To sell is human by Daniel P Pink

To sell is human by Daniel P Pink

The surprising truth about moving others.

The research firm IDC estimates that 30% of American workers now work on their own and that by 2015, the number of nontraditional workers worldwide (freelancers, contractors, consultants, and the like) will reach 1.3 billion. In OECD countries, more than 90% of business now have fewer than 10 employees.

The new ABC of moving others: A- Attunement, B-Buoyancy, C-Clarity.

Research shows that the effective perspective-taking, attuning yourself with others, hinges on three principles.

1. Increase your power by reducing it.

The ability to move people now depends on power’s inverse: understanding another person’s perspective, getting inside his head, and seeing the world through his eyes. And doing that well requires assuming that you are the one with power. Start your encounters with the assumption that you are in a position of lower power. This will help you see the other side’s perspective more accurately which in turn, will help you move them.

2. Use your head as much as your heart.

Traditional sales and non-sales selling often involve what look like competing imperatives - cooperation versus competition, group gain versus individual advantage. As researchers say, ultimately it’s more beneficial to get inside their heads than to have them inside one’s own heart”. Social cartography - drawing that map in your head ensures that you don’t miss a critical player in the process.

3. Mimic strategically.

Successful negotiators recommend that you should mimic the mannerisms of your negotiation partner to get a better deal. It is important that the other person does not notice what you are doing.

Practice strategic mimicry> the three key steps are Watch, Wait & Wane. Watch what the other person is doing, once you observed, doesn’t spring immediately into action; let the situation breathe. If he makes important point, repeat back the main idea verbatim - but a bit later in the conversation (don’t do many times) after you have mimicked, try to be less conscious of what you are doing. AS NYtimes has noted, “And if that kind of flattery does not close a deal, it may just be that the customer isn’t buying”.

The best sales people are not extraverts, not introverts, but ambiverts. Ambiverts can find balance and they know when to speak up and when to shut up. Their wider repertories allow them to achieve harmony with a broader range of people and a more varied set of circumstances.

Discover the best way to start a conversation. Good to great author, Jim Collins, says his favorite opening question is: where are you from?

Have a conversation with a time traveler (e.g. think of item that somebody from 300 years ago would not recognize). Play mirror (see each other first; turn around and change something- put glasses, removed watch etc. then see face-to-face and ask what has changed

Discussion map. In your next meeting, cut through the clutter of comments with a map that can help reveal the group’s social cartography. Draw a diagram of where each person in the meeting is sitting. When a session begins, note who speaks first by marking X next to that person’s name. Then each time someone speaks add an X next to that name. If someone directs her/his comments to a particular person, draw a line from the speaker to that person. When the meeting is done, you will get a visual representation of who is talking the most, who is sitting out, and who is the target of people’s criticism or blandishments.

Napoleon Hill (author of Think and grow rich), wrote that the first step in salesmanship was autosuggestion, the principle through which the salesman saturates his own mind with belief in his own ability to sell. You need to believe in yourself first that you can do it (or you can sell it).

Barbara Fredrickson of UNC is the leading researcher on positivity - her catchall term for a basket of emotions including amusement, appreciation, joy, interest, gratitude, and inspiration. The positive emotions broadness people’s ideas about possible actions, opening our awareness to a wider range of thoughts and making... us more receptive and more creative, she writes. Healthy positive ratios as a calibration between two competing pulls: levity and gravity. Levity is that unseen force that lifts you skyward whereas gravity is the opposite force that pulls you earthward. Unchecked levity leaves you flighty, ungrounded and unreal. Unchecked gravity leaves you collapsed in a heap of misery. Yet, when properly combines, these two opposing forces leave you buoyant.  

positiveratio.com has her positivity self test and her book, Positivity Top notch research reveals the 3 to 1 ration that will change your life is an excellent popular intro to her academic work.

Martin Seligman’s book Learned optimism: How to change your mind and your life and his web site: www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/Default.aspx He says, negative events has an enormous effect on us. Try to de0catastrophize, ask yourself - what are the overall consequences and why are those consequences not nearly as calamitous as they seem on the surface. One way to remain buoyant is to acquire a more realistic sense of what can actually sink you. You can do that by counting your rejections and then celebrating them - enumerate and embrace.

Motivational interviewing. On a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 is the least, how ready are you to study? After the answer, ask the second question - why didn’t you pick a lower number?

Putting content curation into practice is part art form, part science, but mostly about daily practice, writes Kanter. When you prepared to ask question, prepare a list of questions, improve your questions and prioritize your questions.

Practice six pitches:

1. One word pitch. Write 50 word pitches and reduce to one word

2. The question pitch: use this technique, if your arguments are strong and if they are weak, make a statement.

3. The Rhyming pitch: Find the rhyming words from www.rhymezone.com

4. Subject line pitch: create subject line that create curiosity

5. Twitter pitch. Make your point sweet, short & simple

6. Pixar pitch; http://bit,ly/jlVWrG

The Pixar pitch: All of Pixar stories have following common thread. Once upon a time --- everyday,----- one day------. Because of that,-----. Because of that....---------. Until finally ---------------. Try to bring your story into this well known style to catch everyone’s observation.

Answer three key questions.

What do you want them to know, to feel & do?

Collect others pitch and record your own.

Add a visual

Pay attention to sequence and numbers (go first if you are incumbent, last if are the challenger. Granular numbers are more credible than coarse numbers)

Experiment with pecha-kucha.Such presentation contains 20 slides, each of them appear for 20 seconds. Presenters make their pitch in 6inutes 40 seconds of perfectly timed words and images. The format promotes clarity through constraints and because he slides advance automatically presenters must convey their message with both elegance and speed.

Ask people to describe your invisible pitch in three words.

Instead of saying, “yes, but...” to someone’s idea, say, “yes and ...Instead of swirling downward into frustration with Yes, but, “Yes and ‘spirals upward toward possibility. When you stop, you have got a set of options not a sense of futility.

Recommended Books:

Influence: Science and practice by Robert Cialdini (persuasion)

Made to stick: why some ideas survive and others die by Chip Heath and Dan heath

Switch by Chip Heath and Dan Heath

Mindless eating: why we eat more than we think by Brian Wansink

Nudge: Improving Decisions About health, wealth and happiness by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein.

Impro: Improvisation and the theater by Keith Johnstone

Creating conversation: Improvisation in everyday discourse by R. Keith Sawyer

The creative power of collaboration by R. Keith Sawyer

Improve Wisdom: Don’t prepare, just show up by Patricia Ryan Madosn

The second City Almanac of Improvisation by Anne Libera.