The Surprising Truth About Moving Others—The Art and Science of Selling.
Whether we’re employees pitching colleagues on a new idea, entrepreneurs enticing funders to invest, or parents and teachers cajoling children to study, we spend our days trying to move others. Like it or not, we’re all in sales now.
To Sell Is Human offers a fresh look at the art and science of selling. Daniel H. Pink draws on a rich trove of social science for his counterintuitive insights.
He reveals the new ABCs of moving others (it’s no longer “Always Be Closing”), explains why extraverts don’t make the best salespeople, and shows how giving people an “off-ramp” for their actions can matter more than actually changing their minds.
To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others Animated Summary
Video by Productivity Game
Key Takeaways
We’re all in sales. We human beings are social creatures who need to work together to achieve certain goals. Therefor selling, the act of persuading someone to take a specific action is a fundamental human skill.
Proven Sales Skills
1. Attunement you can think of attunement as a radio dial in your mind. Just as a radio needs to be adjusted to be in tune with a specific radio station, you need to adjust your thinking to attune to the person that you’re trying to persuade.
Perceived Power people primed to feel powerful are 3x less likely to consider another point of view.
- If we feel smarter or more powerful than the person we’re trying to persuade we will feel to attune to their way of thinking, and be less likely to persuade them.
- The first step to persuade anyone is to lower your perceived power.
“Take the attitude that I am sitting in a small chair, so you can sit in the big chair.”
If knowledge is power and I assume for the moment that I know nothing, I can turn my perceived power dial way back by operating from a position of lower power I ask more questions, listen more carefully, and try to align my thinking more precisely.
“I am the wisest man alive for I know one thing….I know nothing.” -Socrates
When people take the time to attune to our perspective, we like and trust them more. When we like and trust a person, we’re more receptive to what they’re selling. Attuning to another person’s perspective also allows you to understand what motivates that person to act.
2. Clarity think of something you should do, but you’re not ready to do it right now. (Think about a mess in the house you need to clean) On a scale of 1-10, with one being not the least bit ready and 10 being totally ready, how ready are you to start cleaning? Take a moment to really think about this answer. Why didn’t you pick a lower number?
Motivational Interviewing Technique helps identify hidden motives for actions.
This self interrogation reveals hidden inner motives. Your primary goal as a salesperson is to find a clarify these inner motives. The best way to clarify a desire to act is to make a comparison.
- Pretend for a moment that you have to wake up everyday and worry about money. Now compare that feeling to winning the lottery and never having to worry about money again.
- Or consider a field that you’re competitive in. Either a sport, school program or business industry. Now compare where you are to where your nearest competitor is.
- Did these comparisons spark a desire to get a lottery ticket or to do something to one-up your competitor? This is the emotion that you want to trigger at the beginning of every sale.
- Don’t jump straight into your sale, instead start by making a comparison. Compare their current experience with what they could experience. Compare what they have with that they could lose.
By attuning to one’s perspective you start to understand what motivates them and by asking questions and providing comparisons you clarify those motives and raise one’s willingness to act from a 2 to a 10 and when someone is ready to act, they’ll be more receptive to what you’re selling.
