Make ’Em Laugh & Take Their Money
When you learn a new language, the last thing you learn is how to tell a joke in that language because it requires mastery of nuance and irony, timing, and subtlety.
Most comics/funny people you meet are quite smart.
They are attentive, quick, and know how to read a room.
They possess a breadth of knowledge that allows them to speak a powerful truth by connecting the dots that others miss, maybe because they are far apart for the average person, maybe because the person is just too close to the topic at hand and can’t see the forest for the trees, or they are just too afraid to accept that the dots are connected because it represents an inconvenient truth.
So be funny when you’re meeting new prospects, and even with your clients, but know when to STFU to set the stage and control the state.
When I say control the state, I mean control the state of mind of your prospect, particularly when they have to answer a hard question about their current situation, including deciding whether or not “to sign on the line that is dotted.” (Name the movie.)
If you have done your job well, you have created some tension in the mind of your prospect as you made them aware of the severity of their current situation and the ramifications of not addressing it. (If not now, when? If not this, what? If not me, who?)
If you are not comfortable both making prospects uncomfortable and sitting in their presence, in silence, while they are uncomfortable, find a new career.
But many of you are not comfortable, which is why, at the moment of truth, when all the cards are on the table, you crack a joke to relieve the tension, which breaks state, and sets you back, sometimes all the way to the beginning, which is why you struggle to hit your sales goals.
To more readily and predictably sell bigger deals like it’s no big deal, learn how to be funny…and learn how to be serious.
Market like you mean it.
Now go sell something.
P.S. I started a dating website for chickens. It’s not my regular day job…I just do it to help make hens meet.
