Book SummaryTo Sell Is Human, by Daniel H. Pink

1-Page Summary1-Page Book Summary of To Sell Is Human

Selling is an intrinsically human skill that has evolved with us over time. To Sell Is Human explores how deeply embedded this skill is in our lives and shows you how to harness it as a tool for achieving results in sales, as well as other areas of life. Our guide supports, contrasts, and simplifies bestselling author Daniel Pink’s ideas so you can put them into action in your own life.

Everyone’s a Salesperson

Despite sales traditionally being a specialized skill set, Pink argues that the modern workplace managed to transform us all into “sellers.” Workers now generally find themselves needing to use sales skills to “move” their target demographic, whether or not they are selling a material product. Thus, Pink introduces a new term: non-sales selling (or contemporary selling). Contemporary selling is about moving others to exchange resources that can include but do not revolve around money. Haggling over a product price, asking someone on a date, and interviewing for a job all use contemporary selling.

When Did We All Become Salespeople?

The idea that selling is inherent in the human experience isn’t new. As far back as the 1800s, Scottish novelist Robert Louis Stevenson wrote, “Everyone lives by selling something.” That said, the idea has taken hold more noticeably in the modern workplace for the practical and emotional reasons Pink has outlined. Whether you’re persuading people to accept your ideas, your products, or you yourself, your ability to sell is both natural and necessary to get what you want out of your experience of life.

The Traditional ABCs of Sales

In Pink’s view, sales has historically been seen as deceitful and manipulative, but the power balance has changed, and there are two primary sales philosophies now: The traditional philosophy of “buyer beware,” or caveat emptor, and the new philosophy of “seller beware,” or caveat venditor. Caveat emptor doesn’t require integrity, as its sole purpose is to benefit the seller. Caveat venditor is about the seller being of service to the buyer. Whereas before, integrity was the last value a salesperson operated from, being a successful salesperson now requires it.

Traditional Sales Philosophy

The economy during the heyday of traditional sales (the better half of the 1900s) was stable and predictable, and it prioritized consumerism. Pink explains that the traditional salesperson focused on a singular objective: making a profit. This is represented by the popular sales acronym “ABC”: Always Be Closing.

This philosophy meant that the traditional salesperson didn’t have to care about the needs of the buyer, as long as they made their sale. It encouraged sellers to use any means necessary to exploit buyers, which consequently created a negative view of salespeople.

For example, suppose you were a traditional car salesperson. To make the best possible profit, you’d misrepresent the quality of your vehicles and charge more than they were worth. You were willing to take advantage of the buyer in order to make the sale.

(Shortform note: Where did the ABC mantra come from? In 1992, Alec Baldwin played a salesman in the movie Glengarry Glen Ross (originally an award-winning play by David Mamet) and popularized the phrase “A-B-C. A-Always, B-Be, C-Closing. Always be closing!” Baldwin’s character was the epitome of the “pushy salesman,” single-mindedly focused on making the sale, whether or not it benefited the buyer.)

What Changed?

Two factors initiated the decline of traditional sales.

Change #1: Economic Disruption

The economy, previously predictable, became unstable in the Great Recession, which soon transformed the workforce. It forced workers to broaden their skill sets to help companies cut costs. Skill sets like sales, which had previously been specializations, became basic necessities for everyone in order to increase efficiency in organizations. The economic instability also inspired a wave of entrepreneurs. Self-starters often need to wear many hats, which contributed to the need for flexible skill sets including sales.

(Shortform note: As sales skills have become more critical for workers, so have interpersonal or “soft” skills, which are closely related: To sell, you need to be able to relate to people. So it's not surprising that both skill types are in increasing demand in response to the changing economy. Specifically, soft skills include social skills, emotional intelligence, time management, and handling conflict effectively.)

Change #2: Technology Boom

Pink explains that sales previously depended on a power imbalance between buyer and seller. Pre-technology, the sellers had all the important information, and the buyers had none. This gave the power to the sellers and allowed them to prioritize their own success over the needs of the buyer to turn a profit. With the internet giving everyone access to the same information, sellers were forced to shift their focus from profit to serving the buyer’s needs.

(Shortform note: It might be tempting to argue that entrepreneurs are more visionaries than salespeople, but as Pink notes, entrepreneurs tend to wear all the hats, requiring a more diverse skill set to ensure business success. The majority of these skills involve sales because you need to be able to sell your brand and the uniqueness and usefulness of your product.)

The Modern ABCs of Sales

The economic and technological changes gave rise to a new philosophy of selling that replaces the old ABCs, according to Pink. In contrast to the seller making a profit, the new method is aimed at meeting the buyer’s needs with three approaches: connection, optimism, and focus.

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To Sell Is Human Summary Shortform Introduction

Are you a salesperson? You might be surprised to learn that the answer is “Yes.” Hate it or love it, in the modern world, we’re all selling something, and the value of sales skills has never been higher. To Sell Is Human explains the evolution and significance of sales. It challenges commonly held assumptions by redefining the meaning of sales and re-evaluating the role of the salesperson. Whether you’re in sales or not, it shows you how to effectively harness sales skills to influence others to action and create purpose or growth in your life (whether it be for personal or professional gain).

