How to Be Persuasive and Sell

3min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

In your writing and speaking, you've studied a lot about persuasion and selling. You talk about focusing on problem finding, not problem solving. Why is one now more important than the other? This is a big deal because problem solving is becoming a commodity. If I'm in the market for a vacuum cleaner and you're a vacuum cleaner sales person,. I don't really need you very much.

“What people regret over time are things they didn't do. They didn't take that trip, they didn't ask that person out on a date. They didn't start that business,” says former political speech writer and best-selling author Dan Pink. “I think it's because we are slightly over-indexed on risk. We overstate the risk in many circumstances.”

On this episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart, strategic communications lecturer Matt Abrahams sits down with Pink to hear how we should all take more risks and how leaders can inspire others by focusing on the why instead of the how.

“There's almost incontrovertible evidence that sense of purpose is the most cost effective performance enhancer that organizations have,” Pink says.

They also discuss the power in taking breaks, which Pink considers part of performance, not a deviation from it. “What we know from many domains is that professionals take breaks. It's not that amateurs take breaks and the professionals don't, it's the exact opposite.”

Pink’s latest book is The Power of Regret, How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward.

Connect: