Bad things happen - but it's your choice how you react to them - and therefore, your choice what comes next. Today, sales trainers The Whetstone Group share a story that shows the power of choice.

Problem: This was Phil's one-year anniversary, although it was an anniversary most people would just as soon forget. Phil was a business consultant who was proud of maintaining long-term business relationships with his clients. Exactly one year ago to the day Phil had experienced the culmination of the worst month of his business career. That day Phil had taken a call from a long time client who regretfully informed him that his company's services were no longer needed; the third such call he had received in the past month. He was devastated, and very confused about what was going on. He had worked hard to develop these business relationships and being fired was tough. Then he reacted the way so many in similar circumstances have; he went into a tailspin. He tanked. He started spending his time worrying about his business and commiserating about his bad fortune. For the next several months, things just got worse.

Analysis: Phil let unfortunate circumstances get the best of him. He suffered from a processing failure. He had a choice and picked the wrong one. He saw the loss of three major clients as a failure on his part and made the decision to let it affect him negatively. Instead, he could have learned a lesson from the experience.

Prescription: It's your choice how you process events that happen to you. Do you see things as problems or opportunities? Phil's story continues.

During the holidays, Phil was at a party and spent some time with Steve, who five years before had encountered a similar situation in his business. Steve told Phil that the temptation to feel sorry for himself was very strong, but he chose another option. Steve said that the loss of business he had suffered had caused him to take a long, hard look at the way his company treated their clients. He discovered an alarming trend. Many of his clients had begun to feel like they were being taken for granted. When this was discovered, Steve immediately implemented a customer appreciation and retention program, which quickly reversed the trend. Since then, his company's sales and profits exceeded industry standards and his company was recognized as the market leader in customer satisfaction.

Giving up and feeling sorry for yourself is the easy way; it takes no talent. The Chinese symbol for adversity contains the symbol for opportunity. Therefore, adversity brings opportunity. Look at the adversity as a learning opportunity. Pick something up when you fall down. There's always a lesson, if you look for it. Learn from it and move forward.

Whetstone Group is a sales process improvement company that focuses on helping companies implement a proven sales process that will increase sales, shorten the selling cycle, increase closing rates, and improve margins. Learn more at www.whetstonegroup.com

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I've never heard of failing forward, but I like the idea of anything that makes me feel better when I fail at something. Today sales trainer Tom Reilly shares how you can find power in failure and use it to your advantage. There is a right way to fail and a wrong way to fail. The one thing you do not want to fail at is failure. Consider the following:

--In a study of more then 1,000 successful people, the researchers found that successful people failed more than twice as often as less successful people.

--In our Best Sales Practices Study, we found that top-achieving salespeople do not quit on a piece of business until they receive on average 5.3 rejections from the customer. The rest of the sales population quites after 3.7 rejections.

--Michael Jordan said this about failure: "I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times, I've been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed."

Here are some tips for failing forward - extracting value from failure:

--Always view failure in the short term and success in the long term. You are on a path of long-term success, littered with short-term failures.

--The sale is never over until you or the customer call it quits. Sometimes, the customer may quit before you do, but don't let that slow you down.

--Treat failure as feedback. It teaches you what not to do. If you quit too early, you lose the benefit of learning what did not work.

--Failure holds no power over humility. A humble person says, "Look what I learned."

--Feel the sting of defeat and use it positively to prepare for your next opportunity.

Failure need not be final. It need not describe you as a person. It is commentary on your outcome in a specific area.

Tom Reilly is the president of Tom Reilly Training. He is an authority on value-added selling, and speaks to thousands of salespeople and managers annually on increasing their value to their company and customers.

At the stroke of midnight tonight, the New Year enters. What do you want 2009 to bring for you? Will you be making a New Year’s resolution? As someone who has broken many New Year’s resolutions (very quickly, too!), I’ll be taking sales trainer Joe Bonura’s advice this year and making a New Year Commitment, rather than a resolution. Here’s why:

”From now on, do not make any more New Year Resolutions (NYR); only make New Year Commitments (NYC),” says Bonura. “While a resolution is a firm decision to do something, a commitment is a devotion or dedication to a cause. Do you agree that dedicating yourself to DOING something is much more powerful than DECIDING to do it?”

It always works better if you take a systematic approach to making a New Year Commitment. Here is a great way to approach the task:

As Easy As One, Two, Three
1. Make a list of all your commitments for the coming year.
2. Go over the list and select the three most important ones that you will commit to doing.
3. Devise an action plan that includes tactics that will move you toward your goal. This includes how and when you will accomplish your goals.

Hold Your Feet to the Fire
Discuss your NYCs with an accountability partner who will hold your feet to the fire if you fail to move forward in achieving your commitments. Also stress to your accountability partner that you will not be upset with their honesty and resolve to have you reach your objectives.

Powerful Little Package
Write your three commitments on a 3x5 card, fold the card into a tight little package, and carry it with you everywhere you go. The card will serve as a constant reminder of your commitment for improvement.

Dream Your Way To Accomplishment
Every night before you retire, for each of your commitments, list something that you will do to move toward your goals. It is a task that takes less than five minutes, and if you do it before you turn-in for the night, your subconscious will take over while you sleep.

Make An Appointment With You
Make a calendar appointment with yourself once a week to do a gut-check on your progress toward accomplishing your NYCs. Put the appointment on the calendar and show up, just as you would for any appointment.

Party Time
Celebrate each time you accomplish a milestone on one of your NYCs. In other words, reward yourself for a stratagem or course well done.

Start Climbing
Enjoy the New Year, and make every day a rung on the ladder to the success that you will achieve.

Joe Bonura is known as a "real world" speaker who gives his audiences ideas they can apply immediately to increase sales and improve service. Bonura is also the author of “Throw the Rabbit: The Ultimate Approach to Three-Dimensional Selling.” Learn more at www.bonura.com

The SalesDog blog will be quiet tomorrow as we celebrate the New Year and write a few New Year Commitments of our own! We’ll see you Friday!