To Sell is Human Book Review

Book Review / Persuasion

Dan Pink shows that persuasion is critical to our survival in To Sell is Human. We are all in sales, even if we are not convincing someone to make a purchase. Selling is moving others. We move others by convincing them of our ideas, influencing them to follow our strategies, or persuading them to help on our projects.

The salesperson isn’t dead. The salesperson is alive. Because the salesperson is us.

Vendor Beware!

We associate sales with being pushy, manipulative, and dishonest. Sales should be none of that. Those pejoratives are leftovers from the days when the salesman had all the information. By abusing that information gap, the salesman gained a bad reputation. But those days are over. It is no longer buyer beware—it is vendor beware. Information is everywhere. The customer knows the product. And if you do that customer wrong, she will let the whole internet know. Pushiness, manipulation, and dishonesty have no place here. Today, excellent service is the only path for sales.

car salesman: slapping roof of car meme hamilton lindley blog

The New ABCs of Selling

Moving others involves following the ABCs. But those ABCs aren’t the “Always Be Closing” phrase from the dank Glengary Glen Ross salesroom. It is Attunement, Buoyancy, and Clarity. Our listener has all the world’s information on her phone. So today’s salesman must guide the listener through all that noise so that she can make the best decision. 

always be closing hamilton lindley blog
First prize–a Cadillac Eldorado. Second prize–a set of steak knives. Third prize–you’re fired.

Attunement

The best sellers assume that the buyer has the power. So exit your own perspective by aligning yourself with others. Increase your power by reducing it. For example, we innately trust others who mimic us. Attune yourself by practicing strategic mimicry. Watch what the other person is doing. Wait once you’ve observed. Wane after you’ve mimicked a little.

What is the best personality type for sales success? It’s not extroverts. They talk too much and listen too little. Introverts are too shy to initiate and too timid to close. The best personality type is right in the middle—ambiverts. The good news is that most of us are ambiverts! Test where you are on the scale by clicking on this link. 

Buoyancy

Staying afloat in the ocean of rejection is an essential quality to move others. So remain buoyant. Buoyancy is the realization that you can’t win them all. One of the ways to stay buoyant is by preparing for the interaction. A host of self-help gurus have suggested declarative self-talk like telling yourself, “I can do this” will boost your confidence. But that bypasses your motivations. It doesn’t create ideas. In contrast, questioning self-talk provokes answers. Ask yourself, “Can I move them?” Your response will inspire thoughts and strategies. It will remind you why you’re moving them. You should write down five reasons why you can move these people. Your answers will help you be more effective and remind you of improvement strategies.

floating hamilton lindley

We each evaluate our performances after interacting with others. That process of evaluation is called your “explanatory style.” It is how you perceive your interactions with others. Those who learn helplessness explain bad events as permanent, pervasive, and personal. But we need to believe that rejections are temporary, contained and due to external factors. We are buoyant when we see rejections as temporary rather than permanent, specific rather than universal and external rather than personal. This is called “flexible optimism.” The more likely that you explain adverse events by answering no to the following questions, the more likely that you will persist.

  • Is this permanent?
  • Is this pervasive?
  • Is this personal?

Rejection is not permanent, pervasive or personal. Persistence is achieved by buoyancy.

what it seemed like versus what it was hamilton lindley blog

Clarity

Clarity helps others freshly see their situations. To describe with clarity, Pink asks that you imagine that your future customer is a time traveler from 300 years ago. This strips us of assumptions. How would you describe buying a Big Mac to a 300-year-old? That time traveler will wonder: What is a car? A person you don’t know makes your food? There are a lot of assumptions that we use when describing things. Make it simple. So don’t explain it like I’m five. Explain it like I’m 300.

explain it like i'm five. hamilton lindley blog

The best salespeople must be skilled at curating information and asking questions – uncovering possibilities, issues, and unexpected problems. You accomplish this by minimizing the options for buyers. Too many choices lead to information overload. Frame the offer so that the contrast between options is clear. Clarify what happens next after the sale.

Emphasize the experience of using the object instead of the material object itself. In the Wolf of Wall Street, a salesman is asked to “sell me this pen.” The winner explains what the buyer will do with the pen, inking a million-dollar deal. In contrast, the losers describe the object itself. Similarly, when selling yourself, don’t focus on past accomplishments. Instead, focus on future potential.

