Business Coaching

Brian Tracy - 21 Success Secrets of Self Made Millionaires 4.5 Stars

I received an email from Brian Tracy a few days ago telling me that he is still giving away for free his audio recording program, 21 Success Secrets of Self Made Millionaires and I thought that I should listen to my copy again and write a review (if you just want to jump straight to the free offer see Self Made Millionaires.)

The 21 Success Secrets of Self Made Millionaires is a 72 minute audio CD and is part of a series of 21 Success Secret audios (I reviewed the 21 Success Secrets of High Performance Businesses some months ago).

The CD tells you about the mindset issues involved in becoming a self made millionaire and this is a journey that top business trainer and guru Brian Tracy has made himself from his early days as a manual worker, through his time as a salesperson and from managing and starting many different businesses.

It promises to tell you the simple, effective and fairly easy to apply steps to becoming a self made millionaire based on research and interviews with self made millionaires. Brian Tracy always has this simple premise. If you think and act like a self made millionaire, you will start to accumulate wealth.

I will just pick out a few of the secrets to explore in a little detail although the 21 Success Secrets of Self Made Millionaires has about an hour of solid content with a short introduction at the beginning and a five minute pitch for a financial training program at the end.

Secret 3 - See Yourself As Self Employed

It doesn't matter whether you already have your own significant sized business, you are a self employed professional or you are an employee, you must adopt a self employed mindset.

Your success depends on you - what you think and do. While you will receive some help along the way, you must accept complete responsibility for your life.

If you want something, you have to make it happen and be prepared to make the changes necessary in your life.

Secret 7 - Dedicate Yourself To Lifelong Learning

I wrote yesterday about the problems of information overload and introduced you to Peter Thomson's ideas on the Performance Effectiveness Quotient but I wanted to make sure that I was still advocating lifelong learning.

Ideally you learn knowledge, learn to apply that knowledge and then practice so that you build up your skills and your actions lead you to success.

Unfortunately we tend to use only a small part of our mental powers but that means that we have a great potential for improvement by training our brain and building up the mental muscles.

Brian Tracy says that the average person spends 500 to 1,000 hours per year in their car. The lower end means that you spend the equivalent of 62 eight hour working days there. Think how much you could learn by attending so many intensive seminars and then commit to audio learning to make more productive use of the time.

This is what I do. Some of my driving will be spent listening to classic rock bands like The Who and The Rolling Stones but much of the time is spent listening to people like Brian Tracy, Jay Abraham, Peter Thomson and many others as I have come to appreciate the power of audio learning.

Secret 8 - Pay Yourself First

You may have heard this secret before in books like Rich Dad Poor Dad but the idea is that you take a certain percentage off the top of your income, save/invest that and then live within your remaining earnings. This common amount recommended to save is 10%.

It seems that poor people spend whatever they earn and then spend a bit more while people destined to be rich, commit to saving some of their income, virtually regardless of how much they earn.

I admit that it's much easier for the well off to cut back on their champagne and caviar lifestyle than it is for lower paid households struggling to meet life's essentials but it's the concept that's important.

Brian Tracy makes the point that if you can't imagine saving 10% of your income, then don't try to start by saving 10%. Instead save 1% and commit to living within the 99% remainder (and not a penny more).

Then when you have proven that you can save a little, increase your savings rate to 2%, then 3%...

Secret 15 - Practice Self Discipline In All Things

If you want to be a self made millionaire, you have to realise that it's not going to happen without commitment to paying the price you have to pay.

You have to do what you should do, when you should do it, regardless of whether you feel like it. Put off the necessary actions to become a millionaire and you introduce delays in the flood of cash that should be going into your bank account.

Brian Tracy says that successful people do the things that people who fail don't like to do. Successful people often don't like to do them either but they do them.

Conclusion

I've just looked at four of the 21 Success Secrets but I hope you can see that it is a good program to help you get your mind focused on becoming a self made millionaire.

