The playbook · 20 guides
Every play, in order.
Read them front to back and you've planned a kickoff. Jump in anywhere and you'll fix the thing that's on fire this week.
- Plan · 5
- Program · 6
- Money · 3
- Logistics · 4
- After · 2
- Plan a sales kickoff in 90 days A phase-by-phase countdown from T-90 to showtime: the five decisions to lock in the first two weeks, what can safely wait, and what slips every year.
- The 3-day kickoff agenda Why three days is the right length for a kickoff, what each day is for, where the CRO belongs, how long sessions should run, and what to cut.
- Choosing a kickoff theme Pick a kickoff theme that carries the year's narrative: who decides and by when, a one-page creative brief, where it shows up, testing it, and naming the event.
- Budgeting a kickoff per head Build a kickoff budget around cost per head per day, separate fixed from variable costs, and find the money hiding in F&B, AV labor, and attrition.
- Choosing a kickoff venue Hotel, conference center, resort, or something unusual: how to size the general session, count breakouts, run a site visit, and read the contract.
- Travel and room-block math Turn a traveler count into room nights and a contracted block: sharing, peak and shoulder nights, drop-off, attrition floors, and arrival flight banks.
- Hiring an AV and production partner In-house AV or an outside production company, what to put in the RFP, how to read the quote line by line, and how to compare bids without labor surprises.
- Food, beverage, and the BEO How the F&B minimum, service charge, and tax add up, when meal guarantees are due, and how to read a banquet event order line by line before you sign it.
- The attendee comms plan An attendee comms calendar from save-the-date to the Monday after: the registration form, reminders, know-before-you-go, onsite messages, and who signs each.
- Wrangling presenters and deadlines A presenter timeline from T-60 to the tech run: topics, outlines, drafts, slide lock, rehearsals, and what to do when the exec sends slides at midnight.
- Awards and recognition that land Plan kickoff awards people remember: categories beyond top AE, criteria RevOps can defend, secret winners, walk-up music, and timing that holds.
- Evening events people enjoy What each kickoff night is for, onsite vs. offsite and the coach math, activities nobody dreads, rooms built for talking, and an end time that protects the morning.
- Kickoff swag people keep Whether to do swag at all, what people actually keep, lead times, apparel sizing, shipping to remote attendees, and the hidden costs between unit price and per head.
- Kickoffs for remote-first teams How remote-first revenue teams should design a kickoff: relationships over slides, hybrid decisions, time zones, pre-work, and new-hire onboarding.
- Planning for international attendees Plan a kickoff for international attendees: visa lead times, passport checks, jet lag, per diems, dietary needs, time-zone comms, and regional breakouts.
- An accessible, inclusive kickoff Make a kickoff work for everyone: access needs at registration, step-free venues, captions and interpreters, sensory load, breaks, food, and inclusive awards.
- Duty of care at a kickoff Duty of care at a sales kickoff: a code of conduct people know, an alcohol plan, on-call incident response, medical cover, and the after-party problem.
- The kickoff run of show What a kickoff run of show is, which columns matter, how a show caller runs standby and go, and how to recover when a keynote runs 12 minutes long.
- Measuring kickoff ROI without lying to yourself A practical way to measure sales kickoff ROI: set measures in advance, use real baselines, skip pipeline influenced, and report cost per head.
- Post-kickoff follow-through What to do in the 90 days after a sales kickoff: the Monday-after email, on-demand content, manager cascades, certification, surveys, and vendor retros.