To Sell is Human

Daniel H. Pink argues that, like it or not, everyone is now in sales. One in nine American workers is in sales, but the rest spend around forty per cent of their time at work in what he calls non-sales selling, persuading, influencing and moving other people. He claims selling has changed more in the last twenty years than in the previous two hundred, chiefly because a world of information asymmetry, in which the seller always knew more than the buyer, has given way to something closer to information parity, so that it is now seller beware as much as buyer beware. To flourish in that remade world, Pink says the old ABC of Always Be Closing must give way to a new one: Attunement, taking another person's perspective; Buoyancy, staying afloat in an ocean of rejection; and Clarity, helping others see problems and information in new ways. He adds three practical skills, pitching, improvising and serving, arguing that concise creative pitches matter in a noisy world, that improvisation is key when plans go sideways, and that genuine service, made personal and purposeful, moves people most. His broader claim is that moving others is fundamentally human, and done right is neither sleazy nor manipulative.

Written from the official book page on Daniel Pink's website.

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• Daniel H. Pink