I rate Brian Tracy very highly and the 21 Success Secrets Of Self Made Millionaires is another excellent product. I rate it as 4.5 stars and when you have your copy, I recommend that you listen to it about five times (or more) to really drill the ideas and millionaire making mindset into your brain. Do the exercises Brian sets - this isn't a spectator sport.

Then listen to it again every three to six months to make sure that you are keeping on the right track.

You can order your free copy of the audio CD from 21 Success Secrets of Self Made Millionaires.

To Your Success

Paul Simister

Your Profit Coach, business coaching for the customer focused entrepreneur

© Planning & Control Solutions Ltd 2007-2008 All Rights Reserved

The Keys To Reaching Your Full Potential

A quick reminder that the FREE Ideas to Income teleseminar on March 4th, 2008 is Brian Tracy explaining why personal development and business training are the keys to reaching your full potential.

You can register for the call at the Ideas to Income website.

If you like the look of the series of Ideas to Income seminars but the times are difficult, if you register you will be offered the opportunity to gain access to the all of the calls at your own convenience.

Brian Tracy is one of the business development superstars who I feature in this blog and I am always amazed at the scope that he is able to cover.

To paraphrase one of Brian's favourite sayings, if you want to be rich you have to do what rich people do. Most are committed to continually learning and question whether they have found the best way to think and act.

For more details of Brian Tracy I recommend that you take a look at his website. I particularly like his Secrets of Success audio programs.

To Your Success

Your Profit Coach

Paul Simister

Business coaching for customer focused entrepreneurs

Crunch Point - Brian Tracy

"Crunch Point: The 21 Secrets to Succeeding When It Matters Most" by Brian Tracy is a great read for any business owner or manager who is in a difficult position because business performance is poor.

I have reviewed this book through a business summary service and it is clear that the summariser has the same issue with Brian Tracy as I do.

The content is so rich in valuable advice, information and guidance that a 117 page book is reduced to 15 pages in the book summary. Often BusinessSummaries take a 300 page book and reduce it to 8 to 10 pages of core ideas and concepts.

Brian Tracy takes his style of identifying 21 secrets of success and applies it to dealing with a business in trouble.

If you have ever been in that situation, how difficult and stressful it can be.

That's why tip #1 is Stay Calm.

Easier said than done but rather than take you through each of the tips in turn I thought I'd concentrate on this one. If you want the summary, just click over to BusinessSummaries and sign up to their free trial (available at the time of writing). Brian Tracy would prefer you to buy the book or the Brian Tracy University may have an audio program.

The tips in this area are:

1. Take a deep breath - it calms your mind.
    
2. Look to take control immediately - mentally and emotionally.
    
3. Recognise that the two biggest fears are the fear of rejection and the fear of failure. Both can cause anger, depression and paralysis.
    
4. Watch the way you talk to yourself. Your inner dialogue controls about 95% of your emotions.
    
5. Study the problem carefully and try to see it from different angles as you look for solutions. One tip I have heard is imagine that you are someone else and think what would they do. What would Richard Branson do? What would Indiana Jones do? What would Genghis Khan do?
    
6. Look for valuable lessons. Just identifying a positive opportunity or finding a valuable lesson can help make you feel better.

The book then looks at the other 20 secrets for success and if you are a Brian Tracy fan, you will know that another tip covers zero based thinking in the crisis. It really is a great way for making those different decisions that bit clearer and easier to make.

I rate this a four star book summary. The summary is great and a valuable precis that can be read quickly and a very useful set of notes but I want to read the book as well.

Browsing Brian Tracy's website I noticed that the there is a Crunch Point recording available in Brian Tracy teleseminar series and it's my understanding that you get the first recording free and there is no obligation to buy more. Sounds like it is worth considering - Brian Tracy Crunch Point - it was at the bottom of page one when I looked but you may have to click through if they change the order.

Other Resources

You may be interested in top author and marketer, Mark Joyner and his 7 Day Business Turnaround Kit (link to sales letter). (10 May 2008 - I am currently evaluating this turnaround program and my impression is that it is excellent - see Business Turnaround for my review comments). Mark Joyner has a great reputation and reading the sales letter, you will see that you only pay at the end if you believe your business is back on track.

