In his 2012 title, “To Sell is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others”, Daniel Pink has crafted a work that dispels many of the incorrect preconcieved notions about the sales profession. I do not know where the negative impressions of those in revenue generating professions began, but there are probably thousands of stories of unscrupulous used car dealers, telemarketers, and timeshare reps to support the stereotypes. That traveling sales guy on the TV show “Green Acres” and the desperate souls in David Mamet’s “Glengarry Glen Ross” did not help. Or perhaps it was door to door reps from yesteryear like that guy who sold my mother a set of encyclopedias in 1972 so her dear children would not end up living in a van down by the river.

Business to consumer examples such as the above make for good entertainment & stories, but they have little to do with the complex, business to business environment that most technical sellers operate in. Even so, I have had to address these stereotypes when recruiting and explaining the role that the technical professionals plays in driving new business. Since many sales engineers got their start as technicians, software developers, systems administrators, business analysts, etc., I often get an anti-sales attitude from potential candidates and even those with years of experience in the profession. I recall mentoring a young professional several years ago. I was explaining how our pre-sales engineers are a critical cog in our business and a true differentiator in the eyes of our customers. I received the response, “I do not know if I want to go into sales because I do not want to have to lie”. Swallowing my derision, I immediately explained that anyone in my organization who purposely misleads a customer or consciously misrepresents the capabilities of our solutions will be dismissed from the organization. I then went on to explain that the role is about helping customers understand how to use our solutions to run their business so they can invest in those solutions. In short, it is about moving others.

This concept of influence is at the center of “To Sell is Human”. Pink asserts that, although only one in nine professionals in the United States formally works in sales, once we define the concept of non-sales selling, the number actually balloons to eight out of nine. That is because most business professionals are selling whether they realize it or not – that is, they are engaged in helping others derive value from their investment in whatever product, service, or capability they are offering. That value takes many forms. Time, money, goods, support, sponsorship, and virtually anything that can be bartered must be given up in exchange for something. Pink characterises this as the rise of the non-selling seller.

This is true in a business environent even though the internet was supposed to transform entire industries from a buyer beware/caveat emptor situation to a seller beware/caveat venditor situation. This “disintermediation”, as it was known, actually served to strengthen the role of the sales professional in many industries. Now that the customer is equipped with an unprecedented amount of knowledge (and, therefore, options), the sales professional plays an even more crucial role in the care and feeding of the business relationship. In the case of the technical seller, differentiating one’s offerings and capabilities, while helping to ensure that the customer gains business value from their investment, is crucial. Over the course of about 225 pages, Pink describes several helpful techniques from the behavioral sciences to improvisational acting to get the non-selling seller to consider better ways to interact with customers. He also humbly includes references to many other publications, and occasionally even implores the reader to simply read other books.

I so enjoyed his approach, presentation, and clarification that I bought three dozen copies for distribution to my employees and colleagues.