Published by: Julia
At some point in your life, you are going to need to sell an idea, product, or your skills to someone. Daniel Pink´s masterclass ensures that whether you are trying to persuade someone to employ you or get your kids to learn you will be successful in doing so.
3 reasons everyone should take Daniel Pink´s persuasion and sales masterclass
This is officially my new favorite masterclass. It is remarkable. The skills Daniel teaches will prove to be useful for every single person I can think of.
- We all need to persuade and sell on a daily basis, so need to know how to do it effectively
- The methods taught in this sales masterclass are up to date
- You will get fast results when you apply the sales and persuasion techniques you learn from Daniel Pink
By the way, we recommend purchasing Masterclass for more than just one single course. The value comes when you take several. If you want to read our review of the whole platform, check out this Masterclass review article.
If you want to just find out what some of the best masterclasses are, this is the article for you.
Who is your teacher Daniel Pink?
Daniel Pink is a Truman Scholar and Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Northwestern University. He has also received a J.D. degree from Yale Law School. In 1997, he became Al Gore´s speechwriter while he was serving as Vice President.
Despite this success, he gave it all up to study how our brains work. Specifically how and why we change our minds. A subject that fascinated him and one he went on to study in great detail.
In 2009, he published Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. Then in 2018, he wrote When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing. Both books looked at what makes us decide to do what we do. How we can persuade ourselves and others to do all kinds of things. For example:
- Persuade someone to buy
- Convince your child to do their homework
- Make yourself exercise regularly
Much of that knowledge has been distilled down and presented in his masterclass. I recently took that course.
Until I took it I did not like the idea of selling. So much so that I had actively avoided taking on sales-related jobs. I had a pretty negative view of salespeople and was always suspicious that they were not telling me what I needed to know. It felt to me that I was potentially being conned every time I dealt with someone like a salesperson.
Daniel showed me that things have changed. That way of selling is no longer effective. The world has changed drastically. Selling aggressively, or trying to trick someone rarely works anymore. Now you need to focus on selling products, ideas, and changes that will make other people´s lives better. Doing so creates a win-win situation. You make a sale or get what you need and, importantly, the other person also gets what they need.
Persuasion is not about tricking people it’s actually more beautiful than that.
Daniel Pink Teaches Sales and Persuasion Masterclass.com
Now, you get the chance to learn from the master of persuasion too.
All of us are selling every single day without realizing it
I was amazed to learn that most people spend around 40% of their time at work in selling mode. Trying to persuade someone to do something, to influence people to act in a certain way. That is the case whether you work in a store, are a teacher, a manager, or a creator.
We have an outdated notion of what sales is. It is not sleazy or negative. Being able to sell something is a positive skill.
If you want to be better at your job, becoming a good persuader is essential. In this part of his Masterclass, Daniel shows you how to do more with less and make effective use of information.
He explains how we have gone from a world of information asymmetry where the seller knew more than the buyer does is to parity. It is important that you listen to and understand this section of the course.
How to see things from the other person´s perspective
The best way to sell or persuade is to find common ground. To look for and deliver win-wins. You get the sale or persuade them to see things your way in return the other person gets a solution to a problem or something else they want. The only way you can do this is by looking at things from the perspective of the other person.
Why decreasing your power actually makes you more effective
Powerful people really struggle with seeing things from the perspective of someone else. They tend to dominate, which narrows their view. Dialing down the power and listening solves this issue. You are still in charge, but you are creating the space to be open to other ideas.
In this section Daniel also covers the following:
- How to use and benefit from the empty chair exercise
- Use your heart as much as your head
- How to tune into the emotions of the other person so you pick up on the signals that someone is not happy
- How to draw things out of others so you can better understand them.
The best way to persuade is to be a decent human being
Turning your selling and persuading into serving is an interesting concept, which sounds counter-intuative. But it does make sense when you start to think about how what you are doing is going to improve someone´s life.
If you are not convinced by this, watch this video from the 4.40 mins point of and listen to the experiment they did with a group of radiologists. It is extremely revealing. As is the hospital hand hygiene trial
Ultimately, what we do as persuaders and sellers is we serve other people. We want to help move them to a better place.
