5 Great Ice Breaker Ideas For Your Next Sales Kickoff Event

Use Icebreakers To Improve Your Sales Kickoff Events

Sales kickoffs (SKO) are critical training events that bring your teams together to celebrate wins from the previous year, align goals for the coming year, and bring your team members together around a standard message. 

While some companies continue to host their sales kickoff events in person, many organizations have seen the benefits of hosting virtual kickoff events instead. These online gatherings save money and allow remote teams to interact with organizational leaders through interactive and engaging team-building activities. 

One part of corporate events that continues to prove difficult for event planners is how to get team members talking and engaging with each other. Facilitators need to find a way to help people get comfortable with one another to begin the process of team bonding. 

Team meetings and kickoff events are no different, and one of the best ways to get your virtual meeting off on the right foot is to choose icebreaker activities that make your audience feel welcomed and engaged at the start of the event. 

Virtual Icebreakers Are More Than Fun Games

An icebreaker activity is a starting point that helps attendees feel comfortable in the new environment. Icebreakers can ignite conversation starters and help individuals connect with other attendees through teamwork. 

Icebreakers typically have a negative reputation, but these team-building exercises are essential for virtual team building. A meeting icebreaker offers several benefits to any virtual meeting, like: 

• Help introduce facilitators, guests, and attendees. 

• Encourage buy-in for participation early on during the meeting. 

• Increase collaboration among attendees and build camaraderie among small groups. 

If you want to get the most out of your training sessions, you need to choose a fun icebreaker that matches the tone of your event. In addition, the best icebreakers are short, feel authentic, and get people to make new connections. 

Whether you are hosting a large or small virtual event, you will need to choose suitable icebreaker games to help people feel comfortable and set the tone for the rest of your sales kickoff. 

​5 Icebreaker Ideas That You Can Use Today!

As we discussed above, icebreakers help large groups come together for a common goal. While it is essential for in-person meetings, it's even more important for remote work since you need to get individuals to connect personally to encourage team building. 

For many people, the feeling of being at an event can be intimidating. So when you're trying to break the ice with others and get them engaged in your program or meeting early on to help attendees warm up to each other and your sales kickoff. 

Let's take a look at five effective meeting icebreakers that you can use for your next meeting!

1. Live Icebreaker Polls

One of the best ways to break the ice and capture attention at virtual events is with live polls working exceptionally well. You can send questions to your participants before the event and share the results on screen, or you can use live polling software to allow participants to submit their answers on the spot. 

They also provide a fun opportunity for participants from across industries and teams. Facilitators can customize questions based on the sales kickoff theme or other aspects of the event that you want to highlight. 

Not only is a poll a great way to share information about specific aspects of your company, but it can also ignite the crowd based on surprising or inspiring answers.

2. Would You Rather?

Would You Rather is a classic icebreaker for corporate events because it asks the group what they'd instead do out of two possible options. 

Would You Rather is a great icebreaker for any group. It's most effective in 10-40 minute sessions and can easily be made age-appropriate to suit young children and adolescents or adults with no problem at all! 

Smaller groups (those under ten) might use the Would You Rather activity more like an engaging debate about which answer they want; bigger groups could call out reasons why either choice seemed better than another so that everyone has something specific unanimous agreement on before starting their conversation together.

An interesting take on this icebreaker would be to present attendees with options, then show the average answers of all participants through a live feed in the virtual kickoff webinar software.

3. Two Truths And A Lie

It is a good icebreaker because it encourages attendees to engage with each other on a personal level. The icebreakers essentially break members into small groups of 6-10 participants and have each player tell two truths and a lie about themselves. 

Other members are then tasked to determine which statement is true or false. This light-hearted trivia game is a great way to start the virtual team-building process as members learn personal information about each other and connect over exciting facts. 

4. Never Have I Ever

This game offers everything you need to get attendees to learn exciting things about each other in a fun way. 

Members will group, and the facilitator will ask the group, "have you ever" done specific activities in their life. This icebreaker gets everyone interacting as they see who has shared some experience they haven't done yet, like picking up milk at night without waking anyone else or calling into work sick just once (even if it was for less than ten minutes). 

Virtual meetings are an excellent place for this icebreaker idea because you can record answers and share in a live setting through your webinar software. This can get everyone laughing and engaging as they see who has shared experiences among the larger group!

5. Virtual Scavenger Hunt

Virtual scavenger hunts are a great way to get your attendees up and interacting with each other. The critical element for any good Virtual Scavenger Hunt is that it is not easy, so there's always room for competition.

This team-building activity is also a great choice because it helps members warm up to each other by brushing up on skills like memory or strategic thinking to accomplish tasks before time runs out.

Virtual Scavenger Hunts allow you to do things like taking selfies while earning points by finding items around the home, finding answers on your corporate website, or looking for clues on social media.

A Fun Icebreaker Can Make A Great Sales Kickoff!

The icebreaker activity is a great way to get your audience engaged and ready for an event. It will help them feel more comfortable in groups of strangers, which may sometimes be difficult with all the hustle-bustle of a virtual meeting.

Engaging people early helps break down barriers later when it comes time for networking or business conversations - these are potent kickoffs! 

There's no better place than now by getting everyone talking already. That feeling starts something unique: connections made through mutual interest with the right icebreaker questions and fun activities. 

Take your virtual sales kickoff to the next level with the right icebreaker today!