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Laughing All the Way to the Bank
 Make a client
crack a smile and you’ll be one step closer to closing a sale. According
to Claire Berger, a comedian and creator of FunnyWorks, a humor
consulting firm, salespeople should never underestimate the power of
humor when it comes to sealing deals and pitching products.
“Ask any successful salesperson what their greatest sales tool is, and
they will tell you it’s a sense of humor,” says Berger.
Berger would know. With a career in comedy that spans nearly 20 years,
including a stint with Chicago’s legendary Second City, she has kept
audiences entertained during the taping of more than 65 different
television shows including Seinfeld, Just Shoot Me, and Murphy Brown.
Intent on sharing the power of a punchline with the corporate world,
Berger recently wrote FUNNY WORKS! 52 Ways to Have More Fun at Work
(Seven Locks Press, 2002), a book that outlines how to bring humor to the
workplace. Encouraging game playing, staging annual talent shows, hosting
amateur comedy nights, joke-telling – they are all ways in which to
transform an antiseptic business space into a comfortable work
environment.
“Through humor you can establish a personal rapport with
somebody,” says Berger. “You get to know somebody’s spirit
and as a result, business is forthcoming.”
But that’s not all. A work environment that fosters fun
and frivolity also can lead to increased productivity, reduced
attrition rates and overall sales growth. But while Berger
believes that “the potential for having a good time is within
all of us,” she says it’s important for a sales manager
to set a positive example by using humor to build relationships
with sales reps, clients and prospects.
Berger says, “It really behooves a sales manager to be somebody
who knows how to have a good time, who has spontaneous fun
in the workplace, and who makes himself human to his employees
through his sense of humor.”
Still, warns Berger, it’s important that sales managers
and sales reps know when and where to draw the line. Humor
that touches on factors such as ethnicity, age and sexual
orientation can easily offend coworkers and clients.
“There’s a very clear difference between mean-spirited comedy
and good natured fun – and most of us, in our hearts, know
the difference,” says Berger.
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