I found over the years that the best way to start a sales presentation is to immediately take away any tension and allow everyone in the room to feel comfortable The best way I know of to make that happen is to start the presentation with a joke, a way of breaking the ice…so to speak. In the beginning I used a variety of jokes…some good…some fell flat…nothing ever really was right. One year I was at our National Sales Meeting and every year I would spend a fair amount of time with one of the guys that I went through training with. His name was Royce Colbaugh (may he rest in peace). Royce and I were great friends and he had a wonderful way about him and he and I were always sharing jokes and stories. This particular year he told me a joke that almost immediately became my go to joke for most of my sales presentations from then on. I still haven’t heard a better joke or found a better way to open a presentation…. It goes like this:
PAUSE...
Not screaming… like the passengers in his car.
I know it’s a bit dark but for some reason I have had incredible success with it. I have yet to deliver that joke without a positive reaction. Early in the morning, maybe before everyone is completely awake there can be a pause as they think about it, but it is about as close to a sure thing as you can get.
What it does is disarm all the people in the room, engages them, and hopefully makes them feel like I might have something interesting or meaningful for them to hear. A good laugh is good for the soul. I will be eternally grateful to Royce for sharing this little ray of sunshine that has made thousands of people laugh through the years. Every time I deliver this joke I think of Royce.
