To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others

To sell well is to convince someone else to part with resources—not to deprive that person, but to leave him better off in the end.

This is what it means to serve: improving another’s life and, in turn, improving the world. That’s the lifeblood of service and the final secret to moving others.

In a world where buyers have ample information and an array of choices, the pitch is often the first word, but it’s rarely the last.

Elasticity—the new breadth of skills demanded by established companies.

in a moment of procrastination masquerading as an act of reflection, I decided to examine how I spend my time.

The U.S. private sector employs three times as many salespeople as all fifty state governments combined employ people.

Unchecked levity leaves you flighty, ungrounded, and unreal. Unchecked gravity leaves you collapsed in a heap of misery,” she writes. “Yet when properly combined, these two opposing forces leave you buoyant.”15

When confronted with an unusual or complex situation involving other people, how do we make sense of what’s going on? Do we examine it from only our own point of view? Or do we have “the capability to step outside [our] own experience and imagine the emotions, perceptions, and motivations of another?”1

Synching our mannerisms and vocal patterns to someone else so that we both understand and can be understood is fundamental to attunement.