To Sell Is Human

The Surprising Truth about Moving Others

By: Daniel H. Pink

Narrated by: Daniel H. Pink

Length: 6 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

From the best-selling author of Drive and A Whole New Mind comes a surprising - and surprisingly useful - new book that explores the power of selling in our lives.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, one in nine Americans works in sales. Every day more than 15 million people earn their keep by persuading someone else to make a purchase.

But dig deeper and a startling truth emerges: Yes, one in nine Americans works in sales. But so do the other eight.

Whether we’re employees pitching colleagues on a new idea, entrepreneurs enticing funders to invest, or parents and teachers cajoling children to study, we spend our days trying to move others. Like it or not, we’re all in sales now.

To Sell Is Human offers a fresh look at the art and science of selling. As he did in Drive and A Whole New Mind, Daniel H. Pink draws on a rich trove of social science for his counterintuitive insights. He reveals the new ABCs of moving others (it's no longer "Always Be Closing"), explains why extroverts don't make the best salespeople, and shows how giving people an "off-ramp" for their actions can matter more than actually changing their minds.

Along the way, Pink describes the six successors to the elevator pitch, the three rules for understanding another's perspective, the five frames that can make your message clearer and more persuasive, and much more. The result is a perceptive and practical book - one that will change how you see the world and transform what you do at work, at school, and at home.

©2012 Daniel H. Pink (P)2012 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"Full of aha! moments...timely, original, thoroughly engaging, deeply humane." (strategy + business)

"A fresh look at the art and science of sales using a mix of social science, survey research and stories." (Dan Schawbel, Forbes.com)

"Artfully blend(s) anecdotes, insights, and studies from the social sciences into a frothy blend of utility and entertainment." (Bloomberg)

Amazzzzing Book! Must Listen

Atonement, buoyancy, clarity!
Those qualities blow my mind, my paradigm has shifted. Must LISTEN NOW

So many golden nuggets!

Get your pen and pad ready, there are many great takeaways from this book! 5stars!

Great take on modern sales

The stories and examples were helpful. I was really intrigued by the idea of “sales” not just being about someone who tries to get someone to buy something. It references a lot of great books I have also read and mixes the science and application for a great read. Will definitely give this one another listen!

Very useful

You won't understand or follow the end with out hearing the end. Or rather it will make more sense to you if you hear it all. It's a good book that is worth reading a few times. l like it. Good read.

This is not a book about selling

This is not a book about selling, it is a book about being human and how to do that better.

so so - useful, but difficult to follow on audio

I liked the author's talks on motivation and have lots of respect, and was really excited to listen to this book, but honestly was disappointed.
Concepts seem to be useful, but they are given unnecessarily fancy sounding names, which could easily be renamed to smth simpler and more memorable.
Poor structure of book - jumping back and forth to loosely related and poorly named concepts usually without good connected progression, which ultimately can create a "soup" in listeners / readers head.
Difficult to follow, especially on audio when author constantly gives numbered lists (which I actually like), but you only know its a numbered list when he says 3 or 4 (it was not clear some list is upcoming) - if you are taking notes it gets very confusing and you waste time relistening..
I like scientific books, but this one has too much emphasis on proceas / methodology where in many cases what reader wants to know is the key result / findings.

Improve your teams sales and lives !

Nothing better! The message of Servant Leadership coupled with Servant Selling is powerful and positive.

Incredible book on sales

This book was extremely easy to listen to. I learned many new ways of how it to sell and things that I need to work on to become a better salesman both personally and professionally. I love the fact that Daniel Pink sites other authors and gives them credit for ideas he has learned from them..

Adversarial Selling?

Being a professional salesperson - I found much of the material psychologically pandering to the myth of sales and rejection.
Sales is the necessary free exchange of communication and education in the marketplace. There are no sales when there is a command economy. Many of the examples typify amateur buyers and sellers. In the real world of industrial/commercial sales, vendors work as partners with their clientele as they each understands the ecology of the commerce, that success is for both for now and into the future, and many of these relationships will go on for years, like a marriage.

Overall great but has older references

Overall was a good listen, but some parts were somewhat hard to follow the story. Overall I would recommend someone to read it.