Book Review: Dan Pink’s To Sell is Human (pt 2)

Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.

I want to continue on from a previous post I did about this book. This is going to be part part two to the review of the book To Sell Is Human by Dan Pink.

In this book, Dan puts together something called the new ABC’s of selling.

This is in contrast to the old ABC’s (Always Be Closing), which are also new to me, so I’ve put the classic video that epitomises this concept. It’s quite funny.

The new ABC’s Dan presents are as follows – Attunemtent, Bouyancy, and Clarity. He describes it here:

I actually think both these videos have usefull information, but I want to focus on Dan Pink for this book review.

To Sell is Human

Here are some other details about the new ABC’s that I got from the book:

A – Attunement

This quality has to do with our ability to take the perspective of another person.

1. Assume you’re not the one with power – this is a variation of the customer is King
2. Use your head as much as your heart – empathise to build relationships and defuse conflicts
3. Mimic strategically – Mirroring the behaviour of others apparently engenders trust, something called the ‘chameleon effect‘.

B – Buoyancy

This quality has to do with our ability to stay afloat amid the ocean of rejection

1. Interrogative questions – Dan suggests that instead of pumping ourselves up, we ask ourselves interrogative questions to inspire intrinsic motivation.
2. Positivity Ratios – Research has shown that there’s an ideal ratio of positive to negative ratio below which we become non-productive. That ratio is 3:1. So some negativity is healthy to offer us helpful feedback, but not too much.
3. Explanatory style – This is when people explain away negative events, as a form of learned helplessness. The solution: flexible optimism

C – Clarity

This is defined as the capacity to help others see their situations in fresh and more revealing ways and to identify problems they didn’t realize they had.

In the book, Dan says that the ability to move others hinges less on problem solving and more on problem finding.

Another important point, he says, is that by framing your offering in ways that highlights the differences, it’s virtues are clarified.

– Brian Morris

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