The Big Idea: Even if you’re not a “salesman”, you probably have to sell or persuade people all the time. Therefore, learn how to sell.

• Everyone sells.
• Physicians sell patients on treatments. Lawyers sell juries on verdicts. Teachers sell students on coursework. Entrepreneurs sell investors on visions. Writers sell producers on scripts. Coaches sell players on plays.
• Before the internet, sellers had all the information on their product so they were able to deceive and manipulate.
• Today, buyers have more information and leverage, so the balance has shifted.
• Instead of Always Be Closing, the new ABC is Attunement, Buoyancy, and Clarity.
• Attunement
  • Show empathy
  • Be humble
  • Mimic strategically
  • Put yourself in their shoes
  • Be ambivert not extrovert
  • Ask others “where are you from?”
• Buoyancy
  • Instead of stating “I will ___,” ask yourself “how will I ___?”
  • 3:1 ratio of positive to negative emotions is better than infinite positivity.
  • Develop an optimistic explanatory style to deal with rejection: rejections are temporary not permanent, specific not universal, external not personal.
• Clarity
  • The ability to move people hinges less on problem-solving than on problem-finding.
  • Problem finders tend to be more successful than problem solvers.
  • Problem finding is about asking the right questions and being good at curating information.
  • One of the most essential questions is “compared to what?” Frame your offerings in ways that contrast its alternatives and clarify its virtues.
  • 5 Frames: less frame (paradox of choice), experience frame (experience vs physical), label frame (names matter), blemished frame (include a negative), potential frame (potential is more powerful than actual)
  • “On a scale from 1 to 10…” “How can we move that up?”
  • Books: Influence, Made to Stick, Switch, Mindless Eating, Nudge
  • Ask 5 Whys
• How to Pitch
  • Don’t present a pitch end-to-end. Start your pitch and invite the others to create it with you.
  • 1. The One Word Pitch. Simplify everything to one word.
  • 2. The Question Pitch. “Are you better off than you were 4 years ago?”
  • 3. The Rhyming Pitch. “If the glove doesn’t fit, you must acquit.”
  • 4. The Subject Line Pitch. Utility first. Curiosity second.
  • 5. The Twitter Pitch.
  • 6. The Pixar Pitch. “Once upon a time…Every day…One day…Because of that…Until finally.”
• Learn from improvisational theater. Listen closely. Make the other people look good.
• Service is at the core of sales.
• To serve, make it personal and make it purposeful. Eg. Radiologist viewing photos, hospital hand-washing to protect others, fundraisers reading stories about alumni who received scholarships.
• Be grateful. Always act like the other guy is doing you the favor. No matter what.
• Look at all your signs and ask if they are emotionally intelligent and well-designed.
• Treat everyone well.