To Sell is Human
by Daniel PinkAll work is sales
The prevalence of sales or sales-adjacent skills has increased to a point where everyone is doing of some sort of selling in the work. This can be external, traditional sales, or internal through persuading stakeholders of a project’s value. Basically the precursor idea to Alex Danco’s thesis on worldbuilding.
Selling, broadly, is about convincing someone to part with resources now to get benefit for themselves later. Motivation is a form of selling.
Physicians sell patients on a remedy. Lawyers sell juries on a verdict. Teachers sell students on the value of paying attention in class. Entrepreneurs woo funders, writers sweet-talk producers, coaches cajole players.
The very technologies that were supposed to obliterate salespeople have lowered the barriers to entry for small entrepreneurs and turned more of us into sellers.
The purpose of a pitch isn’t necessarily to move others immediately to adopt your idea. The purpose is to offer something so compelling that it begins a conversation, brings the other person in as a participant, and eventually arrives at an outcome that appeals to both of you.
The balance of power has shifted from sellers to buyers
Information asymmetry used to place more of the risk on the buyer. This was laid out in the George Akerlof’s market for lemons paper. Previously effective sales techniques don’t work anymore because buyers are better informed - it’s better now to be transparent and nice. People want to buy things from people they like.
Humility and perspective taking are important for a seller in an environment where buyers are well-informed. Your theory of mind, how Mindwise you are, are more important than ever.
Whether you’re in traditional sales or non-sales selling, the low road is now harder to pass and the high road—honesty, directness, and transparency—has become the better, more pragmatic, long-term route.
the ability to move people now depends on power’s inverse: understanding another person’s perspective, getting inside his head, and seeing the world through his eyes.
Attunement, buoyancy, and clarity: These three qualities, which emerge from a rich trove of social science research, are the new requirements for effectively moving people on the remade landscape of the twenty-first century.
Buyers are looking for insights and solutions
Customers are looking for business partners rather than sellers, and are hunting for insights. As per above, the balance of power has shifted from sellers to buyers because of the wealth of information available now to buyers. Helping them find clarity in this information provides differentiation beyond the product being sold.
In the new world of sales, being able to ask the right questions is more valuable than producing the right answers.
In the past few years he says he’s seen a shift. Retailers are less interested in figuring out how many rolls of Mentos to order than in learning how to improve all facets of their operation … In a sense, Chauvin says, his best salespeople think of their jobs not so much as selling candy but as selling insights about the confectionery business.
First, in the past, the best salespeople were adept at accessing information. Today, they must be skilled at curating it—sorting through the massive troves of data and presenting to others the most relevant and clarifying pieces. Second, in the past, the best salespeople were skilled at answering questions (in part because they had information their prospects lacked). Today, they must be good at asking questions—uncovering possibilities, surfacing latent issues, and finding unexpected problems.
Goals, journey, empathy
The best way to sell is to be honest and understand what the buyer’s goals and frame the thing you’re selling within that journey towards it. Pitches should aim to motivate listeners to invest themselves in the idea - getting “buyers” to contribute makes it more likely for the pitch to be successful.
So if you’re selling a car, go easy on emphasizing the rich Corinthian leather on the seats. Instead, point out what the car will allow the buyer to do—see new places, visit old friends, and add to a book of memories.
“It’s about leading with my ears instead of my mouth,” Ferlazzo says. “It means trying to elicit from people what their goals are for themselves and having the flexibility to frame what we do in that context.”
The purpose of a pitch isn’t necessarily to move others immediately to adopt your idea. The purpose is to offer something so compelling that it begins a conversation, brings the other person in as a participant, and eventually arrives at an outcome that appeals to both of you.
Potential is more compelling than accomplishment
Sellers are selling a personal outcome for the buyer if they owned / invested in the product. “You used to be A, but with X, now you can be B.” This is also the reason for Pink’s focus on the interrogative, asking questions, that leads people to remember or develop extrinsic reasons for the purchase, which are more compelling. A large part of marketing is making people aware that they are “A”, and how being “B” is better. Then they can want to become “B” on their own, and will be motivated to invest in that progression.
People often find potential more interesting than accomplishment because it’s more uncertain, the researchers argue. That uncertainty can lead people to think more deeply about the person they’re evaluating—and the more intensive processing that requires can lead to generating more and better reasons why the person is a good choice.
So if you’re selling a car, go easy on emphasizing the rich Corinthian leather on the seats. Instead, point out what the car will allow the buyer to do—see new places, visit old friends, and add to a book of memories.
To sell well is to convince someone else to part with resources—not to deprive that person, but to leave him better off in the end.
Declarative self-talk risks bypassing one’s motivations. Questioning self-talk elicits the reasons for doing something and reminds people that many of those reasons come from within.