For busy buyers, a good strategy is to show a small negative attribute after emphasizing the positive ones at a ratio of three to one. That contrast enhances clarity.

A good seller finds problems. Reveal how to fix the challenges faced by your future customer and put them in a better position with your product. Finding a hidden problem is more persuasive than solving the articulated problem.

Clarify motives with two irrational questions:

  1. One a scale of one to ten, how ready are you?
  2. Why didn’t you pick a lower number?

This will influence people to announce reasons why they are ready.

stevie wonder even i can see what you did there. hamilton lindley blog.

Pitch

Think of a “pitch” as the beginning of a conversation. It is not closing a deal. Instead, it is an opportunity to collaborate in the development of your idea. People are more distracted than ever. So an elevator pitch is outdated. Everyone has one. As you prepare a pitch, ask yourself three questions:

  • What do I want them to know?
  • What do I want them to feel?
  • What do I want them to do?

Use the answers from those questions to develop a pitch from these six new ways to pitch ideas.

  • The one-word pitch: Reducing your point to a single word demands efficiency. Examples are Google “search” and MasterCard “priceless.”
  • The question pitch: When the facts are on your side, the question pitch is compelling. An example is “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?” from the Ronald Reagan campaign.
  • The rhyming pitch: Rhyming increases our brain’s processing. One of the best examples is “if it doesn’t fit, you must acquit” from the OJ Simpson trial.
  • The subject-line pitch. The most effective subject lines promise a benefit, drive curiosity, or include ultra specificity. For example, “Four tips to improve your golf swing this afternoon.”
  • The Pixar pitch. This is a way to format your pitch in story form like you would see in a Pixar movie. Every Pixar film has a similar DNA:
    Once upon a time____________.  Every day____________.  One day____________.  Because of that, ____________.  Because of that,_____________.  Until finally___________.
  • The Twitter pitch. Keep your pitch within the 140 character limits of a tweet. For example, “1,000 songs in your pocket,” or “the world’s thinnest notebook.”
the sales pitch from the hamilton lindley blog

Improvise

The best sellers practice improv because today’s economy is dynamic. Improv is about flow. So is sales.

A basic tenet of improv is listening for offers. Surveys show that physicians interrupt patients within 18 seconds. This leads to false diagnoses. But it isn’t just doctors. Imagine that a future customer says they love your product, but they don’t have the money in the budget. Objections are offers in disguise. Ask when that budget will be evaluated and offer a free trial until that date. This shows you’re listening. Pink describes an exercise where one person would share a personal detail, and the other had to wait 15 seconds before responding. This exercise is to provoke the idea that anything is an offer.

Using “yes and” (instead of “yes but”) agrees and adds a suggestion. It makes the buyer look good and decreases argument. This is effective because it is constructive rather than destructive.

Make your partner look good. Find a solution that benefits both sides instead of pushing your own agenda. Selling is not a zero-sum game. Go with the flow and stay positive.

Service

When you are tempted to upsell, upserve instead. We do better when we move beyond solving a puzzle to serving a person. The best sellers serve others. They believe in their product and its impact on the buyer. Make it personal. You will perform better when you recognize the person you’re trying to serve. And you should personally put yourself behind whatever it is you’re trying to sell. If your answer to either of these below questions is no, then you’re selling it wrong.

If the person you’re selling to agrees to buy, will his or her life improve?
When your interaction is over, will the world be a better place than when you began?

This is called servant selling. Those who move others aren’t manipulators, but servants. They serve first and sell later. Sellers should treat everyone like they would your grandmother.

Hammer Time

You will read dozens of selling examples in Daniel Pink’s easy to read To Sell is Human. His writing is efficient and easy to understand. It takes a few hours to read. This book isn’t just for salespeople. I recommend it to anyone seeking to move others. Whether it is to persuade your first-grader or create a business strategy, all of us spend our days at least “sales adjacent.”

five hammers hamilton lindley

276 Comments

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  3. Maddison
    Reply

    This sounds like a compelling read. It reveals a lot of truths about our culture and our new economy. Selling should be more than just a transaction. It is a service like any other. Focus on serving and the sales come naturally. The buying process has shifted from “buyer beware” to “seller beware.” Honesty and transparency are a better choice. Offering fewer choices is something that I have used in the past and it does make decisions easier. (Even if that means losing the sale). It’s part of the service sellers should provide. I like asking “on a scale of one to ten how ready are you to buy this widget? Then ask, why didn’t you pick a lower number? That follow up question of the lower number is surprising because it’s the opposite of a sales pitch. And it’s powerful because it really makes someone think instead of dismissing this dialogue as cringy sales-speak.

