To Sell Is Human: It’s Not About What You Know, It’s About Who You Are

I realize now that I have worked in “sales” during many different parts of my life.  I write it with quotes because I haven’t been a traditional salesman in the sense of, “I have a product and I want to sell it to you for this much.”  But like Dan Pink says in his book To Sell Is Human, I have been in the business of moving others to action.  I’ve been a full-time missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Argentina; I’ve been a door-to-door salesman for Dish Network; and for the majority of my life I’ve tried to “sell” my music and myself as an entertainer.  So, I’m familiar with trying to get someone to believe in you and buy what you’re selling.  Because of these experiences I agree with what Dan Pink writes about in his book; that people are no longer “buying” what you’re selling because of what you know, it’s almost always because of who you are.  And all

of us are now in “sales.”

Here are 3 key points on this topic Pink makes in his book and what I have to say about them:

To Sell Is Human Points

• “Most of all, what makes someone effective on this shifted terrain is different from the smooth-talking, back-slapping, pocket-picking stereotype of the past.  Tammy Darvish [of DARCARS] says the qualities she looks for most are persistence [and]…empathy.
  ‘You can’t train someone to care,” she told me.  To her the ideal salespeople are those who ask themselves, ‘What decision would I make if that were my own mom sitting there trying to get service or buy a car?’  It sounds noble.  And maybe it is.  But today, it’s how you sell cars.”

• “Sales and non-sales selling are ultimately about service…we do better when we move beyond solving a puzzle to serving a person.”

Making the Connections with To Sell is Human

What Pink lines up perfectly with the principle of First Who, Then What from the book Good To Great by Jim Collins, that I wrote about this past August, as well as the principle of service by Dave Ramsey.  Because Pink’s ideas connect so well with these other principles it strengthens my confidence in these principles.

First Who, Then What means you focus more on getting the right people on the bus instead of worrying about where you’re going to drive it – meaning you get the right people on your team based on their innate character instead of worrying too much about their resume or depth of knowledge.  You can always teach a skill, but it’s much harder to teach character.  This is exactly what Tammy Darvish said in the above quote from Pink’s book when she talked about having people who genuinely care on your team.   Pink is suggesting knowledge is no longer the key to successful sales since knowledge is now so accessible due to the internet.  The key is how much you care.  Again, lyrics from a million pop songs comes to mind, because “love is the answer.”

Dave Ramsey’s solidifies this idea in his book, Entreleadership.  He wrote, “We serve, we don’t sell.”  He goes on to compare sales to eating at a high end restaurant.  When you ask the waiter what’s good to eat, the waiter then goes through a number of questions to get to know your tastes and then he can recommend something according to your tastes.  This is serving the customer, as opposed to the waiter simply recommending the most expensive item on the menu to ensure a larger tip.  It’s about doing everything you can to serve others instead of trying to coerce a customer due to their lack of knowledge.

As I look back on experiences in my life, whether it was as a missionary, a door-to-door salesman, or as a musician, I think I have and always will be most successful when I focus more on serving the needs of those I come into contact with instead of trying to satisfy my own desires.  This may seem counter intuitive because we all have a need to survive and many people are driven towards personal success.  But what I’m getting at is that I feel I have always been able to meet my personal, financial, and familial responsibilities when I try to focus on serving those around me instead of pursuing a self-serving agenda.  And I think this is what Pink is getting at in his book.  Don’t get me wrong, I am not always thinking of other people’s needs before mine.  I still have a flare for the selfish and self serving, but I have had a few great mentors that have shown me the value and power of serving others.  And when it comes down to it, we all should be serving if that is a sign of an honest salesman.