Daniel Pink Masterclass – Teaches Sales and Persuasion
At the end of this part of his Masterclass, Daniel shares 2 simple questions you can ask yourself before persuading someone to do something. Or selling them something.
Exercises that you can use to make yourself more persuasive
I, like most people, learn best by doing. Practicing what I have learned sets things in my mind. Demonstrates to me the effectiveness of what I have just learned and persuades me to grow and do things differently. So, I really like the exercises and examples provided in Daniel Pink´s Sales and Persuasion Masterclass.
Here are the details of a few of them:
Creating and using discussion maps
If you want to influence a situation, you need to identify who the most important person who is involved in a conversation is. Creating a discussion map is a way of doing that. I had never done that before. Daniel covers:
- Creating a discussion map
- How to interpret discussion maps
- Practical ways to use discussion maps
It is surprisingly easy to do and revealing, I did it for a Zoom meeting. I was stunned by who the real influencer, decision-maker in the group turned out to be. Not the boss, which I was expecting.
How to persuade your boss to give you a raise
One of the exercises Daniel shares is asking your boss for a raise. He uses a partner, Greg, to help him with this. Letting Greg pitch for a raise. Then critiquing how he approached things and making a great list of improvements.
I really liked the fact that virtually everything Daniel came up with was highly practical as well as effective. Things you can actually use in the real world.
How to use motivational interviewing
Asking people questions makes people think. It also enables you to learn how to persuade them. To deal with their excuses, or solve the issues that are stopping them from doing what needs to be done. This approach works for children as well as for adults.
How to make your message count
Clarity is essential when you are selling. You need to be able to see things in a fresh light.
To help people to think a little deeper and identify the root cause of their problem and provide you with a way to fix that. The example Daniel uses is of someone buying a vacuum cleaner. Most of us would think OK let me show you how to buy a good one. That´s fine. But, in reality, most people don´t need help with that. They already know how to choose a good Hoover. So, they won´t thank you for getting in their way and distracting them from doing that.
You need to think a bit deeper. To realize that the thing that person is really interested in is keeping their floors clean. That is the underlying reason they are buying that vacuum. Thinking about why their floor needs hoovering so often will enable you to come up with things that can help them even more. For example, dirt grabbing mats, screens that seal enough to keep the dust out.
Daniel uses the five whys method to uncover problems that he can solve. He shares ways you can do the same.
- Become a problem finder rather than just a problem solver
- The power of the five whys
- Become an expert – don´t just sell vacuums become a floor cleaning specialist
- Tap into the power of information curation – pulling information together and making sense of it
- Find the 1%
- Why less is more – why you should stop at 3 to be more persuasive
How to get others to take action
The goal isn´t to do something to somebody else. It´s setting up a situation in which the other person can do something for themselves.
Daniel pink
Nobody likes to be told what to do. The best way to get people to take action is to help them to find their own motivations.
For me, this was an enlightening part of the masterclass. In particular, the part where Daniel explains how to agitate rather than irritate (nag) someone to persuade them to do something.
Using social proof to persuade people
We are influenced by others. If we feel that virtually everyone is doing something, the chances are we will be motivated to behave in a similar fashion. Daniel shares two examples of how it works and provides practical ways to use that approach.
Making it as easy as possible for people to act
If you make something easy the chances of someone taking the action you want rises considerably. In this section, Daniel also explains what the fundamental attribution error is and how you can avoid making this mistake when trying to persuade someone to do something.
Why mimicry works and how to do it
Time and time again, studies have shown that mimicry works. It is a highly effective way to gain an edge when persuading someone. It enables you to:
- Gain insight into who they are to get under their skin
- Make them feel more comfortable with you
But, you need to do it right. If you don´t you will end up making the other person feel uncomfortable. To do that, just follow Daniel Pink´s simple 3 step mimicry method.
Importantly, Daniel also covers the subject of language mimicry. As a copywriter, I can attest to just how effective doing this is. When you use the language of your audience, you make a strong connection and greatly increase the chances of being fully understood.
