There Is No Formula for Sales — Even After Three Decades

It has been three decades in sales, and I still don’t know the formula for guaranteed success.

Early in my career, while pursuing my part-time MBA, I remember a professor saying that sales can never have a fixed formula for conversion. Sales is ultimately the result of interaction between human beings. And humans do not behave the same way even in identical circumstances. There are countless variables: the mindset of the buyer, the personality of the seller, timing, context, priorities, and even emotions on a given day.

Thirty years later, I find myself re-emphasising the same truth: there is no fixed formula for sales.

The Post-Covid Shift

Post-Covid, the way we work and live has changed dramatically. Work from home, once considered unusual, is now a widely accepted norm. Earlier, if you didn’t show up physically at the office, you were considered absent. Today, presence is defined differently.

The same shift has happened in sales.

Clients no longer prefer frequent face-to-face meetings. Many are comfortable responding over WhatsApp. If convinced, they agree to a virtual meeting. While convenient, this changes the sales dynamic.

From a salesperson’s perspective, face-to-face meetings allow deeper discussions. Even if the deal doesn’t close immediately, the interaction often provides valuable insights. You understand their evaluation process, internal constraints, timelines, and decision criteria.

Sometimes, clients may avoid meetings simply because they have already decided not to proceed. From their perspective, why invest time if there is no intent to buy?

But for a salesperson, even a “no” has value.

A meeting that does not result in immediate business often delivers something equally important clarity. It helps refine future pitches, understand what to communicate in the interim, and identify the right time to reconnect.

The Basic Tools Every Salesperson Needs

There are certain foundational tools every salesperson must develop:

• Deep knowledge of their product or service

• Clear understanding of the client’s business and offerings

• Ability to customise solutions when required

• Industry awareness and market understanding

• Presentability and communication skills

• Rapport-building ability

• Awareness of the client’s targets and pressures

• Fearless approach—regardless of designation

Fearlessness must be cultivated early in a sales career. There will be moments when a client may dismiss, criticise, or even insult you. The key is resilience. After a short pause, you should be able to re-approach with a refined strategy and proposition.

Sales is experimentation.

If a client does not give you the opportunity to fully understand their needs, your industry knowledge and preparation must help you design alternate approaches.

The Sales Staging Framework: ACPPR

While there is no formula for guaranteed success, there is a process that strengthens probability. I call it ACPPR:

Approach → Conversation → Prospecting → Proposition → Result

1. Approach

Even if you are the market leader with a significant gap over competitors, you still need to approach.
Approach may be for new projects, new products, renewals, or simply relationship maintenance. The nature of approach differs between existing and new clients.

2. Conversation

Preparation determines the quality of conversation.
Once a client gives you time, you have a limited window to engage meaningfully. The better prepared you are, the longer and deeper the conversation. Longer engagement means better insights and better judgment of the person and situation.

3. Prospecting

Conversations help identify real prospects.
You begin to classify hot prospects and cold prospects. This evolving list becomes your pipeline. Effective prospecting is the bridge between interaction and opportunity.

4. Proposition

Once needs are identified, you create a customised proposal.
A response whether modification requests, additional features, or negotiation indicates interest. This stage gives clarity about the strength of your pipeline.

5. Result

Here, both sides move toward a win-win closure.
However, negotiation does not always lead to agreement. Deals may fail not just because of terms, but because of circumstances beyond control.

Pipeline Over Luck

The real objective is continuous building of Approach and Conversation, because they fuel Prospecting.

More approaches → more conversations → stronger prospecting → healthier pipeline.

Whether pre- or post-Covid, face-to-face conversations remain the most powerful medium to build prospects. That does not mean rejecting phone or virtual conversations but physical meetings still create deeper impact.

The cycle of Approach and Conversation keeps the pipeline active. It reduces dependency on luck.

Yes, luck plays a role in sales.

But I strongly believe: Luck follows effort.

Just as one proposal does not fit all clients, luck does not reward everyone equally. For some, success comes with minimal effort. For others, it follows relentless persistence.

The Final Truth

Even after three decades in sales, I cannot guarantee that mastering the basic tools and following ACPPR will ensure you always achieve your targets.

There is no guaranteed formula for sales.

Not even the most advanced version of AI will be able to derive a mathematical equation that guarantees conversion because sales is human.

And humans are beautifully unpredictable.