A Problem Based Sales Promotion Approach to Accelerate Access to Sanitation

Developing a Latrine Superstructure Prototype. Photo credit: Kathrin Tegenfeldt

Decision Intelligence (DQ) is a customer's capacity to make smart decisions about purchases. For business operators to become good sellers, the capacity to strengthen a customer's DQ is a critical skill.

The DQ Sales® approach was developed and is championed by USAID’s Transform WASH (T/WASH)’s sales training partner, Whitten & Roy Partnership, a global sales consultancy that works with Fortune 500 companies and development NGOs alike.

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The DQ Sales® methodology centers on increasing customers’ DQ by engaging in conversations about their problems. What health issues are you facing? What is the status of your toilet, and what problems is it causing for you and your family? Inevitably, people will say that their kids get sick once or twice a year, particularly with bouts of diarrhea that require expensive health clinic visits. They complain of the smell and flies in their toilets. Then the seller helps customers calculate the financial costs of those problems.

T/WASH embraced these sales techniques as part of our strategy to enhance a business model focused on simple, affordable upgrades to existing toilets. The model requires door-to-door household visits by trained masons and flexible installation packages for a range of latrine types. To be successful, masons offering quality installation services also need to become motivated sellers and good planners, better prepared for households who say, “No.”

The webinar focused on T/WASH’s implementation of DQ Sales® Approach and showcased how this approach has increased access to sanitation.

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