Authentic or Ironic?

From what people tell me, “Comedy Writing for Sales Teams” is the first sales training of its kind. I’m proud of that. 

That said it hasn’t been easy launching something new.  I’ve run into all kinds of roadblocks - some of which have even ghosted me (not cool, roadblocks!).

They say the first one through the wall always gets bloody. Thankfully, I’m Canadian and have universal healthcare.

I’ve also been fortunate enough to have some successful sales trainers, consultants and leaders at companies in my corner. They’ve seen my videos, read my blogs, and get the value of what I’m up to. They’ve given me brilliant advice and tried to help as best they could. I’ve taken and implemented what I can.

Some suggested to me that sales leaders are repelled by the words “comedy” or “jokes” and won’t consider sales training that doesn’t come off as serious. I do believe that to be true.

This is sound advice which comes from a good place. They've suggested I swap "comedy" for “humor” because it's safer...

…which is why I’m not listening.

I can see how those who adore discussing “cadences”, “scaling”, and “ramp-time” with peers, in-laws, and themselves in restrooms could be loath to adopt the idea of the comedy-writing process as a mechanism to ramp & enable reps, while helping them to learn to stand-out. Or would be repelled by it.

I can also see how these people will not take what I do seriously, because they’re serious about being serious – and stressing their entire team out.

Seriously.

Unless you sell oxygen, prospects’ attention needs to be captured and it’s an ongoing challenge. Playing it safe will rarely work and is harder work to begin with. Unless you’re Warren Buffett (please note: he’s not in sales).

For every sales leader that's been repelled by the name "Comedy Writing for Revenue Teams", there's one who's sucked in and has a million questions. Those words have scored me the opportunity to explain that I share processes and skills from stand-up comedy with sales teams. They've helped me separate myself from everyone else in the absurd sales bubble in which anyone reading this inhabits (wink).

Conversely, word “humor” itself is one of the most boring, clinical, drab, lame words in the world.  There’s nothing funny – or thought provoking – about it.

Seinfeld, Bill Burr, and Ali Wong don’t perform at “humor clubs”. If those existed, they’d be home to stuffy men with various outdated facial hair configurations, wearing three-piece suits, smoking curved pipes and guffawing at each other’s haiku-ed wit – while the audience rolls their eyes wondering if anyone’s posted videos on Tiktok of turtles rescuing dogs riding bears. When done well, the best reactions that humor can elicit are wry grins.

Well-crafted jokes highlight truths, absurdities – or both – and trigger an emotional reaction called “laughter” – a gateway drug that leads to conversations. 

Making prospects laugh about something a unique, day-to-day professional struggle is also memorable, thought-provoking, and conversation-starting.

More proof:

When I was selling Oracle software and services, people would ask me what my job was. When I told them, eyes would glaze over because no one goes to “Database Festivals”.

Since I began writing and performing – and even when I totally stunk – stand-up comedy’s been my life’s secret weapon. It’s not that I’m super-hysterical and have the power of hilarity on my side – but because the idea that I get on a stage BY MYSELF to entertain people paying to laugh seems to fascinate and leads to a LOT of questions without them ever even seeing me perform.

“You do stand-up?? Really? Tell me more! Where do you perform? When? How often? What’s it like? Do you get scared? Isn’t it hard??? Where do you get the courage? Where do you get your material? How do you deal with hecklers? Am I asking too many questions? I’m SO ending up in your act, aren’t I???”.

My 12 years in sales was a well-paid internship for my career in stand-up. It trained me to cope with the trauma that bombing inflicts on a newbie comic’s soul. Both sales and stand-up teach resilience, iteration, and persistence. Conversely, stand-up has made me a better salesperson and communicator. I’m conscious of words I use, pictures I paint, and better understand how to be relatable and keep tensions low.

We live in an age where everyone’s working hard to show their authenticity on social media. Some succeed, some fail at it.

Buzzwords and the pressures of salespeople hitting BS metrics to please managers who are trying to please leadership who are trying to please investors who are trying to please themselves have taken away a seller’s ability (or will?) to be authentic. Making a prospect – aka a fellow human being – laugh is part of that, and my authenticity. Life’s too short for me to not laugh and to try to make others laugh.

To use replace words like "comedy" and "jokes" with "humor" would feel highly inauthentic - which is something I suck at being. It would feel very ironic for me to even try.

Irony’s funny, but I don’t it masking the core inspiration for what I do to please people who are unlikely to be attracted to what I do in the first place.

You can’t please all the people all the time – but you can lean on old-timey cliches to make your point.

Quiet announcement: Launching my first self-guided course in the coming weeks (way more details to come)! If you're a SDR, SDR leader, or seller who's required to prospect and you'd like to learn to write short, quick jokes about the problems you solve for your cold outreach efforts, DM me on Linkedin or jon@jonselig.com.