My notes from Daniel Pink's "To Sell is Human" - a reading in progress, comments welcome!

I have read each of Daniel Pink's earlier books.  One of the great things about his books is that he creates outlines that both help me understand and remember what he is saying.  It's really not that these ideas are new and novel it's just that he presents the ideas in ways that are easy to understand and apply. Drive, the book about motivation can be summarized in three words; autonomy, mastery and purpose.  Simple, true, easy to remember and use.

I'm in the process of reading To Sell is Human.  I'll keep my notes/outline here and invite anyone who stumbles on this post to comment on or correct any of my thoughts.  For now, I'll follow the outline of the book; "The Rebirth of Sales" - defining sales, "How to Be" - attributes and skills and "What to Do" - tactics.  

The first section of the book is basically laying the groundwork for what 'sales' is and demonstrating that basically everyone is in sales - or as Mr. Pink frames it, moving people.  I liked the word clouds about how people think of 'sales.'  Interesting that there is so much negative perception of sales.  While I agree that a lot of the context has changed, it's not entirely gone.  There are still a lot of sales situations defined by the old paradigms.  Further, we have been talking about win-win, consultative approaches, listening instead of talking, etc. for a long time.  Still, I am intrigued and encouraged by Daniel Pink's vision of the future.

I really like the way that Daniel Pink uses the Glengarry Glen Ross scene to give us an overview of the next section of the book.  ABC - Always Be Closing becomes Attunement, Buoyancy and Clarity.

Attunement (which my spell checker keeps reminding me is not really a word - although, I kind of get what it means anyway) talks about giving up power, having empathy and effectively comunicating/connecting.  The idea that the best sales people are extroverts was long ago disproven.  Introverts are not usually successful at certain types of sales either.  Ambiverts are the most effective sellers/movers and most of us are ambiverts.  Whew.  The discussion of how to attune includes some interesting ideas about power, perspective-taking and mimicry.  I was particularly interested in the empathy and perspective-taking discussion; perspective-taking is more effective than empathy.  It is mentioned and deserves to be reiterated that power, perspective-taking, mimicry should be honest and genuine.  I think the name given to this section, "How to Be," basically implies that these are personal attributes of people who are effective moving other people.  Although, I think it is interesting to think about these attributes I wonder if these are things that people can really change about themselves.  Regardless, the section closes with some exercises to practice these ideas.

NEXT Buoyancy.
Almost done with this section.  Will report soon.