To Your Success

Your Profit Coach

Paul Simister

Business coaching for customer focused entrepreneurs

The Four D's of Financial Success

With the permission of Brian Tracy International, I am delighted to feature another of Brian's articles on this blog.

The Four D's of Financial Success
By: Brian Tracy

Start From Nothing and Become Financially Independent

More than eighty percent of self-made millionaires in America began with nothing or in many cases, less than nothing. I can certainly relate to that because when I was growing up and right into my early 30s, I never had any extra money with which to start a fortune. It seemed to me that there was always enough, if not more than enough bills, to absorb every penny I earned. I was always in debt.

Be Ready for Your Opportunity

And even if a great business opportunity did come along, I wouldn't have been able to do anything with it. As I began studying financial success and self-made millionaires, I noticed that almost everyone around me was in pretty much the same boat. The idea of becoming really wealthy was a distant dream with very little possibility of coming true. You may be in the same situation, with more bills than money or assets.

Look at the Numbers

The statistics are a little scary. Of 100 people who reach retirement age, according to insurance industry statistics, only one will be wealthy. Four out of the hundred will be financially independent; fifteen will have some savings put aside. And the other 80 will be dependent on pensions, still working or broke - this after a lifetime of well-paid work in the most affluent society in human history. Now why does this happen?

Why People Retire Poor

There are two main reasons why people retire poor. First, they never decide to retire rich. They wish and hope and pray, but they never make a firm, unequivocal decision that they're going to do it. Second, even if they do decide to retire rich, they procrastinate until it's too late. They always have some good reason for putting it off.

Start With Desire and Decision

If you sincerely want to beat the odds, to achieve financial independence and retire wealthy, there are four critical steps that you must take, all starting with the letter D.

The first step is desire. You must want it badly enough to make an unshakable commitment and to be willing to make sacrifices. The second D is decision. You must make a decision right now to do whatever is necessary, to be willing to pay any price, go any distance, to achieve your goal.

Practice Determination and Discipline

The third D is determination, which is to keep at it until you succeed in spite of all the problems and obstacles you will experience. And the fourth D is discipline - the discipline to master yourself to develop the habits necessary for achieving financial independence.

Those are the four Ds. Desire, Decision, Determination and Discipline. And you can measure how successful you're going to be in the future by measuring how well you're doing in each of those on a scale of one to ten.

Action Exercises

Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.

First, make a decision, right now, that you are going to be financially independent, no matter what obstacles you face in the short term. Then write it down, make a plan and start to work on it every single day.

Second, resolve in advance that you will persist in the face of every setback or obstacle you face. You will never give up. You will keep on moving forward until you finally achieve your goal.

Imagine if you could become a millionaire today!

Your life would be easier and more fun. You could be taking more vacations, and spending the kind of time with your family that you really want.

If you're like me you want financial success, and you want to know the secrets of how all these millionaires made their money.

The 21 Success Secrets of Self Made Millionaires

I've spent years interviewing millionaires - to find out what their secret is, and how they made their money. In this CD I tell you the 21 most powerful success secrets of self-made millionaires.

My 60 minute CD will give you the skills you need to become a millionaire today.

Buy the 21 Success Secrets of Self Made Millionaires now at BrianTracy.com

Thanks Brian.

Just to emphasise - the 4Ds are Desire, Decision, Determination and Discipline

Desire - do you really want to be rich? It sounds obvious. Of course you do. But will you do what it takes? Are you familiar with The Secret - the film about the Law of Attraction and what you think about comes to be. The theory is that if you think about the problems of being poor, you will stay poor. If you think about being rich, you will be rich.

Decision - are you ready to make the decision to be rich? Are you prepared to put together a plan that will help you to identify opportunities for profit and then exploit them?

Determination - are you really ready to commit to the actions required? If it was easy, everyone would be rich so are you ready to push past the challenges and setbacks that will put off the less determined people.

