11 Tips for Success from Sales Legend Brian Tracy

Life is funny… This weekend it came back full circle.

About 16 years ago I was trying to make it as a personal trainer. Only problem was I didn’t know how to grow my business…brian and bedros

So I was the guy who was a personal trainer and also held jobs as a fry cook and a bouncer at a bar just to make ends meet.

One of my three clients realized that I needed help in selling… Truth is, I was lousy at it.

In fact, he flat out told me that I didn’t sell him on training – that I simply “took his order,” which made me an order taker.

That stung… But he was right.

But he was also kind enough to help me out by handing me two cassette tapes: one from Tom Hopkins and the other Brian Tracy. These guys are sales trainers and masters of their craft.

I’d listen to these tapes every day, several times a day. In fact, many a time I’d wake up in the morning to find the cord from my head phones wrapped around my throat after falling asleep at night while listening to Brian Tracy on my Walkman in bed.

I was so broke in those days… A beat up 79 Toyota pick up, Taco Bell for lunch and dinner, three jobs just to make ends meet and the vision of one day owning my own personal training gym.

But listening to those tapes paid off…

Fast forward a few years and I was the owner of Premiere Results, a thriving and highly profitable personal training business. I employed a staff of trainers, an assistant and sales managers.

Life was good… No more fry cook or bouncer gig. I was driving a brand new Chevy Tahoe – fully loaded, eating sushi and not Taco Bell…

…but best of all my business and staff were helping hundreds of people in our local area get fit and stay healthy. I was doing what I loved!

And I was a selling machine!

My best day of personal training sales was $27,300 and my largest sale to one person was a 12-month package at $13k and change.

I sold what I loved as believed in, fitness. It felt great doing what I was put on this planet to do.

Today those same skills of selling and marketing what I love and believe in have helped me create a multi-million dollar empire of brands and businesses throughout the fitness industry.

And this weekend in San Diego, while running my 7 figure formula mastermind, it all came back full circle.

As it turns out, Brian Tracy was also running an event in San Diego at the very same hotel. In fact, our events were across the hall from each other.

So I stopped by his event during the lunch break and thanked him. He asked to hear my story, so I told him… He stood up and gave me a huge hug.

In that very moment, it all came back full circle. I got to thank the man who gave me a skill that I was able to build on and help others with.

Forever grateful.

Surreal.

To honor this awesome experience, I’d like to share with you 11 sales and mindset tips I learned from the great Brian Tracy. If you start using these tips in your own life and your own business, I promise you you’ll see massive results!

Tip #1 – Do one thing at a time.

 

Anyone who says they are a good multitasker is a liar.

There are a lot of psychological studies that back this up, but honestly, I’ve seen this one even in my personal experience.

dollar oneMultitaskers may seem impressive when you first meet them – since they seem so busy and have so much responsibility – but give them a few months…

Before you know it, all their projects have collapsed and they’ve lost whatever prestige and success they seemed to have before.

And frankly, a multitasker is just someone who does five crappy jobs at once.

If you really want to succeed, you need to be the one who does one excellent job at a time before moving onto the next excellent job.

After all, you only get paid for done…and that “done” should be excellent.

Tip #2 – Sell benefits, not features.

 

Whenever you sell, whatever you’re selling, sell the benefits.

Sure, your prospect might be able to guess the benefits by looking at the features, but why put the effort on them?

Your job as a salesperson is to make the buying process as easy as possible for the prospect.

And the best way to do that is to show them how buying your product leads them directly to a happier, healthier life. No guesswork, no gamble, just benefits. 

I personally believe so strongly in this idea that I’ve made it one of the cornerstones of my own sales system.

Tip #3 – Look at the world through the eyes of a successful person.

 

This is a really big important tip – worth sitting and thinking about for a while – but for now there’s one thing in particular I want to focus on:

Abundance.

If you want to be successful in life you need to think with abundance. Start looking at the world as if you DO have what you need to succeed, and there IS enough to go around and make everyone happy.

