We Are All in Sales

According to Dan Pink in his new book To Sell is Human: The Surprising Truth about Moving Others most of us, even if we realize it or not, are in the business of sales. In his research, he found that 1 in 9 Americans are technically in the profession of sales, but 8 in 9 Americans perform selling activities in their daily work. Whatever the job title, the majority of Americans spend their days persuading, influencing, and convincing others to part with resources. Workers are in the business of moving others; it spans across industries and every level of the organization. Dan Pink’s research found that we spend roughly 24 minutes of each hour moving others at work.

So, those of you who are also in the business of Human Resources, what are the best practices in influencing and moving your bosses, the C-Suite, on accepting and promoting developmental initiatives? Simply stated to influence those in the C-Suite you need to be able to: understand the C-Suites’ motives and objectives, show tie in to business objectives and the bottom line, explain how the initiative supports organizational growth and competitiveness, demonstrate the value of an investment with calculated ROI, and translate the cost of an intervention while leveraging your relationships and communication skills. You need to convince the C-Suite to part with resources (time and money). A very large and complex sell, indeed.

At an upcoming HCI Human Capital Summit session on the methodologies of getting C-level support for HR initiatives, leaders will learn how to demonstrate business acumen and understand the nature of collaborative conversations to communicate your proposed initiatives, how to identify the key steps and principles involved in determining and communicating ROI, and how to build understanding and commitment with new approaches to gaining executive buy-in.