Discipline - at the centre of taking the necessary actions is the effective use of your time and being disciplined about how you spend it.

This 21 Success Secrets is one of a collection of audio recordings made by Brian Tracy that is highly recommended and great value even if you don't need the whole series. 

Brian Tracy 21 Great Ways Combination Pack

To Your Success

Your Profit Coach

Paul Simister

Business coaching for customer focused entrepreneurs

Customers For Life by Brian Tracy

I am delighted to bring you another posting from Brian Tracy, thanks to the kind permission of Brian Tracy International.

Customers for Life by Brian Tracy

Never Worry About Money Again

What is the purpose of a business?

Every time I ask this question during a business seminar, the immediate answer that I get back is, "To make a profit."

The Real Purpose of A Business

But this answer is wrong.

The purpose of a business is to create and keep a customer.

If a business successfully creates and keeps customers in a cost-effective way, it will make a profit while continuing to survive and thrive. If, for any reason, a business fails to attract or sustain a sufficient number of customers, it will experience losses. Too many losses will lead to the demise of the enterprise.

Why Businesses Fail

According to Dun and Bradstreet, the single, most important reason for the failure of businesses in America is lack of sales. And, of course, this refers to resales as well as initial sales.

So your company's job is to create and keep a customer, and your job is exactly the same. Remember, no matter what your official title is, you are a salesperson for yourself and your company. And the best way to increase your value as a salesperson is to build your customer base.

"Learn how to build loyal customers who buy from you over and over - and tell their friends!"

A satisfied customer is 10x easier to sell to than a new customer. A referral from a satisfied customer is 15x easier to sell to than a cold call.

Now you can develop a customer service strategy that will get people to buy from you over and over again, increasing your sales, income and profitability.

Customers for Life

The highest paid salespeople and the most profitable companies have the best reputation for customer service. You learn a series of low-cost, no-cost ways to get customers to buy from you, buy again, and tell their friends.

Buy Customers for Life today!

Why Businesses Succeed

The two most important words to keep in mind in developing a successful customer base are Positioning and Differentiation.

Positioning refers to the way your customers think and talk about you and your company when you are not there. The position that you hold in the customer's mind determines all of his reactions and interactions with you.

Your position determines whether or not your customer buys, whether he buys again and whether he refers others to you. Everything that you do with regard to your customer affects the way your customer thinks about you.

The Key to Competitive Advantage
Differentiation refers to your ability to separate yourself and your product or service from that of your competitors. And it is the key to building and maintaining a competitive advantage.

This is the advantage that you and your company have over your competitors in the same marketplace - the unique and special benefits that no one else can give your customer.

Select Your Customers Carefully
When you begin to think about acquiring and keeping customers for life, you need to think about the particular types of customers for whom your competitive advantage is so important that they would be poorly served by using anyone else's product.

You need to then emphasize again and again that the special features and benefits you offer are so important that they should not even think of going somewhere else. If, for any reason, you fail to do this, you may lose the customer and all the work you've done in building that relationship in the first place.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.

First, determine exactly what your current positioning is today with your customers. How do they think about you and what do they say? How could you improve your positioning?

Second, determine your exact competitive advantage, your area of superiority in what you do. How can you increase in your area of excellence and then convey it better to your customers?

You can learn more about Brian Tracy and his techniques for business building and development at Brian Tracy International and the Brian Tracy University.

Everything I have seen and heard from Brian has been of a very high standard and I particularly like his Secrets of Success Series. You can tell from the above article that he covers a very wide area of business advice.

To Your Success

Paul Simister

Your Profit Coach, business coaching for customer focused entrepreneurs

Brian Tracy: 21 Great Ways To Build A High Profit Business - 4.5 Stars

I am a big believer in audio training courses, particularly for anyone who spends far too long in a car or has to commute on public transport and can use an mp3 player.

I thought that my first review should feature one of a great series of audios from Brian Tracy in his 21 Secrets to Success series. I have decided to start with"21 Ways To Build A High Profit Business."

