Unified Impact: A Blueprint for a Momentous RKO

Revving up your go-to-market (GTM) teams for the year ahead? Then you’ve likely heard the buzz around RKOs (Revenue Kickoffs). More than just a typical SKO (Sales Kickoff), an RKO is about harmonizing the efforts of sales, marketing, and revenue operations to create a unified, revenue-focused strategy.

If you’re gearing up to plan your RKO, this blog covers everything you need to know—from aligning sales and marketing goals to sustaining momentum post-event. We’ll even share tips and templates to streamline the process and ensure your RKO sets the tone for success all year long.

Shift from SKO to RKO?

Unlike the traditional SKO, which focuses solely on sales, an RKO integrates marketing and revenue operations into the conversation. That means sales, marketing, and operations teams, all together, discussing strategy. This shift is critical for B2B and SaaS organizations where sales and marketing must work hand in hand to drive revenue. An RKO ensures a comprehensive approach to achieving GTM goals, leveraging the unique strategies and strengths of each team.

I recommend hosting RKO at least once a year. That’s in addition to running your usual SKO, marketing kickoff, and other team-specific activities throughout the year. RKO is about bringing everyone together. At Demandbase, we host our RKO as early as possible in Q1, usually during the first few days of February.

How to Plan RKO: Setting the Right Tone for Your GTM Teams

The foundation of any impactful RKO lies in solid preparation. Before you get into the nitty-gritty of planning, you need to establish alignment across sales and marketing teams. This shared vision eliminates silos and ensures everyone is aiming for the same target. To get your teams excited and aligned, start with clear, measurable goals. Here’s how to set the tone:

• Create Unified Objectives: Are you aiming to increase your pipeline conversion rate? Accelerate deal velocity? Make sure sales and marketing are aligned on these shared goals.
• Highlight Key Messaging: Build consensus around the value proposition and messaging your teams will use when engaging prospects and customers.
• Define Success Metrics: Establish clear, measurable KPIs for both sales and marketing teams to monitor progress throughout the year.

Pro tip: Host a pre-kickoff alignment session with GTM leaders to finalize these elements before your RKO planning officially begins.

Who Should Be Part of the RKO Planning Committee?

When it comes to planning a truly impactful RKO, it’s crucial to get the right players at the table. Each group brings unique perspectives and expertise that elevate your event beyond a routine meeting. That’s why your planning committee is the backbone of your RKO. Here’s a look at who you need—and why:

Sales: Sales leaders have frontline visibility into revenue targets, pipeline health, and the challenges reps face every day. Their insights ensure your RKO content directly addresses sales priorities and drives tangible results.

• VP of Sales
• Director of Sales
• Regional Sales Manager
• Sales Manager / Team Lead

Marketing: Marketing shapes the messaging, campaigns, and brand narrative that feed your pipeline. Involving them in RKO planning ensures alignment between revenue goals and the programs designed to hit those goals.

• Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)
• VP of Marketing
• Director of Demand Generation
• Head of Product Marketing

Revenue operations: RevOps ties everything together with data, systems, and analytics. As overseers of your tech stack and performance metrics, they help your RKO stay focused on the strategies that truly impact revenue.

• VP of Revenue Operations
• RevOps Director/Manager
• Sales Operations Lead
• Marketing Operations Lead

Enablement teams: Your enablement pros bridge the gap between strategy and execution. They create training materials, tools, and resources that help both sales and marketing teams put RKO insights into action—long after the event is over.

• Director of Sales Enablement
• Revenue Enablement Manager
• Sales Training Manager

Bring these voices together, and you’ll spark collaboration that translates into real results.

From there, it’s all about structuring an agenda that keeps your teams focused and inspired—no matter how packed the day is. Think of your RKO agenda as the playbook that gets everyone moving in sync toward a common goal.

Need an example? Download our RKO Agenda Template to make sure your next RKO covers all the bases.

Best Practices for Collaboration and Alignment

Bring marketing, sales and ops together. Cross-team collaboration is a game-changer, so get them all talking. Bring both sales and marketing together for interactive sessions, where they can brainstorm ideas, troubleshoot pain points, and share insights. This is where the magic happens—getting everyone in the same room (even virtually) helps break down barriers, builds mutual respect, and drives innovation. It also gives sales a better understanding of marketing’s process and vice versa, which is crucial for a smooth handoff and an overall better customer experience.

Your RKO is an opportunity to equip teams with resources they’ll use all year long. Here’s how to plan content that resonates:

• Co-create training materials: Collaborate with sales and marketing leaders to create content that addresses real-world challenges.
• Use case studies: Share customer success stories that resonate with both sales and marketing teams.
• Provide actionable tools: Include checklists, guides, and templates that teams can reference post-RKO.

