Mastering the Art of Selling and Persuasion With Daniel Pink

As a Scale Coach at Rentscale, coaching every day with property management company owners and business development managers, there are a few key areas about sales and persuasion that I often see new salespeople get wrong.

Here, we’ll discuss a few of the core principles of persuasion, popularized by New York Times best-selling author Daniel Pink, and how they apply to sales in property management.

The best salespeople know how to uncover problems before they start solving them.

Daniel Pink is a New York Times best-selling author of several books on business, sales, and persuasion principles.

He uses scientifically backed research to demonstrate how sales mastery and sharpened persuasion tactics can close more deals—a feat easier said than done.

Here are a few key points that we at Strategic PM have distilled to help business development managers (BDMs) and PM business owners apply key sales and persuasion principles to convert more ideal clients.

1. Understand Problem-Solving vs Problem-Finding

Most business development managers see themselves as problem-solvers. They respond to issues quickly and effectively, relying on their expertise to guide clients toward the right solution.

But, in reality, great sales are found in great problem-finding. Salespeople need to anticipate and uncover issues, often before they even arise, to deliver PM services that are truly problem-solving. The true problem is actually solved by operations when prospects are in the management process, the real job of the salesperson is to discover the hidden problems that prospects may not even know they have.

To be a better problem finder, business development managers must become experts in the pain points and motivations—those that lie deep beneath the surface—that fuel their ideal clientele. Doing so arms them with the skills necessary to assist prospects in taking on new perspectives and uncovering the real “why” behind the issues they’re facing, issues that your PM services will be there to handle.

When you ask “Why?” enough times throughout the process, digging deeper becomes easier. Only then can you find the root cause of a problem. And, the bigger the problem, the greater the urgency the prospect will have to solve it.