Business

Sales Trends

Lesson time 10:15 min

Sales has changed more in the last 10 years than in the previous 100. Learn the most important developments and how they affect your ability to persuade.

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Topics include: Think in a Fresh Way · Doing More With Less · Information and Power

Daniel Pink

Teaches Sales and Persuasion

NYT-bestselling author Daniel Pink shares a science-based approach to the art of persuading, selling, and motivating yourself and others.

Preview

[00:00:00.00] [MUSIC PLAYING] [00:00:07.32] - If you look at what people actually do all day on the job, no matter what their job title is, they are selling. If you're a physician or a nurse, you're selling patients on doing something different or doing something in a different way. If you're a boss, you're trying to influence and persuade your people to do something different or do something in a different way. If you are a teacher, you're trying to persuade your class. [00:00:30.40] So if you look at the guts of what people actually do all day on the job, it's often very different from what appears in their actual job descriptions. We have data showing that about 40% of our time on the job is spent in something akin to sales-- persuading, influencing, convincing, cajoling. [00:00:51.96] Now, think about that. I want you to think about 40% of your job. 40% of an hour is 24 minutes. 24 minutes of every hour of every day of every week of every month of every year of your working lives is spent selling. It's a huge part about-- of what we all do for a living. [00:01:15.63] When you tell people this, when you tell them that no matter what you do, you're going to be selling and persuading and influencing, I think there's a natural apprehension from a lot of people. They say, that's not me. I'm not that kind of person. I'm not good at that. [00:01:30.75] The good news on that is that there isn't a certain personality that is better or worse on this. All of us have the capacity to do this. And I think what you'll find when you learn the science of this is that you can do this pretty well, better than you expected if you pay attention to the evidence and follow the rules and get rid of all this folklore about what sales is and what's effective and what's not. [00:01:57.69] [MUSIC PLAYING] [00:02:04.43] I did a survey of about 5,000 Americans, and I asked them this question. I want you to think about this question yourself. When you think of sales or selling, what's the first word that comes to mind? What's the first word that comes to mind? [00:02:22.68] So I looked at the top 25 adjectives that people used in response to this question. And the number one by far-- it wasn't even close-- was pushy. And if you look at those top 25 adjectives, 20 of them are negative-- slimy, sleazy, smarmy, aggressive. [00:02:45.80] We had people who used not only adjectives, but interjections, people saying ick, ugh. The vast majority of people had this very negative view of sales. And I tried something else. We asked people, when you think of sales or selling, what's the first picture that comes to mind? So you ask people a question that way-- I'm just trying to access different parts of their brain. [00:03:07.73] What we got in response to that, in overwhelming, somewhat terrifying numbers, was a guy in a suit selling a car. And again, you know, if I ask you to picture, what picture comes to mind when you think of sales or selling, I wonder how many of you pi...

About the Instructor

With four NYT bestsellers, Daniel Pink is an influential voice in the evolving landscape of sales and motivation. Now the author of To Sell Is Human teaches you science-backed principles for effective and ethical sales and persuasion. Learn tactics for achieving better outcomes in any interaction—at home or at work—and tools for framing your message, navigating cognitive biases, and pitching ideas, products, or yourself.

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Daniel Pink

NYT-bestselling author Daniel Pink shares a science-based approach to the art of persuading, selling, and motivating yourself and others.

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