Overcoming the dreaded Sales Aversion

I am currently re-listening to Daniel Pink’s To Sell is Human.

I like to listen when I run and I find I get something new every time I listen.  This is round six for me which brings up several new ideas and one concern.  I will start with the concern because I was always taught to eat my vegetables first.  It could be that most people are much quicker at absorbing ideas, applying the knowledge and changing habits than I am.  I find that it often takes months and even years of awareness before an idea sinks in.

Adding to this obstacle course of implementation I was also discouraged to learn from a recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine that even when we do change our understanding in one area that the new level of awareness is typically non-generizable.  Which I understand to mean that even when we understand and apply an idea in one situation we don’t automatically apply that same reasoning to other areas. 

The third barrier in this particular topic is the emotionality of the issue.  For many people our “distaste” for “selling” is a deeply held, highly emotional aversion much like our fear of spiders.  99.99% of spiders are helpful yet I can easily recognize my wife’s “I found a spider squeal” from a block away.  I would love to hear from others who are following this process. 

How do you introduce lessons learned from your reading into your organizational conversations?   Send me a note or link I would love to share your best practices with others.