To Sell Is Human – by Dan Pink

‘The surprising truth about persuading, convincing and influencing others’

Dan Pink has done it again. We first reviewed ‘Drive’ back in 2016, and now we’re reviewing his book about sales and ‘non-sales selling’. Pink lays down the ABC of ‘how to be’ when selling: Attunement, Buoyancy, Clarity. Then, the three ‘what to do’ when selling: Pitch, Serve, Improvise. If you’re in the 1 out of 9 people that have ‘sales’ directly in their job description, you can use these to improve your technique. And even if you’re in the 8 out of 9 people that aren’t specifically in sales, you are still in ‘non-sales selling’ and can use these to influence and persuade people when selling your ideas.

         “To Sell Is Human- Daniel H.Pink”

Leave aside sleep, exercise and hygiene, it turns out I spend a significant portion of my days trying to coax others to part with resources. Seeking resources other than just money. Like it or not we are all in sales now, whether pushing Buicks on a car lot or pitching ideas in a meeting

We are all engaged in ‘non-sales selling’, persuading, convincing and influencing others to give something they have got in exchange for what we have got. We have moved from buyer beware to seller beware. Where only honesty, fairness and transparency are the only viable path. Pink wants to make us more effective at moving others and see selling in a new light.

  Part1- Rebirth of a salesman

• We are all in sales now:-

Individuals can now do their own research and get buying advice from their social networks. We now rely on smartphones and websites to locate and purchase what we need. Most of us spend a lot of time persuading, influencing and convincing others. We sell ourselves online, with facebook, twitter or tinder. Learning these skills or persuading, influencing and convincing others is crucial to individual success.

A good algebra teacher at the start needs to convince his/her students to part their resources, time attention, and effort and will be better off at the end of the term.

• Entrepreneurship, elasticity and edmed:-

Harvard University professor says that the middle-class employment would not be a part of large organizations, but self-sufficient artisans. These one or two-person outfits need to sell services, creativity, and expertise.750K people have eBay as their primary income

Reason 1 – entrepreneurship/freelancing trend

The second reason we are all in sales is…

Elasticity-A new breadth of skills demanded by established companies. People who do not have authority from their job titles have to find other ways to exert their power.

• From caveat emptor to caveat venditor:-

Asymmetrical information creates headaches. If the seller knows more about the product than the buyer, the buyer gets suspicious. Why is he getting rid of it? Am I getting hoodwinked? Now buyers and sellers have access to the same amount of information. If you encounter a dirty dealing, you can smash them on FB or blogs.

When buyers know more than sellers, sellers are no longer protectors and purveyors of information. They are the curators and clarifiers of it – helping to make sense of the blizzards of facts.

Part2 How to be:-

• Attunement:-

Perspective-taking is at the heart of the first essential quality in moving others today. Increase the power by reducing it

• Power leads to anchor too heavily on their own vantage point, insufficiently adjusting to the other’s perspective

Use your head as much as your heart

• Perspective-taking and empathy as empirical twins
• Think about what they are thinking

Strategically mimic

• Sign of trust, chameleon effect
• Don’t get noticed
• Be strategic and human, be strategic by being human

The ambivert advantage

• Too extravert and too introvert perform the worst in sales
• A study of ‘who sells the most’ showed that people in the middle, ambivert most successful

Actions

• Practice strategic mimicry
• Pull up a chair and think of the audience in the presentation
• Find uncommon commonalities

• Buoyancy:-

Any salesman, whether trying to convince customers or colleagues to make a change – must contend with the wave of rebuffs, refusals, and repudiations. To stay afloat is the second essential quality of moving others, buoyancy. Do not be like Law of the Attraction, be like Bob the Builder. A most effective way to stay motivated is to shift from making statements to asking questions

Positivity Ratios

A positive view broadens people’s ideas about possible actions, opening our awareness to a wider range of thoughts. Positivity in a sales encounter infects the buyer, making him less adversarial and more open to the possibility.3 to 1 up to 11 to one is the right range of positive to negative emotions

Actions

Ask the question, can I move these people? List 5 reasons why your answer is yes. This is a sturdier and more substantive grounding than mere affirmation. Monitor your positivity ratio.

• Clarity:-

The number of people who have not made adequate preparations for their golden years stand somewhere between grim and alarming. Clarity, the capacity to help others see their situations in fresh and more revealing ways and to identify problems they did not realize they had.

Find your frames

A homeless man had a sign ‘I am blind’. When the sign was changed to ‘It is springtime, and I am blind. People started giving bills, Clarity depends on contrast. The most essential question is compared to what? The best way to introduce someone or sell someone is to have negative information follow the positive.

When people encounter negative information after having already received positive information, the weak info ironically highlights or increases the salience of the positive information

The potential frame:-

• The potential to be good at something can be preferred to actually being good
• Emphasize the promise of what could be accomplished tomorrow

Actions

• In sales asking the right questions is better than having the right answers

• Pitch:-

No longer the elevator pitch. 50 years ago that was the only chance to encounter the CEO. Ask questions that make them think?

• The one-word pitch-Nowadays only brutally simple ideas get through

• The question pitch-Ask sales prospect a question rather than statements, do you think it’s a good idea?

• The rhyming pitch-Life is strife, Woes unite foes, Message sticks In their mind

• Subject line pitch

• Every email we send is a pitch- The Twitter Pitch-The Pixar pitch

• Improvise:-

• Sales and theatre both have much in common, both take guts
• The idea of turning people around is less probable or possible than ever

1. Improving is all about hearing offers

Can generate ideas, incorporate changes quickly and easily, and communicate effectively and convincingly during sales presentations. Improvement makes you listen better

• It is not taught in schools
• The assumption is that the ability to listen well is a natural gift for which no training is required
• How extraordinary that, no effort is made anywhere in the whole educational process
• Good improvement makes it look like everything is prearranged, they accept all offers made

• Serve
• Be personal and purposeful, if you are moving people
• Not only we should be serving, but we should also be tapping into others innate desire to serve
• Those who move others are not manipulators, but are servants, serve first and sell later