To Sell Is Human
Daniel H. Pink · 2012
To Sell Is Human (2012) is a book by Daniel H. Pink on career & skills. Daniel Pink argues we are all in sales now, spending half our workday moving others to part with resources. He replaces the old caveat-emptor playbook with a research-backed toolkit for ethical, effective persuasion.
Whatever your job title, you spend most of your day trying to move other people, this book teaches you how to do it well without feeling slimy.
Three of the ideas you’ll keep
The Clif summary of To Sell Is Human pulls out 7 insights. Here are the first three.
- One in nine American workers sells for a living, but the other eight in nine are also selling: research Pink commissioned found people spend about 40% of their time on non-sales selling, moving others to give up time, attention, or effort.
- The old ABC of sales was 'Always Be Closing.' Pink's new ABC is Attunement, Buoyancy, and Clarity, the three qualities that matter when information asymmetry has collapsed and buyers can out-research sellers.
- Attunement is perspective-taking, and the counterintuitive finding is that a touch of lower power boosts it. Feeling powerful makes you anchor on your own viewpoint, so reducing your sense of dominance actually helps you read others.
The other 4 — and the full 11-minute summary — are in the app.
What’s inside: 8 chapters
The whole summary runs about 11 minutes, read or listened to.
- We're All in Sales Now
- From Caveat Emptor to Caveat Venditor
- Attunement: Getting Out of Your Own Head
- Buoyancy: Staying Afloat in an Ocean of Rejection
- Clarity: From Problem-Solving to Problem-Finding
- Pitch: Six Successors to the Elevator Pitch
- Improvise: When the Script Runs Out
- Serve: Personal and Purposeful
Finish To Sell Is Human tonight.
Read or listen to the full summary in about 11 minutes, then keep the ideas with a minute of review a day. Start with the 2-minute quiz — no card required.
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