Jim Rohn wrote an article about doing remarkable things. He entitled the article “Doing the Remarkable.” But I like to call it “Turning Weeds into Gardens.”

I get this from the article itself. Mr. Rohn says:

“Here is why humans can do remarkable things: because they are remarkable. Humans are different than any other creation. When a dog starts with weeds, he winds up with weeds. And the reason is because he’s a dog. But that’s not true with human beings. Humans can turn weeds into gardens.”

Humans – that’s you and me – can turn weeds into gardens. Incredible, really! But you have to dig deep within yourself. Do you have weeds in your life just waiting to be turned into gardens?

The bottom line is that if you’re not closing sales, you’re not making money. It won’t be long before you’re out of a job. Unfortunately, many salespeople don’t know how to close the deal. Or they try to close too early.

60% of all sales are made by only 4% of sales people. This is an incredible number. These 4% close so many deals, because they persist. They know how to close the deal.

But let’s back a bit. Before you can close you need to establish yourself as a problem solver to the prospect’s problems. You need to ask questions first to find out the problem. Then you need to ask questions to help the customer discover how your product solves their problem.

The number one reason people don’t buy is that they don’t trust you. It’s probably not that they think you’re an out-and-out liar. They might have some sub-conscious thing going on about salespeople. They may have heard something that just doesn’t gel.

They bottom line is that you can’t close until you have established sufficient value in the client’s mind. Don’t do it too early. If you do, the client won’t buy. You know how it is on the buying side. If you don’t see the value, no matter how persuasive the salesperson, you’re not going to buy.

To start the close, Zig Ziglar, a leading sales training coach, says, “Start with your most valuable point”. This point should align with the prospects most valuable buying point. You can only find this out by asking questions.

Once you’ve started with your most valuable point, you can start adding trial closes: How do you feel about
what you’ve heard so far? Are you interested in saving money? When would you like to start saving money? These types of questions will help you get inside the mind of the customer and help you understand what kinds of questions you need to address.

Ziglar also says, “When the client says no they are not going to change their minds. They make new decisions based on new information.” What does this mean? It means that when the customer says “No”, it’s because they don’t have enough information to say yes. You must provide them with that additional information so that they can say yes.

Persistence really does pay. If you really believe you have a solution to their problem, you will persist until they understand what you have. Hone your closing skills and you’ll find yourself rising to the top of your profession. Zig Ziglar has many more programs on selling and personal development that will help you in your personal and professional aspirations.

Brian Tracy is an international success coach. He has produced a Podcast series entitled “21 Great Ways To Double Your Productivity.” In this installment of that series, Brian Tracy discuss how to double your output by using the ABCDE Method.

You will find the principles discussed in this article simple to implement in your life. The ABCDE Method by Brian Tracy is hands-down one of the most effective time management methods anywhere.

This method will help you to learn to pick the most valuable task and then to discipline yourself to work on that task until it is complete. Time management revolves around helping to clarify for you the most important task that you should be working on, before you start working.

It’s easy to figure out your most important task. Think about which, of all your tasks, will carry the greatest consequences, whether or not it’s finished.

All highly productive people constantly think about potential consequences of the tasks they need to perform as they plan. Then they choose to work on the tasks that will have the greatest consequences.

The three steps of Brian Tracy’s Successful ABCDE Method:

1. Make a list of everything that you have to do.

2. Go through the list and put one of these letters (ABCDE) by each item

A’s will be your most important tasks. These have the greatest consequences. Always complete these first.

B’s carry less consequences and should be completed second. The consequences are minor and not long lasting.

“C” items are nice to do, but have no consequences. These are things like reading the newspaper at work, phoning a friend, or going out for coffee. Again, these are nice to do, but carry no consequences for your career or for your long-term success.

You should always complete all A’s before moving onto the B’s. Complete all B’s before moving onto the C’s and so on.

A “D” task is a task you delegate. You need to delegate as much as possible to partners or coworkers who can do that particular task as well or better than you.

“E” means Eliminate. Get rid of these without fear of consequence.

Remember, you must discipline yourself to free up your time so you can work on your A and B tasks. Simplify your life and free up time.

And the last step in the ABCDE Method…

3. Put A’s in order of priority.

Put “1″ by highest value task, “2″ by the next highest value: A1, A2, A3, etc. Once this is complete, put everything else aside and begin working on “A1″ right away. Work on “A1″ is fully complete.
If you follow this Brian Tracy Success Secret, you will be well on your way to doubling your productivity.

This article is part of a series of articles that will review Brian Tracy’s “Eat That Frog”. The book is about how to focus on the most important tasks in your life and get those done.

