Salespeople are motivated by several things, money and what money will buy, pride and accomplishment, status in the eyes of others.

But the best salespeople, the ones whose customers keep coming back, realize that selling is about using their skills to make people happy, bringing value to people to make their lives better. The best salespeople want the best for their clients helping them buy what is truly in the buyer’s best interest.

If you’re a salesperson, you know that keeping yourself full of confidence each day is tough. Life happens. Yet if you don’t walk into every sales meeting with a very up-attitude, full of self-confidence and a positive outlook, you’re shooting yourself in the foot. So how can you prep your attitude, remind yourself of the benefit you can bring to your prospect, and get yourself pumped up for the meeting?

Many successful people use self-talk, telling yourself things that make you feel confident, in touch with your motivation, in line with your life purpose. I suggest that there are two kinds of self-talk and they are both necessary: Head-talk and Heart-talk. Head talk is when you tell yourself words. You comprehend the words intellectually. They make sense to you because they are your words. Heart-talk is when you let words and concepts turn into feelings. You might use the same words, but you feel them as experiences and you call up the feelings you felt the last time you were in the same situation. Heart-talk is more powerful than head-talk.

Here is something that I use at the beginning of every day.

“Who Can I Reach Today?”

The whole sentence has meaning for me in that as a business and executive coach I really believe I can help my client and that she deserves to have me in her life. And then each word has meaning and calls up experiences for me. The head-talk just sounds like some regular short words. But the heart-talk is powerful.

Who – My prospect is a person, an individual just like me with thoughts, feelings, pride and insecurities. I respect her and want the best for her. I believe in her talent, individuality and ability to make choices that are in her best interest.

Can – Yes, I ‘can.’ I can be anything I want to create myself to be. I can win over this client. I can be a winner, just like I was with  (name other clients who are very loyal and who you really like. Picture them. Feel the fulfilling feeling that I feel when my work with them is successful.)

I – I am powerful. I am my core values and my long term vision. I am my dreams and aspirations. I am everything I’ve experienced in my life. I can not be a help to someone else if I don’t feel strong and capable. People depend on me and I can come through for them because I know who I am at the center of my being. I am capable and what I offer is of value. I don’t have to tell people about my strength. If I sense it, they will sense it. I picture and feel a strong but flexible core spine deep inside my body surrounded by strong muscles.

Reach – Reaching is an action word and nothing happens til I do an action. Reaching out beyond myself, extending out from my core to touch someone at his core is what I’m all about. It gives my life meaning and is in line with my life purpose. When I think about this, I feel my muscles stretch out to touch someone just beyond my reach. I make it a kinesthetic experience. As a dancer that is very meaningful to me.

Today – Right now, not yesterday or tomorrow. I can’t control the past and the future depends on today. So there’s no putting things off. The current moment is my action point, my decision point, my point of creation. I once heard a speech by Lou Holtz (Notre Dame football coach). He stressed asking his team. “What’s important now?” That experience of hearing that speech plays in my head and helps me make choices and be focused on my actions in the present.

‘Who can I reach today?’ Who knew that such a little string of words could provide so much powerful head-talk and heart-talk?

Can you come up with your own string of words that you can use to prep yourself on your way to an important meeting and to create a meaningful experience for your prospect? Can you emotionalize the words with your feelings from your life experiences? Human development professionals call that generalization, transferring felt feelings to new situations or visualized situations. We all spend so much time in our heads with head-talk. Of course, analytic stuff is necessary and our left brain has a lot to process. But if we can engage in heart-talk from our right brains as well as the feelings that we store in the limbic part of our brains, we can be more authentic, more magnetic, more true to ourselves. Customers are smart. They intuitively sense that. You attract their trust and respect. Your relationship deepens and before you know it, you’ve made a sale and possibly a long term customer.

I invite your comments on selling from the heart. What motivates you?