Professionalism Done the Right Way With Brian Tracy; Part 2

In the final episode of this martial arts-specific interview, fellow Black Belt and world-renowned “professional” imparts a wealth of knowledge on a wide variety of significant topics. Addressing The Seven Key Result Areas in selling and in management; the 80/20 Principle; the zero-based thinking, and more; we present to you… Master Brian Tracy.

MABusiness: One of your landmark programs that I’ve listened to many times is the Psychology of Selling . In our line of work, selling is primarily enrolling and renewing students in the school . What advice can you give martial arts school owners that will help them develop the right mindset for selling, but most of all, feel comfortable with the sales process?

Brian Tracy: The most successful people in any business, especially in martial arts, are good sales people . Our business is entrepreneurial . It requires that we find people, talk to them, and convince them that it’s a good idea to train, and then we close the sale . The more confidence you have in your ability to ask people to make a decision to sign up, the better you do it . The more relaxed you are, the more effective you are. What we have found is that, if you’re not good at selling, you feel uncomfortable or clumsy with it and avoid doing it, or they do it poorly or feel clumsy about it.

What I found—and this changed my life when I was a young man—is that selling is a skill . Like riding a bicycle, you can learn the skill of selling . So, here’s the best advice I can give you: Learn how to sell. MABusiness: While we’re on that topic of selling, a lot of school owners are very passionate about what they do, but, as you know, the whole selling aspect is a problem for some people. Can you give us some tips on how to close the sale? Brian Tracy: The first thing is to be positive . You should be very positive yourself, like you cannot imagine a person not doing the martial arts . The second thing is, use “educational selling .” Educational selling is where you don’t try to sell so, instead, try to teach the person what they will get. Here are some examples: “When you get this, you will be fitter. You will be trimmer. You will have more confidence, better balance, and better poise. You will feel more confident in new social situations. You will have higher levels of aerobic fitness. You will be more attractive to members of the opposite sex.”

There seems to be a reciprocal relationship between your level of self-esteem and your level of self-efficacy or how well you do what you’re doing.

These are all the things that go along with the martial arts . Ask the person: “Are these the sort of things that are important to you?” The answer is yes . Now you say one of many things: “When would you like to get started?” “How soon would you like to get started?” “Would you like to start today?” “What is the first day that’s convenient for you?” In other words, ask for the order . Just ask them to make a buying decision . Don’t bring them to the edge and say, “Well, what do you think?” Give them a specific action so they can provide a response.

MABusiness: Recently, I’ve listened to the “Psychology of Achievement,” one of our favorite programs that you’ve ever produced. Could you please give our readers some pointers on how to develop the necessary psychology for achievement as it pertains to growing a martial art school?

Brian Tracy: We say that everything you do on the outside is determined by your self-concept on the inside. The core of your selfconcept is your self-esteem, which is how much you like yourself . The more you like yourself, the bigger goals you set. The more you like yourself, the more persistent you are. The more you like yourself, the more confidence you have.

We teach people to say over and over again, “I like myself, I like myself, I like myself .” In fact, that’s the key to success in your business . The more you like yourself, the better you will do your business—and the better you do your business, the more you’ll like yourself.

There seems to be a reciprocal relationship between your level of self-esteem and your level of self-ef- ficacy or how well you do what you’re doing . People who really feel good about themselves do what they do much better than people who don’t . One of the keys to building your school, by the way, is that people feel really good about themselves as a result of going there . That’s why constantly encouraging people, constantly giving them praise, constantly upgrading them and moving them up, and so on, makes them feel like winners . It makes them have high self-esteem, makes them associate feeling good about themselves with you and your school . That’s how the psychology of selling begins.

MABusiness: A martial arts school is a small business and, if run properly, it, too, can be highly profitable . What universal tips would you give school owners on how to grow rich doing what they love to do?

