Gold. Everyone wants more of it. So, if I could lead you to a resource that was more valuable than gold, would you be interested? (A closing question if there ever was one.)

Resource. Time is a resource more valuable than gold. If you use your time most wisely, it will earn you more gold. But all the gold in the world can not buy you more time.

Tracy. Brian Tracy is one of America’s leading authorities on the development of human potential and personal effectiveness. He teaches people how to recapture time, and turn it into money. To salespeople that should sound like the Sirens calling brave Ulysses, The Pied Piper of Hamlin and Christmas (Hanukkah) all rolled into one.

Opportunity. I had the opportunity to talk to Tracy about his upcoming all day seminar with the legendary Og Mandino.

Attitude. “The height to which you can rise, is determined by how deep you build your foundation.” stated Tracy, when I asked his philosophy of sales. “80% of sales success has to do with personality, attitude, determination, character, and persistence. It has more to do with the person you are, than the things you do. Only 20% is technical.”

Confidence. “The more you work on your self, the more confidence you will have.” said Tracy. “The more you accept complete responsibility for your results, the stronger and more forceful a personality you become. The more details and in depth your product knowledge, the greater confidence you have that your product can help your prospect. Confidence makes you more effective in your interactions with others. In the final analysis, the conviction a sales person has about the value of what they are selling the customer, is often the critical factor that makes the sale.”

Mistake. “Here is a major mistake that sales people make. They think that because it is relatively easy to get into sales, it is relatively easy to rise in sales. These are two totally separate factors.” Tracy said. “If you are going to rise above the mediocre in sales, it requires tremendous work on one’s self and on one’s mind.”

Changes. “Three major changes have been evolving through the past decade,” said Tracy.
“1. Customers are smarter and more knowledgeable about our products and services then they have ever been before.
2. Competition is more varied and determined.
3. The contraction of the economy has shifted customer’s minds. They are hypersensitive to value and price.”

Competition. “When the economy contracts and the number of products increase, the competition becomes fiercer.” said Tracy. “Customers become far more selective in what they buy; they take more time to make up their minds; it takes more calls to make a sale; and competition is more carefully considered than it was before.

Sales. “Prospects are far more demanding with regard to quality, value, service, and support,” said Tracy. “The first order is often the hardest to get, but the second is the most important. The reorder is determined by the level of customer satisfaction and comfort the customer has in dealing with you.”

Price. “There’s a basic rule about price, never use price negotiations as an alternate to sales skills.” said Tracy. “A lot of times when a salesperson gets the objection that the price is too high, they immediately stop using professional sales skills. Salespeople who have not become skilled in selling simply fall back on price. People are not always looking for the lowest price but always want the best value. Price is only an issue if the product is a commodity and the purchase is not differentiated anywhere else.

It is the salesperson’s responsibility to differentiate themselves and their products. If you sell on the basis of price you do not get a loyal customer.

Realize. “It’s not how much it costs, it’s how much it’s worth.” he said.

Training. “Most people who say that they want advanced sales training actually need refinement of basic sales training.” said Tracy.

Seminar. “In the seminar we start out with sales qualities of top sales people. They seem to have very specific attitudes towards themselves and their work. The foundation of attitude is what they build all their technical abilities and skills on,” Tracy said. “I talk about relationship selling and the importance of building trust, building price, accepting risk.”

Time. “Top salespeople spend their time very differently than poor sales people. I talk about critical ways that top salespeople think about their time,” he said. “Thinking about time is very important. People are always claim to be swamped. It’s often just a lack of priority and direction. The most important thing to do is create ways to invest time that builds relationship and trust with your customers.”

Success. “Built on a foundation of attitude, success is based on how you keep your self-psychology primed.” Tracy said. “The more you work on your inner person, the more effective and successful you are as the outer person.

Questions. Everyone says, “Questions are the key to selling.” Half true. Successful salespeople combine their existing selling skills with a commitment to lifelong learning. Brian Tracy has something that dovetails perfectly with questions. He has answers.

Learn. Are you “Going for the Gold?” Then you must attend a Tracy event when it comes to your area. It will be an event you can learn from and be inspired by.

 

FREE GitBit

Brian Tracy has reproduced a famous (but author unknown) poem, “Don’t Quit.” Just go to www.gitomer.com click Access GitBit in the top right corner, register if you’re a first time user and enter the words Don’t Quit in the search box.

“The height to which you can rise, is determined by how deep you build your foundation.” ~Brian Tracy