6 Sales Lessons From Comedy

It has been said that “Comedy is the highest form of art.” Anyone care to nominate selling? Like artists, salespeople create something from nothing. Nothing happens until a salesperson picks up the phone (or knocks on a door or hits the send button)… just as nothing happens until an artist lifts his brush. The best sales people are fueled by a passion for their solutions and confidence in themselves… just as artists are driven by a passion for their creations.

Humor comes from shedding new light on ideas your audience hadn’t thought about in quite that way before. Similarly, consultative salespeople help clients understand issues in new ways that are connected to their solutions. And, just like salespeople, artists have a limited amount of time to influence their audience.

Comics work towards what they call a “tight five” – five minutes of material, honed to razor sharpness and ready to be performed at moment’s notice. Five minutes doesn’t sound very long; however, try standing in front of a packed house at the Punchline with no crowd reaction for five minutes (been there)… or in front of a buying committee whose only question is “It costs what?!”

SIX FACTORS SHARED BY GOOD COMEDY AND EFFECTIVE SELLING

Many of the same attributes are equally effective at making an audience fall out of their chairs laughing or closing the deal. Here are six I've identified that will serve you equally well on stage or in the board room.

AUTHENTICITY

In selling, as in comedy, effective communication comes from a place of truth… a place of authenticity. In recent years, “observational humor” has become the most popular style employed by stand-up comics. George Carlin said “A good comedian shouldn’t just make them laugh, he should make them think.” The idea is to start with something that is true, an observation about the world around us, and then “turn it funny” by connecting it to something the audience had previously considered unrelated.

People make decisions emotionally and then confirm their decisions with facts. They can tell when you are being genuine… about the products and services you are selling, about your interest in helping them succeed… and about yourself. Authenticity helps you connect with your customer and gain access to what they truly believe, at which point you can connect your solution to their problems.

HUMBLE CONFIDENCE

Many comedians make a living on self-deprecating humor… delivered with confidence. Why has this form of comedy become so popular? The purpose of self-deprecating humor is to create a sense of complicity. The comedian is letting his audience know he is aware that we are all clumsy, confused, vain… that we are human. It softens up the audience and makes them more receptive to and respectful of the comic’s point of view.

As a salesperson, part of the reason your client is talking with you is because you are an expert in your field, right? If you can’t add value as a result of your expertise, why are they talking with you in the first place? And, it’s critical that your client feels YOUR confidence in your ability to understand and deliver on THEIR priorities. However, it’s equally important that you remember why you’re there… to solve THEIR problems. Humility fuels your EQ, helps you connect with your client and enables you to deliver on their priorities.

“Humility is throwing oneself away in complete concentration on something or someone else.” - Madeleine L’Engle

In her article “What a Self-Deprecating Sense of Humor Says About Your EQ,” Anne Gherini, Head of Marketing for Affinity, presents research that humility-based EQ is one of the best predictors of success and a critical element of leadership… more important than intelligence (https://www.inc.com/anne-gherini/what-a-self-deprecating-sense-of-humor-says-about-your-eq.html). She found that the right balance of “confidence and self-awareness” and “exposing (your own) imperfections” increased transparency and accelerated the development of trusting relationships. This doesn’t mean that you should focus on your failures or make light of serious shortcomings. However, it does suggest that self-deprecating humor can be used to humanize yourself and make your client more comfortable and trusting.

BODY LANGUAGE

When I studied comedy with Atlanta’s premier professor of comedy, Jeff Justice, we spent the entire first class learning how to pick up the mic. We all thought it was pretty silly and, frankly, started to feel a bit ripped off (Jeff is good but he aint cheap!). Eventually we got the point… why do you think how we picked up the mic might be important? In comedy, as in selling, there is no second chance to make a first impression and it starts with body language. When you walk on-stage, it’s critical that your body language exudes confidence… just as that first two minutes are so crucial in a sales meeting.

ECONOMY OF WORDS

In selling, as in comedy, it’s important to say what is required… and ONLY what is required. Comics use a number of metrics to evaluate their material. The lead metric is number of syllables between set up and punchline. What do you think the target is? As few as possible! The lag metric is number of laugh-lines per minute.

In selling it’s critical that we focus on how our solutions address our client’s problems and not present features and functions they don’t care about. We all know what the lag metric is in selling! And, perhaps most importantly, the more we talk, the less our clients do. While every sales meeting is unique, a general rule of thumb I use for an effective sales meeting is for my clients to speak around 75% of the time.

TIMING

Comics insert pauses for comedic effect and to give their audience time to get the joke and a chance to laugh. Timing is one of the most nuanced aspects of effective comedy and is dynamic. Successful comedians read what each audience needs and deliver at the right time for that night’s crowd, which could be completely different from the previous night. “The timing is in the relationship.” – Greg Dean

In selling, timing is critical at the macro level (i.e., is it even the right time to be talking with that client in the first place), for managing the conversation itself and to ensure that you provide ample time for your customer to speak. Just as in comedy, the timing is critical to building and harvesting the relationship.

OWN YOUR MATERIAL

Finally, when you own your material, you can actively listen and flex your messaging as needed. I learned that lesson the hard way. The Jeff Justice Comedy School graduation ceremony was 10 minutes on stage at the Punchline in Atlanta. I wanted to deliver a perfect routine so, two days before graduation, I signed up for an open-mic night… just to make sure I was ready. Spoiler alert… I wasn’t!

When I arrived the host yelled “Berg! You’re up first. You have five minutes. When you see the red light come on, wrap it up!” I shuffled through my routine, frantically trying to decide what to cut. I’d memorized the routine, but I didn’t yet OWN the material and after the first joke I froze. I literally ran off the stage. Fortunately, there were more comics than patrons that night, but it was humiliating nonetheless… I had bombed big!

So what did I do? I went home and studied that routine until I could say it backwards and forwards, speed it up… slow it down. I practiced until I owned that material. And when I went up two days later in front of 350 (admittedly friendly) patrons, I crushed it!

The point is that when you own your material, it frees you to be present, to freely engage with your client and to be better prepared to share the right information, at the right time with the right people.

THE PUNCH LINE

So, what happens when we successfully apply these principles?

1)     People like to buy, just as they like to laugh. Our job is simply to make it easier for them to do so.

2)     By being authentic, confident and humble, we demonstrate tremendous EQ. We connect emotionally and build trust.

3)     When we do that, we make it safe to get real with our clients and present alternative points of view that support our value proposition.

Mark Twain referred to humor as “the good natured side of truth.” Applying the principles of good comedy to selling helps us connect with our clients, understand what they believe to be true and help them solve their problems in a way that feels good. And, as Zig Ziglar famously said, “we can have anything we want in this life if we help enough other people get what they want.”