Icebreakers and Energizers for Sales and Customer Service Coaches

Sales, Customer Service
Icebreakers, Energizers

Delivering the presentation topic effectively is one of the presentation methods and you should know how to conduct icebreaker and an energizer games effectively. Conducting sales training icebreakers, activities and games are one common assignments seen among almost all sales training facilitators. Though most commonly used in soft skill training, simple icebreaker activities seem to attract even technical corporate training programs. It is one of the team development activities in almost every office, which is primarily played to break the ice, warm-up or energize a training session at the beginning.

Icebreaker Vs Energizer

An icebreaker is conducted in order to break the ice among the audience so that they are familiar and comfortable with each other during a training program or a workshop whereas an energizer is conducted into order to bring energy among the audience. Generally, energizers are conducted post lunch in order to ensure the enthusiasm and excitement is ensured during a training session. You can energize the audience either physically or mentally by conducting activities and games.

How to Play Icebreaker and Energizer Games Effectively

Training Icebreakers
Energizers

Mnemonics are one of the best memorization techniques to recall and remember information. And, BREAD mnemonic is a simple memory trick, which takes only few minutes to memorize, to hint the trainer on how to organize any indoor or outdoor training games and activities.
BREAD mnemonic summarizes how to conduct sales training icebreaker games for facilitators and it stands for:

• Brief
• Rules
• Range
• Rehearse
• Engage
• Extend the time (If required)
• Answers
• Debrief

Icebreaker Introductions Require a Formal Briefing: While briefing, training facilitators tell the name of the game, description of the game, and how to play the game. Briefing helps the participants to understand the nature of the game.
Even a Simple Icebreaker must have Rules: A professional facilitator always writes down the rules of the game clearly with all the dos' and don'ts of a training game or activity so that the confusion is avoided while playing the activity.
An Effective Training Icebreaker will have Range: It is important that training facilitators clearly state the audience how long the game is going to last so that participants could plan their activity.
One of the Ways to Conduct an Effective Training Icebreakers is Rehearse: Some training games are too complicated to explain using mere words. If the trainer wants the game to move smoothly, they should play a trial game in order to clarify all the doubts that might linger in the participants' mind.
Engage the Participants and Conduct Creative Icebreakers: Simply put, play the game. Many professional facilitators also keep reminding the participants about the time lapse while the game is played so that participants know how much time is still left for the activity.
One of the best ways to be creative is to invent an icebreaker. Little thinking skills will open doors to innovative, never before icebreaker activities.
Some Training Icebreakers demand Extension of Time: Experienced corporate facilitators usually keep a buffer time so that the game could be extended in case the game is taking more than the planned schedule.
Training Games and Activities Must Have Answers and Solutions: Facilitators should choose training games for which there is an answer or solution. For instance, if the facilitator is conducting a quiz program, he/she must have the key/answers for the quiz questions. Some facilitators forget to keep the answer key which results in embarrassment in front of the participants.
A Professional Icebreaker will have a Debrief that includes Learning and Examples: Whether it is a facilitation of management skills, technical skills or soft skills, it is always worth spending time on debriefing and, in fact, participants will be glad to hear what they have learnt and will be amazed to know to reflect upon the learning while playing the corporate game. Besides using effective training methods and delivery tools, it is professional of facilitator to organize and structure the training games and activities, keeping the rules in place, planning allotment of time of each task, drafting the participants' learning. BREAD mnemonic is one of the facilitation mnemonics for a well planned training icebreaker activities and Energizers for facilitators.