“I love this – I’ve never heard of this before!” is what so many of my prospects have replied when I would tell them about “Comedy Writing for Sales Teams”.
I don’t know if I’m the only one who offers such a training & workshop, but there’s often confusion & misunderstanding with any new, innovative idea.
This means I’ve dealt with a busload of objections, Most of the time they’re from someone I don’t have access to.
So, I’m using this blog to address all of the misconceptions about Comedy Writing for Sales Teams – what it is, and what it isn’t.
I’ll be posting one per day between November 11, 2019 until I feel I’ve handled all of them.
Misconception #1: It’s All About the Jokes
“Once in a while you can get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right”.
– Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter
Turns out song lyrics written in 1974 have a new purpose: making important points to blog visitors.
A funny thing happened after 2 years of delivering “Comedy Writing for Sales Teams” – my own customers made me realize its true value.
I’d designed and marketed the workshop as a crash course in comedy writing so sales reps could benefit from making prospects with laugh with hyper-niched jokes that demonstrate subject-matter expertise. I believed that if every rep was armed with a joke their prospects would love, they’d start more & have better conversations, leading to better results.
I still feel that way. The jokes we craft are meant to shed light on truths about problems they can solve for them, what makes them different, handle standard objections (etc.), and enabling them to be memorable and credible.
Making a prospect laugh about an annoying struggle in their job is the perfect way to start a relationship. Getting the laugh makes the rep likeable, credible – both of which lead to trust.
From experience, I knew how a single joke I deliver to every prospect I speak with kicks off conversations and leads to the beginning of a quality relationship.
What I failed to see is that jokes are simply a means to an end.
A light at the end of the tunnel of learning.
A diamond in the rough in a sea of overused cliches.
Most reps sell solutions they’ve never used, to people whose jobs they’ve never had, in industries they’ve never worked in (unless you count my client who sells toilet paper).
The best jokes shine light on cutting, painful truths. A process consisting of exploration & research is required to assemble such a joke.
The process requires sales reps to think about their prospects, what their goals & objectives are, what’s in the way of achieving them, and capturing it all on a whiteboard for further examination. They need to become journalists and ask questions to understand the what, when, where, why, and how about the problems you solve for prospects, and ask the same questions about your solutions to them.
Only once that exploration is undertaken, and knowledge is bolstered can sales reps apply their newfound clarity and understanding to crafting humor.
“Comedy Writing for Sales Teams” is about far more than jokes (which I refer to as “the cherry on top of the iceberg”).
It’s about the process of:
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Breaking down and profiling our prospects – aka “microaudiences”. Gotta know our audience.
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Discussing, exploring, and digging into what matters to our microaudiences. Gotta be relatable.
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Understanding your “So what? Who cares? (SWWC)”. Someone invested funds into your company because they felt there was a lucrative market for your products or services. Understanding the “SWWC” is the starting point to finding the connecting tissue between you and your prospects,
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Peer learning – the entire process is collaborative, and cements/fills in reps’ knowledge gaps.
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Finding new and human ways to deliver buzzword & jargon-laden messages.
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Making reps’ more conversant and closer to the subject-matter experts they need to be.
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Flexing creative muscles (which reps rarely get to do).
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Team-building.
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Increasing confidence.
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Stretching their comfort zones when they deliver their jokes to their peers.
While a couple of great jokes usually come out each workshop, the process is where the value lies. Writing jokes about business challenges you solve for your prospects will at most grab their attention and demonstrate subject matter expertise (or help you have better ones) and at the very least help reps to better understand your prospects and what’s important to them.
Either way, it’ll bring out a sales rep’s humanity, and give them the confidence they need to start more and have better conversations. The jokes are just the cherry on top of your sales tech stack (wait – what did I just say?).
Planning a sales kickoff or meeting?
I’ve put together fun, practical options for yours! Feel free to pass this on to your leadership, or snag time on my calendar.
