Skip to content


In his new book, To Sell is Human, Dan Pink explores the ways in which we can all improve our sales skills

To Sell is Human

We’re all in sales now. Each day millions of people earn their keep by convincing someone else to make a purchase. Each and every one of us spends time trying to persuade others to part with resources – money, time, attention – though most of the time we don’t realise we’re doing it. Businesses sell to customers. Arts organisations and charities sell themselves to givers, sponsors and funders. Politicians sell to voters. Parents sell their kids on going to bed. Spouses sell their partners on mowing the lawn or putting the cat out. And in astonishing numbers we go online to sell ourselves on Facebook, Twitter and in Match.com profiles.

In his new book, To Sell is Human, from the bestselling author of Drive, Dan Pink explores the ways in which we can all improve our sales skills, in every area of our lives and identifies the three personal qualities and four essential skills necessary to move people. Relying on science rather than platitudes and analysis instead of exhortation, Dan builds on his own sales experience and on the profiles of some of the world’s best salespeople – and makes us look again at our own sales skills. Daniel H Pink is the author of the long-running New York Times and BusinessWeek bestseller A Whole New Mind. He has written for the New York Times, Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Wired, where he is a contributing editor. He has provided analysis for CNN, CNBC,ABC, NPR and other networks in the US and abroad. Pink lectures on economic transformation and the new workplace at corporations, associations and universities around the world, and his 18 minute lecture on the science of motivation is one of the twenty most-viewed TED talks of all time.

The Financial Times says ‘Pink is rapidly acquiring international guru status … He is an engaging writer, who challenges and provokes’, while Malcolm Gladwell calls him ‘provocative and fascinating’.