The SKO Speech I’d Like To Deliver

I do a good number of Sales Kickoff speeches  I don’t give many speeches to general audiences or at conferences.  Most of the time, my speaking is at the SKO of a client, with whom we’ve been working on key change initiatives.  The speech is very focused and directed to each person’s role in executing these initiatives and achieving the goals.

But every once in a while, someone convinces me to do something with a client I’ve not worked with, or at some sort of conference.  I give the typical “insightful and motivational” speech, with a slight bit of humor.  They fit the sponsor’s objectives.

But I’ve always imagined the SKO speech I’d really like to give. So, I thought I’d share it here:

“Thank you for asking me to speak at your SKO. You are here for several days to learn new things. You’ll learn the latest new products. You’ll learn the latest new programs and tools, each focused on helping you be more successful in achieving your and your company’s goals. You will learn new skills, developing new ways to work with your customers, engaging them and creating differentiated value.

Let me share one thing about all the things you will learn at the SKO. They work!! If you do the things you learn in this meeting, if you apply them every day they will absolutely work, they will enable you to reach your goals far more effectively, perhaps even exceed them. You will be far more successful as a result of applying what you learn over these few days.

When you think about it, that’s kind of a ‘Well duggghhh, Dave,’ observation. No one here will be teaching you things that will cause you to fail.

Everything about what you will experience over the next few days is designed to help you and your company achieve new levels of success, if you open yourself to learning, then apply it every day.

At the end of this conference, you should know what you need to do to be successful, how to do it, and why it’s important–to you, your customers and the company.

I suspect at the end of the conference you will leave inspired. You will be excited, energized, ready to conquer the world–or at least your customers and territories.

And next week you will return to your offices, you will go back to your customers, and you will do your jobs.  You’ll fall into the habits, doing what you’ve always done. Within, 30-60 days, 85% of you will not have changed what you do at all.

All the things you learned at this conference will have been forgotten, they won’t be applied, you will be back to executing the same old/same old….

Yes, a small percentage of you will find a way to apply what you have learned and will see the results. They should be no surprise, we know what you should learn here works!

But what about the rest of you?  I know you are well intentioned. I know you say you will apply what you have learned. I know you want to apply what you have learned.

Unfortunately, our minds conspire against us doing this.

So, let me challenge each of you to do something new.  At the end of this conference, before you leave, write down how you will begin putting the things you learned here into practice.  What specific things will you do in the next 30-60-90 days?  What goals are you establishing for yourself?

Once you have written it down, give a copy to your manager, asking her to coach and support you in achieving those goals.

There is a lot for us to be optimistic about in 2025.  But we have to change and adapt.  We can’t do what we have always done.”

All the best for 2025!

Afterword:  This is the AI generated discussion of this post.  This goes in a slightly different direction than I anticipated, focusing more on accountability, but it’s still interesting.  Enjoy!