To Sell Is Human: Business Book Review

Don't Be Stubborn When It Comes To Embracing Change

Book Review: To Sell Is Human by Daniel H. Pink

According to the author, we are all trying to sell something all the time: whether convincing our kids to accomplish their tasks, or persuading a friend to accompany us on an adventure, or even presenting all the beneficial reasons our neighbor should help invest in a joint wall.  

Daniel Pink explains that whether your job is in full-time sales or not, we are all in the business of selling.  He knows that this idea is not widely accepted; in fact, he believes that most people would balk at the idea that their lives frequently revolve around selling in one way or another.

Sales?  Blecch.  To the smart set, sales is an endeavor that requires little intellectual throw weight - a task for slick glad-handers who skate through life on a shoeshine and a smile.  To others it's the province of dodgy characters doing slippery things--a realm where trickery and deceit get the speaking parts  while honesty and fairness watch mutely from the rafters.  Still others view it as the white-collar equivalent of cleaning toilets--necessary perhaps, but unpleasant and even a bit unclean.  

I'm convinced we've gotten it wrong.

This is a book about sales.  But it is unlike any book about sales you have read (or ignored) before.  That's because selling in all its dimensions--whether pushing Buicks on a car lot or pitching ideas in a meeting--has changed more in the last ten years than it did over the previous hundred.  Most of what we think we understand about selling is constructed atop a foundation of assumptions that has crumbled.

Pink begins the book by explaining how the art and ideas behind "sales" (as it has always been known) have changed, even providing recent statistics showing that 40% of our time is used in trying to convince others to move in a certain direction, whether in our professional or personal life.

He continues by diving into key elements of workplace transformation:  Entrepreneurship (how intended barriers to sales jobs have actually turned into more opportunities), Elasticity (how we have found that our job skills must be flexible in moving across boundaries), and Ed-Med (a term coined by the author to describe the fastest growing industries around the world, combining educational services and health care and it's relevance).

Pink then goes even further to define the new ABCs of the sales trade, in order to better deal with situations that make us want to run and hide:

1. Attunement - Bringing yourself into harmony with other people, groups, and contexts.
2. Buoyancy - The necessary mindset to stay afloat even in the face of constant rejection.
3. Clarity - The ability to make sense of problematic and muddled situations.

The last section of the book is about What To Do, in terms of how this book is practical for you, divided into three chapters entitled:

1. Pitch - Learning ways to approach people in an age of limited attention spans
2. Improvise - Learn improvisation rules to enhance your ability to persuade others
3. Serve - Serving personally and with purpose, and why it matters

There is much more depth to this book than what could be barely touched on in a review.  Pink also gives a wonderful illustration on the art of storytelling and the impact it has on our ability to sell others our ideas.  He also draws from research to disprove a widely accepted assumption about extraverts being the best salespeople, which is something that most people believe makes a salesperson successful.

What changes have you had to embrace in the last year, in order to keep up with the pace of change in the business world?

Your comments on this subject are greatly appreciated!

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Looking Out For #1: What It Could Mean For Your Life

Are You Doing What You Love the Most?

Looking out for Number One is the conscious, rational effort to spend as much time as possible doing those things which bring you the greatest amount of pleasure and less time on those which cause pain.  Everyone automatically makes the effort to be happy, so the key word is "rational."  

To act rationally, and thus experience pleasure and avoid pain on a consistent basis, you have to be aware of what you're doing and why you're doing it.  If you are not aware, you're not living life; you're merely passing through.                                       

-Robert J. Ringer

                             
In his book Looking Out For #1, Robert J. Ringer is not merely suggesting that people should be more egocentric in order to live more fulfilled lives.   With the rising and setting of the sun each day, we are given a new opportunity, but it comes with a choice of attitude and commitment:  

1. To get dragged and pulled through the day
2. To purposefully move through the day with intention

Ringer is presenting the philosophy that if you must choose the life you most want to live, and that if you are not making conscious choices to do what you want, then your life is out of control; he further explains that this kind of life approach requires an elevated awareness of your true desires.

While the high point on the Awareness Meter is taking action based only on your own rational choices, the absolute pits is taking action based on what others choose for you.  If you've been in the habit of doing the latter, the good news is that you only have one way to go from here:  up.

While it makes no sense to make decisions based on what others believe is best for us and our business, we often fall into the trap of allowing the ideas of others control and dictate the path we take in life.  But the question is, how did we get to this point?  How did we end up allowing someone else's dream take first place in our lives?  We have given up our own dream, and ultimately control over our own destiny, one decision at a time.

Ringer continues by posing the question:  What's the payoff for you?

Looking out for Number One is important because it leads to a simple, uncomplicated life in which you spend more time doing those things which give you the greatest amount of pleasure.  It's the discovery of where it's all at -- the realization that life is worth living and that it can and should be a joy rather than a dread.  The natural offspring of this realization are feelings of self-control and self-esteem, which in turn perpetuate still more joy in your life.

With this foundational perspective leading you through the book, each chapter describes the various hurdles every person faces in pursuing the dreams of life.  

Which hurdle most stops you from pursuing the life you always wanted, both in business and in personal affairs? 

