Sales kickoff season is upon us. The story is familiar. Revenue projections get higher. Quotas get larger. New product launches designed to drive growth demand that reps master a list of new messages, sales processes and pricing. Competitors’ new offerings make selling into the most complex environments even more complex.

Executives know the sizable investment a physical kickoff requires, and that reps are likely there thinking: “My next customer is waiting for me to find them, and I’m stuck here.” Trouble is reps really need to know every bit of information delivered to them during Kickoff days, and more.

Despite "death by PowerPoint" and the breathless unveiling of new products at Kickoff, according to your customers, only 20% of sales reps are adequately prepared for the type of dialogues that not only lead to second meetings, but drive purchasing decisions.

Our own data – based on responses to more than 200 million scenario-based sales question streams or “Qstreams” -- indicate there is still a sizable gap between what reps need to know, and what they actually retain from sales kick-offs, training sessions and the like.

The reason 2014 could be different is that technology is genuinely coming to the rescue – by helping organizations find a way to make the sales kickoff sizzle, not fizzle, and enable the information conveyed there to be retained long after reps get home.

In life sciences, financial services, tech industries and more, organizations are applying three precepts to holding sales kickoffs that really hit the mark:

1. KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid). Less is more – less time out of the office, simpler kickoff formats, simpler follow-on dialogues after kickoff that don’t ask reps to take time away from their most important task of understanding their customer’s pain, but that help them cultivate consultative problem solving with the customer to mutual advantage.

2. Reinforce vs. Regurgitate. Beat the “forgetting curve” by building a continual reinforcement approach, and making it work with the overly scheduled, multi-tasking and mobile -- yet always eager -- life of a sales rep. Don’t ask them to regurgitate what they learned at Kickoff. Make them put it in context, and ask them repeatedly until it's top of mind.

3. Take a Pulse. Build a feedback mechanism so what’s conveyed at the kickoff can drive ongoing personal coaching.

We welcome companies like Pfizer, Genentech, Intuitive Surgical and others who are leveraging ongoing, measurable approaches such as Qstream to better equip sales reps and indeed the entire organization to win – making the investment and enthusiasm of Kickoff last and last.