“Would you like a glass of wine?” “Here is a name tag,” said the pretty
blonde. Tell me about yourself.” No I was not at a a singles
gathering.
I was attending a reception in the corporate quarters of the Free Library of Philadelphia. Development folks know how to relate. Note to self: serve wine that isn’t an inbred cousin to grape
juice at our gatherings. When possible furnish the room with doric columns and
18th century gilded framed portraits.
The reception was for Daniel Pink, a
social science pop theory author. My favorite: A Whole New Mind: Why Right Brainers
will Rule the Future. Of course I love it, I’m a righty.
Last night after the reception we were
ushered into a sold out (well its free) auditorium. The Lecture was on his newest
book: To Sell is Human: The Surprising
Truth About Moving Others
Premise One: We all do Sales
Daniel on the stage with a rock star mic
wrapped around his head, in a well fitted suit, he often pushed his jacket back
revealing his slim figure saying:
Officially 1out 9 workers in the US are
in sales.
However when you review the results of
his survey of 7000 individuals that represent the contours of the work force-- 9/9 people do some kind of sales. A key question from the survey: what percent
of your time is spent getting someone to give you a resource (time, attention,
effort, money) in order to get something back. On average, non sales people
said they spent 41percent of their time doing sales.
Premise Two: People hate sales
A word cloud showed that the most often
given responses to the question: “what
word comes to your mind when you hear
sales?” Slimy, crummy, auto, smarmy, ugh..etc. You get the point.
So if we all do sales, how do you do it
well?
I’m going to give his answer. What’s most
important about what he shared is how he embodied his shpiel in his presentation. So
for all of us who have to present, to teach, to sell and idea he told us the ABC’s of sales.
Attunement
Buoyancy
Clarity
I could share his definitions, but more importantly for me is how embodied them. He was after all selling us his book.
Attunement
·
He
called on people, got their names and used them
·
He
referred to people who had called on before by name and linking them to others
in the audience
·
He
looked you in the eye when he spoke
·
And
he gave me a shiver, when I asked the question “Tell us more about the shift
from problem solving to problem identification” he said “you are an educator,
right?” Attuned?
·
When
someone said he had emailed him and he hadn’t heard back, he said “give me your
name I’m sorry I will”
Buoyancy:
·
He
was funny
·
Smiled
often
·
When
challenged, he left the quiet space for it and responded
·
Moved
on
Clarity:
·
If
he had more than 8 slides for the whole presentation I’d be surprised
·
Only
one slide (and it was a joke) had more than 10 words on it
·
And
the biggest test that he made the sale
I
am a right brainer and I remember all of what I've shared and more. I didn't take a note down.
Note
to self: You are going to UJA Federation of New York on Thursday to ask for a
grant for a million dollars. Do I know my ABCs?
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