1. The Perspective Hurdle
2. The Reality Hurdle
3. The People Hurdle
4. The Crusade Hurdle
5. The Financial Hurdle
6. The Friendship Hurdle
7. The Love Hurdle
8. The Starting Line

All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible.

T. E. Lawrence 

What Choice Do You Need To Stop Making For Others and Start Making For Yourself Today?

  

We'd Love To Hear The Hurdles You've Jumped To Get Where You Are Today!

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The Yin and Yang of Business: Is Education All You Really Need To Succeed?

Are You Experiencing a Balanced Business Approach?  

Written by Mark H. McCormack, What They Don't Teach You At Harvard Business School, is an excellent reminder that spending thousands of dollars on a formal education is not necessarily a guarantee that a person is fully prepared to be at the top of their business game.    

He writes, "What this book is really about is "street smarts":  the ability to make active positive use of your instincts, insights, and perceptions.  To use them to get where you want to go, preferably by the shortest route, even if this means jumping some fences or going through a few back alleys."

While McCormack is definitely not criticizing those who have put forth the time, energy, and money to become educated, he is mainly addressing the issue of needing "street smarts" in terms of one's ability to read people on a deeper level in order to enhance and provide more opportunities for positive business experiences.

Whether it is a matter of closing a deal or asking for a raise, of motivating a sales force of 5,000 or negotiating one to one, business situations almost always come down to people situations.  And it is those executives with a finely tuned people sense, and an awareness of how to apply it, who invariably take the edge.

 So what is the point of this book?  McCormack says that while there's nothing wrong with Harvard's business school or the approach it takes, it simply cannot teach you how to read people and develop this skill in a way that will maximize your business transactions and experiences.

That is exactly what this book can teach you:  how to read people, how to influence their reading of you, and how to apply or customize both to any likely business situation.  

You are likely telling yourself one of these things:

1. This is baloney.  I have been doing business for years and there is nothing more for me to gain from another business book.  It's the economy that's to blame for my slump.  OR
2. I know I should evaluate where I could use improvement, but I'm just overwhelmed - I don't have time to make any changes right now.  OR
3. I know that I have either educated myself or have had a formal education, and while my experiences have always helped me to become wiser in my business, this may be the one area that's holding me back from improving my game.  It's worth at least checking into.

None of these responses is either wrong or right - only you can decipher where you are needing improvement in your business, whether it's a professional or personal development issue, and what it's worth to you to stop and evaluate at this point.  

What keeps YOU from choosing an area to improve in and focus on bettering your business?  Your comments are always welcome and appreciated!

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Which Has The Better Business Position - You or Your Competition?

Positioning has changed the way the advertising game is being played today.  “We’re the third largest-selling coffee in America,” say the Sanka radio commercials.  The third largest?  Whatever happened to those good old advertising words like “first” and “best” and “finest”?  Well, the good old advertising days are gone forever and so are the words.  Today you find comparatives, not superlatives.   

“Avis is only No. 2 in rent-a-cars, so why go with us?  We try harder.” 

“Seven-Up:  the uncola.”

Along Madison Avenue, these are called positioning slogans.  And the advertising people who write them spend their time and research money looking for positions, or holes, in the marketplace.  But positioning has stirred up interest well beyond Madison Avenue.  With good reason.  Anyone can use positioning strategy to get ahead in the game of life.  And look at it this way:  If you don’t understand and use the principles, your competitors undoubtedly will.

Positioning is a marketing strategy book, written by well-respected authors Al Ries and Jack Trout.  The point of the book is to demonstrate that since our society is so inundated with hundreds of thousands of products on a daily basis, the point is not merely to make changes to our product so that it will beat the competition’s product.  The best strategy is to “position” your particular product so that it effectively remains in the mind of your prospective client/customer.  

There may be 10 other companies on your block that are offering the same product or service as you are, so what is your unique niche that will cause consumers to stop and choose YOU above the rest?  

The chapters deal with the specifics of Positioning, with the authors having done over 1,000 talks on the subject to more than 21 countries to those involved in marketing groups, including:

1. What Positioning Is All About
2. The Assault on the Mind
3. Getting Into the Mind
4. Those Little Ladders in Your Head
5. You Can’t Get There from Here
6. Positioning of a Leader
7. Positioning of a Follower
8. Repositioning the Competition
9. The Power of the Name
10. The No-Name Trap
11. The Free-Ride Trap
12. The Line-Extension Trap
13. When Line Extension Can Work
14. Positioning a Company: Xerox
15. Positioning a Country: Belgium
16. Positioning an Island: Jamaica
17. Positioning a Product: Milk Duds
18. Positioning a Service: Mailgram
19. Positioning a Long Island Bank
20. Positioning a New Jersey Bank
21. Positioning a ski resort: Stowe
22. Positioning the Catholic Church
23. Positioning Yourself and Your Career
24. Positioning Your Business
25. Playing the Positioning Game

The business of marketing has changed in many ways over the years; especially in light of the technology we see today that wasn’t even in existence 10 years ago.  Whether you've been in the business for years or you are a beginner in the world of marketing, it is well worth your time to pick up this invaluable read.

Your position in your industry matters - what advice can you share about your own strategies of standing out among the competition that has brought significant results?

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