About the Author

Daniel Pink is a best-selling author of seven books exploring topics such as science, sales, economics, management, and human behavior. After going to law school at Yale, Pink built a multifaceted career, including a run as the host and co-producer of the National Geographic show Crowd Control, a guest editor at Wired, and chief speechwriter for former Vice President Al Gore.

Having conducted [one of the...

To Sell Is Human Summary Part 1: The Evolution of Sales | Introduction-Chapter 2: Everyone Sells

Pink argues that while we still think of sales in a traditional way, it’s changed. Traditional sales values profits over people, and it serves the seller first. But the sales industry has since evolved in significant ways, which we’ll discuss later in the chapter. As a result, Pink defines sales more broadly as “moving” others to exchange one resource for another, whether it’s time, attention, money, or something else of value. Selling can mean providing a tangible product or service in exchange for money (this is the type of traditional selling we’re familiar with), but much of what we “sell” or “buy” is intangible. In this guide, we’ll call the first type traditional selling and the second type contemporary selling.

Compared to traditional selling (the type of sales job that one in nine Americans work in), contemporary selling is about persuading, influencing, or convincing others to give up an intangible resource. We sell ourselves on social media in exchange for likes, comments, and other attention. We sell our causes on GoFundMe pages. We sell our partners on cooking dinner or being the one to take the spiders outside. According to a study conducted by Pink,...

Shortform Exercise: What Role Does Selling Play in Your Life?

Consider the description and examples of contemporary selling (persuasion) in Chapter 1. Are you a salesperson?

Think about your job. What kinds of tasks do you complete? What general skills do you use?

To Sell Is Human Summary Chapter 3: From Profit-Focused Sales to Service-Focused Sales

Pink explains that sales was traditionally built on a transactional, self-serving value system. Salespeople were a necessary information authority, and people were dependent on them for acquiring services or goods. Sales also played a crucial role in an economy dependent on production and consumption. When the 2008 global recession killed many jobs and access to information via the internet expanded, it seemed as if there might no longer be a need for salespeople. Despite that, sales jobs have remained steady or grown.

What has changed, according to Pink, is the focus of sales. Specifically, there has been a shift from profit-focused sales, known as caveat emptor (buyer beware), to service-focused sales, known as caveat venditor (seller beware). Following is a comparison of the two models..

Value System #1: Buyer Beware

Under the traditional buyer beware model, a seller with all the information has the upper hand and can take advantage of an uninformed buyer who lets down her guard. So the buyer beware model generally profits the seller, sometimes at the buyer’s expense.

For example, let’s say you’re a used car salesman. Only you know the quality of the...

Shortform Exercise: Shift From Self to Other

Consider how the concepts of buyer beware and seller beware relate to sales and selling in your life.

Think about the last experience you had with someone trying to sell you something. What strategies did they use to “move” you to buy?

To Sell Is Human Summary Part 2: The New Sales Model | Chapter 4: Connecting With the Customer

The next three chapters focus on what Pink describes as an evolution from traditional selling to a methodology focused on meeting the buyer’s needs. He illustrates both methodologies with the acronym ABC. The first has been the mantra of profit-focused salespeople in the past, while the second is Pink’s reimagining of the model.

Traditional ABCs

• “Always Be Closing”
  • The dynamic between seller and buyer is akin to predator and prey
  • The singular goal is making the sale

Pink’s Updated ABCs

• Attunement, Buoyancy, Clarity.
  • The dynamic between seller and buyer is akin to a service provider and someone seeking support
  • The goal is to persuade the buyer to “buy” by being of service

(Shortform note: In our guide, we’ll use more descriptive terms for the new sales model components. For attunement, we’ll use connection; for buoyancy, we’ll use optimism; and for clarity, we’ll use focus.)

Where the “Always Be Closing” Mantra Came From

In 1992, Alec Baldwin played a salesman in the movie Glengarry Glen Ross (originally an award-winning play written by David Mamet), [and popularized the phrase: “A-B-C....

Shortform Exercise: How Do You Connect?

Consider your own natural inclinations when connecting to others.

Are you more extroverted or introverted? Or do you fall somewhere in the middle? Describe the ways in which you fit into one of these categories.

To Sell Is Human Summary Chapter 5: The New Sales Model—Optimism

Even if you’re able to create meaningful connections as a salesperson, you’ll still get more rejections than sales. The key to bouncing back from rejection, or being resilient, is optimism, the second component of Pink’s contemporary sales model. Pink recommends building optimism into the three stages of the sales process: your preparation, your handling of the sales conversation, and your evaluation afterward.

Prepare: Question Yourself

Pink notes that the most difficult part of the sales process is usually hyping yourself up to get it started. The key is how you use self-talk. People talk to themselves all the time—sometimes it’s positive self-talk, mostly it’s negative self-talk, but all of it is generally “declarative.” Declarative self-talk states what something is, or what something will be. An example is “I am powerful,” or, “I suck and I’ll always suck.” Positive declarative self-talk is effective, but it’s also definitive, rather than open-ended. It doesn’t inspire growth or change.

