When you look at the selling masters out there, the people who make sales look effortless, are you encouraged? (“Maybe with hard work, that could be me.”) Or does some part of you feel threatened? (“Terry’s a natural at sales; I’ll never be able to close a deal like that.”) The answer is important, because it’s a key window into your selling mindset. Mindset is a term popularized by Stanford professor Carol Dweck. In studying human achievement, she repeatedly found that one o

In To Sell is Human, writer Daniel Pink makes a bold declaration: regardless of our official job title, the majority of us are in sales. After all, if you define “selling” as “an act of persuasion,” then don’t we all spend our professional lives pushing products, ideas, or advice on someone? But in addition to rethinking what sales is and who does it, Pink also seeks to overturn our notions of how to do it. In an era of Yelp and ubiquitous online customer reviews, consumers a

At over a decade old, Barry Schwartz's 2004 The Paradox of Choice definitely shows its age in some ways. CD players appear in example shopping problems. Movie rental stores are mentioned. Researchers have found it difficult to replicate the results of some of the cited studies. And yet, if you've ever found yourself agonizing over what should be simple decisions--which sweater should I buy? How should I spend my weekend? What should I order at this restaurant?--the book still

StartFragment When it comes to selling, is it better to present your customers with many options, or just a few? It's a debate that's been brewing since at least 2004, when psychologist Barry Shwartz published The Paradox of Choice, in which he argued that reducing the number of available choices can greatly cut down on that dreaded buyer's remorse, leading to an overall greater degree of personal happiness. And indeed, grocery stores like Aldi and Trader Joe's seem to thrive