Last week, I replied to a post on LinkedIn which encouraged sales pros to do a better job of building relationships.
I replied “What’s the point of building things that can’t scale?” (swish! That got me a bunch of laughs and likes).
Or…CAN they?
In January 2018, I travelled to Austin – my first trip to the US to present “Comedy Writing for Sales Pros”.
I’d connected with Scott on LinkedIn a couple of months earlier. When I was in town, he was kind enough to take time out of his busy day of overseeing a growing sales team to meet me. No clue why he did, but as someone who’d spent a few years away from a full-time sales gig, working on a completely separate project, and being launching a new concept in sales skills – I really appreciated it.
I met Richard Harris several months later at a conference. He’s always been super helpful, and equally supportive of my efforts to bring some fun & creativity to sales. He also dared offer a “Second Opinion” to counter my obnoxious alter ego’s unparalleled sales advice in Ep 3 in the web series of the same name (scroll through the episodes to find it).
As such, I was delighted when Scott Leese & Richard Harris asked me to join them on their “Surf and Sales” podcast, not just because they’re two of my favorite LinkedIn “Sales-fluencers” (“Influ-sellers?”) – but because I’m the perfect guest.
They’ve had a TON of knowledgable, talented people guest. So, how can I back that up?
My previous project was called Comedy Abroad. I produced fundraiser comedy shows with some other comedians in places like Costa Rica, Nicaragua & Mexico. Our shows raised $23K for nonprofits helping kids in popular tourist spots just by making drunk, pasty North Americans laugh.
This video shot during our last tour tells the story.
Enjoy and be enlightened by it, BUT…do not (NOT!!!) let the video overshadow the podcast episode itself. BEHOLD:
Scott and Richard gave me a bad case of PTSD (“Pretty Traumatic Sports Discussion”) by reminding me how my city (Montreal) no longer has a baseball team.
But things crested (yet *another* wave pun!) when we talked about the similarities between selling and performing stand-up, the ins and outs of making our prospects laugh, including how to do it in a tasteful way that helps reps be instantly relatable and credible.
No waves were harmed in the recording of this podcast.
So, listen, learn, share it with a friends, and listen again. Let’s get the number of listens up, because my relationships with Scott & Richard aren’t going to scale themselves. Enjoy!
Lastly, as I mentioned during the pod, I’m launching new cohorts of “Comedy Writing for Sales Pros” open registration classes starting September 15 & 16.
PS: I screwed up one of my own jokes when I compared “Quebec” to “Austin”. I live in Montreal, which is in QUEBEC, which is a province within Canada. Epic fail. Here’s the real version of it. I’ve told this onstage IN Austin as well as to sales teams based there through fundraiser comedy.
“Loads of parallels between Austin and my hometown of Montreal. Both cities play host to giant music festivals, an annual Formula One race, are known for fatty foods, craft beer, artistic communities, startup culture, and both cities that think they’re distinct from the rest of their state/province, which believes it’s distinct from the rest of the country. If Montreal was a Starbucks beverage, it’d be a “French Cold Austin”.