  4. Pingback: To Sell is Human by Daniel Pink

  5. Bryson
    Reply

    Incredible book. It makes me want to read more from this author. Serving makes being a salesperson so much more appealing. I am an idealist and an artist. I want to both improve the world and provide the world with something that it did not know it was missing. Moving others means we should embrace those noble ideas. I learned that to serve, we must follow two rules. One: make it personal. Two: make it purposeful. An effective seller isn’t a huckster out for profit. That’s a horrible way to live.

  6. Lucy Coveny
    Reply

    I love the memes! I am going to use these thoughts with my children. It’s inspiring that extroverts are not the only ones that can make good salespeople. I’ve been told that I’m so introverted that I would not make a good salesperson. But when I did the test, I was an ambivert. I didn’t even know that was an option!

    The best salespeople that I have been around assumed the position of the lower power without being a pushover. They use empathy and perspective taking to serve others well. And I’ve never noticed it until now, but they subtly use mimicry too. I guess we all do that when we are using empathy to communicate.

  7. Amie Iverson
    Reply

    Thanks for sharing this very insightful book in such an engaging way! I learned a lot from reading it. I liked the ideas of the pitches. That elevator pitch idea seems so outdated. I think that preparing for a pitch is so important. What do I want them to know? What do I want them to feel? And what do I want them to do?

    • Hunter McDermott
      Reply

      On a personal note, I found this book to be both refreshing and humorous. Refreshing because Pink gave me a way to think about and express what I have been seeing and talking about for a long time now. Specifically, that sell is a four-letter-word. More and more people are turned off by traditional sales (even the so-called “consultative selling” is now seen as manipulative.) And I found the book humorous because I found that I was laughing at myself. Pink introduces us to Norman Hall. Hall is shadowed as he goes through his usual (and traditional in many ways) sales job in San Francisco. Hall is the very last Fuller Brush Salesman. Why that made me laugh is because I am old enough that I brush my hair almost every morning with a Fuller Brush that my mother gave to me one Christmas when I was a young teenager. I have been using it ever since. I remember the Fuller Brush man (and yes, they were all men as far as I know) ringing our doorbell and bringing new products into the house for my parents to purchase. By the way, what product do you still use that was purchased more than 50 years ago?

      • Hugo Martin
        Reply

        I continue to like Pink’s style and content, and I suspect that I’ll read more of his books in the future. But at least for general readers like me, I hope to rediscover the simplicity and focus that so captivated me in “Drive,” rather than the vast and semi-directionless musings that I encountered in “To Sell is Human.”

  8. Melisa Howden
    Reply

    These ideas are great. I like the point that we are all in sales now. Because no matter what job we have, at least a portion of it requires us to move people. Thanks for your work. These are my main takeaways.

    Experience: frame things in experiential terms, instead of item terms.
    Label: assign the buyer a positive label that your product will confirm.
    Blemished: for busy or distracted buyers, offer a small negative bit of info after the positive to highlight the positive attributes.
    Potential: emphasize the potential of the product, not the achievements.
    Final step: give people a specific request followed by a clear path of action (an off-ramp).

    • Dean Hergott
      Reply

      There are many volumes written about sales. There are myriad training courses on sales and how to be efficient, effective and top of the heap at the game of sales. This book is not like any of the ones I have read prior to this nor is Pink espousing any of the usual hype about overcoming objections, how to close and/or how to manipulate folks into buying your product or services.

      Instead, Pink is proposing something that I have been struggling with for the past five years and suggesting to anyone who would listen: traditional sales isn’t any longer anyone’s job. It’s everyone’s job because sales have fundamentally changed. Pink states that “Most of what we think we understand about selling is constructed atop a foundation of assumptions that has crumbled.” He further states that sales have changed more in the past 10 years than it had in the previous 100 years.