I don't think I'm taking too many risks assuming that profit is what you are interested in and that it is what attracts you to my blog on a regular basis.

By the way have you tried the RSS feed. it is really neat as it lets you keep updated on what is happening on the Business Coaching Blog without you having to remember to click over here.

What Causes High Profits?

Brian asks a simple question that you may have been asking yourself:

"Why is it that some businesses are much more profitable than others in the same industry?"

The answer is that in almost everything we do, there are predictable causes and effects. Put your hand in a fire and you get burnt. Profitable companies are profitable because they have done the things that make them profitable.

So the implications for you are that the cause and effect relationship can work for you too. If you do the things that profitable companies do, then you will start earning higher profits.

Brian Tracy's Style

I know that some people are concerned about how "hyper-active" motivational speakers can become and wonder whether they could bear to listen to an audio. It's one thing to get all excited in front of an audience, another to do it on an audio recording that will be listened to many times.

Well let me reassure you.

Brian Tracy has a nice calm gentle delivery in a natural speaking voice but with plenty of inflexion. He is very easy to listen to and this audio recording bears repeated listening. I have already heard it about five times as it is in my car at the moment.

He does however deliver a lot of content quite quickly and I find that he will say something that will spark my brain into gear as I start to think about how I can use the idea, either for myself or for a client's business.

Because my brain is racing ahead on the practicalities of making more money and Brian's delivery doesn't demand attention, I can miss his next two tips.

Fortunately that's the beauty of audio recordings. Miss two tracks and with a couple of clicks you are back where you want to be or you can pick up on the ideas the next time you listen.

The alternative approach is to use active listening techniques and really concentrate on what he says (and the audios work well like that) but then you miss those initial sparks of insight that can be so important.

The Key To High Profits Is Flexibility

Have you noticed how quickly things seems to change around us?

If so, you won't be surprised to learn that Brian Tracy regards flexibility as the key to building a high profit business.

You have to be open to the idea that what you are doing is no longer working as well as it used to or it could if you make some changes in your approach.

The powerful technique that Brian Tracy recommend is called zero based thinking and I love it.

Zero based thinking really focuses your mind on an issue and is the best way I know for making those difficult decisions, that bit clearer.

Are you ready to try some new approaches?

Are you ready to do what high profit businesses do so that you too have a high profit business?

21 Great Ways To Build A High Profit Business

Sorry but I'm not going to tell you what all 21 ways are for a couple of good reasons that I'll explain below but I will tell you what the first first ways to build a high profit business are:

1. Develop a clear mission for your business.
    
2. Determine exactly what business you are in.
    
3. Decide exactly who your customer is.
    
4. Strive for competitive advantage.
    
5. Take the long term view.

Each of these five take what I think of as a strategic perspective. Brian is asking you to answer the big questions with as much clarity as you can. Later tips cover sales and marketing, customer service, leadership and people management.

My rating

I have decided that "21 Ways To Build A High Profit Business" merits a 4.5 star rating and that makes it a strong buy recommendation.

To put this into perspective I can currently only think of two audio programs that will receive a 5 star rating - one by Jay Abraham and the other by Peter Thomson - and so far I only have four books carrying the full five stars.

Why I Held Back The Goods

1. I need to respect Brian Tracy's copyright and not go too far.
    
2. I believe that you should buy the audio Cd from Brian Tracy International (click on the link to go straight to the product). Buy through my affiliate link and I earn a small commission.
    
3. I want to blog around these issues individually by giving you Brian's ways but my interpretation.
    
4. Because Brian is running a great offer at the time of writing - you can get this CD free provided you are prepared to pay for the post and packing.

Brian Tracy is offering the CD free for one good reason. He knows that many people who receive the CD and then listen to it will be so impressed that they will come back and buy more of the 21 Secrets of Success, some of his more extensive audio programs or even enrol in the Brian Tracy University.

You could chose to take away the time delay because there is a great value compilation of the 21 Secrets to Success available.

