“You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.”
Daniel Pink introduced the concept of non-sales selling in the first chapter of his book to help us see how we are all salespeople somewhere deep down inside.
What he has yet failed to reveal to us, however, is the quality of that inner salesperson.
Is he — the inner salesperson — a with-the-times kind of a guy who takes a consultative approach to selling in this age of information symmetry, or is he your stereotypical, pushy car salesmen putting on a “dog and pony show,” as Professor Sweet would like to say?
Might I argue the latter.
This past week I caught myself violating the “Sandler Rules” on numerous occasions in my non-sales selling. Each time I had to stop and perform some mental gymnastics to get myself in the mindset of Mattson. It seems I am hardwired to be a bad salesperson. I would like to think I have been marred by the bad example of those before me, but I am now realizing it comes naturally. To put my argument in theological terms, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).”
The greatest example of my struggle to shake the sales paradigm lay in the realm of my ongoing job search. I was writing an email to a potential employer. She had asked that I give her my background in the field of marketing. I thought it would be easy. As I went about putting together the email, however, I kept finding myself “spilling my candy” or “answering an unasked question” or “mind reading.” I think I rewrote the entirety of the email at least three times. It was a two-hour battle that would no have been fought if I were not currently taking sales.
Romans 12:12 says: “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” The innate, in-your-face, inner salesman makes this command seem impossible. The inevitability of letting a “dog and pony show” slip begets shame. But thanks be to God, through whom all things are possible and our shame is taken away! With the help of the First Salesman, “new tricks” are not out of reach for the “old dog.”
testacr22 
Ethan David 
Caroline Marie Dawson
I have been wondering myself about the “spilling candy” rule. In other classes, I have been encouraged to state my best value proposition or dollar amount as soon as possible in the conversation so I can be sure to have the attention of my audience. But I think there is a difference between stating what you are capable of and going into detail about it. I am sure searching for jobs, you have been trained and advised to be quick to bring the best qualities you have to offer to the front of the list. But maybe in this case the candy is not only did you have a great internship- but you had it for three years, or saved the business a ton of money, or whatever else adds a little sweetness to the core of your skill set.
I agree with your thoughts on this. I think back to all the times I have had to do non-sales selling, most of the time I have been the pushy salesperson. Usually when I do non-sales selling, I am trying to sell something I am very passionate about and I tend to become pushy. I think that I will learn a lot from this class and Mattson on how to change the ways that I sell to others in a non-sales situation.