Executive Group Travel Blog

Annual Sales Kickoff

Many tech companies host an annual sales kickoff every January or February to help recap the previous year, set goals for the upcoming year, and announce new product launches. These kickoffs have evolved from traditional Webex meetings delivering content, to live hands-on sales trainings and/or simulation tests. This shift in the way kickoffs are held comes with many added costs. A Webex/Zoom meeting is a low cost, non-branded solution that allows companies to share their updates and changes in a concise meeting format up to 3 hours. Anything over the battery life of a computer and you start losing attendees (to be honest, you lose the focus of most dial-in participants after 70 minutes).

While there are certainly benefits to these webinars or sales trainings,  the more popular solution today is getting employees together for a 3-4 day intensive kickoff event. An important part of these events is the positive effect on company culture. What better way to boost employee morale and get your team ready for the year ahead, than to put them together for 3 days in sales trainings during the day and social networking events at night. Most kickoffs only include 4-8 hours of content and the rest is focused on having a more hands-on experience.

So this all leads to meeting planners' most commonly asked question: where should we go next year? Unfortunately for most growing tech companies, this question comes a good 6-9 months before their 300-600 person event! The tech market is constantly changing with IPOs, funding, and acquisitions, so meeting planning timelines have continued to shrink while cash is watched more closely.

First, what is Incentive Travel?

Incentive Travel is a vacation paid for by employers, awarded to qualifying employees or salespeople to reward them for success in reaching certain goals. These trips are an additional bonus used to motivate employees and help the company reach organizational targets.

How to create the perfect balance

Incentive trips are supposed to be a reward to your employees for a job well done. With that in mind, how do you balance required events with time for rest and relaxation? The question comes up repeatedly in discussions with our customers, and in general throughout the industry.

Crucial to any group trip, planning for the unexpected can make or break the experience. Because there are so many variables with group travel, even the best laid plans can go astray. Most incentive trips organize and plan for the best case scenario while exceptional trips plan for the worst case scenario, allowing trip coordinators to seamlessly adapt the plan so participants hopefully aren't even aware of a deviation from the scheduled itinerary! 

Here are three main factors to consider while planning your event:

• Dietary restrictions & allergies
• Mosquito/sun prep
• Back-up space

Destination Management Company

A Destination Management Company, or DMC, is a professional services company with extensive knowledge, expertise, and resources, specializing in design and implementation of events, activities, day trips, transportation, and program logistics. The services provided by a DMC usually include airport greetings, hospitality desks, special events, theme parties, decorations, AV, dinner events, site inspections, and anything you may need on site!

Source: Amstar

As more millennials move up in the workforce and baby boomers retire, this is a good time to refresh your employee engagement strategy. According to CNN, millennials expect to have four jobs by the time they're 32. This means that by the time it takes an employee to get fully ramped up (on average 18 months), he or she will already be getting ready to apply for their next job. Onboarding costs the company a lot of money and a lot of resources, so here are some tips on how to keep employees engaged in a genuine way:

Group activities on an incentive trip can serve many purposes. They are great for setting a team-building tone on the trip, even if that's not the primary goal of the activity. For example, a catamaran cruise for 30 people could provide a social atmosphere for team members to interact in a way they don't usually get to. Activities can also be a great way for incentive travelers to network on their trip. A competitive game of volleyball serves as a great way to relax while fostering a little healthy competition. Seeing co-workers in a different light outside the office is sure to promote inclusive conversation that will eventually lead to improved communication inside the office. 

Photo by Vidar Nordli-Mathisen

Capturing the Key Moments

One important aspect of your incentive trip is capturing the special moments through photos and videos. This is not only for the guests, but also as a marketing tool for recruitment and future trips. In order to get the most out of your photography budget, we recommend a videographer who is able to not only capture the trip but also put together a compilation video. The video can then double as a highlight reel for the attendees as well as a piece to be used by the marketing team for recruiting.

Planning Your Event

After a trying year in 2020, most sales teams are in need of a major boost, something exciting to look forward to.

So... the decision was made to host an incentive trip in the next year or two, and you've been appointed ownership of the big event. Even if you're just starting to brainstorm trip ideas, there are three options when choosing what direction to take the planning: internal planning, a boutique travel agency partnership, or a large corporate agency. Below, we outline some of the benefits of each.

Photo by Marek Levak

2020 has been very difficult year, particularly for most sales reps. Depending on your industry, numbers may still be down and incentives are more important than ever to keep your team positive and looking to the year ahead. One good way to do this is setting up special incentives toward 2021 qualifications, like December sales counting double, etc., to get people motivated again.