What is persuasive framing?
The subject of persuasive framing was new to me. At least I thought it was until I realized that framing is all about handling cognitive bias. Both those of your audience and yours.
For example, we are all prone to loss bias. Framing things so you get your audience to think about what they could lose is far more effective than selling something using benefits. Insurance is a perfect example of this. We buy it mainly because we are afraid of the consequences of not doing so. The main driver is not that we gain peace of mind by having it.
This is just one example of how being aware of human nature, the way we think, our biases can be used to help you to sell. In this video, Daniel covers 9 different framing methods. Here is a list of them, along with an explanation of what each of them is:
- Understanding cognitive bias
- The opportunity frame
- The experience frame – the things that give us satisfaction as a human being, using the things we enjoy-
- The less is more frame
- The contrast frame – this is not what you expect, it is not about comparing things, it is about placing things in juxtaposition. Contrasting something with something else makes the benefits of what you have to offer a lot clearer.
- The blemish frame
- The potential frame – buyers tend to value potential over anything else.
- The sunk costs frame
- The anchoring frame
That is a lot of thought process that you can use to leverage things and sell more or persuade more people. But you must not use too many of these frames at once. If you do, you will confuse and overwhelm your audience. Fortunately, right at the end of the video, Daniel explains how to make a wise choice.
Learn how to pitch effectively
The objective of a pitch is to begin a conversation and a collaboration.
Daniel Pink Persuasion Masterclass.com
This section contained several other revelations for me. For example, when the facts are on your side, pitching with a question is more effective than pitching with statements. Question pitches have the potential to be incredibly valuable.
I also loved the section about the rhyming pitch. It was fun as well as revealing. Rhymes are incredibly persuasive. They are easy to absorb and understand as well as being highly memorable.
My biggest takeaway from Daniel Pink¨s Masterclass
The Pixar Pitch is an amazing technique. I did an A/B test for a software sales funnel and the Pixar Pitch converted at a much higher rate. I am not going to tell you here what the pitch is. Except to say that it is connected to the plot formula used to create the highly successful Toy Story movies.
It is quick, easy, and highly effective. Just sign up for Daniel Pink´s masterclass to find out what it is and start using it.
Remember, when you do, access to the entire Masterclass.com library of courses is included in the price. So you get to learn how to sell what you have to offer from Daniel while learning about how to set up and run a successful business from Sara Blakely of Spanx and Bob Iger the CEO of Walt Disney. You can read about some of those courses here.
Masterclass has extended their business and personal skills sections greatly in the past year. Now, you get access to courses that enable you to become successful regardless of the sector you are operating in or the career path you have chosen.
Sales and pitching emails that work
All of what Daniel shares in this sales course is just as effective online as it is in face-to-face situations. This is vital given today´s environment. Increasingly we have to sell online.
So many other sales courses you take just churn out advice that first became popular nearly a hundred years ago. Some of it is still relevant. For example, mimicry and rhyming straplines still work like gangbusters. But, other things just do not resonate with a modern audience. They are sale techniques that do more harm than good. Throughout the course, Daniel identifies them and provides you with alternatives.
This is a long-winded way of saying that this course is relevant to the modern world despite the fact Daniel does not speak much about specific digital or online sales platforms. Although, as you can see he does cover email marketing and does so in an effective way.
How to cope with and learn from rejection
No matter how good you become at selling, at some point, you are going to be rejected. In fact, you are going to be rejected a lot. This fact is probably the main reason so many people shy away from getting involved in selling something to people. Be that an idea or a product. Humans do not like rejection. So we avoid it by not trying. Despite the fact that we can make a lot of money and make our lives easier by becoming good at sales and persuasion.
The answer is to change your mindset. To equip yourself to weather the storm of rejection. Daniel explains how to do this using two simple techniques.
- An innovative, scientifically proven form of positive thinking that is more effective than the traditional approach.
