The Internet sells everything from necessities like food and clothing to cars and sanctuary. When you hit the road with something worth selling, you often need all the sales tips you can get. You know that the customer can probably get his item on the web. You know that the customer can get hassle-free choice and delivery without ever talking to a salesperson. You know you’re on the verge of being obsolete. What the you need is a new angle for approaching people tired of the impersonal nature of the web and worn out with the lack of customer service in retail. What you need is a little bit of humor!

Customer service in this country has turned into a joke and it’s not funny anymore. The sales person on the floor would rather tweet than help a customer. The customer service desk personnel are always out to lunch. Frustration has driven people to the web, but they have discovered the impersonal nature of a screen and keyboard are often not to their liking either. Pushy salesmen at the door are not the answer, but what is the answer? This is your cue.

Doing some humor research would help put you ahead of the crowd. The item you’re selling is something everyone needs and lots of people have some funny stories involving that item. In this instance, scripts and memorized sales pitches won’t help you make a sale, whereas humor might do just that. People are aware of all the pitches and scripts anyway and are ripe for a different approach.

A Google search of your item will yield forums in which people write their stories and among them will be funny stories to share with your customers. Harvesting funny stories from friends and family can help you, too. Sites containing stories of “the weirdest thing happened on the way to work” or oddball events would be of great help in the humor research department.

Sales tips that include making the customer feel like an old friend and sharing the customer’s concerns and making the customer comfortable so they don’t feel pushed to buy are all good tips. In sales, the rep that sells the most is the rep that comes across as an old friend and checks back frequently to see how his customer is doing with their new toy. Making them laugh is a tried and true method of making someone comfortable and keeping them laughing is the way to repeat sales.