Everyone has choices. Even as innocent bystanders to events, people have the choice to learn and move forward or take the role of victim. These decisions affect your success. Some of the most inspirational movies are true stories about men and women who endured and chose to learn and move forward with the cards dealt to them. Are you in your sales career for the long haul? If you know in advance that sales can be rocky at times, you'll be in a better position to go with the sales flow.

Your words are extremely powerful to the people around you: prospects, customers, vendors, colleagues, and friends. Jokes that poke fun at another person are never acceptable or appropriate. Human beings hear negative statements far more loudly than positive ones. Most people respond to positive statements and uplifting people. Surround yourself with positive people as much as possible. People respond well to positive statements and uplifting words far more often than not.

In sales, attractor patterns are words that use positive and affirming statements. Detractor patterns are words that use negative and domineering statements. Your spoken words are used as attractors or detractors. The attractor patterns in sales cause people to be interested in you, what you have to say, and eventually in closing the sale.

John, a sales rep for a medical device company, wakes up in the morning feeling anxious about everything he has to do during the day. He doesn't really want to be working at his present job. But it pays the bills and allows him and his family to live in a home with all the conveniences they want and enjoy a two-week vacation each year. When he logged his thoughts each morning, he had an entry that read, “Here I go again going through the motions of working at my job. I don't see the enjoyment in much of it and I hate waking up so early every morning to fight traffic to get to the different medical offices.”

He went on to write, “I would change jobs, but I don't think I could find another well-paying job like this at my age. If I can just hang in there another fifteen years, I can retire.”

John leaves the house in a weak energy field, gets in the car to drive through traffic, and arrives at his first destination sales call forty-five minutes later. Do you think his thoughts have affected his emotions? Do you think his emotions will affect his words? And do you think his words to himself and to his prospect or customer will affect the sales outcome?