Even if we have the right process or the best mindset, every seller is going to encounter difficulties, so we must figure out how we'll stick to our mission and achieve greatness in the face of adversity. Weldon Long has plenty of personal experience dealing with adversity in the form of 13 years in the penitentiary, homelessness, and dropping out of high school. He had what he calls a dysfunctional life, but he learned the ability to thrive in the face of difficulty. Difficulties are coming The truth is that difficulties are coming. It's easy in personal life or in sales life to feel overwhelmed and tempted to wave the white flag of surrender. Weldon was in federal prison when his dad died. He got a note to call home from one of the prison guards. He remembers realizing that his dad died with him in prison again. He had a three-year-old son that he fathered while he was out on parole. He realized that he wasn't being a very good father or son. He made the decision to change the course of his life but he had no idea where to start. He still had seven years left in prison, so he started reading. Copy successful people His master plan was to figure out what successful people were doing and copy that. Seven years later, he walked out of prison and lived in a homeless shelter at 39 years old. He learned how to sell reading books and he started knocking on doors looking for a sales job. It took about six months to find a job because he was a convicted felon living in a homeless shelter. He got a job selling air conditioners and had a great first year. The next year, he used his earnings to open his own air conditioning company. Though he knew nothing about air conditioning, he knew how to sell air conditioners. He hired the operations people and grew the company to $20 million in five years. In 2009, his company was selected as one of America's fastest growing privately held companies. His life has been a study in overcoming adversity, and the lessons are useful for anyone because everyone will eventually face challenges. Learning to face them is the key to achieving greatness in the face of adversity. Sales process Weldon points to the sales process as the secret to building a successful business. The prospects are 100 percent in control of the result. They get to decide whether they will write us a check or not. The sellers are 100 percent in control of the process. Far too many sales professionals focus on the outcome rather than focusing on what they actually control, which is the process. Weldon quickly learned all the difficulties of selling and he said he was amazed by the number of honest people who would promise to call him to follow up but who never did. Buyers will say one thing and do something else, perhaps largely because they fear getting ripped off or misled. They put a lot of protective mechanisms in place. Sales hallway In his book Consistency Selling, Weldon introduces a concept he calls the sales hallway. He and the prospect are at the beginning of the hallway together. At the other end of the hallway is the door he's hoping to get the prospect through. As they walk together, the prospects have a lot of questions about products, services, and guarantees. Most importantly, prospects have questions about price. When they have all the information, they tend to want to postpone the decision. They try to leave little trap doors or escape routes along the hallway. "I'll think about it."  "I'll call you next Tuesday." "You're too expensive." When Weldon learned to address those obstacles before they came up, it was the turning point in his sales career. Influence and persuasion Weldon read an article by Robert Cialdini, author of the book Influence. It was all about the consistency principle, which says that public declarations dictate future actions. The idea is that if you can get someone to make a public declaration, he becomes more likely to take actions that are consistent with that statement. He determined whic