1. Tyler Ash; December 2, 2013; To Sell is Human
Two of the three experiments I participated in I found very useful. However, the
positivity test I found difficult to answer correctly because I view myself as a generally happy
person and I was nowhere near the 3:1 ratio of positivity. The explanation of the “new A-B-
Cs” was very thorough and helpful in showing me just what a successful seller is comprised
of and how they go about being one. I encountered a sigh of relief after taking Dan Pink’s
test when I discovered that I am in fact an ambivert, which usually translates to being the best
type of seller. When taking the test, the questions felt very similar to surveys that I have
taken in the past. The questions also seemed very relevant to the connection between what
type of personality type I am. Pink says that an ambivert is someone who has a good balance
between both inspecting and responding. Another thing I noticed was that my answers to the
questions were almost never on the extreme side of the scale and either slightly one way or
completely neutral. The second test of positivity had me a little confused. I am a person who
almost always puts emotions aside and just tries to do what needs to be done even if it’s very
undesirable. Also, the idea of just thinking about what I felt like yesterday didn’t make too
much sense so I generalized about the last month to attempt to get results that were more
useful. The other interesting fact is that the ratio has to be 3:1 positive to negative in order to
reap significant benefits and at 11:1 these benefits began to harm performance.
The new “A”, or attunement, comprises of the ability of a person to be humble, take
the perspective of the other person, and subtle mimicking when trying to sell. By being
humble I mean to have the belief that the other person has more power than you do so avoid
being over confident. This part of attunement is sometimes difficult for me, especially when
dealing with family members because I hate admitting that I am wrong. Taking perspective
reminded me of the television show called barter kings, where these two guys start with a
small inexpensive item worth less than a couple hundred dollars and continue trading until
they have a large ticket item like a boat, dune buggy, tractor etc. Almost every single person
they “trade up” with knows that their item is worth more than the barter kings’, but after some
negotiation, the barter kings always make the other person realize that it is a fair trade by
taking that person’s perspective. When taking another’s perspective, Dan Pink makes it clear
that this is in a mental strategic way, not in an emotional kind of way. Even though both ways
of thinking were more successful than thinking only about your own perspective, the thinking
approach was significantly better than the emotional approach. A great and very successful
example of this is how Amazon keeps an empty chair in their board room to remind everyone
to think from the consumers’ perspective. I am always taking coaches’ perspectives when I
am refereeing so I can find where they are coming from and effectively counter what their
argument is. The last part of the attunement portion of the new A-B-Cs is subtle mimicking.
Pink means exactly what it sounds like when he says that, encouraging people to do the same
thing as the other person without being caught doing it. This pertains to any body language or
style of talking that the other person is using. Subconsciously these movements make the
opposition feel more comfortable around you without knowing it, but be very careful not to
make it obvious and end up looking rude. The three steps to effectively mimic are watch,
wait, and then wane. The first two steps are quite obvious, but the third one may be slightly
more difficult because it means you have to not only mimic but also continue doing so until

2. you don’t even realize that you are. This is the only way to become truly effective because it
seems more natural and not forced. The most astounding example of this phenomenon is
when waitresses repeated a customer’s order back to them, that waitress earned seventy
percent more tips than a waitress who just took the order.
