What time of year is it? Here’s a clue: The conference room is adorned with motivational banners and everyone’s favorite part — the company swag — is piled as high as the mounds of buffalo chicken wings on the neighboring table.

It’s the sales kickoff (SKO) season! But here’s something you should know: After you’ve spent a bundle on a venue, catering, speaker bookings, team-building exercises and bulk orders of Stanley cups, surveys show that company SKOs aren’t making the mark with participants. Nearly 75% of sales kickoff attendees feel their company’s sales kickoff didn’t deserve an A grade, with nearly 30% grading their company a C or below!

Don’t just get mad; get productive. It’s time to provide more than just flashy presentations and freebies. What if you could offer real solutions to improve your sales team’s performance? Buried under the sea of branded T-shirts and cans of Nitro Cold Brew lies a secret weapon for boosting revenue. All it takes is shifting your focus from strictly sales to aligning sales with marketing, finance and customer success operations throughout the customer lifecycle.

Let’s explore how shifting your sales focus to embrace go-to-market (GTM) strategies that combine the entire RevOps team with shared goals, data and tools sets the stage for measurable revenue-boosting, game-changing and sales-quota-smashing action.

The problems with a solely sales-focused SKO

An SKO isn’t short on entertainment. However, the lack of clear objectives and strategies can leave organizations grappling with many challenges. The pitfalls of solely sales-focused SKOs can hinder rather than propel a company’s success.

Lack of clear objectives: Your teams raved about the party, but what was the takeaway that can help guide them toward their sales goals? When the purpose and objectives of the SKO are not clearly defined, it can lead to confusion among participants and a lack of focus throughout the event.

Overlooking existing challenges: The typical SKO is more distraction and less motivation. However, if the SKO content does not address the real challenges faced by the sales team, attendees might perceive it as irrelevant and disengaging.

Focusing too much on presentations: Too much focus on one-way presentations without opportunities for interaction and engagement can lead to passive learning and reduced retention of information.

Neglecting follow-up and accountability: Without clear follow-up plans and mechanisms for accountability, the momentum and insights gained during the SKO may quickly dissipate once participants return to their daily routines.

The benefits of hosting a revenue-based kickoff

The SKO model relies on one territory report to guide the sales team throughout the fiscal year. But, the agile behavior of the current market saddles the sales team with outdated and inaccurate information.

As changes occur, moving toward a RevOps focus brings more information, resources and alignment to the sales process.

Alignment with a changing market: By emphasizing GTM strategies, you ensure that your sales efforts are closely aligned with the needs and dynamics of your target market. This alignment increases the relevance of your offerings, making it more likely for potential customers to convert into paying clients.

More effective sales strategies: Sales teams with the right tools, messaging and tactics can deliver a more targeted approach that effectively communicates value propositions and addresses customer pain points.

Faster time to market: Focusing on GTM strategies streamlines the process of bringing new products or services to market. It enables your organization to capitalize on market opportunities more quickly, potentially generating earlier revenue.

Better market penetration: Expanding into new markets or segments can increase your customer base and revenue potential by reaching untapped opportunities and diversifying your sources of income.

CX that stands out in the crowd: You can improve overall customer satisfaction and loyalty by prioritizing customer-centric approaches with collaborative GTM strategies. The result? Repeat business and positive word-of-mouth referrals drive revenue growth.

The new kickoff: More comprehensive, more instructive and more often

Plan on smaller and more frequent meetings: Traditionally, the sales manager spends considerable time preparing sales territories as part of the annual grand presentation. It’s one shot at introducing the year’s goals and serves two purposes: It renews and centers the sales team on essential priorities, then it generates enthusiasm, dedication and drive toward the team’s success criteria.

However, a crucial element is absent if this drive wanes mere months afterward. What’s missing? “The answer is often ‘reinforcement,'” said Paul Stansik, partner at ParkerGale Capital. “Your sales kickoff needs to be part of an intentional plan to change the business for the better.”

Reinforce the RevOps team’s focus: Frequent kickoff meetings provide flexibility in focus as business climates change, account quality shifts and territories need adjusting to optimize your sales team. That may include training. Eighty-three percent of companies say that developing leaders at all levels is important. However, not even 5% of companies have actually implemented leadership development across all levels.

Managers can also supplement the information shared throughout the year by organizing more focused quarterly events. This approach maintains closer ties with the team, empowers teams to react promptly to market developments and reduces the burden on your planning team compared to organizing a single large-scale event annually, which can be overwhelmed with logistical details.

Invest in tools that empower the RevOps team: Concerts, celebrity speakers, SWAG — it’s all great. But imagine the long-term impact of investing in your teams via training programs and automated tools. For instance, studies show that 81% of sales teams don’t regularly audit their sales processes, and 20% don’t have access to resources to support their workflow.

To equip sales teams with current information throughout the year, Fullcast offers a GTM planning platform that supports agile territory management, enabling sales organizations to rapidly and continuously update their territories, resource assignments and quotas.

Beyond the superficial allure of branded merchandise and trendy beverages lies the true potential for revenue growth. By tapping into this reservoir of innovation and focusing on meaningful strategies, businesses can unlock unprecedented success.

J’Nel Wright is a content writer at Fullcast, a Silicon Slopes-based end-to-end RevOps platform that allows companies to design, manage and track the performance of their revenue-generating teams.