HAHAHAHAHAHA

I am writing this post from Emory University Hospital where my wife had some surgery today.

This was going to be the first weekday since I started the blog that I was not going to have a post, but then it happened. A topic slapped me right in the face, so here I am typing away as my wife rests.

I didn’t realize how funny I am until I met the nurse in the Same Day Surgery waiting room this morning. My wife was scheduled for surgery to start at 7:30 AM and we needed to be at the hospital at 5:30. (No big deal for me but a major undertaking for my wife) anyway, we showed up to the Same Day Surgery waiting room with about 30 of our closest friends also scheduled for surgery that day along with their support teams, all total about 100 or so people.

We all sat anxiously waiting for our names to be called. At about 5:50 my wife’s name was called out, Mrs. Greenstein (we pronounce our name Green-steen- everyone always says Green-stine) so as we walked over I simply corrected the nurse, to which she said, it doesn’t matter. I laughed and said as a joke, it did to my father, he hated the darn Greenstine family.

Now, anyone who knows me will tell you I tell a darn good joke and my timing is always perfect. The nurse never even cracked a smile! This was my “A” material and nothing. So now we are going back to the pre op area and the nurse says this is your room. There was no “ROOM” it was a bed with curtains. So I tried again, I said that I have had rooms with a view before but never one that WAS the view! NOT EVEN A GRIN!

After another 2 tries to get a laugh I was defeated! It was also time for them to roll my wife back to the OR so I stopped. But I went down in defeat, not a laugh, a smile, a grin or even had her roll her eyes in disgust, nothing at all.

So once again I hope I have you wondering how I am going to tie this to sales. Simple, just because my audience didn’t have a bit of humor I never lost my sense of humor.

Just like a medical setting, a sales setting can be very stressful. If you as the sales rep don’t manage the stress level it can get out of hand and any hope of making the sale can be lost because of the stress.

The problem is not everyone is funny. If you can’t tell a joke, or a humorous story I suggest practice. That’s right I said the “P” word! Practice! You probably already have a favorite joke or story. If you can’t deliver it and get a laugh, write it down, just like you would a sales presentation. Read it over and over until you know it so well you can say it in your sleep. Then practice telling it. Tell it to yourself to start. Try and listen if you are smooth with the delivery. Listen to yourself and see if you are “selling” the joke or story with your volume and inflection. Listen to the timing, and make sure that you aren’t rushing it or dragging it out too long.

Next ask someone to listen and tell you how you are doing. It would be good if the person listening is funny so they can help you make changes if needed and make the joke or story funny. Ask them to critique your facial expressions and body language.

Once you have it down pat, and you know it is funny, you don’t have to worry about if the customer thinks it’s funny. The fact that you are adding humor into the sales mix will help reduce stress and keep the sales process moving forward. If your customer has a good sense of humor and you get them laughing, the sale will be that much easier to close.

Did you hear the one about the dog and the inch worm?

Lorin