterparts, and then use that information to improve further initiatives.
In addition to revenue, you can also to choose other metrics like profit, closing percentage, or even retention. Ultimately the focus of your measurement should mirror the main goals of your kickoff meeting, since that’s where you should be seeing the biggest impact.
Starting Early
The biggest mistake sales leaders make when measuring sales kickoff ROI is forgetting to start early. In order to measure whether there’s been any impact after SKO, you’ll need baseline data for comparison.
Long before kickoff starts you’ll need to make sure your data collection processes are in order, and you’re collecting quality data. Don’t forget to start planning early to make sure you’ll even be able to accurately measure ROI once the event is over.
Measuring sales kickoff ROI can seem intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be. Outline your costs, collect accurate baselines, and then measure important data points to prove your return.