  9. Callie Wayn
    Reply

    This book sounds like it applies to non-salespeople more than salespeople. It’s great when a book can impart transferable information. Thanks for sharing, Hamilton! I think it’s wonderful that the purpose of a pitch isn’t to move others immediately to adopt your idea. Instead, that 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.

  10. Mike
    Reply

    This was a really nice post. Finding the time and actual effort to produce a great article… but what can I say… I put things off a whole lot and never manage to get anything done.

  11. Dan Bergeron
    Reply

    This is a very well written article. I’ll make sure to bookmark it and come back to read more of your useful posts. Thanks for it. I will certainly come back.

  12. Fred Chartwell
    Reply

    I really like what you are saying and the way in which you say it. You make it enjoyable and you still take care of to keep it wise. I can not wait to read much more from you. This is a tremendous website.

  16. Augusta Greenwood
    Reply

    Please let me know if you’re looking for an author for your blog. You have some really great posts and I think that I would be a good asset. If you ever want to take some of the load off, I’d really like to write some material for your blog in exchange for a link back to mine. Please shoot me an email if interested. Many thanks!

    • hplindley
      Reply

      I will drop you an email, Augusta. Thanks for inquiring about it. That’s not something that I’ve considered at this point. So I need to learn more about it. Welcome to the Hammer Blog!

      Sincerely,
      Hamilton Lindley

    • Harper Kline
      Reply

      I came across this book in a group reading project. We are all in sales and regularly read all sorts of books, from self-improvement to habit training, to sales. This is by far the worst book we have picked up.

      The author makes many good points throughout the book that can be useful to “move others”, or sell. But with each good point, he compromises his knowledge of selling by trying to obliterate tried and true practices.

      Good salespeople solve problems. And as mentioned in the book, great salespeople can find problems people didn’t know they had. If he could have stuck to that idea, and built on it, tying in ethically sound, traditional sales, it would have come across better. At this point, I’m glad the book is finished so we can move on to something that has a greater impact.

  21. Liz
    Reply

    Thanks for breaking this book down into such concise categories. It sounds like it’s full of effective and useful tools for salespeople. There are certain aspects of sales that feel intuitive because I constantly interact with salespeople, so some of the methods are familiar. But even the familiar ones aren’t necessarily something I would independently have realized — for example using the phrase “yes and” is a great approach to opening potential in a conversation.

  31. Ed Truax
    Reply

    An impressive post! I forwarded this onto a friend who just became a salesman. And he actually bought me dinner simply because I stumbled upon it for him…lol. So allow me to reword this…. Thank YOU for the meal!!
    But yeah, thanks for spending the time to discuss how selling is human on your website.

  32. Kelly Lake
    Reply

    Do you mind if I quote a few of your posts as long as I provide credit and sources back to your weblog? My blog is in the exact same area of interest as yours and my visitors would really benefit from some of the jinformation you provide here. Please let me know if this
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  35. Tommy Dalton
    Reply

    Interesting perspective on selling. The “yes and” idea is a good one. I also like the idea of asking why isn’t your number lower because it is the opposite of what most salesmen do.

  36. Phil Harper
    Reply

    I simply couldn’t leave your web site before telling you that I enjoyed the use of memes to describe the topics in these book summaries. It is really different from the boring summations that I read in Cliffs Notes!

  37. Greg Florance
    Reply

    Thanks for this marvelous post! I enjoyed reading it. Dan Pink offers interesting insight into better selling that should make things more fulfilling for both the buyer and the seller.

  38. Gary Swift
    Reply

    Dan Pink boils down what it really means to move others. If we all do this, our society will be in a better place. Salesmen that serve are rare. But they are memorable. That’s who I would go back to. Thanks for your insights on this book, Hamilton.

  72. Gary Tighe
    Reply

    Hello, Hamilton! This is our first visit to your blog! We are a collection of volunteers and starting a new initiative in our community in the same niche. Your blog provided us beneficial information to work on. You have done an extraordinary job!

  75. Patrick Hill
    Reply

    This was a great find. Thanks for sharing with the world. You’ve made this book sound awesome. I really think that I can improve my numbers by implementing these ideas right now.

