Author Daniel Pink uses his forehead to demonstrate how people focus on self vs. others, at Watermark on Jan 15
As a society, we look down on selling, considering sales slimey or undesirable. Yet as many as 1 in 9 people are in the sales business. And, according to author Daniel Pink, we’re *all* selling every day, even there are no actual sales transactions taking place.
Pink, whose new book is called To Sell is Human, says non sales-people say an average of 40% of their time is spent convincing or persuading others.
On Tuesday, Pink talked about how the tables have turned with the advent of a world where information runs freely and openly. It’s no longer buyer beware–now it’s seller beware.
He talks about the new ABCs of selling as Attunement (perspective taking), Buoyancy (the ability to remainingg afloat) and Clarity (the ability to curate and distill the key information from the overabundance of available data).
Pink also notes how important it is to connect with the other party–to the point of strategically mimicking their physical behavior and word choices.
Surprised? This all makes sense. All that convincing and persuading that goes on when we’re not “really” selling…it’s something we call marketing.
Taking the other party’s perspective? Part of identifying with your target audience. Connecting with the other side using their own language? A big part of messaging.
Whether we call is selling or marketing, it’s what we need to do to obtain our objectives. Kudos to Daniel Pink for tackling the subject in an interesting and amusing way.
