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.

A Projective Table of Contents

Sunday: Let us all look at the first principles that guide us. Are there core beliefs that all people might affirm, "This is true for all time and all people." Impossible? Maybe. But, then again, "maybe not." Can we afford to stop trying to find universals upon which we can agree?

How about the gravitational constant? How about periodic table of elements? Perhaps something simple should be considered, such as "Water is needed to support human life."

At this point, my starting point for Small Business School is here.

Monday: Let's look at Marketing and Money. So many people try to start a business with just a good idea and no money at all. Most of them are destined to go back to work within a job.

Tuesday: It is a day for Transactions. How is this site serving you? It is a day to sign up and to sell something of value. What can you sell from this website? First answer -- Your business. Next answer - your products and services.

Wednesday: What works? Why? What is not working? Where are the next billion-dollar ideas? What new products and services are needed to make our society and our world work? Let's examine the nature of very nature of work.

Work is good; jobs often are not. We'll examine work in light of ethics, leadership, integrity and the meaning and value of life.

Thursday: It is a day for testing. It is theory and praxis (the practical), for new ideas, for creativity, for insights... How do you cultivate ideas? How do you cultivate your own and cultivate those of people around you?

Friday: A day for Finances -- Balance Statements and Profit/Loss -- in light of your Exit Strategy. Such a study necessarily involves business valuation, P/E for private businesses, your deeper fiscal policy, ownership, and key critical ratios from your Financial Statements.

Saturday: A day to study Systems because systems open up the study of first principles. The television show, the website and this blog are all about Continuous Improvement, always seeking a higher perfection. We will discover how such a commitment yields results.