Thanks to technology, the information asymmetry that salespeople in the 20th century enjoyed-and often abused-no longer exists. The thesis of To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others is that the old stereotype of the sales profession as full of greedy connivers and lunkheaded losers is outdated. Pink’s style of writing is entertaining and engaging, and he expertly interweaves quantitative research from the social sciences with anecdotes and interviews that make his arguments come alive. A lot of books in the Business genre are… unimpressive. Pink’s To Sell Is Human promises to offer a fresh perspective on the art and science of selling, based on insights from the social sciences. The same is true across many kinds of jobs.↢ Return to home page Book review: “To Sell is Human”, by Daniel H. Creative professionals, for example, must be able to market their services and do their own accounting, in addition to their primary tasks. Workers in the video entertainment industry, and in other industries, have to maintain a certain flexibility and be ready to pivot to the next task or technology.Īnother reason that workers must be flexible is that so many people are self-employed. Another transformation could happen in the future, from Netflix or a new competitor. Netflix transformed the entertainment industry in 1998, when it started lending DVDs through the mail, and again in 2007, when it introduced streaming. Many industries are more competitive, which forces the organization charts of businesses to flatten.Īs much as things have already changed in the business world, they are guaranteed to change again. But as the business world has become increasingly volatile, people are expected to wear many hats. People in the accounting department would never be expected to interface with customers, for example. In a traditional twentieth-century company, which operated in a more consistent business environment, workers’ skills were somewhat inflexible. The modern workplace demands a certain elasticity, or range of deployable skills.

Workers there have multiple roles, with computer scientists servicing customers in the field. The software company Palantir, for instance, doesn’t even have a dedicated sales department because every employee is considered a salesperson. But in the contemporary landscape, sales fall to nearly everyone, touching many departments within a single company. Sales was the domain of professional salespeople and marketers.

In the twentieth century, departments within companies were siloed and self-contained. The modern workplace requires employees with flexible skills.

To sell is human by daniel h pink