  76. Ryan DeMarco
    Reply

    This is expert advice on selling. I’ve been doing a lot of these things already. But not all of them. I think that I need to check out this book soon to increase my sales. I feel so pumped about blowing through my quota this quarter. Thanks, bud.

  77. John Goldberg
    Reply

    I am really impressed with your writing skills. Would you consider a guest post in the same business niche? I have a few writing ideas that I would like to pitch to you. They wouldn’t be book reviews, but they would be more general business advice. I think you’ve got the book reviews covered.

  78. Chris Akin
    Reply

    I read this article three times and I’m still not sure why selling is human. It’s so hard for me. I just don’t think that I can do it. I’m so timid in social settings that I don’t know what to say. And I hate talking to people. I’m afraid that I will mess up. How can someone like me persuade anybody? I don’t think that I can…

  79. Jeremy White
    Reply

    This was very informative. I appreciate you finding the time and effort to put this book summary together. What I thought was interesting is that we are all in sales now. That is so true. We all have to persuade somebody. You write in a way that is witty and memorable. I spend a lot of time reading and leaving comments. But it is still worth it!

  80. Debbie Henriksen
    Reply

    Thanks for posting this great summary, Hamilton. I am going to use the “on a scale of one to ten” idea. I really like that it turns things around by asking “why isn’t it lower?” That really makes me think. And it should cause other people to do the same.

  81. Sarah McSwain
    Reply

    I love learning how to be more persuasive. Thanks for this summary. It’s very helpful to understand how to move others whether you are in sales or not. I’m going to check to see if my library has a copy of it ASAP.

  82. Sean Roberts
    Reply

    We are all in sales now. It’s interesting to read how to sell. I’ve read before that “selling is helping.” It’s not getting them to buy something that they don’t want.

  83. Greg Steptoe
    Reply

    I like the helpful information that you provide for your article. It’s great to have video, memes and good writing all in one place. I’ve learned a lot from you and hope to learn more in the future. Thanks!

  84. Christian Bruges
    Reply

    Howdy! There’s a lot of people that I think would really enjoy your content in my group. Please let me know if it’s not okay to share your blog with them. It will help a lot of people. Please let me know. Thanks!

  85. Chris Leccese
    Reply

    I liked reading about selling, Hamilton Lindley. This is not something that I thought was taught. I thought instead that you were just born with it (or not). I didn’t know it was a learned skill. This gives me hope that I can learn it still.

  86. Muhammad Agra
    Reply

    Thanks you, Hamilton Lindley, for making this article. You have instructed me in a very wise way. I must buy this book on selling. I think that I could learn a lot from it. You are right that selling is about helping. I think that I could become a business leader by implementing these ideas that you have written about today.

  87. Will Myers
    Reply

    Let’s go sell something together, Hamilton Lindley! This was a great read about the most critical part of any business — it’s sales! If it wasn’t for us, there would be no growth to the company. We are often looked down upon. But people also need us to follow through. Let’s build something great.

  88. Brian Pollock
    Reply

    This reminds me of why I love selling! Thanks, Hamilton Lindley, for making this fun. I feel refreshed and ready to help people by selling. Go get them!

  89. Sarah Wenner
    Reply

    Hamilton Lindley, you have done yeoman’s work here. I’ve read this book before and you hit the highlights strong. It reminded me of some parts that I had forgotten all about. Keep on doing this. It’s very helpful to other business owners.

  90. Jeremiah Brown
    Reply

    I liked reading this. It opened my eyes to a world that I didn’t know existed, Hamilton Lindley. This was a solid piece of writing about a book that looks like a great read. Keep on blogging, brother.

  91. Greg Forth
    Reply

    I am going to have all my salesman read this book at the dealership. It’s important to realize that selling isn’t supposed to be pushy. This article was inspiring, Hamilton Lindley. You’ve done this in a compelling thoughtful way that is very fun to read.

  92. Brice Dunn
    Reply

    Selling is just moving others to do something that is good for them. All of the great businesses were based on moving others. And the best salesmen are the ones that don’t try too hard. I would hate to be in a profession that just tried to push unwanted goods on someone else, Hamilton Lindley. That’s why it’s important to think of yourself as a helper instead of a salesperson.

