To Sell Is Business Analysis

For the past year, I have been in a pre-sales business analyst position. This role has helped me gain experience in supporting sales representatives in requirements elicitation during the sales process, and also provided me with the opportunity to gain experience in solution selling.

As part of moving into a pre-sales BA position, I have been reading many articles and books on selling. So when, Daniel Pick announced has new book - "To Sell Is Human", I knew he would be helping me in understanding the world of selling and how sellers in today's new economy are succeeding.

To my surprise, I found "To Sell Is Human" more applicable to the study of business analysis. As Daniel notes in the beginning of his book that only 1 in 9 workers are engaged in direct selling, and the remainder - 8 of 9 - are engaged in "non-sales selling. We're persuading, convincing, and influencing others to give up something they've got in exchange for what we've got."

Yes - business analysts are in non-sales selling - persuading, convincing, and influencing.

Daniel introduces the following key word - moving - "much of what we do also seems to involve moving. That is, we're moving other people to part with resources" To be able to focus on the concept of moving others translates directly into the core attributes of a successful business analysts.

If you are a business analyst looking to bring a new perspective to your role, I encourage you to pick up a copy of "To Sell Is Human". BAs are front and center in the moving of others and the key is understanding how to be successful in non-sales selling.