Acumen Presents: Daniel Pink on the Art of Selling

Whether we’re employees pitching colleagues on a new idea, entrepreneurs enticing funders to invest, or parents and teachers cajoling children to study, we spend our days trying to move others. Like it or not, we’re all in sales now.   

In this course, Daniel Pink, bestselling author of To Sell Is Human offers a fresh look at the art and science of selling. He teaches research-grounded tactics to help you understand your audience and convince them to take clear actions—whether that is funding your venture, buying your product, or adopting your new idea. You'll leave the course better equipped to practice the new skills of selling: pitching, improvising and serving.

Daniel is one of the most highly-regarded contemporary authors covering topics ranging from business to work to behavior. His TED Talk on the science of motivation is one of the 10 most-watched TED Talks of all time and, in this course, he’ll walk you through the science of motivating people to buy, use, and adopt.

You’ll learn three effective methods to pitch and then have the chance to apply all of Daniel’s tactics to your own “selling” challenge.  Along the way, Daniel will teach you how to remain buoyant in the face of the inevitable rejection that comes with selling and instruct you on the new ABCs of sales.

Daniel’s insights will change how you see the world and transform what you do at work, at school, and at home. He’ll help you realize that sales doesn’t have to be sleazy or distasteful, but can be a personal, purposeful, and ultimately human art.  

Learn the new tactics of sales from one of the best thinkers on business and behavior  

• Understand why sales has changed more in the last 10 years than in the previous 100 years—and how you can adapt

• Discover how to map the power dynamics between customers and sellers

• Gain strategies to grow attuned to the perspectives and needs of your customers and audiences

• Practice 3 research-backed pitching techniques to sell your ideas

• Learn to make sales personal, purposeful and ultimately human

Content and Overview  

Daniel will introduce you to the concept of sales—and help you understand why almost everyone is in sales now because we are all trying to move or persuade others. You’ll learn how to frame your own “Sales Challenge”—a situation where you need to convince or move others—so that you can apply Daniel’s tactics and research directly to your own work.  

Next, Daniel will present the research on how sales has shifted more in the last 10 years than in the previous 100 years by explaining the concepts of information asymmetry and parity. He’ll also explain two “big picture” techniques for moving others—irritation and agitation—and help you learn to differentiate between them.  Then you’ll have a chance to apply these two techniques to your own Sales Challenge.   

Daniel will walk you through the new “ABCs of Selling”—attunement, buoyancy, and clarity—and offer structured tips for how you can put these concepts into practice right away. You’ll dive into exercises where you’ll assess the power dynamics between the seller and the buyer and learn to tailor your messages accordingly. You’ll learn tactics to stay more buoyant in the face of inevitable rejection that comes with selling new things.  And you’ll learn how to design “off-ramps” that point your customers or audience in the direction of clear actions.   

Daniel will then explain the fundamentals of effective pitches. He’ll offer you three templates to create pitches that work based on the social science research. You’ll have a chance to apply these frameworks to craft your own pitch.

Finally, Daniel will wrap up by offering advice on how you can make sales more personal and more purposeful so that—far from being sleazy or distasteful—selling can be a very human art.