Bouyancy is the ability to stay afloat and positive in an “ocean of rejection”. This
analogy from Norman Hall really exemplifies that getting rejected is just a part of life and that
you have to keep going. I have a problem sometimes with just wanting to give up on things I
don’t have interest on. On the other hand, if it has to do with sports or group projects, this is
completely the opposite. In sports I just hate losing because I always have that feeling inside
of me that says “you’re better than this”. In group projects, I have the same drive but it is
because I don’t want to let down the others in my group. When it comes to unenjoyable
activities that don’t affect others I tend to try once or twice and then hang it up from being
discouraged and wondering “is it worth it”. I thought the approach of asking yourself if you
can do it rather than telling yourself that you can do it was very smart. This can give you the
opportunity to find places where failure is a possibility before failure happens and prepare you
for it. The final part of buoyancy is the ability to look back on your failures from the day and
determine if you were successful. If not, find ways to be better and fix the areas where you
failed. This idea seems very simplistic, but not many people including myself look in the past
to fix the future. The positivity test was a little unuseful for me because I feel that I am much
more positive than the test tells me I am. The lesson Norman Hall gives about never giving
up is definitely an area where I could improve in some aspects of my own life. The main
thing that I learned from the positivity test is that I might need to not let as many people get
on my nerves. I have to let the little things people do slide by. For example, it drives me
crazy when you are on the freeway and its only two lanes and both lanes have cars that are
driving side by side fifteen miles per hour under the speed limit for miles completely
oblivious to their surroundings. Everyday occurrences like this should be immediately
forgotten so I can move on.
For the final portion of this paper, we were asked to come up with six pitches. First
and foremost I had to decide what I wanted to sell. Since high school wrestling starts this
weekend and I am rated as a three, I decided to sell myself to the board to get bumped up to a
two. The rating system goes from 4 (junior varsity only) to 1 (Tournament of Champions and
state). As a three I referee varsity at the smaller tournaments for the small to medium sized
schools. Every referee always starts at a four and tries to eventually get to a one by receiving
high ratings from other referees, coaches, and scoring highly on rules exams. Even some of
the senior referees that have been doing it for years never even get to reach a level two rating.
My goal is to be rated a one faster than anyone in the past. I do not think this is unrealistic
because of my 16 years of wrestling experience and 2 years of refereeing experience. To sell
myself, I decided to ask the board members in an email a question. This question was simply,
“what do I need to improve on to become rated a two?” I knew that they would have to think
about this a little bit because they told me personally at the end of the season in my review
that I look like someone who has been refereeing for years. The idea of asking a question
really exemplifies the new “C” by providing more clarity to both myself and all of the board
members. Also, I only had one below average coach review and it was from the coach I had
to eject from a tournament for multiple offences of excessive profanity. I got back a very
constructive email two days later with some insight to improve myself. They started out with

3. saying, “We think you could become a two by half way through the season if you work on a
couple aspects.” The next part of the email explained that I needed to work a little bit on my
positioning when moving around the mat. Waiting longer to call points and not getting
anxious was what they said the main reason for me not being rated a two and being able to do
big varsity tournaments. Now that I know exactly what the reasons for me not being
upgraded before the season are, I can make sure to focus on these aspects and hopefully be
able to referee in the playoffs this year. I can compare this directly to how the blemish frame
works because it provides me with the positive aspect that I have been performing above my
experience level, but I also needed to work on certain parts of my work. It was also a relief to
find out how honest and up front the board members are with where I need to improve. To
sum up the answers to the three questions; I want them to know I think I am ready to be
promoted, I want them to feel that I am ready to be promoted, and I want them to give me
advice and then promote me when they see fit. Clarity was given to me by them and I plan on
moving up through the ranks much quicker in refereeing and my future career by using the six
pitches. Finding clarity can be very useful because it forces you to ask if there are other
solutions that could be better than the obvious one. The great example given in the book is
when the woman was looking to buy a vacuum cleaner but there were really about four
different options that had the potential to be more effective and cheaper. A very interesting
study given about the learning German software made me realize that sometimes less really is
more unless the something more has real legitimate value to the customer. After reading the
section about the experience frame, I feel that I have a good balance between materialistic
things and experiences. Having all one or the other would never work for the average person
because experiences create memories and sometimes people need to be materialistic.
Overall, this assignment was useful, especially the creating an effective pitch portion.
Even though I felt that the positivity test was not very helpful, it opened my eyes to the
thought that I might need to brighten up sometimes and take some things a little less serious.
Finally, finding that I was an ambivert gives me the confidence that I do have the tools to be a
successful seller no matter what it is that I am selling. This book taught me a decent amount
and the biggest help out of all of it was being able to read specific examples on why and how
“To Sell is Human”.