Michelle: Mark, if you had to describe the classic, 1980s-style salesman in one word, what would it be? Mark: "Slick." Or maybe "plaid." Definitely something involving too much hair gel and a questionable mustache. Michelle: Perfect. Well, what if I told you that guy is officially extinct? And that his replacement... is you. Mark: Whoa, hold on. I'm a podcast host. The only thing I'm selling is my questionable opinion on books. That feels a little... slimy. Michelle: And that's the exact feeling Daniel H. Pink tackles in his blockbuster book, To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others. He argues that one in nine Americans works in traditional sales, but the other eight... well, they're in sales too. They just don't know it. Mark: Right, Pink's the guy who was Al Gore's chief speechwriter. It's fascinating that someone who mastered persuasion at that level decided to write a book arguing that the old, aggressive ways of selling are dead. Michelle: Exactly. He argues that because of the internet, the power has flipped. We've moved from a world of caveat emptor, or 'buyer beware,' to caveat venditor—'seller beware.' The slick salesman can't survive in a world where we can look up every fact, every price, and every customer review on our phones in seconds. Mark: Okay, so the plaid-wearing, hair-gelled salesman is gone. What killed him, and what does this new world of 'seller beware' actually look like?

Michelle: To understand the shift, Pink takes us to San Francisco to meet a man named Norman Hall. He's this dapper, 75-year-old gentleman who is, quite literally, the last of his kind. He's a Fuller Brush salesman. Mark: The Fuller Brush Man! My grandmother used to talk about them. They were like a cultural icon, going door-to-door with their catalog of brushes and cleaning supplies. Michelle: They were huge! At their peak, Fuller Brush was a billion-dollar company. But by the time Pink meets Norman Hall, the company has filed for bankruptcy. Norman is still out there, though, with his catalog of male ostrich feather dusters and stainless-steel sponges, going from office to office. Mark: That sounds... incredibly difficult. It's kind of sad, but also, who has time for that anymore? I can order a sponge on Amazon and have it here in an hour. Michelle: And that's the point. Norman represents an era of what economists call 'information asymmetry.' The seller, whether it was the Fuller Brush Man or the used-car salesman, had all the information. They knew the product, the real cost, the flaws. The buyer had almost none. Your only source of information was the person trying to sell you something. Mark: Ah, okay. 'Information asymmetry' sounds like a fancy term from an economics textbook, but that makes perfect sense. It's the 'lemons' problem, right? The seller knows if the car is a lemon, but the buyer doesn't, so the whole market gets sketchy. Michelle: Precisely. That world created the slick, pushy salesman because their edge was hoarding information. But today, that edge is gone. Pink tells this great story contrasting two car dealerships. One is a classic, old-school lot called SK Motors, where the salesmen are still playing the old game, relying on customers who have bad credit and few options. Mark: I can picture it. Fluorescent lights, a guy named Frank who keeps calling you 'pal.' Michelle: You've got it. Then he goes to CarMax. And what does he see? Customers walking around with smartphones, scanning QR codes, comparing prices online instantly. The salespeople at CarMax don't get a commission based on the price of the car, but on volume. Their job isn't to squeeze every last dollar out of you; it's to facilitate your purchase. They're more like librarians of cars than hunters. Mark: That's a great analogy. They help you find what you need because they know you can find it yourself anyway. It's no longer a battle of wits; it's a service. I just bought a car a few months ago, and I did 90% of the 'selling' to myself online before I ever spoke to a human. Michelle: And that's the great reversal. The power has shifted so dramatically that the old tactics don't just feel wrong, they're ineffective. Honesty, transparency, and service are no longer just moral virtues; they're strategic necessities. This is why Pink argues we're all in sales now. A doctor has to 'sell' a patient on a treatment plan. A manager has to 'sell' their team on a new strategy. A parent has to 'sell' their toddler on the idea of eating broccoli. It's all about moving others. Mark: Okay, I'm starting to buy it. If 'selling' just means persuading or influencing, then yeah, I do that all day. But it feels different. So if the old ABCs—'Always Be Closing'—are dead, what are the new ones?

