John Patterson, founder of The National Cash Register Co. in 1880 and the father of American salesmanship, coined a powerful sales phrase that has been lost for a century.

Patterson’s selling philosophy was centered on the concept of referring to a prospect as a “probable purchaser,” thus defining the prospect and your attitude toward him or her in the same breath. So powerful. It’s the biggest sales “aha” I’ve had since I earned my first commission back in 1963.

To me, the probable-purchaser concept is as powerful a sales philosophy as I have ever heard or read. It’s well over a hundred years old. And no one uses it.

Probable purchaser is a classic lost element of the Patterson Principles of Selling that not only should be resurrected, but should be employed every.

How can you harness the untapped power of the probable purchaser?

Here’s the challenge: You’ve been referring to this person as a prospect for as long as you’ve been in sales. In your mind, you must begin the transition from thinking about a prospect to thinking about a probable purchaser.

I’m a sales expert. I believe I’m the best in the world when it comes to sales and the selling process. I love the pitch. I love it when a CEO I’m presenting to gets up and walks around, and I get up and sit in his chair. I love it when I can persuade him to say the words, “My people need to have this” or “My people need to see this.”

You know what that means? The register rings. Money. A sale!

I have studied the history of sales for 30 years. Every time I read something, I learn something. I especially love reading books more than 50 years old because new ideas are usually old ideas, revised or in disguise.

When I began to study John Patterson, the experience changed many things about the way I thought sales should be conducted. And when I came across the words that Patterson used to define the prospect, I was convinced it was one of the five biggest “ahas” of my life. Not only was it brilliant; it was obvious.

Think of the prospect as a probable purchaser. Wow!

I thought, “Why doesn’t everyone do that?” Some companies call them suspects, prospects or defects. That’s crazy. The company is creating a negative tone for your expectations.

Patterson, in his brilliance, set a positive tone for every sales encounter by referring to the customer as a probable purchaser. If you ask me, nothing else in the realm of selling has even come close to that brilliance.

Patterson could have used words like “prospect,” “lead,” “appointment,” “possible,” “prospective” and “potential,” but in his positive-attitude thought process, he not only assumed the sale, he put positive words, and therefore positive thoughts, into the minds of his salespeople so they would constantly reinforce their own belief system.

If you begin to refer to your potential customer as a “probable purchaser,” it will change your entire mental outlook as you enter the sale, while you make the sale, and when the sale is completed.

Once you have it in your mind, you will use probable purchaser forever because it holds the key to self-belief and self-assurance.

Your self-belief is half of your sales effort. It’s the part that you can transfer to another person. That person catches your passion, your enthusiasm and your attitude. All of that comes from self-belief, and self-belief comes from your inner language. Using the term probable purchaser will strengthen that self-belief and lead you to more sales. I promise.

If you think of a person as a prospect, you are doomed to think “maybe” as you make your presentation. If you think of the person as a probable purchaser, you will walk into a sales call thinking: yes!

Sounds simple, doesn’t it? So simple that it works.

Free Gitbit: Want the bare-bones list of the 32.5 Patterson Principles of Selling? Just go to www.gitomer.com; register if you’re a first-time user, and enter the word PATTERSON in the GitBit box.

Jeffrey Gitomer, president of Charlotte, N.C.-based Buy Gitomer, gives seminars, runs annual sales meetings, and conducts Internet training programs on selling and customer service. He can be reached by phone at (704) 333-1112 or by e-mail at salesman@gitomer.com.