He asked me a very powerful question, "Miss, do you believe in second chances?" (If he only knew my work, I thought to myself.) "Yes, I absolutely do," I told him.

Well Miss, then I am here today about second chances. He had my attention, which solicitors seldom do.

He went on, "Are you familiar with inner cities and the struggle there?" I told him about living in LA for many years and working with groups helping kids get out of the inner city trap.

You are my new best friend, he said because most of my friends from school are still stuck there. (Ouch, he had me at hello - now this?) He went on, I was spellbound.

"I have been blessed with a second chance and I am here right now asking you to buy an investment in my future." That day I bought way more magazines than I will ever read. I really think I should have hired him on the spot to teach my clients how to sell!

This young man, Shaun, was one of the best salespeople I have met at tapping my motivators to buy - all of them. As he told his story, I was motivated not only to move away from the pain of ignoring someone asking for a second chance, and also moving him away from the pain of his past life. I was also compelled to move toward "investing in his future" as he reminded me several times, "You are not buying magazines, you are investing in my future as he shared with me his earnings for each magazine when I kept responding, "Ok, I will buy that magazine as well."

Do I care about the magazines? Not as much as I care about giving Shaun a second chance. He was honest about what was most important to him, and I bought a product to be a part of helping his future after he had tapped both my pain and pleasure motivators.

Years ago, I remember hearing the statistic that the average household spends over $79 on a door-to- door magazine sales each year. I grossly exceeded the national average magazine sale that day as Shaun made his closing offer. I even gave him a couple of my favorite self-help books to further inspire him and his cause.

As he left that day, he asked if he could bring a friend by the next afternoon to meet me. I said yes, and the following day he showed up with his friend. They walked away with a several more motivational tapes which I pulled from my library.

You see, people make decisions based on "moving away from pain" or "moving toward pleasure." In our marketing, when we can honestly tap into people's pain and pleasure motivators we can influence them to take action that will better their lives and business. In order to do that, we must understand their pain/pleasure triggers and tap into these motivators before they will be compelled to accept the solutions we offer them.

Do your prospects take action to avoid pain or to pursue pleasure? When we know how to use both, we can be powerful communicators like Shaun motivating our clients and prospects to take action immediately - with no regrets. I still think of Shaun and smile that I made a great decision for both of us that day.