Michelle: This is the heart of the book. Pink proposes a new ABC: Attunement, Buoyancy, and Clarity. Mark: Attunement, Buoyancy, Clarity. It sounds more like a yoga retreat than a sales seminar. Michelle: And that's the point! Let's start with Attunement. It's the ability to get in sync with other people, to see things from their perspective. Think of the opposite: the classic scene from the movie Glengarry Glen Ross. Alec Baldwin's character storms in and screams at the salesmen, "A-B-C! Always. Be. Closing!" It's aggressive, it's one-sided, it's all about the seller's needs. Mark: Right, "Coffee's for closers only!" It's the ultimate example of the pushy, self-centered sales culture. Michelle: Attunement is the complete opposite. It's about listening. And this leads to one of the most surprising findings in the book. Pink cites this incredible study by a researcher named Adam Grant. He looked at the sales performance of a software company and correlated it with the salespeople's personalities. Who do you think the top performers were? Mark: The extraverts, obviously. The life-of-the-party types who can talk to anyone. Michelle: That's what everyone thinks. But it was wrong. The extraverts were only slightly better than the introverts. The real superstars, the ones who brought in the most revenue by a long shot, were the ambiverts. Mark: Ambiverts? The people in the middle? Why? Michelle: Because they're more attuned. They have the best of both worlds. They know when to speak up and assert themselves, like an extravert, but they also know when to shut up and listen, like an introvert. They don't steamroll the conversation. They can naturally find that balance between talking and listening, which makes the customer feel understood. Michelle: Pink offers a simple way to think about this, called the 'E Test.' If I asked you to draw a capital 'E' on your forehead with your finger, which way would you draw it? Mark: Huh. Okay, I'm doing it now... I think I drew it so that someone looking at me could read it. The 'E' is backward from my perspective. Michelle: That's a sign of high perspective-taking, a key part of attunement. People who draw it so they can read it themselves are more self-focused. The research shows that people in positions of power are more likely to draw the self-oriented 'E'. Power, it turns out, makes us worse at seeing other people's perspectives. So, to be more attuned, Pink's first principle is to reduce your own sense of power. Start your interactions assuming you're in the less powerful position. It forces you to listen more carefully. Mark: That's fascinating. So it's not about being a social chameleon and faking it, it's about genuinely trying to understand the other person's world. It's like being a good doctor who really listens to your symptoms instead of just writing a prescription, or a manager who asks questions instead of just giving orders. Michelle: Exactly. The other two, Buoyancy and Clarity, are just as important. Buoyancy is about how to stay afloat in an ocean of rejection. And Clarity is about helping people see their situation in a new light. It's about becoming a problem-finder, not just a problem-solver. In a world of infinite information, curating that information and providing clarity is one of the most valuable services you can offer. Mark: Okay, so being an attuned, buoyant, clear-thinking ambivert is the goal. But that still feels a bit like a state of being. What do you actually do? What are the tools in this new sales toolkit?

Michelle: This is where the book gets incredibly practical. Pink argues that the old elevator pitch is dead. Today, a pitch isn't about closing a deal; it's about starting a conversation. And he offers six new types of pitches. My absolute favorite is the Pixar Pitch. Mark: The movie studio? What does Pixar have to do with selling? Michelle: Every single Pixar film, from Toy Story to Finding Nemo to Up, follows the exact same six-sentence narrative structure. It's a powerful template for a pitch. It goes like this: 1. Once upon a time... 2. Every day... 3. One day... 4. Because of that... 5. Because of that... 6. Until finally... Mark: Wow. That's brilliant! It's storytelling, not selling. Let me try. Once upon a time, there was an office full of tired podcast hosts. Every day, they drank bitter, burnt coffee from an ancient machine. One day, the machine exploded, showering the studio in brown sludge. Because of that, morale plummeted. Because of that, the quality of their witty banter suffered. Until finally, they bought a new espresso machine, and their podcast became a global sensation. Michelle: (Laughs) See? You just pitched a new coffee machine without a single feature or price point. You told a story. It invites the listener in, it creates a connection, and it makes them want to know more. That's the goal of a modern pitch—to earn another five minutes of conversation. Mark: I love that. It's a tool anyone can use, whether you're pitching a startup, a new project at work, or just trying to convince your friends where to go for dinner. What else is in the toolkit? Michelle: The next big idea is to Improvise. The core rule of improvisational theater is "Yes, and..." It's about accepting what your partner gives you and building on it. The opposite is "Yes, but..." which shuts down conversation. Think about a brainstorming meeting. "Yes, but that's too expensive." "Yes, but we tried that before." It kills all momentum. "Yes, and..." creates possibilities. Mark: Right, it's a collaborative mindset, not an adversarial one. You're building something together. Michelle: And that leads to the final, and perhaps most important, tool: Serve. This is the ultimate purpose of moving others. It's about making your work personal and purposeful. Pink tells this incredible story about a study in a hospital. They were trying to get doctors and nurses to wash their hands more, which is a huge problem in preventing infections. Mark: I can imagine. They probably put up signs everywhere. Michelle: They did. They tested three different signs. The first was a control, just a reminder. The second sign appealed to self-interest. It said: "Hand hygiene prevents you from catching diseases." The third sign appealed to purpose. It said: "Hand hygiene prevents patients from catching diseases." Mark: I'm guessing the patient-focused one worked better. Michelle: It wasn't even close. The sign that reminded them of their purpose—to serve and protect their patients—dramatically increased the amount of soap and gel used. The self-interest sign had almost no effect. It's a profound insight. Moving others is most effective when it's not about you. It's about improving someone else's life, about making a contribution. Mark: Wow. So it's not about me, it's about them. That changes everything. It reframes "selling" from a selfish act to an act of service. That's a much more inspiring way to think about it.

Michelle: And that's the big shift Pink identifies. It's a move from a transaction to a relationship. Moving others isn't about winning an argument or using clever tricks; it's about serving a need, clarifying a problem, and connecting on a human level. The most successful 'sellers' today are actually the best problem-finders and storytellers. Mark: It makes you think... where in my life am I 'selling' without realizing it? With my kids, my partner, my colleagues? And am I using the old, pushy playbook or this new, more human one? It's less about 'Always Be Closing' and more about 'Always Be Connecting.' Michelle: That's a great way to put it. And it's a question for everyone to reflect on. We'd love to hear your thoughts. What's the most surprising 'sale' you've had to make recently, where you had to move someone without a formal pitch? Let us know. Mark: It's a powerful idea, and it feels much more authentic to how we live and work today. The book was written over a decade ago, and it feels more relevant than ever. Michelle: This is Aibrary, signing off.