The Equation of Sales

Trust x Needs x Value = Successful Selling

The Equation of Sales sums up our philosophy about sales in just three words, Trust, Needs and Value. These are the three things that a sales person must establish with any buyer in order to successfully sell to them. This is true whether they are selling shoes or aeroplanes.

They need to earn the trust of their customer, they must be selling a product that the customer needs and they have to demonstrate that the customer will gain value from it. It really is that simple. A lot of people will try to complicate the process or introduce lots of jargon but trust, needs and value are the three keys to a sale.

If we want someone to buy from us, we first have to demonstrate that they can trust us. This does not happen overnight. Walking in off the street and expecting to be trusted is not likely to happen. The customer has to know that what you are offering is the right solution for them and that it will do what they need it to do. They only have your word for it to start with so they must trust you before they progress.

Not many people in business make impulse buys. The decision to buy a product is generally influenced by a number of people in different roles and the buying process is often controlled by a procurement department. A business will have to recognise its need for a product before they will buy it. So to be successful, a sales person must understand those needs and position their product as the solution to them.

Whatever you are selling, it has to provide value to the customer such that they believe that they are going to be better off having bought the product than if they had not. Quite often, value is difficult to measure so we need to define the benefits that the customer will receive. These can be related to improved productivity, reduced risk or a lower cost of an ongoing process. Most importantly, we should not just list features.