Concept
Non-Sales Selling
Non-sales selling is any effort to move another person, by changing what they believe or do or by getting them to give you their time, attention or effort, when no purchase is involved.
Most people who dread selling picture the car-lot hustler or the cold caller who won't hang up. In To Sell Is Human, Daniel H. Pink widens that picture. In his definition, selling means moving people to trade something they value, such as time, money or attention, for what you offer. That makes pitching a project to your boss a form of selling. So is convincing a client to accept a revised timeline, or getting a teenager to start homework. Pink calls this non-sales selling. In his survey of thousands of workers, people said it took up roughly two-fifths of their working hours. The point is not that everyone should become a salesperson. You already are one, so the skill is worth practicing on purpose. Today's "buyers" can check almost anything you claim, so the old hustle backfires. What works now is clarity, honesty and serving the person you're trying to move.
A real-life example
Maya, a nurse, wants her ward to adopt a new shift-handover checklist. She has nothing to sell, but she still has to move people: the charge nurse who fears extra paperwork, and the doctors who skim everything. Instead of pushing, she uses the checklist on her own shifts for two weeks. She tracks how many follow-up calls it prevents and shares the numbers at the team meeting. The ward adopts it within a month.
How to use it
- 1For one workday, note every moment you try to change someone's mind or get their time, attention or effort. Expect the share to be larger than you'd guess.
- 2Pick one of those moments. Write down in a single sentence what you're asking the other person to give up and what they get in return.
- 3Build your case on things they can verify, such as data, a short trial or a straight answer about the downsides. They'll check anyway.