LAUGHING & DEVELOPMENT

How One Joke Landed My Biggest Deal

There’s a special kind of silence that happens when you send a cold email. Like a tumbleweed rolling down an abandoned street, it feels as if your message has drifted into the abyss.

So you keep following up.

One time, while an Account Executive at Splash, I sent nine unanswered emails to Foot Locker because I wanted to work with them so badly. I saw how perfect the fit was and didn’t want to leave any stone unturned. My persistence was bordering on annoying, but…

On my last attempt, I decided to change the script. Instead of another “just checking to see if you got this…”, I sent this meme:

Little did I know that the person on the other end of this email had a great sense of humor and replied that I had made her laugh and agreed to a meeting.

That meeting - and many more meetings that followed - turned into one of the largest enterprise deals I ever closed.

The lesson? My biggest sales win didn’t come from a perfectly refined pitch - it came from daring to break the silence with humor.

Why Humor Sticks

Humor makes you memorable. When you are able to make someone laugh, their brain lays down a mile marker in the endless highway of information they receive daily.

Research shows that humor significantly improces recall, even when people are in a negative mood (Tunku & Dzulkifli, 2013). That matters in sales - people love to buy, but they hate being sold to. A laugh can make the difference in whether you stick in their memory.

The Reciprocity Effect with Humor

Humor also taps into the psychology of reciprocity.

In a classic experiment, psychologist Dennis T. Regan found that when someone gives us something—even something small—we feel compelled to give something back (Regan, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology).

As someone who follows up daily, I’ve learned that if I can incorporate humor, that “something back” often comes in the form of a reply, a next step toward a sale — or even a clear “no” (which is always better than silence).

The magic of reciprocity is that the exchange doesn’t need to be equal. A simple laugh can tip the scales toward something profoundly valuable, like an elusive meeting (Neuroscience Marketing, 2012).

Breaking Monotony = Breaking Through

Most inboxes are filled with beige: polite, templated, and forgettable. Humor breaks that pattern. It signals that you’re human, not a voice powered by automation.

Any chance that you have to stand out in a colorful way can allow you to have a foot in the door (or locker). When you give someone the gift of laughter, you’re triggering a flood of feel-good chemicals. In return, they are far more likely to give you something back: attention, time, or even their business.

Even though it might seem small, a laugh can go a long way.

Want a $1,000 Amazon Gift Card?

If you refer a friend to Laugh.Events and they book, we’ll send you an Amazon gift card as a thank-you. Depending on the event, you could earn up to $1,000 in Bezos Bucks.

Gift card amount is based on the event booked. Offer valid for referred clients who haven’t booked with us before. Amazon is not a sponsor of this promotion.

WORKPLACE MEME OF THE WEEK

Disclaimer: These are memes submitted by real attendees from Workday Update describing their year. If you relate to them, please take a lunch break (or a Laugh Break).

Replace Cat with Dog and I’ve got myself a BINGO:

TAKE A LAUGH BREAK

Disclaimer: No offense is ever meant—just a laugh I couldn’t keep to myself.

The EMMY’s were this past Sunday and Nate Bargatze teamed up with some SNL cast members for a sketch format he’s made famous when hosting SNL.