Be True to Your School of Humor

As a general rule, humor helps make the sale, and the harder the shopper laughs, the stronger the prospects for a completed transaction.

• Humor heads off mental counterarguments. The shopper is too busy chuckling to challenge the pitch. 
• When happy, customers are more likely to make a decision to buy. 
• A good joke generates positive word-of-mouth each time the customer tells the joke to friends and is asked, “Where did you hear that one?” 

     But there’s a significant exception to the general rule: If you choose the wrong joke, you’ll sabotage the sale by offending the shopper. It’s awfully easy to do because, as Rutgers University anthropologist Robert Lynch has verified, across cultures the heartiest laughs come from taboo topics. Prof. Lynch’s conclusion deserves close attention because he’s also made a name as a standup comic.
     Knowing how to get the heartiest laughs without offending comes from determining what this shopper considers to be true, but is reluctant to admit, says the research. Consider a joke told by another standup comic, Bill Burr: Why do men make more money than women for doing the exact same job?, the joke begins. It ends with, “In the unlikely case we are both on the Titanic and it starts to sink, you get to leave with the kids and I get to stay…. So call it a dollar-an-hour surcharge.”
     Participants in a study who laughed hardest were those who, on an inventory of subconscious gender attitudes, evidenced a belief women shouldn’t hold workplace jobs. It’s a view increasingly hard to maintain these days. The joke gives an opportunity to release tension about that via laughter.
     For taboo topic humor to work for you, retailer, the joking also must be true to the views you want your business to project. Size up potential downsides. A personal example of this comes from an edgy quip at Linn’s Easy As Pie Café in Cambria, California.
     A while back, my wife Irene and I walked in for our first time ever. When it was our turn to order, the two of us were still staring up at the menu board. The fellow behind the counter broke the silence. “Sir!,” he said. I looked at him to see he was wagging his finger up and down while pointing at Irene. “This one is much better looking than the one you brought in here with you last week.”

Click below for more: 
Humor Your Customers 
Joke Around to Facilitate the Sale 
Size Up the Customer Before Joking Around