Your average salesperson has an arsenal of tools at their disposal for closing the deal in order to adjust to each individual prospect. But is one of those tactics to use humor? If it's not already in your back pocket, ready to utilize in the right situation, read up about how you can start incorporating it into your selling strategy.

A few weeks ago, I was contacted by Rachman Blake from Funnybizz about bringing laughter to business. Rachman recommends the use of humor when following up to spark a response and get the ball rolling. In fact, he’s made a clever example that’s not only funny, but also entertaining:

As a startup, it’s important to remember to laugh from time to time. 

Forbes tells us there’s 10 reasons why humor can help you be successful at work, and I completely agree! It’s not just more enjoyable for your co-workers, it’s incredibly effective when selling. The problem is, it’s not very easy to be funny on a voicemail or email, regardless of how many emoticons you add. But as Rachman and the millions of other YouTubers out there have shown, video is a perfect catalyst to be funny, creative and entertaining. But does it really work in sales? Let’s ask Act-On…

Brad Osterhout, National Sales Manager from Act-On, is always looking to move his prospects from the “red zone to the end zone” – aren’t we all? He realizes that the modern day sales rep is truly the “CEO of their own cubicle” and has the power to sell in more a personal, creative and funny way. So after discussing with Brad the impact of humor in business, his creative juices started flowing and resulted in these two hilarious and effective videos.

Brad is using funny follow-up videos to connect, and has already closed $75K in business. He’s able to bring relatable topics to his outreach in a short, humorous and effective way that gets the buyer to respond and move forward.

There will always be new ways to sell, but some fundamentals never change. People like to buy from people they like, and humor helps make that happen. Video has made it easier for salespeople to share that humor in a fun and engaging way. And OneMob makes it easier to record and send personal and funny videos, all integrated to Salesforce, to your prospects and customers. Keep closing!

About the Author

Sati Hillyer is the founder and CEO of OneMob. Prior to OneMob, Sati spent 8 years at salesforce.com and grew the AppExchange from an idea to 1500 apps, and later developed the partner ecosystem across APAC. OneMob is the leading video/voice messaging platform for Salesforce. With their recent launch at Dreamforce 2014, they are quickly transforming some of the largest sales organizations in the world, including Cisco and CareerBuilder, with the power of video. Learn more at www.onemob.com.

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