(Big tease/announcement at the end of this post!)
I normally deliver a comedy recommendation to conclude my sales preachery/absurdity, but I’m daring to be different – which just so happens to be the point of this week’s post.
Please note: There’s stuff that makes me laugh and other stuff that doesn’t. Some of the stuff that makes me laugh is squeaky clean and some is highly offensive. If it’s thoughtful, and makes a point or just plain silly – without being mean or intending to harm anyone – I’ll laugh. I don’t care what the topic is, how many cuss words are inserted.
So don’t judge me if I’m a fan of stand-ups Sam Morrill and Mark Normand, who together host a podcast called “We Might Be Drunk”.
Also: don’t check them out if you’re easily offended. Or even if you’re tough to offend. These guys aren’t shining examples of how sellers should approach using humor in their efforts (because they’re comedians, not sellers, but I’m covering my butt here).
But I’m not here to advocate for or against a given style of comedy, free speech, or “bla bla bla”. Snoozers! We’re here to talk SALES (and sales development), baybee!
Each week, the guys chat about comedy, recommend stuff to each other, run their new joke ideas by each other (and the listeners), and voice their peeves. They also voiced a peeve of mine.
Mark’s peeve?
“Things everyone’s saying. Once everybody says something, it annoys me. Get your own thing….One guy said it, and it’s everywhere. There’s all these trends that kick up.”
(Examples they give of once-popular social media posts include:
- “{Person, place or think} was cool…until it wasn’t.”
- “Tell me you X without mentioning X”
- “Be like _____”.
- “That _____, tho”.
- “I’m {insert trope about older people} years old”
- Tiktok videos set to Capone’s “Oh No”.)
“There’s a lot of stuff on Twitter like that. I hate those tropes that start.
Sam sums it up best by saying:
“If everyone’s doing it, it’s not cool. Originality’s cool.”
Which brings us to sales (and more specifically, sales development)…
I come across posts on linkedin giving the masses exact wording and/or templates for cold call openers, cold emails, sharing what’s worked for them. Some involve random time intervals, others encourage gambling.
These posts are great for the author. Loads of love and engagement. Their influencer stock rises.
But those reactions, tho (see what I did there?).
Saw another kind of post. The author received a cold call that began with an icebreaker shared in a post. They appreciated it and took the call.
Then, they received another cold call with the same play. And another. The third time, they cut off the cold caller, ended the call.
Something was cute the first time, less unique the second, and a full blown annoying trend the third.
We can’t stand out from the masses if the so-called pattern-interrupts we’ve been led to believe will work get so overused, that they become the pattern.
That said, if something works for you – keep going…until it doesn’t.
My take is to safeguard yourself and get to work on standing out. Have your own, unique, specific openers to kick off our outreach.
Put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard). List all the info & elements (i.e. a quick intro, your relevance) you’d like to convey to your prospect within 5-10 seconds. Find a way to frame it all into a mini-script that elicits an emotional reaction, and is so undeniable, you cannot be denied.
Easy right? Maybe not. Maybe I can help, tho. How?
I’m close to launching my first self-guided course (applause please, so many have asked me for this)!
It’ll help you hyper-unique craft openers to help you illuminate the specific challenges you can eliminate for your target personas AND drive laughs/smiles in 5 easy steps, and that can be shared across any outreach channel you can imagine.
It’s not live yet, so DM me on Linkedin if you’re interested in learning more, or hop on my mailing list.
Soon, the only thing colder than your calls will be the ground unoriginal icebreakers are buried in.
