Sales Meetings: The Purpose, and My Top 30 Ice-Breaker Questions

What is the value of a weekly sales meeting?

Connectedness matters. I don’t know if that’s even a word, but I do know “engagement” is a word.

We don’t just come to work for the money or the job itself. We come and stay when we’re regularly recognized and validated, where we can predict what we’re walking into each day, where we have autonomy to do what we do best with the required resources and assistance (without being micro-managed).

We also come to work each day, stay and want to tell our friends when we are part of something – a team, a family – surrounded by people that have each-other’s backs – and we enjoy being there.

We perform at our best when we’re engaged, and when all of these elements come together, engagement is maximized.

For anyone who’s worked with me, for my team meetings, there were always elements of four things:

1) Fun

You could count on their being an icebreaker at the beginning. Using these opportunities to drive family into your team not only helps their motivation, but was something that made me feel more connected as well.

2) Recognition

Ensuring that each week we spent some time to validate the entire team, and recognize those who were standing out.

3) Education

If you’re not getting better, you’re getting worse. What simple things could we impart to make each and every team member a little better at what they do?

4) Motivation

Goals. Purpose. Inspiration. Start off the week with a little extra sets the rest of the week up on a high note.

Would love to hear and add yours to the list. Be sure to bookmark this page, because at some point, you’ll be looking for a good one to use, too.

Top Thirty Ice Breaker Questions:

To start, here are my favorite TEN:

1) Who is the most famous person you’ve ever met?

– I’ve asked this one a bazillion times. So many interesting people, but more importantly, so many interesting stories that have come from it…

2) What is your Uber rating?

– This one always has very funny conversations associated with it. It typically tells you a lot about a person’s demeanor, too, so be careful!

3) Describe your closet.

– I’ve had a lot of unexpected fun with this one. You’ll find that people’s responses are often much different than their personality at work.

4) What is your favorite not-so-obvious social media follow, regardless of whether it’s Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, etc.?

– Another great one for finding new people to follow, and it often reveals a lot about the personality of the individual who shares it.

5) Describe your first car.

– The number of people who have hilarious stories about their first car is endless.

6) What was the first (or best) concert you ever attended?

– I, personally, prefer “first” over “best”…but sometimes asking for both still works. First are typically pretty weird. Like, for me, my first was The Beach Boys at a Texas Rangers baseball game when I was a kid.

7) What was your first paying job?

– So many interesting answers to this one.

8) What is/was your nickname and why?

– While at PowerReviews, I asked this one during the second week of my tenure, and many of them are still remembered and sticky years later.

9) What would you name your yacht?

– This one makes everyone really think. You’ll get some hilarious answers, too.

10) Who has been the most helpful person to you during your tenure at work?

– This one is a great one to use at a company meeting. Opportunity to give kudos to the individuals who make a difference behind the scenes.

And here are the “BEST OF THE REST”:

11) What is your middle name? Why (if you know)?

12) What is your biggest pet peeve? (the less obvious, the better)

13) What is your least favorite word?

14) What television show do you wish was still made?

15) What is the weirdest gift you’ve ever received?

16) What is your go-to candy?

17) Who is your celebrity twin?

18) As a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

19) What is the first song on your favorite playlist?

20) What is your favorite quote or mantra?

21) What is a talent others have that you wish you had?

22) What is a tip you would give your younger self?

23) What is your not-so-obvious favorite app on your phone?

24) What was your best and your worst subject in school?

25) Who was your childhood hero?

26) What is your favorite cause or charity?

27) What has been the highlight and lowlight for you so far this year? (or, for a Monday meeting you could change “this year” to “this weekend”. For a Friday meeting, you could change it to “this week”)

28) If you could have any celebrity over for dinner or out for a drink (living), who would it be? (same question – but someone who has passed)

29) If you were being forced to do karaoke, but you could choose the song, what would it be?

30) What is one thing about you people would be surprised to learn?

Which great ones are missing from the list? Would love to add yours – the good ones will be edited in, so bookmark this list for future reference.

Here are the “CROWDSOURCED ADDITIONS“:

1) FROM MARK (in the comments below): “What non-food/non-drink/(non-obvious) item would you have to have if you were stranded on an island in the middle of the ocean?”

2) FROM TODD GORRELL: “What are your top 3 binge worth streaming TV shows?”

3) FROM BOBBY WALTER: “What was your first screen name?​”

4) FROM JUSTIN JAY JOHNSON: “What’s something you’re grateful for either personally or professionally?”

5) FROM MEGGIE DIALS: “Can you ride a horse?” meaning can you just go up to one, jump on the saddle and go?

6) FROM BRETT BREWER: “Show us how you tie your shoes and tell us why you tie them that way”—you’d be AMAZED at how many different ways people tie their shoes, and how passionate people are about why their method is the best.

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I’m Todd Caponi, CSP®. (<– links to LinkedIn)

I’ve written three books so far: The Transparency Sale, The Transparent Sales Leader, and my soon-to-be-released Four Levers Negotiating.

I’m a sales keynote speaker and sales trainer, focused on teaching revenue organizations how to leverage transparency and decision science to maximize their revenue capacity.

It’s what I do…teach sellers, their leaders, well…entire revenue organizations how we as human beings make decisions, then how to use that knowledge for good (not evil) in their messaging (informal and formal), sales negotiations, sales presentations, and revenue leadership.

Reach out (email to info@toddcaponi.com) – for inquiries about speaking at your event or sales kickoff, for programs to upskill your customer-facing teams and leaders, or just to nerd out on sales or sales history.

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