Hot Pink

HOT READS FOR THE PRACTITIONER

Title: To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others

Competency: business development, sales/consultative sales orientation, external customer service, customer service orientation/focus/principles, relationship building, influence skills, persuasion skills

Who benefits: anyone who needs to sell products or ideas

Consultant Usage: especially useful for sales consultants and trainers

What’s it about? He’s baaaaack!  And with another #1 best seller.  The reigning #1 expert on motivation has returned with a topic most suited to a motivation examination.   Daniel Pink, author of Drive and The Power of Habit again tops the business book charts with a brilliant book on selling anything.

According to the Amazon blurb: “U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, one in nine Americans works in sales.”  According to Daniel Pink, everyone works in sales.  We all have something to sell everyday – an idea, a concept, a restaurant choice, a bedtime hour for the kids.  We all sell 24/7.  The real question is “How well do we sell?”

Pink’s publication is practical.  I like it, I like it!  I especially enjoyed how he came to write the book.  It wasn’t by design.  It began when he took a few hours to analyze how he spent his time.  He reconstructed a two week period.  What took him off guard was just how much of his time was spent trying to convince others to do … or not do … something.  In other words selling!  He estimates that each of us spends up to 40% of our time doing “non-selling selling.”

Many of us when we hear the word “sell” automatically think of Tricky Dick, the used car sleazebag.  But truth be told, selling is an honorable skill that we all need to develop or continue to develop.

Now about the book.  In his early chapters he challenges the long held ABCs of selling (Always Be Closing).  He substitutes his own ABCs – each worthy of a chapter.  The “A” is attunement, getting on the same wave length as the other person.  One of the myths he exposes is that extraverts make the best sales people.  That caught me off guard, but upon analysis, he has a great point.

“B” is for buoyancy.  One key word that best describes this word and chapter is optimism.  “C” is for clarity.  In this chapter he challenges the tradition of “problem solving” and suggests “problem finding” as a better alternative.  Again, once you read it, it makes total sense.

The final three chapters of his book come under the practical umbrella of “What To Do”.  “Pitch” looks at multiple ways to get your ideas across in very short amounts of time (He calls them the six elevator skills).  “Improvise” looks at what to do when your great ideas go awry, and they will! And finally “Serve” is defined by “Make it personal and make it purposeful”.

The final three chapters are filled with practical suggestions culled from the latest research, best practices, and tools and techniques.

What makes the book great is it begins with What and Why and ends with How.  That, I think, covers everything.

There is no way this short review can do this book justice.  If you are in direct sales, it is an absolute must read.  If you are in non-selling selling, the advice can make you a much better businessman/woman, much better colleague, much better friend, much better partner and a much better parent.  Endorsements like that don’t get much better.

Catch you later.

Bill Bradley

Bill Bradley (mostly) retired after 35 years in organizational consulting, training and management development. During those years he worked internally with seven organizations and trained and consulted externally with more than 90 large and small businesses, government agencies, hospitals and schools.