(GASPS)
(ENGINE STARTS)
(TIRES SCREECH)
Like it or not, we're all in sales now.
A big portion of what we do, whether we're teachers
or art directors or in healthcare, we're all in sales now.
What are the qualities that allow us to do this well and ethically?
These are the foundational qualities
of being effective in persuading,
influencing, convincing, moving people.
They are the new ABCs - attunement, buoyancy and clarity.
Attunement - perspective taking.
Can you attune yourself to someone, understand their perspective?
In sales, if you're trying to sell computer equipment?
If you're trying to convince an employee
to do something a different way?
Or convince your boss to give you a different assignment?
Or convince your kids to clean up their room?
Buoyancy. I interviewed a salesman. He had a lovely way of putting this.
He said the hardest part of being in sales is
every day, you face an OCEAN of rejection.
How do you remain afloat on that ocean of rejection?
If we're all in sales now, we're going to get rejected a lot.
It turns out that questioning your abilities
is often more effective than pumping yourself up.
What do you do during an encounter?
Much to my dismay, it showed that positivity actually works. Finally!
What do you do after an encounter?
Some fascinating research from Martin Seligman
at the University of Pennsylvania
shows that one of the best predictors of people's success
is how they explain failure, their explanatory style.
That's buoyancy.
And finally - attunement, buoyancy, clarity - is clarity.
We live in a world awash in information.
Having access to information doesn't give you any comparative advantage.
What gives you comparative advantage
is being able to curate that information,
distill that information and say,
"All of this is noise, but this part is signal."
You have to draw on some very fundamental human qualities.
Can I understand someone else's point of view?
Can I remain resilient in the face of rejection?
Can I help someone make their way
through this murk of information and clarify it?
Can I help someone identify problems they don't realize they have?
Can I look for ways that this person and I have common ground,
so if we reach it we're both going to be better off?
I really am convinced that the way to do it effectively
is to be a little bit more human.