Why Your Sales Results Are Really a Communication Problem
Most people who end up in a sales role — especially in small businesses — never chose to be there. Accountants, lawyers, garden designers, furniture makers: all of them find themselves selling, whether they like it or not. Business coach Helen Pethybridge reframes this entirely in her latest webinar. Sales, she argues, is simply professionally helping others to buy. And at its core, it's a communication challenge.
🎥 Watch the full webinar here:
Emotion First, Logic Second
The single most important insight Helen shares is one most people intellectually know but practically ignore. people buy emotionally and justify logically. The decision to spend money is driven by feeling — and yet most salespeople lead with features, facts, and figures.
The practical consequence of this is significant. When only one person in a couple or a business partnership has been on the emotional journey of a sales conversation, and they relay it to a third party, all the emotion gets stripped out. The third party just hears the logic — and says no. The fix? Make sure all decision-makers are in the room, or at least on the call.
The Formula for Change
Helen's centrepiece is what she calls the Formula for Change: D × V + F + U > R.
- D is Dissatisfaction with the current situation
- V is Vision of how things could be
- F is First step — a small, emotionally easy next action
- U is Urgency or scarcity
- R is Resistance to change
The maths matter. If either D or V is zero, the whole equation collapses — there is no energy for change. This is why avoiding "the negative stuff" is a costly mistake. You have to help your prospect articulate what isn't working before you can paint a picture of what could be better.
Crucially, neither the dissatisfaction nor the vision should come from you — because your prospect won't believe you. They need to say it themselves, in response to well-crafted questions. The best salespeople, Helen says, are the best questioners.
Your Sales Process Needs More Steps Than You Think
For products or services above £1,000, research suggests you need at least seven steps in your sales process to warm a prospect from initial contact to a confident yes. In the current climate of economic uncertainty, that number is closer to eleven. Each conversation builds emotional energy — but there is always a cooling-off period in between, which means every follow-up has to start by rebuilding that energy before taking it higher.
Helen's advice: introduce the investment level early in the process. If a prospect has spent weeks mentally anchoring to the wrong price, the final proposal will always feel like a shock.
How You Communicate Matters as Much as What You Say
Only 7% of meaning is carried by words alone. Tone of voice accounts for 38%, and body language for 55%. This is why emailed proposals are a sales killer — you are communicating at just 7% effectiveness. Zoom is a strong alternative to face-to-face; the phone is workable; email should be reserved for confirming what has already been discussed.
Sales results are feedback on how well you communicated. If the answer is no, something in the formula was missing — and that's something you can fix.
