To Sell Is Human
I have never read any of his previous books, but I enjoyed this one. It was an easy read, can be completed in 7 to 10 days. This book basically talks about how to persuade others in this new age of technology. So it is not essentially book only about selling, its a book about how people can persuade others without manipulating them but rather trying to achieve win-win situation in the end.
Some of the keys takeaways from the book:
The new ABC’s (Attunement, Buoyancy, Clarity)
Attunement
1. Increase your power by reducing it (Start your encounters with the assumption that you’re in a position of lower power. This will help you see the other side’s perspective more accurately.)
2. Use your head as much as your heart. (Don’t just empathize, take their perspective.)
3. Mimic strategically (Match their mannerisms. Light appropriate touching also increases odds in your favor.)
Buoyancy (stay afloat amid the ocean of rejection)
1. Before – Interrogative Self-talk (questioning self-talk elicits the reasons for doing something and reminds people that many of those reasons come from within.) [Can I fix this? is better than I will fix this.]
2. During – Positivity ratios (aim for between three to ten positive emotions to every one negative) *belief in your product/service is critical to moving others
3. After – Explanatory style – (the habit of explaining negative events to yourself) [Optimism…is a catalyst that can stir persistence, steady us during challenges, and stoke the confidence that we can influence our surroundings.]
Clarity (the capacity to help others see their situations in fresh and more revealing ways and to identify problems they didn’t realize they had)
Problem finding is much more important than problem-solving, you need to make sure you are solving the right problem.
Five frames:
1) Less – restrict choices and it improves clarity
2) Experience – point out what the product/service will allow the buyer to do, don’t highlight the features
3) Label – assign a positive label to help with comparison
4) Blemished – being honest about the existence of a small blemish can enhance your offering’s true beauty.
5) Potential – people often find potential more interesting than accomplishment because it is more uncertain. (don’t fixate only on what you achieved yesterday, also emphasize the promise of what you could accomplish tomorrow.) Irrational questions motivate people better.
The Pitch (the purpose of a pitch isn’t necessarily to move others immediately to adopt your idea. The purpose is to offer something so compelling that it begins a conversation, brings the other person in as a participant, and eventually, arrives at an outcome that appeals to both of you.)
Six successors to the elevator pitch:
1) One-word pitch
2) Question pitch (use when the facts are strongly on your side)
3) Rhyming pitch
4) Subject line pitch (utility, curiosity, specificity) [3 simple but proven ways to get your email opened]
5) Twitter pitch (engages and encourages them to take the conversation further)
6) Pixar pitch
Improvise
Three rules:
1) Hear offers (you must LISTEN)
2) Say “Yes and..”
3) Make your partner look good (win-win) (win an argument, lose a sale) (make others look good or bad and they tell the world)
Serve (improving another’s life and, in turn, improving the world. )
Make it personal (recognize the person you are trying to serve, put yourself personally behind what you are selling.)
Make it purposeful (humans are motivated by more than self-interest)
Our species is motivated by our desire to improve the world and to provide that world with something it didn’t know it was missing.
Treat everybody as you would your grandmother. Always ask these two questions:
1) If the person you’re selling to agrees to buy, will his or her life improve?
2) When your interaction is over, will the world be a better place than when you began?
You can get your copy from amazon by clicking here.