Selling is helping people to do what they're already inclined to do.
Interpretation
Selling is about facilitating a customer's natural desires.
This quote by Daniel H. Pink emphasizes that the essence of selling lies in understanding and aiding customers in fulfilling their existing inclinations or needs. Rather than forcing a sale, effective selling involves recognizing what the customer is already interested in and guiding them towards a solution that meets those needs, thereby creating a mutually beneficial transaction.
In practice
In a sales training workshop, a facilitator can use this quote to highlight the importance of understanding customer needs.
While complying can be an effective strategy for physical survival, it's a lousy one for personal fulfillment. Living a satisfying life requires more than simply meeting the demands of those in control. Yet in our offices and our classrooms we have way too much compliance and way too little engagement. The former might get you through the day, but only the latter will get you through the night.
Succeeding makes us feel good. But beating someone else makes us feel really good. Comparing ourselves to others and coming out on top creates a sense of entitlement. And when we feel entitled, we cheat more because, of course, the rules don't apply to awesome people like us.
When we make progress and get better at something, it is inherently motivating. In order for people to make progress, they have to get feedback and information on how they're doing.
We have this myth that extroverts are better salespeople. As a result, extroverts are more likely to enter sales; extroverts are more likely to get promoted in sales jobs. But if you look at the correlation between extroversion and actual sales performance - that is, how many times the cash register actually rings - the correlation's almost zero.
Too many people hold a very narrow view of what motivates us. They believe that the only way to get us moving is with the jab of a stick or the promise of a carrot. But if you look at over 50 years of research on motivation, or simply scrutinize your own behavior, it's pretty clear human beings are more complicated than that.
Greatness and nearsightedness are incompatible. Meaningful achievement depends on lifting one's sights and pushing toward the horizon.
Selling is something we do for our clients - not to our clients.
Selling is essentially transference of feeling.
I wish we didn't live in a world where buying and selling things seems to have become almost more important than either producing or using them.
Corporate responsibility extends not only to the customers, the resources and the workers of the present, but also to those of the future.
If you're successful in the market, it should be because you have the best products. Then your customers like you, not because then you cut corners, or you get a tax break, or you don't inform authorities about how things actually are.
People can only live fully by helping others to live. When you give life to friends you truly live. Cultures can only realize their further richness by honoring other traditions. And only by respecting natural life can humanity continue to exist.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.