  93. Nathan Griggs
    Reply

    Book summaries are the last thing I wanted to read. But this was done in such a fun way that it’s really engaging. You are creating something special here, Hamilton Lindley. This is a great way to develop leaders of tomorrow.

  94. Melvin Wiley
    Reply

    It’s fun to read something like this article about selling. I didn’t think of myself as a salesman. But it’s true, Hamilton Lindley, that we all must move others. Even if it’s just at home. We have to persuade by helping. This was helpful.

  95. Jack Wheeler
    Reply

    I’ve dreaded selling. But this article and the book that it’s based upon cuts down that dread to nothing. Hamilton Lindley, you are doing a great job at educating us. Please write more.

  96. Richard Ochoa
    Reply

    In all my years of selling, I’ve never seen a better representation of this fine profession. We aren’t trying to sell ice to Eskimos. That’s a terrible expression. We are trying to help people by selling something that we really believe in. Thanks for making this post, Hamilton Lindley. You are doing good work that is really helping people.

  97. Ted Rosenkrans
    Reply

    I didn’t realize that selling was helping, as described here. I’ve always thought of it as pushing something on someone else that they didn’t really want. And that’s no way to live. It’s true that the best salespeople don’t sell like that at all. They see a customer’s problem and try to come up with a solution. That’s how to do it. Thanks for bringing these ideas to my attention, Hamilton Lindley.

  98. Lonny Mason
    Reply

    Learning about selling is never something that I wanted to do. But that’s where I got my first job and I’ve learned to get better at it. Hamilton Lindley, you have done a solid job in making this subject understandable and interesting. Thanks for being a great blogger.

  99. Andrew Beltre
    Reply

    It is good to read about a subject like this in such a solid format, Hamilton Lindley. It seems like all too often, the articles are written in either such a bland way that they are terribly boring or in such a way that they are terribly cheesy. This was written in just the right tone.

  112. Sharon Bautista
    Reply

    I needed to learn more about selling before I started my job on Monday. This was very helpful in helping me learn about my new career Hamilton Lindley. Thanks for getting it done. I’m going to be better at sales because of it.

  116. Scott Lefler
    Reply

    there is so much good in this post, Hamilton Lindley. I really liked the part about “yes and” because it keeps the conversation so positive. Really great article.

  119. Elaine Newman
    Reply

    What you composed was actually very logical. But, what about this? What if you were to write a awesome post title? I ain’t saying your information is not good, however suppose you added something that makes people want more? I mean To Sell is Human Book Review – Hamilton Lindley is kinda plain. You ought to look at Yahoo’s front page and watch how they create news titles to grab viewers to click.

  121. Betty Estell
    Reply

    There are a lot of things to sink in from this book, Hamilton Lindley. It looks like I need to check out the book itself. Your review was awesome. But more depth is better for me personally.

  123. Joel Booth
    Reply

    This design is spectacular! You certainly know
    how to keep a reader amused. Between your wit and your videos, I was almost moved to
    start my own blog (well, almost…HaHa!) Fantastic job.

    I really loved what you had to say, and more than that, how you presented it.

    Too cool!

  135. Leah Jackson
    Reply

    My brother suggested I might like this website. He was once entirely right. This put up actually made my day. You can not believe simply how much time I had spent for this information about selling. Thanks!

  137. Russell Lively
    Reply

    Hi! This post couldn’t be written any better! Reading through this post reminds me of my good old room mate! He always kept talking about this. I will forward this write-up to him. Pretty sure he will have a good read. Many thanks for writing, Hamilton Lindley!

  140. Brett Dominique
    Reply

    Excellent post about Selling is Human. I’ve read this book a long time ago, but I had forgotten a lot about it. Hamilton Lindley, thanks for making this accessible and easy to read. I check your blog regularly and I am impressed! Extremely helpful information, especially the hammers at the end. Thanks and good luck.

  141. Logan Bradley
    Reply

    This was a great article, Hamilton Lindley. I really liked all of it. Your use of memes and the video really brought it home for me. Awesome job. I want to read more.

  143. Jessica Stanley
    Reply

    Hi Hamilton Lindley! Great blog! Would you be interested in trading links or maybe guest writing a blog post or vice-versa? My website goes over a lot of the same subjects as yours and I think we could greatly benefit from each other. If you happen to be interested feel free to send me an e-mail. I look forward to hearing from you! Excellent blog by the way!