- Using the 3 Ps to conquer rejection – simple questions you can ask yourself to decatastrophise being rejected and keep things in perspective
I loved the fact that he recommends interrogatory self-talk, rather than the I can do this style of self-talk. Trust me, this way of building yourself up and equipping yourself to be ready for each pitch works. I switched from using old-fashioned positive thinking to using the interrogatory method and it has made a positive difference in many areas of my life.
How to cultivate the mentality you need to sell more
I was stunned to realize that extroverts are not actually the best salespeople. They are more likely to be involved in the industry, but they do not sell more than introverts do. This is great news for most of us because it means that we all have the potential to become equally as good at sales.
Daniel recommends that you become an ambivert. If you do not know what that is, don´t worry, Daniel explains what it is and, more importantly, how to become one yourself.
Self-motivation and why it matters
When you are involved in sales or persuading people to do things it is easy to become mentally tired. Especially if you have had a bad run. You need to learn how to motivate yourself to get past that point.
Daniel´s “Just 5 more” method is simple and easy to implement in most situations. His interim goal is a good one too.
- The just 5 more method
- Setting interim goals
- Taking the right types of breaks at the right intervals
- Using deadlines – but doing so in the right way
Learning to pitch at the right time
Bringing the when factor into your persuasive scenarios can help you to convert more often. To get the result you want.
Daniel explains in detail how to work out if you want to be the first business to pitch in a sales situation where there are competitors all selling to the same customer. The principles he explains work just as well when it comes to job interviews.
He also explains why you should start with the bad news first. Then covers how to overcome people´s bias, their default answer e.g. always saying no when someone tries to sell them something in the street or at their home.
Beginnings, middles, and ends
This is the last section of Daniel´s Sales masterclass in which he continues with why timing matters so much. For example, if you start an exercise regime on the 1st of the month you are more likely to continue with it. Fascinating stuff.
He also covers the following approaches:
- Use pre-mortems – working out in your head what could go wrong by looking at the mistakes you have made in the past that have caused a project to fail. Identifying the problems before they happen, so you don´t make similar mistakes.
- Tap into the power of fresh starts – when someone starts something they are energized, but it does not last long. You can use that fact. For example, if someone buys a language course from you, sell them some verb conjugation software soon after the initial sale. If you leave it longer, the chances are they won´t buy it.
- Be conscious of and use the mid-point phenomenon – regardless of what project you are working on it takes you to reach the mid-point of the deadline before the real work begins. You can use that fact to push things along faster.
- Use your endpoints to energize people – we all move faster when we see the end in sight. You can use that tendency. For example, giving people vouchers that they need to use fast to be able to benefit from them.
Why I liked this masterclass so much
I think you can see from the length of this review, I was extremely impressed with Daniel Pink´s masterclass. It was exceptionally good. I cannot recommend it enough.
The advice shared is :
- Relevant
- Applicable to virtually everyone
- Up to date
- Easy to digest
- Easy to implement
Daniel Pink´s downloadable workbook PDF
Do you want to learn more from Daniel Pink?
As I said above, the biggest problem with this masterclass is that it is too short. Daniel has a huge amount of knowledge to share. He has been studying what makes us tick for more than 20 years now. Importantly, during that time, he has applied what he has learned to the real world. Including working as Vice President Al Gore´s speechwriter for two years.
What he teaches is not just theory. His techniques have been thoroughly tried and tested.
Almost certainly once you have completed his masterclass, you are going to be ready for more. I know I was. Fortunately, Daniel Pink has written 6 excellent books. Including four that made it into the New Your Times bestseller list. They are ( in order of publication):
- Free Agent Nation: The Future of Working for Yourself
- A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future
- The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You’ll Ever Need
- Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
- To Sell is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others
- When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing
Daniel Pink Masterclass FAQs:
How long is Daniel Pink’s MasterClass?
It is 2 hours and 57 minutes long. There are 16 videos and a free to download PDF workbook. As well as access to the Daniel Pink Masterclass forum.
Can you get Daniel Pink’s MasterClass for free?
No, you can´t. It is only available via masterclass.com, which is a paid platform.
You can however watch the trailer and one of the lessons. Plus, read this review for free to get a taste of what is included in the course.