Brian Tracy: In my book, “Getting Rich Your Own Way,” and in my program, “Getting Rich in America,” we talk about the fact that everybody starts off with nothing. Every successful entrepreneur started off as an unsuccessful entrepreneur. And seventy-nine percent of self-made millionaires in America are people who started with nothing and built their own businesses . Four out of five of your chances of becoming financially independent, which must be a goal, will come from starting and building your business.

Here’s the other thing: You only learn to do it right by doing it wrong . You only learn to do correct things by making mistakes . So, in the first part of your business, you will make a lot of mistakes . And you’ll be very frustrated . What do most people do when they make mistakes and they’re frustrated? They quit . They just say, “It’s obviously not for me; I’m not really cut out for this; I’m not good at this .” Remember, the reason you say that is because you have not yet learned the skills that you need to learn . Here’s another important point . It’s easy to start your own business, it’s hard to succeed in it . Many people think, “Boy, this is easy to start a business or a studio, so therefore it should always be easy .” No . The only thing that is easy is starting . After that, everything is hard, harder, and even harder . So, what you do is…you learn . Become a learning machine and take in information continually.

It may take seven years for to be successful . Seven years from now, you’ll either be flat-lined, still struggling or an extraordinarily creative, intelligent, experienced entrepreneur with the ability to make an incredible living anywhere you go.

So you say “What? Seven years? That’s a long time!” However, the time is going to pass anyway . So you must constantly be learning . You have the ability to learn anything you need to learn.

Everybody reading this interview can become a millionaire . The very fact that you have your own studio means you have a special instinct that only one percent of the population has . You have the courage, the vision, the daring, the knowledge, and the willingness to take a risk like that, to start a studio . Which means, you’ve got it! You’ve got the core . It’s almost like having a good physical body, now you can just train that body to accomplish anything you want.

MABusiness: Can you explain the Pareto Principle?

Brian Tracy: Wilfredo Pareto was an Italian economist . In 1895, he was studying to be an instructor of health in Italy . He noticed that the top twenty percent of the people controlled eighty percent of the money . He called these people the “vital few” versus the “trivial many .” He began to apply this ratio to other economic events . He found that, in any industry, twenty percent of the companies made eighty percent of the profit . In entrepreneurship, twenty percent of the entrepreneurs make eighty percent of the money . Even with customers, twenty percent of your customers will represent eighty percent of your business, referrals, and so on . He said to focus on the top twenty percent . Identify who they are, what they are, where they are . For example, if you survey the students in your studio, you will find that about eighty percent of them come from twenty percent of the occupations available . You may find that most of your people come from sales . You’ll find that most of your people may come from one school area . You’ll find that most of your young kids come from families where the father does a particular task.

It’s amazing, when you start looking for this concept…you’ll find it . if that’s the case, then the findings is where you focus your efforts on.

MABusiness: Please tell us about key result areas . What are they, and how can school owners use them to create a more efficient and profitable business?

Brian Tracy: This is important. There are “Seven Key Result Areas” in selling. There are also “Seven Key Result Areas” in management and seven in business.

In key result areas, we find that you’re successful to the degree to which you have mastered all seven in each area. All of your problems will come from a weakness in one of the seven areas. Here are the seven in selling:

1. Prospecting.
2. Establishing. So that people will like you and trust you.
3. Identifying their needs . Why would they take lessons in the first place?
4. Presenting. Showing that their needs can best be satisfied by your studio, by your method of training, by your location and so on.
5. Answering objections or concerns. What if I miss a class? What if I’m short on a payment a month?
6. Closing the sale. Asking for the order.
7. Getting re-sales and referrals. Getting the person to upgrade and getting them to bring friends .

MABusiness: Can you give us an example in another area of business?

Brian Tracy: Yes. In managing, there are seven key tasks as well.

1. Planning . Just thinking through and planning . Now here’s a rule from Peter Drucker, who’s considered the founding father of the study of management . The leader, the manager, has to think about the future, has to plan because only he or she is tasked to do it. None of your staff is responsible for planning. None of your staff can plan the future of your studio, only you can do that . If you do it well, you’re going to have a great future . If you do it poorly, you’re going to have a poor future . Therefore, good people think a lot about the future . They plan.
    
