To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others

Arthur Miller created the archetype of the insecure, self-deluded traveling salesman in his Pulitzer-Prize winning play, Death of a Salesman. I have my own Willy Loman story.When I was in high school, I earned extra money by lugging around a sample case of candles and selling door to door. There were, of course, the easy marks; my parents and the next-door neighbors. Beyond the comfortable confines of my immediate neighborhood, it was a teenager's view of hell - doors slammed, fingers wagging no from behind lace curtains, and the one-hour pitch that led to "I'll have to think about it."Like most Americans, I have a rather dim view of salespeople. In fact, it is usually ranked among the most distrusted professions along with stock traders, politicians, dentists, and lawyers.Which is surprising, because Dan Pink, the author of the new book, To Sell is Human; the Surprising Truth About Moving Others was a lawyer. Pink, the author of such best sellers as A Whole New Mind and Drive takes a fresh and engaging look at the art and social science of selling. In fact, his thesis is that in one way or another, we are all salespeople.Pink begins with some provocative statistics - the result of his study with Qualtrics, a research and date analytics company. The study, What Do You Do At Work?, revealed "that people are now spending 40 percent of their time at work engaging in non-sales: selling - persuading, influencing and convincing others in ways that don't involve anyone making a purchase. Across a wide range of professions, we are devoting roughly twenty-four minutes of every hour to moving others."The book makes a compelling argument that "we are all in sales now" because while the existing data show that 1 in 9 Americans work in sales, the new data reveal so do the other 8 in 9.In all of his books, Pink (Like Malcolm Gladwell) uses behavioral economics and science to illuminate a subject - in many ways, counterintuitive to what many of us believe.For example, he cites a 2008 experiment where researchers simulated a negotiation over the sale of a gas station. (I assume this was before the great financial meltdown.)"Like many real-life negotiations, this one presented what looked like an obstacle: The highest price the buyer would pay was less than the lowest price the seller would accept. However, the parties had other mutual interests that, if surfaced, could lead to a deal both would accept."Pink continues, "One-third of the negotiators were instructed to imagine what the other side was feeling, while one-third was instructed to imagine what the other side was thinking. (The remaining third, given bland and generic instructions, was the control group.)"The result? The empathizers (feeling) struck many more deals than the control group, But the perspective takers (thinking) did even better: 75% of them managed to fashion a deal that satisfied both sides.The authors of the study, Adam Galinsky, Joe Magee, M. Inesi add Deborah Gruenfeld and another study by William Maddux showed that "Empathy...was effective but less so, and was, at times a detriment to both discovering creative solutions and self-interest."Pink also dispels the myth that extroverts make the best salespeople in today's economy and that the "Ambivert" - someone who is somewhere between an extrovert and an introvert is the rising star in moving people.If you're familiar with the classic Alec Baldwin uber-salesman scene in David Mamet's Glengarry, Glen Ross you'll know that the ABC scribbled on the chalkboard means, "Always be closing." (For movie fans, Mamet wrote that scene for Baldwin and is not in the original play).Pink has rewired and rethought the ABC of the new world of selling and it's Attunement, Buoyancy, and Clarity. Like his other books, he complements each idea with relevant case studies, strategies and a number of insight exercises.He offers six successors to the standard elevator pitch. Shows you why problem finding may be a smarter strategy than problem solving, and how skills in improvisation can dramatically improve how to move people.All of which makes To Sell Is Human - a delightfully useful read. Essentially, Pink is reframing what "selling" is all about. We are all salespeople because everyday we are selling ideas, positions, and strategies to other people. I highly recommend it.I know Dan personally and marvel how there are very few pictures of him without a purple shirt and he doesn't disappoint in To Sell Is Human. So, I requested a preview copy and bought my own Kindle version as well.I first met him at a book signing at BIF (Business Innovation Factory) and what impressed me is that he didn't simply sign books; he had short, meaningful conversations with everyone. I think he's a reluctant salesperson. Dan is more interested in sharing information and ideas than selling you a product or service.And ultimately, that's the foundation of the new age of sales - how to move others, by moving yourself.And for anyone wishing to sell candles door to door, the Pray Hands cylinder candle was a big hit.

The core idea of the book is that we are all nowadays is in the selling business: selling ideas to our bosses, products to our customers and holiday plans to our families. And also that successful selling today is not about charismatic persuasion but about listening and putting yourself into the other person's position.Pink describes how selling has changed over the last few decades from "ABC - always be closing" type persuasion to more "human" cooperation between the customer and the seller. The reason for this change is the availability of information and increased competition. The buyer can easily access product information and peer reviews and thus be very able to spot any foul play. And even if not all the buyers would be knowledgeable beforehand they most certainly hold the power afterwards of hurting the business in case they feel cheated.If you have an idea, a product or a skill that you're sure others would have some use, you have to make other people see the value or else it's worthless. And making others see value, is selling even if you would not be getting any money from it. Pink argues that if you look at sales by this new way in an organisation, it isn't really anyone's job, it's everyone's job. Pink suggest also a new ABC of selling: Attunement, Buoyancy and Clarity. Attunement in essence meaning listening instead of speaking, buoyancy meaning positivity and clarity meaning being clear on options and consequences.A great example of non-sales selling these principles apply is management, which according to Pink has changed from giving orders to "making sales" and making sales is not trying to force someone to do something they don't want to do in the first place, but rather listening and finding common ground where the boss and the subordinate together try to figure out what is the best way to make the personal aspirations and organisational goals match.Pink is a great writer and storyteller and I enjoyed reading the book, although didn't really get all that much new from it. The first two-thirds of the book is clear, logical, well-structured description what professionals need to success in work life social scene and it's filled with lots of memorable real-life stories, but the last third of the book is more or less an incomplete list of marketing and "Dale Carnegie-style" influence tricks, although some of them no-doubt effective.For the occasional reader of pop-social science or sales literature I would definitely recommend the book, but for anyone who's read for example 7 habits of highly effective people will not get much new perspective from this.