Sales Kick-off Most Memorable Moments...

I thought I’d follow up on Guys SKO note with a few sales kickoff most memorable moments… January marks the beginning of a new year and chance for those product marketing guys to get in front of sales and pitch the new roadmaps, demos, product direction, solutions, case studies and best practices to energize and get the sales teams jazzed about the upcoming year. Sometimes these events can be a bit of a boondoggle/pep rally, but hopefully there’s always some learning to take away and some energy generated to get the promise of BI out in front of customers in the upcoming year. That being said, whenever you get a bunch of marketing and sales guys together some crazy things always seem to happen. Looking back over the years, there has certainly been some interesting moments and I’ve been fortunate to be a part of three different BI organizations so I thought I’d list a few of the memorable ones:
1. XI is announced – Crystal and Business Objects come together
2. The C-suite and VPs of Business Objects do a super hero skit
3. “And now for something completely different” - Monty Pythons own John Cleese keynotes
4. Sinbad hosts the evening reception at the Bellagio in Vegas
5. Crystal unveils the “Beat the BO Campaign” with VP of sales Bill Gibson boxing with a big blue guy on stage, six months later they are acquired by BO
6. Checking out the penguins in the world’s largest aquarium in Atlanta
7. EPM and EIM are like Oreo cookies!
8. The marketing team takes out a hotel chandelier with a t-shirt launcher while rehearsing their segment
Cheers to the new year in BI and the memorable moments to come!