Brian Tracy 21 Great Ways Combination Pack

Brian Tracy will feature much more in this blog in 2008. He covers a wide range of topics similar to the Business Coaching Blog and even extends his thoughts outside of my scope but everything I have seen or heard from him has been of a high quality.

To Your Success

Your Profit Coach

Paul Simister

Business coaching for customer focused entrepreneurs

Law Of Abundance

I am delighted to tell you that I have been given permission by Brian Tracy International to bring you Brian's newsletters and post them on this blog.

  The Law of Abundance
By: Brian Tracy

The Law of Abundance - there is ample money for everyone who knows how to acquire it and keep it. We live in an abundant universe in which there is sufficient money for all who really want it and are willing to obey the laws governing its acquisition.

You Can Have All You Want
There is plenty of money available to you. There is no real shortage. You can have virtually all you really want and need. We live in a generous universe and we are surrounded on all sides by blessings and opportunities to acquire all we truly desire. Your attitude, of either abundance or scarcity toward money, will have a major impact on whether you become rich or not.

Make a Decision
The first corollary of the Law of Abundance says that, "People become wealthy because they decide to become wealthy."

They become wealthy because they believe they have the ability to become wealthy. Because they believe this completely, they act accordingly. They consistently take the necessary actions that turn their beliefs into realities. And you can always tell what your beliefs really are by looking at your actions. There is no other way.

The second corollary of this law says: "People are poor because they have not yet decided to become rich."

How can you attract more wealth and more abundance?
We are now surrounded by more wealth than at any time in our history. The real question is how do YOU gain this abundance? I can show you how...

The 21 Absolutely Unbreakable Laws of Money
Over the years I have studied successful business owners, and self-made millionaires to find the real secrets about money. My studies have revealed the 21 absolutely unbreakable laws of money. And by listening to this 60 minute CD you will learn how to...

• Become a money magnet
   
• Increase your income immediately
   
• Learn the secrets of wealth building
     
• Build and enforce your financial fortress

Examine Your Own Thinking
In the book, The Instant Millionaire, by Mark Fisher, the old millionaire asks the boy who has sought his advice about becoming a millionaire, "Why aren't you rich already?"

This is an important question to ask yourself. However you answer this question will reveal a lot about yourself. Your answers will expose your self-limiting beliefs, your doubts, your fears, your excuses, your rationalizations and your justifications.

Review Your Reasons
Why aren't you rich already? Write down all the reasons you can think of. Go over your answers one by one with someone who knows you well and ask them for their opinion. You may be surprised to find that your reasons are mostly excuses that you have fallen in love with.

Whatever your reasons or excuses, you can now get rid of them. The world is full of hundreds and thousands of people who have had far more difficulties to overcome than you could ever imagine, and they've gone on to be successful anyway. So can you.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do to apply this law immediately:

First, imagine that every experience you have ever had with money contained a special lesson that was designed just for you to help you to ultimately become financially independent. What are the most important lessons you have learned so far?

Second, analyze yourself honestly and determine your biggest block, your major self-limiting belief that holds you back from becoming more successful financially. Resolve to act from now on as if this block no longer exists.

******

Thank you Brian.

It's a powerful thought that we are rich because we have decided to be rich or poor because we have NOT decided to be rich.

I can certainly see the link between how we think about ourselves and the opportunities and problems around us determines our actions and that our actions determine the success we achieve.

If you see a great opportunity but you don't have the right mindset, you are likely to let the opportunity pass by. Even worse, if you think that you will always be poor, you probably won't the any problem as a potential opportunity to be solved.

To Your Success

Your Profit Coach

Paul Simister

Business coaching for customer focused entrepreneurs

Double Your Productivity, Double Your Time Off

I am certain that you have heard of Brian Tracy even if you haven't yet had a chance to read or listen to much of his material.

Brian is one of the business development superstars that I feature on this blog and his scope is even wider than mine.

Brian is a great synthesiser of ideas. He helps you to pull it all together and make sense so that you can produce an action plan that you can stick to.

There is now a chance to hear him LIVE and to CHAT with Brian personally in early December...click here to learn more.

