From Potential to Exponential™
The New ABCs Of Selling, From Dan Pink
August 7, 2013
Pitching is dead.
Cold calling is dead.
Email is dead.
Paper is alive again!
The ever-swingy pendulum of “what’s hot in sales now” gives us new insights daily, and it’s nearly impossible to keep up with the next trend to die or come back to life. Amidst these fluctuations, however, key business minds like that of Dan Pink sort through the graveyard of advice and deliver us a remarkable new take on what we as sales leaders – or actually what we as unknowing sales people – can do in a changing environment.
Dan Pink recently released his thought-provoking novelTo Sell is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others, and while we might not all have the time to read it, we should spare a few moments to consider its key concepts.
“We’re all in sales, but sales isn’t what it used to be.”
The wisdom in this book revolves around the fact that while only 1 in 9 individuals work in sales, the other 8 are selling everyday in different aspects of their lives, whether they’d like to admit it or not.
It’s this negative stigma around being a salesperson that Pink proves should no longer exist – and that’s not because salespeople have changed, it’s that the sales world has changed, and we need to adjust accordingly.
Much of the negativity that surrounds sales stems from information asymmetry. Sellers used to have much more information than buyers, causing buyers to feel as they could be tricked or treated unfairly. Now, the nearly endless expanse of information available with the prominence of the Web has allowed buyers to gain more power. They have more choices available, way more information, and a lot of ways to talk back.
For the salesperson – which is all of us – in this new “seller beware” world, Pink proposes a new set of ABC’s.
- Attunement – perspective taking
- Buoyancy – staying afloat in an ocean of rejection
- Clarity – problem-finding
Attunement involves one of the key tools in communication that we seem to all fail miserably at – listening. Much of the time when we’re not listening it is because we are thinking of the next thing to say, our next point. What if next time, you thought about what the other person is saying, why she’s saying that, what her needs are, and what problem of hers can you solve. If you can’t determine those answers from what has already been said, ask questions, implore deeper to understand the perspective.
Just as you are generally thinking about what you will say and what you want, your audience is thinking the same about themselves. Give them a chance to actually make it all about them for once, and you’ll find the right ways to help each other.
Buoyancy, Pink claims, is a very good predictor of success. He stresses the importance of “decatastrophizing” an unsuccessful outcome. Many people react by thinking of a bad outcome as too personal (“it’s all my fault”), too pervasive (“this always happens”), or too permanent (“I can never come back from this”).
Instead, what you should do when confronted with rejection is look at the situation with a “wider lens.” Take each of the previous categories and explain to yourself why it isn’t totally personal, pervasive, or permanent. Realize that it’s not all anything, learn from it, and move on.
Clarity, as Pink explains, involves that capacity to make sense of situations, bring forward the right information and find solutions instead of just solve them. In an interview with Behind the Brand host Bryan Elliot, Pink argues that we often think it’s all about changing people’s minds, when it’s actually about giving them an “off-ramp to act.”
You don’t necessarily need to try to influence someone, you can just give him a clear-cut chance to act on something he may have wanted, or didn’t even know he wanted.
When it comes to pitching an idea to say, potential clients or venture capitalists, you can clearly apply Dan Pink’s new ABC’s.
- Think about the other side’s interests.
- Try to figure out how to solve a problem they don’t realize they have.
- Be ready to hear offers – and rejections.
- Pitch more with questions, particularly when the facts are clearly on your side.
Whether you’re a B2B sales leader, a mechanical engineer pitching a new design, a small restaurant owner, or a mom convincing her son to clean his room, you’re in sales. Embracing the wisdom of this new culture that ensues from our information-crazed world can very well be the key to you flourishing in this role.
Oh, and if you want to learn more about Dan Pink’s new rules of selling, by all means grab a copy of To Sell is Human.