Pink argues that the most effective style of self-talk is interrogative; people who use it outperform those using declarative self-talk. Interrogative self-talk asks questions...

Shortform Exercise: Practice an Optimistic Explanatory Style

Recall a recent experience of rejection (ideally in a sales context). Use the optimistic explanatory style to reframe the experience.

Think about how you felt after the rejection. Did the experience feel permanent? Why or why not?

To Sell Is Human Summary Chapter 6: The New Sales Model—Focus

The last component of Pink’s modern sales model is focus. According to Pink, focus in a sales context is the ability to help people change their perspective, zero in on problems they didn’t know they had, and help to create solutions. There are two main obstacles buyers encounter in a transaction that focus can resolve: difficulty delaying gratification and difficulty imagining their future possibilities. Here’s how sellers can help buyers to resolve these obstacles:

Problem 1: Buyers often have a hard time weighing immediate rewards versus delayed rewards. We are more inclined toward instant gratification even if delayed gratification better serves our specific needs.

Solution 1: Give the buyer a way to do the “right thing” by default. Offer the buyer a solution to focus on that they can access immediately and requires no decision-making on their part.

• Example: Let’s say you’re trying to convince someone to buy a gym membership. They can buy it for the full annual price, or on a month-to-month contract. You can help them focus and act by highlighting the benefit of paying annually over monthly. You can remind them that a one-time payment will inspire them to keep...

Shortform Exercise: Ask Good Questions

This exercise will help you become a “problem finder.”

Consider a product or service you want to sell and quickly write down as many questions as you can that relate to it (without self-editing).

To Sell Is Human Summary Part 3: New Sales Strategies | Chapter 7: Throw Your Best Pitch

In these final three chapters, Pink discusses three abilities to help you make the most of his new sales model. In this chapter, you’ll learn about the “pitch” and how it has evolved for modern selling. Pitching is the ability to make a quick, persuasive appeal for an idea or product.

Origin of the Elevator Pitch

The elevator pitch is an old-school method for introducing your ideas to others in a way that is both memorable and intriguing. When you give an elevator pitch, you communicate a complex statement in a quick, simple way.

Why the Elevator Pitch Has Lost Relevance

Pink argues that the pitch is outdated for two reasons:

• Reason #1: It was designed for getting the attention of someone influential on the fly, such as in an elevator or a company break room, but because offices are less formal today, it’s easier to mix with or get appointments with higher-ups than it used to be.
• Reason #2: With access to unlimited information, people are overwhelmed and distracted (especially people in positions of power). In Pink’s view, meeting someone at random and pitching them adds to their distraction rather than inspiring them to act.

**Has the Digital Age...

Shortform Exercise: Take Your Pitch

Take some time to review all the pitching approaches from this chapter. Consider an idea you would like to pitch.

How would you pitch the idea in one word?

To Sell Is Human Summary Chapter 8: When in Doubt, Improvise

Once you’ve harnessed your pitching skills, Pink recommends learning improvisation to boost your creativity and adaptability. While improvisation is generally associated with theater, Pink contends it’s useful in sales too, because it can help you work through changing or unfavorable sales conditions. He points out that sales and theater are similar in several ways:

Similarity #1: Acting and sales both require courage and risk-taking. Salespeople make cold calls and actors make themselves vulnerable to an audience.

Similarity #2: Actors and salespeople experience more rejection than success. Salespeople are regularly told no in aggressive ways; actors receive nos after unsuccessful auditions.

Similarity #3: Both careers have experienced a similar evolution. Both sales and theater have historically valued scripts, which worked well in a predictable environment. The world is now less predictable and more complicated, and it continues changing unpredictably. This makes improvisation more valuable than a script.

Three Things Salespeople Can Learn From Actors

• Tell the truth: [Despite the fact that they’re playing “make believe,” actors look for the most truthful...

To Sell Is Human Summary Chapter 9: To Sell Is to Serve

All types of modern selling are about service. Being of service isn’t just being hospitable and friendly, it’s about identifying and fulfilling deeper needs in order to improve people’s lives. Beyond merely being an exchange of resources, a sale is a transaction meant to inspire change in people and organizations. This chapter will show you how to practice service-oriented selling. This type of selling is about moving others through persuasion, not to manipulate your own self-serving outcome, but to serve someone else. Pink explains that there are two rules to service-oriented selling.

Rule #1: Make It Personal

Often, salespeople try to be impersonal and “professional.” However, this creates distance rather than connection between you and your buyer. Instead, Pink recommends making the transaction personal by showing your passion for the product—you’re sold on it and want others to benefit from it too. You come across as focused on service rather than profit, making your pitch more credible. Making our professional worlds personal improves performance and increases the quality of the service being provided. If you want to facilitate meaningful transactions, remember...

Shortform Exercise: Practice “Selling” With Purpose

Think about a situation in your life where you want to persuade, or “move” someone. It could be that you want to “move” your partner to take out the trash more often, or “move” your boss to give you extra time off during a busy period, or you want to move someone to buy a product.

If you succeed in moving this person as desired, will their life improve as a result? If so, how? If not, how will they be impacted?