Some of the stuff that makes me laugh is squeaky clean and some is highly offensive. If it’s thoughtful, and makes a point or just plain silly – without being mean or intending to harm anyone – I’ll laugh. I don’t care what the topic is, how many cuss words are inserted.
So don’t judge me if I’m a fan of stand-ups Sam Morrill and Mark Normand, who together host a podcast called “We Might Be Drunk”.
Also: don’t check them out if you’re easily offended. Or even if you’re tough to offend. These guys are NOT shining examples of how sellers and marketers should approach using humor in their go-to-market efforts (because they’re comedians, not sellers, but I’m also covering my butt here).
I’m not writing to advocate for or against a given style of comedy, free speech, or “bla bla bla”. Snoozers! This is all about ways of engaging your prospects.
Each week, the guys chat about comedy, recommend stuff to each other, run their new joke ideas by each other (and the listeners), and voice their peeves. They also voiced a peeve of mine.
Mark’s peeve?
“Things everyone’s saying. Once everybody says something, it annoys me. Get your own thing….One guy said it, and it’s everywhere. There’s all these trends that kick up.”
(Examples they give of once-popular social media posts include:
- “{Person, place or think} was cool…until it wasn’t.”
- “Tell me you X without mentioning X”
- “Be like _____”.
- “That _____, tho”.
- “I’m {insert trope about older people} years old”
- Tiktok videos set to Capone’s “Oh No”.)
Mark goes on to say “There’s a lot of stuff on Twitter like that. I hate those tropes that start.
Sam sums it up best by saying:
“If everyone’s doing it, it’s not cool. Originality’s cool.”
My personal current least-favorite thing that everyone says is “Let’s gooooooooooo”.
In comedy we call unoriginal comedians “hacks”.
Which brings us to sales (and more specifically, sales development)…
Don’t be a hack I come across posts on Linkedin giving the masses exact wording and/or templates for cold call openers, cold emails, sharing what’s worked for them. Some involve random time intervals (“Can I have 27 seconds of your time) for their cold calls , and others encourage gambling (“This is a cold call…do you want to hang up now, or roll the dice?”
These posts are great for the author. Loads of love and engagement. Their influencer stock rises.
But those reactions, tho (see what I did there?).
Saw another kind of post. The author describes receiving a cold call that began with the “Roll the dice” icebreaker. They appreciated it and took the call.
Then, they received another cold call with the same play. And the another. On this third time, they cut off the cold caller, ended the call.
Something was cute the first time, less unique the second, and a full blown annoying trend the third.
We can’t stand out from the masses if the so-called pattern-interrupts we’ve been led to believe will work get so overused, that they become the pattern.
That said, if something works for you – keep going…until it doesn’t.
My take is to safeguard yourself and get to work on standing out. Have your own, unique, icebreaking humor or messaging that kicks off our outreach.
But how?
Put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard). List all the info & elements (i.e. a quick intro, your relevance) you’d like to convey to your prospect within 5-10 seconds. Find a way to frame it all into a mini-script that elicits an emotional reaction, and is so undeniable, you cannot be denied.
Easy right? Maybe not. Maybe I can help, tho. How?
I have a training & workshop as well as a self-paced course called “Cold Openers” (built in “SalesHood”). It’s “Joke-Writing for Prospecting 101”.
It’ll help you hyper-unique craft openers to help you illuminate the specific challenges you can eliminate for your target personas AND drive laughs/smiles in 5 easy steps, and that can be shared across any outreach channel you can imagine.
To see it in action, check out this reaction video I created at a conference, which highlights how the right icebreaker can get prospect after prospect to light up:
Using a different cold opener, I also used this approach to earn a manufacturing sales leader’s attention & time:
If you wanna learn more, snag a spot on my calendar. Emailing me also works.
Soon, the only thing colder than your calls will be the ground unoriginal icebreakers are buried in.
Looking to have more meaningful convos at trade shows?
Powerchord’s a small SaaS who generated $160K – in just 2 months – in net new revenue from convos started at trade shows using funny, hyper-relevant icebreakers I crafted for them.
If your company exhibits at trade shows and struggles to engage visitors to your booth or drive traffic to it, an introduction to your marketing leadership would be a win-win-win.
Curious to learn more? Snag a spot on my calendar.
