Once a scriptwriter for Al Gore, Daniel Pink has carved a niche for himself as something of a workplace guru, his books investigating the importance of empathy in business (A Whole New Mind) and motivation (Drive) enjoying bestseller status. Now he turns his attention to sales, and though he does speak to the famous cold-calling, record-breaking car salesman Joe Girard, this is less a book about the conniving tricks of this slippery trade, and more of a human guide to how sales might work and be successful in the 21st century.

Pink's mantra is that selling is not limited to call centres, shops or garage forecourts. It's something we all do every day  when we try and cajole our children to go to bed, we are "moving" them to get what we want, in exactly the same way as we might persuade someone to purchase some artisan bread. And if that sounds like a rather too neat way of underlining his point that "we are all in sales now", To Sell Is Human does actually convince in its structure. It first explains how sales have irrevocably changed thanks to the internet: buyers are now armed with information and are no longer at the mercy of the pushy man in a shiny suit. Then Pink proposes "how to be" in this brave new sales-focused world  attuned to the "customer" and clear with your information, honest, direct and transparent. Despite the breezy writing (even Bob the Builder turns up at one point) and anecdotes butting up against social science, there's a commitment to teaching here: Pink even provides sample cases to work through.

The question is, will people in sales really learn anything groundbreakingly new, and will anyone else actually care? Like the current fad for emphasising emotional intelligence in the workplace, so much of this is clunking common sense  the advice to "listen to people", for example  that one wonders whether shifting this book is, perhaps, the best sales trick of all.