PR takes away the fear

Courtesy of our fellow Lancastrians Sales Geek, I recently learnt that there is, in fact, a simple equation for sales.

I hope they won’t mind me quoting them (like a good PR man, I actually checked, they’re okay with it) and apparently it goes like this: Need + Value – Fear = Sales.

Simple yeah? Establish who has a need, demonstrate the value you can provide in meeting that need, take away the fear of going ahead, and bosh, sales all day long.

It occurred to me though that, while being far from easy, the first two parts are relatively straightforward.

You can build a process for lead generation and a follow-up process for sales conversion. But take away the fear? Where is the process for that? How can you have a process for something so ethereal? Surely such a process is the stuff of magic.

Well, Sherlock, as you can probably guess by the title of this piece and the job I do, I’d argue there is a process. It’s an often long, drawn-out, seemingly amorphous process, fully understood by few, but with evidence of its success all over the FTSE 100 list.

Yes, you got it. Good old-fashioned PR. Being famous for being famous’ sake. Therein lies the magic. It’s what great brands and great companies are built on.

Brand awareness is about taking way the fear. It’s about being the salesperson from the famous brand against the salesperson from the unknown quantity.

It’s why big brands do it, and why they are big brands. Say hello to PR.

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