Brian promises that you will learn the 7 keys to doubling your results based on the 7 Cs.

• Clarity
     
• Competence
     
• Constraints
   
• Creativity
     
• Concentration
     
• Courage
     
• Closure

When you learn to master your time you'll be able to get more done, faster and easier, and have more time off for your family and personal life.

Click here to go to the Brian Tracy International website and learn more about the teleseminar and the difference mastering these 7Cs can have on you and your business.

Brian's 21 Secrets of Success CD series are excellent and well worth buying.

Wow I have just checked his website and you can get one of the 21 Secrets of Success CDs for free.

All you have to do is pay the postage and packaging.

Of course the difficult thing is deciding just which one you want. And that is what Brian is relying on. Get one, discover how great the content is and you will want another and another...

So to take away the difficulty of making the decision about which one you want there is also a 21 great ways combination program to buy.

It's a great idea if you want to start 2008 with your mind filled with new, proven business development ideas across just about every area you can think of.

I am determined to start giving you a flavour of these 21 Secrets Of Success in The Business Coaching Blog.

Brian's CD, the "21 Great Ways to Start and Build Your Own Successful Business" is in the CD player of my car at the moment because I listened to it yesterday when I went to see a client.

I am sorry that this posting is sales rather than information based but when the email came in telling me about the seminar call on 6 December, I immediately thought that I need to bring it to your attention.

After all I have promised to bring you the news and thinking of the Business Development Superstars and Brian Tracy is a worthy member of this elite group.

I recommend that you take this opportunity to learn more about Brian Tracy.

To Your Success

Your Profit Coach

Paul Simister

Business coaching for customer focused entrepreneurs

Difficult Decisions Made Easier: Zero Based Thinking

I was listening to a Brian Tracy CD this morning when I was driving to see a client and he talked about an extremely interesting technique if you are struggling to make a difficult decision or you face a dilemma.

It's called zero based thinking.

Ask yourself

"Knowing what I know now, would I still make the same decision?"

Example 1 - A Difficult Member of Staff.

Imagine if one of your team members is unreliable, does their job poorly, won't communicate despite many requests for updates.

So ask yourself

"Knowing what I know now, would I still recruit this person?"

If your answer is "No", then it is a pretty clear indication that it is time for a parting of the ways.

You can't carry staff that you wouldn't re-employ.

I remember one of my biggest lessons in my management career.

I was chief accountant at an engineering company in the West Midlands of the UK and I had a financial accountant who was hopeless.

I revised my expectations and standards of his work downwards and then down again. It seemed the less I expected, the less he achieved.

Finally I had enough and accepted that it couldn't carry on.

I fired him but I think it was a relief to him and it certainly was to me.

From that on I swore that I would never again lower my standards of what I expected from my team. If the person is not good enough, accept it and move on.

Example 2 - A Failing Franchise

I have a friend who bought into a franchise and paid a lot of money.

Unfortunately the area wasn't exclusive and was largely tapped out by the existing franchisee.

The franchisor had undeveloped marketing systems and offered little in the way of lead generation but expected a monthly franchising fee to continue to be paid.

I helped him focus his mind by explaining about zero based thinking.

"Knowing what I know now, would I still buy this franchise?"

Again the answer was "No."

It was barely generating any cash and certainly wasn't providing a return for the time spent.

While it was a bitter pill, it was time to accept that the franchise fee was gone.

The business opportunity was never there and it had been a bad decision. But it would have been an even worse decision to continue wasting time on this failed franchise.

Example 3 - A Professional Association

A few years ago I joined a network of business advisers.

It had seemed a good idea at the time and some of the members were making a lot of money out of it.

But they were going one way and I was going another and over time we grew further apart.

I still rate the network and despite assurances that they would move back into the middle ground, I asked myself the zero based thinking question.

"Knowing what I know now, would I still join?"

The answer was "No" so I knew it was time to leave. OK it cost me money as I certainly never recouped my investment and who knows, perhaps it would have generated future profits.

