Learn how performing at an open mic night can help your selling skills
Good news: You don’t have to participate in an open mic night at a comedy club to learn these lessons. Bad news: I did!
In sales training workshops, some of the most important emotional topics we deal with are fear, confidence, and conviction. To deal with these emotions, I often revert to the old Nike slogan: Just do it! “Face your fear and just turn down that prospect’s driveway. Call on that large account, even if you think they don’t want to see another salesperson. Reframe your fears to get past them.” Words that I lived by many times in my selling career.
This week, it was once again, time for me to practice what I preach. For many years, it was on my bucket list to perform at a comedy club open mic night. This is where literally anyone is given 4 minutes to go up on stage and try their hand at being a stand up. After attending several times just to watch, I decided this item was not getting checked off my bucket list anytime soon. I have no problem getting up in front of hundreds or thousands of people to talk about selling skills. However, the fear of being on stage in front of a rowdy crowd of 25-year-olds to make them laugh was too overwhelming. Yet, I had to. If I was going to get in front of sales teams and tell them to just get past their fear by doing it, then I too had to – Just do It.
And I did. Needless to say, I didn’t die. I survived the four minutes, neither bombing nor rocking the house. There were jokes that landed and got solid laughter and some that didn’t, but nothing horrible. While I may do it again, it’s safe to say that Seinfeld and Sinbad have nothing to worry about.
So, how does this apply to you when selling?
First, I have always admired the diligence and work ethic of comedians on developing their craft. See the blog article and podcast: 5 Ways Comedians Teach Us to Sell Podcast version.
To be a top comedian, they have to write continuously, search their life for any shred of a joke. Then, they practice it over and over and tweak it constantly to get just the right wording, at the right time with the right inflection. When selling in today’s highly commoditized world, customers are getting smarter on our products. That means we need to get smarter on how we sell.
#1 Practice
You get four minutes to be on the stage at an open mic night. That’s fast. You don’t have much time to set up a joke or explain things. You have to be prepared the second you get up there to get the audience engaged. This is no different than driving up to cold call on a prospect. With your white pick up and the company logo on the side, every farmer in the world knows your there to sell them something. Nothing wrong with that, but we know farmers and Ag buyers are not sitting around hoping more salespeople call on them.
You have a very short time to get the right words out. If not, a comedian hears nothing from the crowd- crickets. A salesperson might hear, “We’re happy where we’re at! I don’t have time for you today”. Whether it’s crickets or comments like that, those are confidence killing moments. Practice and rehearse the more difficult parts of your selling process.
#2 Fear Management
Speaking to sell has the ability to invoke fear in even the most experienced of salespeople or comedians. However, we all speak to sell. I was trying to sell my jokes in my four minutes. My sales manager was trying to sell capital spending in a meeting with upper management so we could build a new facility. You speak when trying to sell your products to producers. There will be that moment when the stage is yours. That stage might be an actual stage or it might be the producer’s shop as you are given the chance to speak.
All of us have a certain amount of fear at those moments. We never know for sure what the outcome will be or what challenges will be thrown at us. “Will I forget my lines? What if he hates our products, our company or worse yet – Me! What if I come off as too salesy or pushy? What if he is technically smarter on these products than I am?”
Fear will be there. The challenge is to manage it.
#3 Know Your Audience
Most of my friends are my age or older. They get all my jokes as they lived through the events in the 1970’s and 80’s that I spoke about. In 2021, a room full of 20–30-year-olds did not!
In my first month as a salesperson, I had the great opportunity to speak at one of my dealer’s open house events. As the 30 or so horse owners sat down to listen, I presented for 30 minutes on the nutritional requirements of pregnant mares and newborn foals. We had just launched a product for both. At the end of my presentation, I asked the audience for a show of hands as to who had either a pregnant mare or a foal. You guessed it. No hands went up! Know your audience. How are you qualifying your customers to insure they even need or will benefit from your products? Before breaking out the brochures, make sure you have a qualified customer.
#4 Branding – Be You
Authenticity is critical. If you’re trying to tell a joke or sell a product, your audience and customers are starving for authenticity. I watched as people tried to go up on stage and be funny as a foul-mouthed tough guy. It didn’t work. Why? Because that’s not who they really are. The same holds true for you. If you are new in the industry and aren’t technically knowledgeable yet, just own it. Admit what you do and don’t know, but promise to continuously be in learning mode. I’m not saying you have to open with that kind of discussion or apologize for not knowing all the technical details of your products. But don’t be afraid to be transparent in this part of your selling process. Besides, your customers can see it anyway.
As I launched into sales, every competing salesperson wanted to sell their vast knowledge of horse, chicken, rabbit or pet nutrition. Trust me, feed dealers did not need to go through thirty PowerPoint slides on the amino acid digestion in Guinee Pigs. They just wanted to know where their delivery was and how much did it cost. That was a better brand for me as I knew how to track a delivery, read an invoice and explain a price list.
Well, as the clapping faded and we all left for the night, one individual from the audience came up and gave me a very encouraging compliment. The importance of this was that it was very genuine on his part and it was very encouraging. Being 30 years older than him, he could have assumed that I didn’t need to hear it. However, it meant a lot. Even after decades of public speaking, it’s still great to hear words of encouragement. Now go make someone’s day today! If you see someone doing something you know they fear, reach out and provide some encouragement.
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