Hey now. This is a family blog.

I have a cold. Last week, I drank some hot tea laced with whisky, which made me very, very, very relaxed. And, my throat stopped hurting (or, I didn’t care anymore, couldn’t tell).

Anyway, I was tweeting about how alcohol is one of many social lubricants, used to ease social anxiety and become more open with others (unless you’re a mean drunk). I asked my tweets what other items work as social lubricants, and here’s a sample of the responses:

• food
• shared adversity (Survivor!)
• illicit drugs
• music
• movies
• laughing out loud
• coffee
• gaming
• linux (really? Geek, much?)
• gadgets

And then I got to thinking about how we use these things to sell stuff to people. I know a sales rep who has brought to meetings yummy cookies with the customer’s logo in frosting. I routinely try to get my customers to laugh out loud during my presentations (I learned a long time ago that laughing makes you more attentive to what that person says next). And then there’s the standard behavior of browsing your customer’s work area to find something you have in common with them (“oh, I see you’re into street luge, too!”)

So, what other social lubricants can you think of, that are fit to share in this PG-rated forum?

Or, how have you seen sellers weave themselves into a customer’s social network more closely? Successful or otherwise?

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