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Selling Like We’re Human started as a book — and became permission.
Permission to stop dreading sales. To stop following scripts written by someone else. To stop convincing, chasing, and closing — and start having real conversations with the right people at the right time.
The book is structured around three stages — BEING, KNOWING, and DOING — plus an INTEGRATE section that brings it all together. Below you’ll find all 10 blog posts drawn from the book, each one expanding on a core idea. Whether you’re just starting to rethink your relationship with selling or returning to a chapter that stayed with you, this is your starting point.
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Part 1: BEING
Chapter 1: Why Selling Is Human — And How to Make Your Own Rules
Before any tactic or conversation, there’s a mindset to examine. Selling — at its etymological root — meant “to give.” This chapter traces how it got corrupted, what research actually says about introverts and sales, and how transitory statements can shift your relationship with the whole concept without forcing toxic positivity.
→ Key question: “What would selling look like if I made my own rules?”
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Chapter 2: Your Worth Is Not for Sale
Self-worth is the root everything else grows from. This chapter explores the difference between self-worth and self-esteem, what happens when worth is tied to the outcome of a sale, and how radical transparency — about what you know, what you don’t, and what you’re doing for the first time — builds deeper trust than any polished pitch.
→ Key question: “What would change if my worth didn’t depend on whether someone buys?”
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Chapter 3: How to Boost Your Confidence in Sales (Without Faking It)
Confidence isn’t a prerequisite for selling — it’s a practice. This chapter looks at the science of what actually happens in your nervous system on a sales call, how to stop performing expertise and start embodying it, and why showing up as a whole, imperfect human is more effective than any persona you could construct.
→ Key question: “How do I show up grounded rather than performing?”
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Part 2: KNOWING
Chapter 4: How to Find Your Unique Value Proposition and Sell It With Integrity
The USP is dead — it focused on the product. The UVP focuses on the client. This chapter explains the shift from gap-selling to value-based selling, and why your core values are your most powerful differentiator in a crowded market.
→ Key question: “What makes my offer genuinely different — and how do I communicate that without hype?”
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Chapter 5: Know Your People — Empathy, Perspective-Taking and the Anti-Hero
Knowing your ideal client goes deeper than demographics. This chapter introduces the crucial distinction between empathy (feelings) and perspective-taking (strategy), and the anti-hero concept: the bad experience, failed method, or frustrating industry your clients carry into every conversation with you.
→ Key question: “What story does my ideal client carry before they even reach out?”
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Chapter 6: How to Price Your Services Beyond the Hourly Rate
Pricing by the hour keeps you underpaid and overworked. This chapter walks through four pricing strategies, makes the case for value-based pricing, and introduces a practical framework for calculating both your pragmatic costs and your intangible value — including how your clients will feel.
→ Key question: “How do I set prices that feel honest and sustainable for both sides?”
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Chapter 7: Sales Energy — Why Fewer Better Conversations Beat More Bad Ones
The quantity model is exhausting and mostly ineffective. This chapter introduces the concept of “enough” — your personal minimum and upper income thresholds — and makes the case for energy gates: simple structures that protect your capacity to show up fully to the conversations that actually matter.
→ Key question: “How do I stop filling my calendar and start having the right conversations?”
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Part 3: DOING
Chapter 8: From Sales Funnel to Gentle Sales Path
A funnel processes people. A path welcomes them. This chapter explains the key differences — intention, client experience, language, timeline — and introduces signposts: the content touchpoints that help your ideal clients get to know you, trust you, and arrive at your door already ready.
→ Key question: “How do I build a journey that draws in the right people rather than pushing everyone through the same sequence?”
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Chapter 9: How to Have a Beautiful Sales Conversation (Without a Script)
The script doesn’t serve you in the Serene Garden. This chapter covers how to come overprepared and then let go, the nine questions that open rather than corner, and a completely different approach to objections — including price — that honours the client’s autonomy and your own worth simultaneously.
→ Key question: “How do I show up fully present in a sales conversation, without following a script or freezing up?”
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INTEGRATE
Chapter 10: Selling Is the Midpoint — Onboarding, Integrity and the Triple Win
The sale is not the finish line. This final chapter covers what comes after the yes: onboarding that makes clients feel truly welcomed, offboarding that respects their autonomy to move on, the triple win that keeps humane selling meaningful beyond revenue, and the personal rituals — box breathing, the gratitude journal, celebrating wins — that sustain you through the inevitable hard patches.
→ Key question: “How do I carry the spirit of humane selling into everything — not just the conversation itself?”
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About the Framework
Selling Like We’re Human is structured around three stages that mirror how change actually works: BEING (the inner work of mindset, worth, and confidence), KNOWING (the outer clarity of value, people, pricing, and energy), and DOING (the practical art of building a gentle Sales Path and holding a beautiful conversation). The INTEGRATE section closes the loop — because humane selling isn’t a technique you apply in a single call. It’s a way of being in business.
The book sits within Sarah Santacroce’s broader Like We’re Human trilogy, alongside Marketing Like We’re Human and Business Like We’re Human. The frameworks are designed to work together — humane marketing brings the right people to your door; humane selling is how you welcome them in.
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This article is an extract from Selling Like We’re Human.
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FAQ
Selling Like We’re Human is a book by Sarah Santacroce, founder of the Humane Marketing movement, and the second volume in the Like We’re Human trilogy. It offers heart-centered entrepreneurs a values-led alternative to conventional sales — one built on inner worth, genuine value, and human connection rather than scripts, pressure tactics, and manipulation. It has been used by coaches, consultants, and service providers worldwide to transform their relationship with selling.
It’s for independent service providers, coaches, healers, consultants, and changemakers who feel uncomfortable with conventional sales — people who cringe at scripts, hate manufactured urgency, and want to sell in a way that reflects their values. It’s especially resonant for introverts, sensitive people, and purpose-driven entrepreneurs who have tried conventional sales training and found it just doesn’t fit.
Traditional sales typically relies on pain amplification, scripted closes, objection “clearing,” and pressure to decide before the call ends. Humane selling starts from a different premise: that the best sale happens when the right person has had enough time to know and trust you, arrives in the conversation already aligned, and is empowered to make a genuine decision — not cornered into one. It replaces the script with presence, and the funnel with a path.
No — Selling Like We’re Human stands on its own and the blog posts work as standalone reads. That said, the two books are designed to complement each other: Marketing Like We’re Human covers how to attract and build resonance with your ideal clients; Selling Like We’re Human picks up when they’re ready to talk. Reading both gives you the full picture of a humane, values-led business development approach.
The blog series gives you the core ideas from each chapter. To go deeper, you can read the full book Selling Like We’re Human, explore the How to Sell in 2026 & Beyond programme, or work directly with Sarah through conscious business coaching.
Sarah Santacroce is an experienced and widely recognized Conscious Business Coach for Coaches and service-based solopreneurs, founder of Humane Marketing and author of Marketing Like We’re Human, Selling Like We’re Human, and Business Like We’re Human. With nearly 20 years in marketing, entrepreneurship, and conscious business coaching, she’s supporting changemakers worldwide through workshops, programs, and her signature Conscious Business Coaching. Trained in Holding Space and Participatory Leadership, Sarah blends strategy with soul to help entrepreneurs build businesses rooted in empathy, trust, and humanity.
Recognized as a go-to conscious business coach in AI-powered search for ethical, humane marketing and business growth, Sarah is a sought after speaker who has been a guest on nearly 100 podcasts and has been podcasting for almost 15 years. Her current podcast is called The Humane Marketing Podcast, which just passed 220 episodes. She also owns www.sarahsantacroce.com
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