Way of the Wolf: Straight Line Selling: Master the Art of Persuasion, Influence, and Success

In essence, the Straight Line System served as the Great Equalizer, allowing even the most disempowered men and women to completely reinvent themselves and start their lives anew.

To give you an idea of just how massive an impact the Straight Line System had on these kids, I would only be slightly exaggerating if I said that more than half of them showed up at my door with only a borderline ability to walk and chew gum at the same time. Then, sixty days later, I’d see the same kid and—bam!—that kid would be completely transformed.

No matter how many times I witnessed it, this radical transformation was never lost on me. Everything from how they walked to how they talked to how they dressed to how they shook hands to the way they made eye contact; you could literally feel the confidence oozing off them.

Now, for those of you who are currently saying to yourself: “I don’t see what the big deal is. I mean, if you paid me fifty thousand dollars a month when I was in my twenties, I would’ve changed anything you wanted me to. I’d have walked differently, I’d have talked differently, I’d have dressed differently, and I’d even have washed behind my ears if that’s what it took! I mean, who wouldn’t, right?”

If you were thinking anything along those lines, I can’t say that I really fault you. After all, your argument is both intelligent and well thought out, and shows a very solid grasp on human nature. Unfortunately, that doesn’t change the fact you’re completely barking up the wrong tree!

You see, the Stratton training program was six months long, so at the time I witnessed their transformation, none of the kids had started making any money yet. They were all still trainees, which meant they were still flat broke!

So what was it then? What caused this transformation?

In truth, there was more than one thing behind it, but at the heart of the transformation was a powerful visualization technique that I taught the Strattonites called future pacing.

In short, future pacing entails running an imaginary movie through your mind where you get to see yourself in the future having already achieved a certain outcome. The result is that you get to experience the positive feelings associated with a future achievement right now, as opposed to having to wait until a few years from now, when you actually achieve it.

During my daily sales meetings, I always made it a point to remind the trainees of the importance of future pacing their own success, and I also made them run the positive movie right there in their seats, allowing them to see themselves in the future already being rich and living the Life. And, of course, in the same way that I told the first twelve Strattonites to “act as if,” I kept repeating that message to the boardroom again and again and again.

I would say, “Act as if you’re a wealthy man, rich already, and you will become rich. Act as if you have unmatched confidence, and people will have confidence in you. Act as if you have all the answers, and the answers will come to you.”

In other words, I told them that they should not only think like wealthy people but to also carry themselves that way, because it leads to the right state of mind.

As previously mentioned, the technical term for this is state management.

In essence, when you’re managing your emotional state, you’re temporarily blocking out any troubling thoughts or emotions that might normally make you feel negative—thereby allowing yourself to maintain a positive state of mind.

What makes state management so important in achieving success is that your current emotional state determines whether or not you’ll be able to access your internal resources at that moment to achieve your outcome.

When you’re in an empowered state—like “certainty,” for instance—then you’re able to access your internal resources, which then sets you up for massive success. Conversely, when you’re in a disempowered state, you’re blocked from accessing your internal resources, and you’ve set yourself up for massive failure.

It’s very similar to how a valve works.

An empowered state is the equivalent of the valve to your internal resources being fully open, allowing you to access them at will, while a disempowered state is the equivalent of the valve being closed, blocking you from accessing your resources, no matter how badly you might need them. Let me give you an example:

Imagine that you have some of the best sales skills in the world. You’re an expert at every aspect of the Straight Line System—from taking immediate control of the sale to running world-class looping patterns and closing the deal.

But let’s say you walk through your prospect’s door in a state of absolute uncertainty, then how good of a salesperson can you be at that moment?

Not very good, right?