We all have experience of being a customer in different environments to the pharmacy but, essentially, wherever we are a customer we want the same thing.

When you are a customer, what is it that you want? If we were to distil it down, there is usually only one thing people want – this is “value”. But what actually is value?

It is impossible to give a simple definition of value because it will change for different people and different situations. For example, which is more valuable: diamonds or water? If you were in a desert, diamonds would not be valuable if you did not have any water; water would be much more valuable. If you were in the lush valleys of Wales, where water is in plentiful supply, the value of water is quite limited and diamonds would be vastly more valuable.

Value is context specific and personal to a person. Value is found in meeting someone’s needs and the relative value depends on how important something is to that person.

The same thing can easily have different value to different people. A mobile phone is not of great value to my wife (she doesn’t use it much). For me, the mobile phone is very important because I use it to communicate frequently with clients, and for my daughter it is vitally important because she is a teenager.

Getting value for money doesn’t mean buying the cheapest option. The most valuable option might be the one that meets needs most effectively, and it might be the most expensive. Though, usually, a less expensive product is more valuable if it does the same job to the same extent as a more expensive product.

If we were to reflect on what happens in the pharmacy, do we find ourselves recommending cheaper, less effective products because we think that customers might not want to spend money on the more expensive product. If we were the customer, what would we want? Would we think it is good value to pay twice the price if it managed our symptoms much better?

Is it right that we make these decisions for our customers? Would we be happy if people were making these decisions for us? Customers always have the opportunity to say no or to ask for a less expensive product, and they tend not to be offended if the reason for the recommendation is explained or obvious. People don’t take offence in fast food chains or coffee shops when they are asked if they would like the larger size.

A process for selling

Effective and ethical selling can be done in four simple steps. These are:

• Identify the need
• Choose an appropriate solution
• Make your recommendation
• Close and provide advice.