But I felt so much better when I had faced up to the question and made the decision.

Conclusion

Are you facing a difficult decision?

Are you locked in the horns of a dilemma?

Just try zero based thinking and ask yourself:

"Knowing what I know now, would I..."

Has it helped?

Zero based thinking is a fantastic coaching or self-coaching technique to encourage you to free your mind of the current situation.

It reframes the issue into a simple black or white answer. And when you've got the answer, you know what to do.

It's then just a question of when and how.

If you would like to know more about Brian Tracy's work and zero based thinking is a core component of his approach then this is a great offer.

To Your Success

Your Profit Coach

Paul Simister

Business coaching for customer focused entrepreneurs

Brian Tracy - Be A Sales Superstar - 4 Stars

Brian Tracy has written "Be A Sales Superstar: 21 Great Ways to Sell More, Faster, Easier in Tough Markets".

I rate Brian Tracy highly and he is certainly very prolific with a wide range of books and audio recordings on personal development and sales training.

Brian Tracy believes that most salespeople have never been professionally trained and that 95% can increase their sales (benefiting themselves and their employees) through additional knowledge and skill.

But, when you stop and think about, it is not just salespeople who have to know how to present ideas, influence decisions and persuade people. We are all salespeople so we can all benefit from increasing our sales skills.

There are several key principles.

The first is that small differences in ability can make a big difference in performance.

How much better does a 100 metres athlete need to be better than their competitors to win the gold medal? Small differences can make a huge impact.

The second is that we are often held back by our weakest skill set.

A sales person may be fantastic at building rapport with the customer and may have incredible questioning skills that reveal the real needs and wants of the prospect. But if the salesperson can't close or just can't face asking for the order, the sale is likely to go to a competitor.

One interesting fact I learned from the book was from Dr Thomas Stanley, coauthor of The Millionaire Next Door - 5% of self made millionaires in the United States are so good at selling that they have made their fortune by working for someone else all their lives.

You don't have to be a business owner to build great wealth but you do have to be a successful salespeople to be a successful business owner - or at the very least employ great salespeople.

The 21 ways are:

1. Commit to excellence
      
2. Act as if it were impossible to fail
      
3. Put your whole heart into your selling
      
4. Position yourself as a real professional
      
5. Prepare thoroughly for every call
    
6. Dedicate yourself to continuous learning
      
7. Accept complete responsibility for results
    
8. Become brilliant on the basics
    
9. Build long term relationships
    
10. Be a financial improvement specialist
     
11. Use educational selling with every customer
     
12. Build mega-credibility with every prospect
     
13. Handle objections effectively
     
14. Deal with price professionally
     
15. Know how to close the sale
     
16. Make every minute count
     
17. Apply the 80/20 rule to everything
     
18. Keep your sales funnel full
     
19. Set clear income and sales goals
     
20. Manage your territory well
     
21. Practice the seven secrets of sales success
     

You can see that none of that sounds too controversial or too difficult but the sad thing is that many salespeople don't do those tasks well. The inevitable result is that they do themselves and their employers a disservice.

A particular tip I picked up from the book was an objection handling technique based on "feel, felt, found".

To learn more you are going to have to buy Be A Sales Superstar by Brian Tracy (Amazon UK or USA).

It is recommended as a light, easy to read sales book full of good tips.

Have you read this book? If so I'd love to hear your opinion of "Be A Sales Superstar" by Brian Tracy.

There is also a CD, 21 Great Ways To Become A Sales Superstar available from Brian Tracy's website.

If you prefer a longer audio program, then I recommend that you take a look at "The Psychology of Selling" by Brian Tracy. I've heard that it is the best selling sales training audio programme in the world.

I believe that audio recordings are the best way for many sales people to improve their selling skills. If you use the time spent in your car to listen to the material you can try out ideas in your next appointment and combine learning with doing.

To Your Success

Your Profit Coach

Paul Simister

Business coaching for customer focused entrepreneurs

Are you making these 11 Common Sales & Selling Mistakes?