Transactional Tuesday:

Why does somebody buy from you?

I would like to turn back the pages to a very early episode of the show and introduce you to Ron Willingham. He is the founder of Integrity Selling and LifeScript Learning, and the author of "The Ten Laws of Wealth and Abundance" and "The Inner Game of Selling."

Ron gave us good advice when he said, "People have got to like you, trust you, believe you and understand you." These are four keys to a transaction.

Obviously, it is true for the biggest sales. Yet, when you think about it, these keys to a transaction hold true in most everything we buy.

To like you, trust you, believe you, and understand you... each are reflected within our own first principles for business.

Do I like you? Thinking back, have you ever gone back to buy something from a person you do not like? It is rare, perhaps only in a one-of-a-kind situation. The first principle of business, creating order so there is continuity, opens a path so people can know you and your products and services and begin to like you. Consistent hours, consistent quality...

Do I trust you? Once you have purchased something because you need it from a business that you are just getting to know, the results of that purchase exercise a relational muscle. The second principle of business, creating a relation that has symmetry, means my sense of the value for the product or service was balanced with the money transacted. The more symmetry there is in a relation, a de facto agreement, the deeper one's trust grows and the more we are encouraged to buy those products and services again.

Do I believe you? Belief is yet deeper still. Trust gets extended through time and here those products and services begin to be among the stories that you tell. These products and services become integrated within the dynamics of your life and help to create a certain sense of harmony. Here you become a referenceable account... a believer!

Do I understand you? Wrap together knowing, liking, trusting and believing, and we emerge with understanding. The more we understand, the more forgiving and open we are when we invariably bump into one another's shortcomings, and believe me, we all have shortcomings.

So, let us learn what Hattie learned from Ron Willingham many, many years ago. People have got to like you, trust you, believe you and understand you before they'll consistently buy from you.

Thank you, Ron, for your insights. And, thank you, Hattie for the introduction.