Introduction

This article will only review the introduction of Brian Tracy’s book “Eat That Frog”.

The need to be selective

Our lives are becoming more and more crowded with stuff that we need to get done. So Brian Tracy says that we need to be able to pick the most important tasks in our lives and work on those until their complete.

The truth about frogs

Brian Tracy quotes Mark Twain saying, “Mark Twain once said that if the first thing you do each morning is to eat a live frog, you can go through the day with the satisfaction of knowing that that is probably the worst thing that is going to happen to you all day long.”

There is a strong truth in what Brian Tracy is saying here. We need to tackle the toughest things. The things that we least want to do.

Brian Tracy’s first rule of frog eating: if you have two frogs, eat the ugliest one first. This just means that if you have two tasks do the most important, most pressing one first. Should be easy right? But we tend to do the easy stuff first.

Brian Tracy’s second rule of frog eating: if you have to eat a live frog at all, it doesn’t pay to sit and look at it for very long. He is saying get your task over with.

Take action immediately

People who don’t take action immediately are failing to execute. This is one of the biggest problems in business today. Procrastinators don’t excel. Procrastinators don’t get ahead.

Develop habits of success

These habits include setting priorities, overcoming procrastination, and getting on with your most important task right away. I strongly agree with Brian Tracy. If your frog is procrastination, then you need to decide what your most important task is and set about doing it right away.

Develop a positive addiction

This just means that you get used to and addicted to the endorphins that come from getting things done, from eating your frog. So get to it.

No shortcuts

Practice really is the only way to become really good at something. With practice you can develop any hand that you want.

The three D’s of new habit formation

The three D’s are decision, discipline, and determination.

Visualize yourself as you want to be

Part of being a successful person is being able to see yourself as you want to become. If you can learn to see yourself in a new light, you’ll be well on your way to becoming a successful person.

Brian Tracy truly is one of the world’s master success teachers. He has 87 audio programs on the market. These programs cover personal development items such as self-discipline, communicating with power, goal-setting, success secrets, and closing the sale.

Below you will find a selection of some of Brian Tracy’s Greatest Audio CDs:

A Million Miles in a Thousand Years was authored by Donald Miller. It chronicles his life as he edits it for a movie. But this book is much more than just a story about writing a screenplay. This book shows us how we can make our lives into something special.

My goal with this review is not to give a comprehensive overview of the book. Rather, I hope to share some ideas from the book that were meaningful to me.

I’ll first say that there is a lot to love about this book. In fact, I have many quotes that I love from this book.

First off, I’ll start with a quote towards the beginning of the book. He says:

“When Steve, Dan, and I first started working together, I didn’t want Don to embrace conflict. I wanted an easy story. But nobody really remembers easy stories. Characters have to face their greatest fears with courage. That’s what makes a story good. If you think about the stories you like most, they probably have lots of conflict. There is probably death at stake, inner death or actual death, you know. These polar charges, these happy and sad things in life, are like colors God uses to draw the world.”

It truly is conflict that gives color to our lives. Chances are if we don’t have conflict in her life, were stagnant. I don’t want to be stagnant. And it seems the only way to keep from being stagnant is to have conflict. But we don’t like to introduce conflict or alive. In fact, Miller states:

“Here’s the truth about telling stories with your life. It’s going to sound like a great idea, and you are going to get excited about it, and then when it comes time to do the work, you’re not going to want to do it. It’s like that with writing books, it’s like that with life. People love to have a lived a great story, but few people like to work it takes to make it happen. But joy costs pain.”

I often feel that I’m not willing to pay the cost for joy. It’s difficult to give up my comfort. It’s difficult to leave my comfort zone. Pain is not comfortable. But that’s the price.

And so living your life deliberately – living your life on purpose – requires something extra of yourself. But giving the something extra is addictive. Miller says,

“And that’s the thing you realize when you organize your life into the structure of story. You get a taste for one story and then another, and then another, and the stories will build until your living a kind of epic of risk and reward, and the whole thing will be molding you into the actual character whose roles you’ve been playing. And when you live a good story, you get a taste for kind of meaning in life, and you can’t go back to being normal; you can’t go back to meaningless scenes stitched together by the forgettable thread of wasted time. The more practice stories I lived, the more I wanted an epic to climb inside of and see through to its end.”

And the reward for living such a life. A good life. A life with risk and reward. To reward is living a life with meaning. Miller says,

“Pain then, if one could have faith in something greater than himself, might be a path To experiencing a meaning beyond the false gratification of personal comfort.”

I highly recommend this book as a way to live your life better. Decide what you want. Look at we have to overcome to get it. And go get it. This is what makes a great life.