2. Organizing is pulling together the resources that you need . Like finding and opening the studio, getting the money that you require, getting the people that you require, getting things set up . Organizing to fulfill the plan.
    
3. Staffing is getting the right people to help you . Your ability to find and hire the right people is very often the hinge upon which your whole business turns . You get one wrong person and it can really hurt your business.
    
4. Delegating is telling people exactly what you need them to do to the extent that they fully understand it and then making sure that they do it the way that you want it done by giving them regular feedback . Teach your people the way that you would teach your students.
    
5. Supervising and making sure that people do it . Remember, delegation is not abdication . You still own the task, you’re still responsible . You’re just like a doctor with a patient in intensive care . You keep taking the pulse and watching to make sure everything is okay.
    
6. Measuring. Set measures and standards for every day . How many people are you going to call each day? How many new students do you want to sign up each day? How many tasks is a person expected to do each day and how will you measure his or her success? The rule is, if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it . And what gets measured gets done.
    
7. Reporting . Keep accurate records . If you have bank loans, your banks will want to know exactly how you are doing financially . If you have investors, they’ll want to know . Your spouse will want to know, your friends might want to know . Measuring and keeping accurate track of what you’re doing and then reporting that on a regular basis is essential to good business management . Now, if you’re having any problems at all in your business, there’s a weakness in one of those seven areas.

MABusiness: As our industry continues to grow, commercial martial arts schools are in greater need of quality employees than ever before . Can you give us some sound advice on how to build peak performing teams?

Brian Tracy: The two things in building a high-performance team are, number one, everybody feels in the know, and number two, use a very high level of trust . It’s based on years and years of research. The key to peak performing teams is that everybody feels like they’re a part of the team . There are no insiders; no outsiders . I have two or three ethics. Number one, my job is to maintain harmony . So I make sure everybody there gets along with everybody else. If we make a mistake and hire a negative person, we encourage that person to go somewhere else very quickly.

Number two, I have an open door policy . Anybody can ask me anything at any time, so everything is wide open . Everything is printed; everybody can see what’s going on. Everybody feels like they’re part of the team . There’s no need to know
private information.

Number three, everybody is highly responsible. I don’t sit on people’s shoulders and demand that they come or go . I make sure everybody knows their job and is happy with it . Then, if they need to go out for some reason or they come in late or they leave early or something, I expect them to be highly responsible.

Ninety percent of your people, if you give them high levels of responsibility, will honor that . Ten percent will not . You get rid of those ten percent as soon as you find that they’re taking advantage of your system

MABusiness: In your opinion, what constitutes quality leadership? Brian Tracy: A leader is a person who has a very clear idea of where the business is going and someone who is able to convey that to other people . The one who says, “This is what we’re trying accomplish and this is how we’re doing it.” The key in the job of the leaders is to get followers. Your followers feel that they can accomplish more working with and for you than they could accomplish on their own.

Leaders have a vision . They set very clear goals and high standards . And leaders are always optimistic. Being an optimist is one of the most important qualities of entrepreneurship. MABusiness: If a martial arts school owner feels that he or she is in a leadership position, but they are really not very good at leading, where should they get started? Brian Tracy: Every person has the natural qualities of leadership . It’s really quite amazing. If you found yourself in a lifeboat with your
family, you’ll find yourself a leader.

The leader will push to the front. What Peter Drucker said is, “There may be natural born leaders, but there are so few of them, they make no difference in the great scheme of things .” He also said, “Leadership is learned by practice . You learn how to lead by leading and the way that you lead is that you make a decision of where we’re going.”

For example, you say, “Let’s go here. This is what we want to accomplish .” Then you discuss how to achieve it . The more people can discuss the plan of action, the more committed they are to it and the faster they will find ways to change or improve it.