The Secret of Sales Icebreakers Without Sounding Awkward
Approaching people for the first time in sales can be awkward. If you say the wrong thing you can come off as overly aggressive or just plain weird. Thankfully there is a solution that is properly using sales icebreakers. Using sales icebreakers is key to making sales and building rapport while prospecting. In this post, you’ll learn the secret of using sales icebreakers effectively without being awkward or pushy.
Without using sales icebreakers you are going to lack the rapport to close the deal
One thing I struggled with in the past was focusing on building rapport early in the sales process. When you are having a conversation with someone, you need to build rapport first, before moving into the sales process. As your prospecting and recruiting skills get better we can sometimes forget this step.
Think of your business as a numbers game and don’t be addicted to the outcome. However, when you treat people like numbers it doesn’t work too well. This is why it is important to use icebreakers and build rapport during your sales and recruiting process.
Often we get so caught up in trying to make the sale that we skip over the rapport building phase and neglect sales icebreakers. Unfortunately, when you do this, it actually turns most people off from buying from you or joining your team.
Most people make the mistake of thinking that sales is trying to convince someone who isn’t interested to buy from you. Having that mindset will lead you to a long and frustrating career in sales.
The truth is, to be successful in sales you need to find out what someone’s needs and what their problems are, and then find a solution to them. You do this with your products or business. When your approach is focused on what’s in it for them and how you can help, rather than on how you can sell them you’ll be more effective.
Don’t go right in for the kill in your marketing, instead use sales icebreakers first
If you haven’t had it happen yet you will, but a lot of people will pitch you instantly online. This is a crucial mistake that if you are doing it you should stop.
For example, if you asked someone what they did and they said “I’m with the number one, most amazing health and wellness company ever. We have the greatest product of all time and you should take it hands down. Go to xyzhealthy.com”.
Don’t just throw your sales page on your prospect’s face. Take a little time to get to know them and see if you can find out their needs and wants and how you can help them first.
It really doesn’t take that much more time to do this and you will get much better results. It may only be a few sentences back and forth before you ask them to review some information or invite them to a presentation. However, these few statements can make all the difference in your business.
Sales icebreakers do just that, they “break the ice” or remove the hard cold defenses people have up. When you get to know about them first, you have a much easier time selling to them.
You can be “all business” without being “all business” by starting conversations with sales icebreakers first
You can be super passionate about your products and business, but if that’s all you talk about you can come off as insincere and disingenuous. People join and buy from people that they know, like, and trust, and if you skip the rapport building process and don’t use sales icebreakers, they won’t join you or buy from you.
Ideally, you want to get to know them as well because this should turn into a long term relationship if you do things right. Your job in sales isn’t to just get the sale and never speak to that person again. Making the sale should just be the start of the relationship, not the end of it.
Another thing to understand is that you can have all the sales skills in the world, you could know how to close, know everything about your products, the compensation plan and more, but that doesn’t mean people will buy from you.
You can even use the perfect network marketing scripts, or know how to be great in sales, and still not get someone started because you lacked rapport. Sales skills are important, but when you don’t use sales icebreakers and build some rapport first, it likely won’t make a difference and you’ll lose the sale.
I’d recommend checking out the video below as well on how to be great in sales.
One way to break the ice in sales without being weird is with referrals
Existing customers can be one of the best ways of using sales icebreakers without being awkward. This can “give you an in” to start the sales conversation without being weird because you can “namedrop” or mention the person who referred you.
For example, you might say something like, “Hey Tom, I know we don’t know each other directly, but I was talking with our mutual friend Sally, and she mentioned I should reach out to you. I’m working on a project and looking to work with a few new talented people to help expand our organization and your name came up…”
With this kind of approach, things aren’t weird and you are using that relationship you have with their friend as an icebreaker. Plus it can help you build trust quickly because of that existing relationship they have with that friend as well.
People usually think that they themselves are trustworthy and a good person, so if someone is a mutual friend they must also be trustworthy and a good person as well. This “friend of a friend” relationship can help you break down barriers quickly and can help you make sales faster.
Another sales icebreaker that works great is using complements
Breaking the ice with complements is a great strategy for people you’ve just met, or if you are reaching out to someone that you haven’t talked to in a while. If you are building a network marketing business, for example, you might be reaching out to contacts you haven’t spoken to in years.
A great approach with them using complements for sales icebreakers is to bring up something from your past relationship and compliment them on it. For instance, it could sound something like, “Hey John, I know we haven’t talked for a while, but I always remembered that when we used to work together you were always one of the most driven and hardworking people I used to work with….”
Maybe you just met someone at a networking event or ran into them at the gym and you had exchanged information. Well, an approach for them with a complement could sound like, “Hey Jill, I really enjoyed our conversation yesterday at the gym and couldn’t help but notice you have such great energy and attitude about you…”
Another option for using complements could be to complement the person on the skill it takes to do their job. This works great with people who have highly technical jobs, or people with jobs that require great people skills.
The key to using complements as icebreakers it that they need to be genuine. People can sense fake people a mile away, so if you use complements for sales icebreakers, do it in a way you actually believe or it won’t be well received.
Develop and hone your people skills to get even better at sales icebreakers
Let’s face it, sales is a people business and if you aren’t good with people, you probably won’t do very well in sales. Now this doesn’t mean you need to be an extrovert by any means, I’m a big introvert by nature, but you do need to understand people.
Your success will only grow to the point that you do. Share on XWorking on yourself and improving your people skills and leadership skills is essential for success in sales and business. The better you get with people and having conversations with them, the easier it is to build rapport and use sales icebreakers without being awkward.
If you are just getting started in business or want to take your sales and people skills to the next level, I’d recommend checking out this post on 6 ways to get people to like you.
Also, a few books I’d recommend picking up or re-reading if you already have them are How to win friends and influence people, and The 5 levels of leadership.
By the way, if you want to learn the system and strategy I’ve been using for years for recruiting and developing a rapport with prospects instantly, be sure to check out my F.O.R.M. Recruiting Machine Blueprint training here!
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