The premise behind Sudhir Kumar’s book, Being Human is this: Buyers are smarter. Content is noisier. And if your pitch still sounds like a pitch, you’re getting tuned out.
This is a core belief of ours at CRE OneSource. We regularly tell brokers, we are building our business like you’re building yours – not with chat bots, FAQs, or customer support outsourced overseas, but face-to-face, relationship-driven, and genuine. In other words… human.
One of the jarring statistics in the book that stood out to me was that modern buyer complete 67% of their journey digitally and 57% of their decision-making before ever talking to a salesperson. That means the window to build trust has shifted, and it opens long before the first call.
Below are some of my key takeaways from the book:
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Focus on the 4 E’s: Educate, Entertain, Engage, and Emotion. Sales & marketing starts with value, not volume.
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Authenticity wins: People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.
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Be visible: Only 3M of 660M LinkedIn users post weekly. That content earns 9B+ impressions. It’s your easiest way to stay top of mind. One thing I’ve noticed from my own LinkedIn journey: the most effective people on social media don’t just post, they comment, message, and actually connect with other people.
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Social capital > social selling: When a contact thinks of you the moment they have a problem, that’s trust. That’s positioning.
Be human!
I’m a work in progress on this one. Check out my LinkedIn activity and let me know how “human” I am! I would love feedback!
Charlie Coppola
Here are my notes from Being Human: Marketing & Social Selling in a Digital World
