Tabula Rasa

May, 2004

Humour in Sales & Life

I'm not a natural humorist and I have to write down the punch line if I plan to tell a joke BUT in spite of these handicaps and barriers, I am totally committed to bringing humour into every situation possible. I think it's a fantastic rapport builder.

I have nothing against 'jokes' per se, so if you are gifted or skilled in this kind of humor, I applaud and stand in awe of you. But if you are like me and can never remember or find the right moment to tell a joke, let me share my approach.

First I work at seeing the humor in the everyday situations I encounter, here are a few examples:

• I vividly remember the very first answering machine I bought. Shortly after I installed it, my mother called. My message was the standard greeting including the instruction to 'leave your name and number' and that I would call back as soon as possible. On hearing this, my mom said: "Bob….Bob….are you there? Bob this is your mother calling…um…it's Rita Gernon, 253-XXXX. Please call me back. Well I found this hilarious you see because:
  1. I knew my mothers name because I had known her most of my life and
  2. The phone number she left had been our home phone number since I was a child.
  Forgive me mom, I just thought it was precious.



• As I was writing the above, I had to rush to close my computer because I heard my plane being called over the airport public address system, but I didn't hear all of what was said because I was concentrating more on what I was writing than on my flight. As I rushed toward the gate I asked two young women which rows were boarding. One said: "O they're just pre-boarding." The other, at almost the same instant blurted: "First class seats only." Within a second or two of thatthe announcement came on saying they would now begin boarding from the rear of the plane, beginning with rows 19 and higher. I looked at them and as we all started to laugh, I put on an expression that said 'sure, sure…you weren't listening either were you?' and I said: "Well I guess I know who not to ask next time, don't I?" We all broke into laughter. It sure seemed funny at the time.



• Earlier today I was in a brainstorm meeting with a group of clients. We were attempting to identify new product development opportunities. As the facilitator of the group I had explained that it was important in the session to stay in your 'child ego state' and not to take yourself too seriously. We are most creative when we are having fun. This was a very serious group indeed, mostly very highly educated research scientists who took their work quite seriously. I tried to be respectful but then one of the group members, in describing a technical feature of one potential new product, used the term "AGGLOMERATED SWARF". "Agglomerated swarf"? I could hardly believe my ears! I had no idea what a swarf was but there was no way that I was going to let that go by without a comment and soon everyone in the room was competing to come up with the best for the best advertising line or sales pitch using the expression 'agglomerated swarf'. I'm positive that a book or movie will one day be made with this title. A few minutes of hilarity re-energized the group and for the rest of the day you could see, hear and feel the improved quality and quantity of interaction and creativity.