Secret #3: Surround yourself with positive, successful people. Associate with men and women whose lives are headed in the right direction. Avoid negative, critical and complaining people. They drag, tire, distract and discourage you, and lead you inevitably to underachievement and failure. Remember, you cannot fly with the eagles if you continue to scratch with the turkeys.

Secret #4: Take excellent care of your physical health. You need high levels of energy to sell effectively, and to bounce back from continual rejection and discouragement. Be sure to eat the right foods, exercise appropriately and regularly, rest sufficiently and participate in recreation and other activities to revitalize your mind, body and spirit. Make a decision that you will live to be 80 years old or older, and begin today to do whatever you must to achieve that goal.

Secret #5: Visualize yourself as one of the top people in your field. Imagine yourself performing at your best, throughout every day. Feed your subconscious mind with vivid, exciting and emotionalized pictures of yourself as positive, confident, competent and completely in control of every part of your life. These clear mental pictures pre-program you and motivate you to sell at your best in any situation.

Secret #6: Practice positive self-talk, continually. Control your inner dialogue. Talk to yourself the way you want to be, rather than the way you might be today. For example, repeat to yourself these powerful words, again and again: “I like myself! I’m the best! I can do it! I love my work!” Tell yourself, “I feel happy! I feel healthy! I feel terrific!”

Remember, fully 95% of your emotions are determined by the way you talk to yourself, most of the time. The way you feel determines how you behave; and how you behave determines how much you sell.

Your job is to put yourself on an upward spiral, thinking and talking to yourself positively, throughout the day. You think, walk, talk and act like the very best people in your field. When you do, your success becomes inevitable.

Secret #7: Take positive action toward your goals, every day. Be proactive rather than reactive. Grab the bull by the horns. If you are not happy with your income, then go where your customers are and meet them face-to-face. If you are not happy with any part of your life, then accept responsibility and take charge.

All successful salespeople are intensely action-oriented. They have a sense of urgency. They develop a bias for action. They do it now! They have a compulsion to closure. They maintain a fast tempo and move quickly in everything they do.

The good news is that the faster you move, the more energy you have. The faster you move, the more ground you cover. The faster you move, the more people you see. The more people you see, the more experience you gain. The more experience you gain, the more sales you make. The more people you see and the more sales you make, the more your self-esteem and self-respect increases, and the more you will feel like great about yourself. You will have more energy. You will be happier and more positive.

The faster you move, the more you take complete control of your entire life, and virtually guarantee that you will be one of the top performers and the highest paid people in your field.

Salespeople are among the most important people in America. Every company’s survival depends on the success of its salespeople. High sales are the number one reason that companies succeed. Low sales are the number one reason that companies fail; and you can be in the driver’s seat.

If you are in sales, scheduling the initial appointment, when you meet face-to-face with the decision maker, is the first 20 percent of the transaction; but it accounts for 80 percent of the value in the sales process. The presentation, the closing of the sale, the followup, the delivery of the product or service, etc., represent the second 80 percent that only accounts for 20 percent of the value.

Forget About the Small Things
In setting priorities, never be tempted to complete small things first. Don’t start at the bottom of your list and work toward the most important tasks at the top. Don’t allow yourself to become bogged down in low-priority activities. Don’t major in minors. As Goethe said, “The things that matter most must never be at the mercy of the things that matter least.”

Human nature tends to follow the Law of Least Resistance. In time management and personal work, this means that you are compelled to start with the small tasks, thinking that as soon as you are warmed up, you will launch into your big tasks and be more productive.

What I have found is that when you start with little tasks, they begin to multiply, like rabbits in the springtime. When you begin completing your small tasks, you seem to attract more and more small tasks that require work. The longer and harder you work, the more small tasks seem to arise. By the end of the day, you will be exhausted, and you won’t have accomplished anything of value. Start with your most important work first.

Learn more about how to grow your school from Brian Tracy
Go to: NAPMA.com/BrianTracy.

Five Key Questions for Setting Priorities
Ask yourself the following five questions, regularly, to ensure that you are working on your top priorities and achieving the most that you can possibly do.

Why am I on the payroll?Ask yourself if what you are doing right now is the most important thing that you have been hired to do. If your boss were sitting across your desk, then what would you do differently than what you are doing at this moment?

Try this exercise. Make a list of everything you think you have been hired to do and take it to your boss. Ask your boss to organize this work by priority. Have your boss tell you what is most important and what is least important. From that moment forward, work single-mindedly on those tasks that your boss considers to be more important than anything else.

What are my highest value activities? Remember, there are only three things that you do that account for most of the value of your work. Which of your activities contribute the greatest value to your company? If you are not sure, ask the people around you. Everyone knows the most important things that other people should be doing.

What are my key result areas? What are the specific results that you must achieve to do your job in an excellent fashion? Of all those key result areas, which are most important?

What can I, and only I, do that if done well will make a real difference? What is the one thing, hour by hour, that only you can do and, if you do it well, will make a significant contribution to your business? This is something that no one else can do for you. If you don’t do it, then it won’t be done. Doing this task, doing it well and doing it promptly can have a major impact on your career.

What is the most valuable use of my time, right now? This is the key question in time management. Every time planning and management skill is oriented to help you to determine the correct answer to this question at every moment of the day.