How to improve your ability to sell, even if you aren't in sales.

Ideas fromTo Sell is Human by Daniel H. Pink. Here are some takeaways that I thought were worth sharing…

“The only thing you got in this world is what you can sell. And the funny thing is, you’re a salesman, and you don’t know that.” –Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman (1949).

Approximately 1 in 9 Americans sell for a living. Pink reminds us that even if “sales” is not in our job title, we are all still very much in sales.

Qualtrics, a research and data analytics company, performed a study gathering data from 9,057 respondents around the world. They asked the question “What do you do at work?”. The results read like this:

People are now spending about 40 percent of their time at work engaged in non-sales selling—persuading, influencing, and convincing others in ways that don’t involve anyone making a purchase. Across a range of professions, we are devoting roughly twenty-four minutes of every hour to moving others.

Pink frequently uses the term “non-sales selling”. Non-sales selling is persuading people to do what you are asking when there is no purchase involved. By this rationale, Pink claims, we are all in sales now.

Pink teaches us how to move people and influence their behaviors in all aspects of life. Selling is much more than simply pushing a product or service on someone.

The New ABCs of selling—

“Always Be Closing” is outdated and diminishing in effectiveness according to Pink. If you want to sell in the remade landscape of the twenty-first century, you need to understand Attunement, Buoyancy and Clarity.

Attunement-

The ability to bring one’s actions and outlook into harmony with other people and with the context you’re in. Attunement hinges on three components:

1. Power distribution—begin the interaction with the assumption that you are not the one with power. This will help you see the other sides perspective more accurately, which in turn, will help you move them.

2. Use your head and heart—this boils down to perspective-taking and empathy. Perspective-taking is a cognitive skill, mostly about thinking while empathy is an emotional response, mostly about feeling. According to an experiment by William W. Maddux (UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School) and Adam Galinsky (Columbia Business School), perspective taking was more effective when it came to moving others. Not only that, but perspective takers were also more likely to fashion a deal that satisfied both sides, a win-win interaction.

3. Mimic strategically—Human beings are natural mimickers. Without realizing it, we often mirror back the actions, accents, facial expressions and responses of others. Strategic mimicry can be effective in moving others so long as it is subtle enough that the other person does not notice what you are doing.

Buoyancy-

By Pink’s definition, “how to stay afloat amid the ocean of rejection.” The three components of buoyancy come before, during and after an interaction.

Before: Interrogative Self Talk— Healthy questions to ask yourself in order to make you dig deep and find the answers. You will realize that you are prepared or not. “Can I do this?”. Questioning self talk often reminds us of the reason why we are doing something.

During: Positivity Ratios—Give off more positive emotions than neutral or negative ones. Emotions can be contagious. Your emotions should reflect the emotions you hope to see in the person you are selling to. A person who hears a positive-inflected pitch is twice as likely to accept the deal when compared to a negative one, even when the offer is the exact same.

After: Explanatory Style—This is how you think about the things that happen to you. A pessimistic explanatory style is the habit of believing “it’s all my fault, nothing is ever going to change and this is going to stick with me forever”. This is common among people who give up easily. This type of thinking can damage future performance, trigger depression and dig a deep hole that is difficult to climb out of. On the flip side, a positive explanatory style can be an asset. Instead of thinking “why is that person so rude?!” maybe consider that they might be having a bad day and you just happened to be there when they boiled over. Optimism is a catalyst. It can trigger feelings of confidence that you really can influence the world around you.

Clarity—

Helping people find the problem. Nowadays, consumers are resourceful, and they do not need a salesperson’s recommendations. Instead, they find internet reviews for products and do their own research. That it is why it is crucial for the salesperson to focus on problem finding, rather than problem solving. Does this person really know what is causing their problem? Pink uses the example of a homeowner who is struggling with dirty carpets. Naturally the homeowner searches for a better vacuum. But is the vacuum really the problem? Ultimately, the homeowner just wants clean floors, not necessarily a new vacuum. Perhaps the real problem is that the windows are old and let too much dust in to circulate throughout the house. New windows can reduce dust in the house and make the need for a new vacuum obsolete. if I know my problem, I can likely solve it. If I don’t know my problem, I might need some help finding it.