Sales has changed more in the last ten years than in the previous hundred. The traditional sales tactics simply no longer work in our digital age. That's why we were thrilled to host New York Times best-selling author Daniel Pink to share insights from his latest book, To Sell is Human on our webcast last week. Joined by Linda Crawford, EVP and GM of the Sales Cloud at Salesforce, the webcast revealed why we need a new sales strategy to drive more pipeline, close deals faster and boost win rates. 

Here are three key takeaways from the webcast: 

Takeaway #1: Old vs. New Selling

The old days were always about information asymmetry, where the seller has more information than the buyer, giving the seller a huge advantage. The biggest change that's taken place is we've transitioned to a world where the buyer has just as much information as the seller. We've made the transation from 'buyer beware' to 'seller beware.' 

Takeaway #2: There are new ABC's of selling

We are all likely familiar with the scene in Glengarry Glen Ross where Alec Balwin talks about the ABCs of selling--Always Be Closing, but Daniel Pink suggests a new model.

• Attunement

Get out of your head and learn to see things from your the customer's perspective. 

• Buoyancy

Learn what to do before, during, and after your sales encounters to remain afloat in the ocean of rejection.

• Clarity 

Instead of being a problem-solver, become a problem-finder that can sort through massive amounts of information to ask the right questions and uncover challenges your customers don't know they have. 

Takeaway #3: Get better at three key sales abilities

• Pitch

We've all had to learn an elevator pitch at some point in our lives, but there are 6 others you should learn:

- The one-word pitch: The one word you want your customers to think about when they think about your brand. 

- The question pitch: Your customer is compelled to respond. 

- The rhyming pitch: Rhymes increase processing fluency meaning people understand it better. 

- The email subject line pitch: Emails most likely to be opened into two categories, utility or curisority. 

- The Twitter pitch: The modern elevator pitch, capture your prospect’s attention in 140 characters.

- The Pixar pitch: Enlist the power of story to get your point across. 

• To Improvise

Learn how to adapt when your pitch doesn't go as planned. 

• To Serve

"The best sellers serve first and sell next," Daniel Pink. Ask yourself what you can do to make this customer's life better, how you can provide insights and provoke them to make changes in how they run their business. 

To learn more valuable insights into how the world of sales has changed and actionable tips to improve sales, watch the webcast recording here. You can also order Daniel Pink' s best selling book  To Sell is Human now. 

Also, if you're interested in acheving sales performance, please check out our demo video!