How to Do Icebreakers with Burly Men?

Hey, friends and fellow connection enthusiasts! You’ll get a kick out of this one. Recently, I had an engaging conversation with a fellow speaker and corporate trainer who’s part of our tribe (name changed for anonymity sake). We shared some insights, laughs, and, most importantly, valuable takeaways for you to take back to your teams, groups, and organizations. Ready to dive into some exciting icebreakers for big burly men who sell truck parts? Hang on tight, because here we go!

Hey Chad, I am a speaker and corporate trainer. I am part of your tribe, own your product, and have used them. Here’s my question, I am creating a program to deliver to big burly guys that sell truck parts outside and inside sales. Looking for one or 2 session starters for this type of participant (70 to 120). Thanks. Love what you do.

Haha! Love the ask. First, I’d put them in the position of their own expertise with something like this collaborative calculator exercise:

Then I would tell them you’ve chosen a series of 3 questions to help access that ungoogleable knowledge. And that it’ll require them to share experiences they’ve had and things they know so everybody comes back from each conversation a bit smarter.

Questions are up to you, but I’d ensure they are fun to answer AND bring value to those listening.

Something like:
– What is a time you sold something to somebody you were SURE was going to say “no”?
– What was the most surprising rejection (or objection) you’ve got? And what’d you do about it?
– Lastly, what is one of your golden phrases or ideas that clients absolutely love?

This requires the group to be open and collaborative. Most are, but that is a pre-req.

LASTLY, if you want to use the We! Connect Cards, an equally phenomenal exercise would be to facilitate a question swap with the entire group, framed as a conversational lottery. But the key here with this group is that I would invite them to add the phrase “related to sales“ to the end of every question.

98% of the questions in the deck will still be perfect and fantastic questions with that purpose-focused ahead on. But you may want to go through and remove a handful of cards that don’t quite make sense.

Directions for that question swap with convo lottery as the framing:

Are you tired of the arm-crossing and eye-rolling that happens when you try to accelerate connection or boost engagement? Trust me, I’ve been there, and it doesn’t have to be this way! Make your next gathering, whether it’s a meeting, workshop, or conference, a memorable one. Check out the Connection Toolkit to kickstart meaningful conversations and ignite relationships in a fun and engaging way. Together, we can make

connection easy and enjoyable!