Miami SKO: what a sales kick off brings to an organization

The 1E team recently came together in Miami for what is arguably the most important sales meeting of the year – our 2019 Sales Kick Off (SKO).

I know anyone working for an organization with a robust sales team can relate: SKOs play an important role in how we structure our sales team and make selling decisions over the next 12 months. It also gave me a great opportunity to leave the India offices and meet my stateside colleagues.
The India office is predominantly viewed as an engineering center. We are responsible for the development of 1E core products. Together we work with the top system integrators in the country who are crucial to the overall strategy of building our partner ecosystem.
A 22-hour travel time split across two flights from Delhi to Miami tends to take a toll on your body. However, it sure didn’t dampen our enthusiasm.  We were excited to meet our international colleagues, and more importantly, learn about our product updates and new sales strategies for 2019.

This year, the 2019 edition was exceptional and probably my best one ever.

Our SKO was attended by not only our expert sales, execs, and field teams, but also by some of our biggest partners and customers. The sessions were a nice blend of product/sales strategy presentations and team-building activities. The product team showcased the shiny new features and partner integrations which they have been working on for the last few months. It was so satisfying to see how the product feature requests received from our customers last year was prioritized and built into our products.
We had an opportunity to interact with some of our largest customers. We heard them talk about the value they have been deriving from our solutions implemented in their IT estate.  All of that, complimented with sessions from our CEO, CFO and Sales Leaders, helped to lay out the vision and the strategic direction the company is heading towards.

But all work makes Jack a dull boy, doesn’t it?

 

 

While our focus was on learning, we did participate in activities like build-a-boat. This tested our creative thinking and problem-solving skills as we explored boat making. Equally fun was the Lip Sync Battle. Teams performed famous songs with the help of props and costumes. The energy, vibes, and team spirit was out of this world!  The feelings lingered as we went out bowling and ice skating. That did wonders to improve collaboration and team-work. Finally, we celebrated the success and the wins in the past year at an awards dinner. It was a fantastic way to wrap up the SKO.
As I boarded that long flight back home, I felt inspired, confident, valued, and more ready than ever to engage with the prospects and close sales. Together to take the learnings forward into a successful new year. If anything, the event was a reinvigorating experience. It is the perfect foundation to win, win, and win some more in 2019.