Ice breakers for sales meetings

If you find yourself dreading those first minutes of a sales meeting, you’re absolutely not alone. Whether you’re a sales professional, running a small business, or freelancing, hosting sales meetings comes with the turf. It’s a high-pressure environment and often, with multiple people in the room, the first minutes can feel overwhelming – here’s a bit more on ice breakers for sales meetings.

So what does it actually mean? Well, quite simply an ice breaker is a game or activity used to introduce people to each other, so they feel more relaxed. But it doesn’t even need to go that far: it can just be as simple as asking a few comfortable questions to get the conversation flowing.

Here’s a few pointers to think about:

Don’t force it

I’ve read and seen lots of ice breakers in action and its an area I cover sometimes in sales training courses. One of the things I don’t recommend is making them feel quite forceful.

People experience a wide range of emotions in meetings, from nervous and shy through to excited and interested. As such, icebreakers for sales meetings need to be well considered beforehand, and in the context of who will be attending.

You’ll also find there are people who are willing to talk (non-stop!) while others give barely one-word answers, which can make icebreakers fall flat or hard to control.

Get to know each other

In sales you’re always selling to a person. People make decisions about what to buy all the time, based on the simple fact of whether they like the person who is selling to them or not. A sales meeting is an excellent opportunity to deepen the relationship and get to know one another more personally.

Icebreakers built around this can be highly effective, but it’s important not to get too personal, too quickly!

If you prefer your ice breakers to be based on conversation and getting to know one another personally, you can ask open questions that will allow the others to talk on their own terms. If you prefer to go down the game or activity route you could do something like:

• Everyone in the room gives a fun fact about themselves
• Everyone in the room says what pet(s) they have
• Everyone in the room says the last book they read
• Everyone shares a recent photo they took and why its important to them

Business background

If you prefer your icebreakers for sales meetings to be more business-focused you can use the opportunity to explore each others’ professional backgrounds.  People often enjoy discussing their professional achievements or how they came into the role that they are in, and this can be an excellent way to kick off a meeting.

Some simple icebreakers could be:

• Everyone in the room says how they got into the industry
• Everyone in the room says what their very first job was
• Everyone in the room says what they most enjoy about their job

Icebreakers for sales meetings

Remember that icebreakers can not only play a role in warming up the room, but they can also provide a fabulous opportunity to deepen relationships and get to know your client more personally.

I’d recommend you consider which kind of icebreakers suit your personality and will complement the tone of the meeting you are about to have. For example, a game of charades followed by 3 hours of charts and graphs might feel a little jarring!

I’d recommend testing out ideas to see how well they work and looking at how people respond so you can refine them for future use.