When am I NOT funny?
1) When I’m with my parents. Between my sarcasm and their disinterest in pop culture post-1973, I bomb hard with them.
2) On sales podcasts. You’d think that as guy who does stand-up comedy, I’m ALWAYS super hilarious.
And I am – on a stand-up comedy stage or when I’m with people I know and/or feel comfortable with (I’m also a boss embellisher). There’s a weird grey zone where I’m introverted and in spend time in my own head when dealing with others – and don’t come across as a guy who writes & performs comedy.
I’ve guested on several sales podcasts. While I may have swapped friendly messages with the host beforehand on LinkedIn, we are strangers with little to no actual rapport.
The logical and comedy sides of my brain agree to a duel. The comedy side fumbles and drops its foil without getting a proper grip on it. I worry way more about articulating humor’s role in sales, and how reps can effectively mine for it. Being funny’s cool, but it doesn’t get you fed on its ow but dropping innovative approaches to thinking about selling and creating hyper-specific icebreakers to relate to your prospects? People seem to pay for that.
Back in olden times when people attended conferences, I met Badger Maps CEO Steve Benson. Good man, he is. He invited me on his podcast for field sales pros, and I was pleased with our discussion. I dropped coherent knowledge and made Steve laugh. The comedy side got a grip, and battled the logical to a time-limit draw.
Have a listen to the episode when you have a few. Click the image below.
In other news: If you like what I do, and you don’t have budget or bandwidth to bring hire me for a remote full-team workshop, I’m currently piloting live “Comedy Writing for Sales Pros” classes open to sales & marketing pros from anywhere. Your reps/colleagues (or you) can now individually benefit from the same approach I deliver to full sales teams. All classes are held after business hours.
Reps can register for an intimate class to:
1) reverse-engineer understanding of your prospects and the problems you solve for them
2) create memorable, repeatable icebreakers which demonstrate all of the above.
I can also offer “private” classes exclusively to multiple members of your team.
Unsure of pricing at this time, but it will be a fee that can easily come out of an individual contributor’s professional development budget.
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.