  145. Barry Davis
    Reply

    Selling is Human and this website is too. You’ve communicated these ideas in every way imaginable. I think that this is going to be a great blog that I can learn lots from. Please keep on reading and telling us about it!

  148. Sally Berry
    Reply

    Thanks for writing this nice piece about selling is human. I think that I can use this information right away. You’ve written it in a way that is memorable. Thanks, Hamilton.

  152. Wendy Silvia
    Reply

    I am not sure where, to begin with, how wrong this book is. It is obvious that the author has never sold anything. I have actually taken people’s hard earned money for 25 years so please let me explain why the author is way off base!

  158. Ethan Tyler
    Reply

    I learned that salespeople who are neither too introverted nor extraverted are the most successful. And I like Dan Pink’s idea to use interrogative self-talk to conquer nerves before a presentation.

  160. James Imogen
    Reply

    To Sell is Human taught me that selling is something we all do in our work and personal lives. It also taught me that it must be done right. Selling is talking someone into something that leaves them BETTER off. It’s not selling ice to Eskimos.

  161. Nigel Finnegan
    Reply

    It is interesting that Pink’s mantra is that selling is not limited to call centers, vacuum salesmen, or car lots. It’s something we all do every day. When I try to get my children to to bed, I am “moving” them in the way that I persuade someone to purchase a Ford Explorer.

  163. Taylor Davies
    Reply

    I borrowed this book from my local library, but I am seriously considering adding it to my bookshelf. I can see myself referencing the studies and the exercises over and over again.

  164. Pat O'Sullivan
    Reply

    A light bulb lit up, too, reading about the ambivert advantage. I most closely identify as an introvert, but if you saw me in public, you’d wonder at that – I seem too friendly to be a loner.

  166. Lucas Beaulieu
    Reply

    To Sell Is Human offers a fresh look at the art and science of selling. As he did in Drive and A Whole New Mind, Daniel H. Pink draws on a rich trove of social science for his counterintuitive insights.

  167. Lauren Cohen
    Reply

    I clicked the “Notify me when new comments are added” checkbox and now each time a comment is added I get three emails with the same comment. Is there any way you can remove me from that service? Thanks a lot!

  168. Jeremiah Long
    Reply

    Whats up are you using WordPress for your site platform? I’m new to the blog world but I’m trying to get started and set up my own. Do you need any coding knowledge to make your own blog?

    Any help would be greatly appreciated!

  169. Laura Banks
    Reply

    Buoyancy refers to the ability to remain unaffected by defeat, but realistic about expectations. Pink stresses the importance of refraining from too much optimism or negativity. Instead, walking a line of confident inquiry.

  170. Virginia Forney
    Reply

    The more power someone has the less that he will listen to the perspective of others. This is dangerous. And it will not move people. Pink shows one example of a leader who compensates for that. Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, leaves an empty chair at all his board meetings to remind everyone of the very important, although absent, person in the room – their customer.

  172. Mike Lynn
    Reply

    In the United States, one in nine Americans, or around 15 million people, work in sales according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That number accounts for about ten percent of the total workforce. The numbers are similar internationally. Whether in Canada, Australia, Europe, India, or Japan, the average amount of workers in sales hovers around ten percent. But in To Sell is Human, Dan Pink argues that we are all in sales now.

  174. Cheryl Tomescu
    Reply

    Whether you are an actual salesperson or whether you just trying to get your 3-year-old to get dressed in the morning, you are selling, and Pink proposes that to sell is human…and I agree.

  175. Nigel Cornwall
    Reply

    While the book is about selling, for me, I took away knowledge on empathy, listening more and being more aware of others in any situation, not just selling.

  176. Andrew Kendall
    Reply

    For those tempted to turn away, Pink’s examples of companies that didn’t remain current, like Encyclopedia Britannica (remember them?), are a wakeup call and really drive his point home.

  179. Emilio Garcia
    Reply

    Forty percent of our time at work is spent engaging in non-sales selling, Pink discovered through a survey he commissioned, titled “What Do You Do at Work?” that tapped nearly 10,000 respondents.

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    Reply

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