INSPIRATION
I was probably the least traditional Solutions Engineer Salesforce ever hired.
I never obsessed over pipeline reports or sales plays. I wasn’t counting the days until a deal closed. I was obsessed with understanding the people across the table and helping them imagine a better future.
Every day I sat in that seat as a Solution Engineer, and sat with higher ed leaders. A dean drowning in enrollment shortfalls. A CIO patching together five systems that didn't talk to each other. A VP of Student Success watching her retention numbers slide and not knowing why. I'd ask them what they were trying to build, listen for the part they couldn't say out loud yet, and we'd reimagine the thing together.
When the conversation was real, the product almost sold itself.
I wasn't a salesperson. I was a partner in their success.
The reframe matters because every single one of you is in sales whether you call it that or not. The dean pitching a new program to her provost. The founder pitching the round. The job seeker pitching a future version of themselves. The leader pitching a vision to a team that's tired.
You're not selling. You're partnering. And the room can always tell which one you're doing.
Earl has a line for the other thing. He calls it commission breath — the smell of someone selling at you instead of for you. The fix isn't more hustle. The fix is to get out of your own way long enough to actually meet the person across the table.
COLLABORATION
Daniel Pink wrote the whole case in To Sell Is Human.
Pink ran the numbers. One in nine Americans technically works in sales. The other eight spend roughly 40% of their day in what he calls non-sales selling — persuading, pitching, moving people. Which means we're all selling, all the time. Your dean. Your investor. Your spouse. Yourself.
The question is never am I in sales. It's am I bringing commission breath to it.
Go to the source → [Daniel Pink, To Sell Is Human]
▶ The TEF Show — EP02 with Earl is live. He's the human version of Pink's whole argument. [Watch the full conversation →]
EXECUTION
Your 1% this week.
In your next high-stakes conversation (meeting, interview, pitch, hard talk at home, doesn't matter), count two things.
How many questions you ask. How many things you say. Aim for two questions for every one statement.
That's the whole drill. The room will tell you if it worked.
One question: What's the most generous question anyone ever asked you? Hit reply. The good ones I'll share back (anonymously) in a future letter.
PASS IT ON
Forward this to someone who's interviewing this month. The reframe matters more than the resume.
THE EXTRA
Song of the week: Journey — Don't Stop Believin'.
Corny on paper, I know. But there's a reason this one never dies. Sometimes you just need the song that reminds you the story isn't over yet.
— DéRecco
The Invisible Interview · The Invisible Score · The TEF Show
