In episode 4 of Sales Enabled, Dan Storey speaks with Jon Selig. Jon is a trainer in the art of comedy writing for salespeople. After a 12-year sales career, Jon’s career took a sharp left-turn and he started performing stand-up comedy in hopes of fulfilling a lifelong dream – to never sell technology again. At some point, Jon realised the practice of comedy writing is exactly what sales and marketing teams need to learn in order to be better able to craft value propositions, figure out their ideal client profile, and ultimately condense the initial client connection into just two lines, which you and I would recognise as a joke.

In this episode, Jon shares with me some of the key lessons he has taught to companies such as Canon USA, Citrix and Philips Healthcare to name just a few. Specifically, we dive into detail in these areas in particular:

• Why comedy writing is not about churning out jokes
• How studying comedy writing can make us more concise, impactful communicators
• How you can only write a good joke if you really understand who you are selling to and the specific problems you solve
• When is the perfect time to use a joke, even if you aren’t very funny
• Some specific examples of joke structure and how to craft your own version

Although this episode is about comedy and jokes, by the end, Jon reveals that the process of comedy writing is actually about better crafting your specific value proposition in a way that connects with your prospect.

More about Jon Selig:

Jon received his BComm & MBA followed by a 12-year career selling technology (mainly for Oracle & an Oracle partner). In 2011, his career took a sharp left-turn and he started performing stand-up comedy in hopes of fulfilling a lifelong dream – to never sell technology again.

• Since then, he’s performed at JFL Zoofest, The Comedy Nest’s Young Guns of Comedy, and has also appeared in a segment on The Daily Show. He still can’t tell you what databases do.
• To date, he’s spoken to and delivered workshops to sales teams at Canon USA, Citrix, Zoho, Philips Healthcare, InfoBlox, Microsoft Canada, Fleetcor Technologies, and more. Contact him to make it happen at your company.

Find out more about Jon at his website jonselig.com or connect with him on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/jonselig