How We Run RKOs at Demandbase

We do several things at Demandbase to facilitate productive, fun, and aligning RKOs. For us, RKO is a time to get together, get to know each other, feel a sense of unity and belonging, and put our heads together to unleash new ideas.

-We carefully plan both the schedule and the setting of the RKO. For example, we have a “distraction free zone” at every RKO, where team members can go to take a social break, work in silence and watch sessions on their own computers.

-We have speaker-led sessions and then smaller breakouts. People can select the topics or concentration of topics that are of most interest to them for breakout rooms.

-We use influencers at our own event (you should too). Leverage influencers to amplify your brand message. By partnering with influencers who resonate with your target audience, you can enhance brand credibility and reach. Ensure that both sales and marketing teams are involved in selecting and managing these partnerships to maintain consistency.

-We share customer feedback. Encourage open communication about customer feedback. Sales teams can provide insights from direct customer interactions, while marketing can share data on customer engagement. This exchange helps refine strategies and improve customer satisfaction.

-We love adding a fun twist to our RKO afternoons and evenings with themed events. These are opportunities for everyone to kick back, get to know each other, and just hang out. Last year, we went all-in on a 1930s speakeasy evening.

-To keep the excitement rolling, we’ll bring in a celebrity speaker or two. Not only does this build anticipation and hype around the event, but it also gives our teams the chance to learn fresh perspectives and draw inspiration that complements our RKO goals.

What to Know Before You Go

Preparation is absolutely crucial to making sure your RKO runs smoothly and delivers maximum value to attendees. Here are some tips to ensure your RKO goes off without a hitch:

-Conduct pre-event surveys. Start by conducting pre-event surveys to understand what your audience hopes to achieve or learn from the session. This will help you tailor the content to their specific needs and expectations, ensuring that you cover the most relevant topics and focus on what truly matters to them. The feedback you gather will also allow you to adjust the structure of your event to prioritize areas that may require more time or deeper exploration. This personalized approach makes the event feel more engaging and valuable, helping you foster a stronger connection with your audience.

-Test all the technology before the event. You’ll be tempted, but don’t skip this step. Something will always go wrong with the tech; so preempt the headache. Nothing worse than sweating it out in front of your org audience while your powerpoint gets working, or the sound of your new video won’t play. Double-check your presentation equipment—microphones, projectors, and screens—for in-person events. For virtual events, test all platforms used for collaboration, video streaming, and communication, the day of, a few hours before the event, including ensuring smooth transitions between segments, interactive elements, and breakout rooms. And don’t skip the practice round. Doing a dry run with your team is essential for identifying any potential technical glitches and allowing time to resolve them before the actual event begins.

-Plan out interactive elements ahead of time. You want to create an environment where attendees feel involved, energized, and eager to participate. One effective way to achieve this is by incorporating interactive elements such as live polls, Q&A sessions, or quizzes that can be easily integrated into both in-person and virtual formats.
Interactive sessions not only break up the monotony but also encourage participants to actively engage with the content, making the event feel more dynamic. These elements can also serve as real-time feedback mechanisms, allowing you to gauge the audience’s understanding and adjust the pace or direction of the presentation as needed.

Pro tip: When I’m at a Q&A and the audience isn’t jumping in, I’ll step up with a question. It breaks the awkward silence, helps the speaker find their rhythm, and kick-starts the conversation.

Driving Momentum Post-RKO: How to make results last

A stellar RKO is just the beginning. The real challenge lies in sustaining alignment and momentum throughout the year. Once the event wraps up, it’s time to reinforce what your teams learned. Here’s how:

• Distribute RKO Follow-Up Materials: Share session recordings, key takeaways, and additional resources to ensure everyone has access to the content.
• Set Quarterly Checkpoints: Host quarterly alignment meetings to revisit RKO goals and adjust strategies as needed.
• Keep Feedback Loops Open: Regularly collect feedback from your teams to understand what’s working and where improvements can be made.
• Monitor both team engagement and performance metrics. Data will help you optimize future RKOs for even greater impact. To measure the success of your RKO, monitor both team engagement and performance metrics.This includes short-Term Metrics like post event survey results, training participation rates, and post-RKO engagement, as well as long-Term Metrics: Pipeline growth, lead quality, quota attainment, and customer acquisition metrics.

Download the RKO Agenda Template

Planning a successful RKO might sound daunting, but with the right framework, your teams will leave inspired, aligned, and ready to crush their goals. Remember, an RKO isn’t just a one-time event, it’s the foundation for ongoing collaboration between sales, marketing, and RevOps.

Need help crafting the perfect agenda for aligning your teams? Download our RKO Agenda Template.