This might not sound convincing at first, but here’s the thing:

When you think with abundance, you naturally start to accomplish more and make a bigger difference in other people’s lives, because you believe that positive changes are possible and within reach.

Tip #4 – Make decisions.

 

Brian Tracy himself says it best:

“Decisiveness is a characteristic of high-performing men and women. Almost any decision is better than no decision at all.”

Every time you make a decision, you’re forcing yourself into a position where you’ll either succeed or fail, no third option.

This is a good thing.

Even when your decisions lead to failures, those failures become powerful lessons that help you get closer and closer to success.

The worst thing that can ever happen to you is not failure but stagnation, and that’s what happens when you DON’T make decisions.

Tip #5 – Ask for what you want. 

 

Sure, a lot of the sales process has to do with warming up people to say “yes,” but the most important part of any sale (or negotiation) is the part where you ask.

And there’s only one right way to ask: politely, directly, and with the expectation that you’ll get what you want.Bright Question

Want your clients to pay you more? Ask. Want a better deal on the rent for your business? Ask. Want someone else’s help and advice? Ask.

This is related to the idea of making decisions…every time you ask for what you want is a chance to improve your skills in communication, negotiation, and selling. Even if you don’t get what you want, that experience is invaluable, and it will set you apart from people who wait around in silence.

Tip #6 – Think from the other point of view.

 

You already know that your product is great (or at least, you should). Good news for you, but…

Your product is worthless until your prospect believes that it’s worth something.

This is why it’s so important to role-play your sales presentation – from both sides. Trust me, I didn’t include a role-play class in my Close Clients system for nothing. 

So take the time to think about what they want and what they need. If you can figure that out, the sales pitch will write itself.

Tip #7 – Take care of your health.

 

This isn’t just me speaking as a fitness professional; this is what Brian Tracy says.

You need to think and act with more speed and clarity than the competition if you want to succeed. And, as a fitness professional, you need to demonstrate the amazing results of a healthy lifestyle.

There’s no distinction between the health of your body and the health of your business. You need to take care of both, or they both will fail together.

Tip #8 – Be thankful for what you already have.

 

brian bedros hugThis is another mindset tip – if you spend all day grumbling about what you don’t have, you aren’t thinking with an abundant mindset. And ironically, you end up trapping yourself in the very situation you aren’t happy with.

Besides, gratitude is attractive… it shows that you are mature, thoughtful, and kind. A lack of gratitude is extremely unattractive.

Which one do you think attracts more clients and business partners?

Tip #9 – Sell to the people most likely to buy.

 

Especially in the early stages of marketing, you might be tempted to go straight to your doubters and try to convert them to believers.

That’s a good attitude… but not a good strategy.

Research shows that most businesses end up making 80% of their revenue from only 20% of their customers.

That means your top priority should always be to find your loyal 20% and keep them loyal, because they will always be your main source of revenue.

What about that other 80%? Well, that leads into my next tip…

Tip #10 – Referrals!

 

85% of all your sales will come from referrals.

In other words, referrals are your primary means of attracting new loyal customers and garnering sales from the other 80%.

In fact, your best source of referrals IS your loyal 20%.

So make it a top priority to inspire client loyalty, and then strongly encourage them to give you referrals! 

Tip #11 – Feed your brain.

 

Keep learning. Keep reading. Keep experimenting.

Of course you need to take action and stick to the things that work, but if you don’t keep feeding your brain new info it will eventually stagnate.

This is part of what I mean when I say that you should never peak.

Speaking of always learning, have you checked out my Close Clients system? This is my expert sales system that will help you close 9 out of every 10 clients. In this series of informative videos, I share with you my years of experience in selling fitness programs and show you the exact same formula that allowed me to build multiple 6 and 7 figure businesses. Check it out now!

Brain Tracy is the man. I still can’t believe I got to meet him…

The power of a successful mindset, right?

Committed to your success,

Bedros