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The Acid Test of Listening
By: Brian Tracy
Paraphrase Your Customer's Words
The customer is only sure that you have been listening when you paraphrase what the prospect has said and feed it back in your own words. This is where the rubber meets the road in effective listening. This is where you demonstrate in no uncertain terms to the prospect that your listening has been real and sincere. This is where you show the prospect that you were paying complete attention to what he or she was saying. Paraphrasing is how you prove it.
Question for Clarification
When the prospect has finished explaining his or her situation to you, and you have paused, and then questioned for clarification, you paraphrase the prospects primary thoughts and concerns, and feed them back to him or her in your own words.
Use the Right Words
For example, you might say, "Let me make sure I understand exactly what you are saying. It sounds to me like you are concerned about two things more than anything else, and that in the past you have had a couple of experiences that have made you very careful in approaching a decision of this kind."
Feed it Back Accurately
You then go on to feed back to the prospect exactly what he or she has told you, pausing and questioning for clarification as you go, until the customer says words to the effect of, "Yes, that's it! You've got it exactly."
Earn the Right to Sell
Only when you and the customer completed a thorough "examination" and have mutually agreed on the "diagnosis" you are in a position to begin talking to the customer about your product or service. In general terms, this means that you can not pull out your brochures and price lists and begin telling the customer how your product or service can solve his problems or achieve his goals until about seventy percent of the way through the sales conversation. Until then, you have not yet earned the right. Until then, you don't even know enough to begin an intelligent presentation without embarrassing yourself.
Be a Good Listener
The more and better you listen, the more and better people will like you, trust you and want to do business with you. The more they will want to get involved with you as a person and the more popular you will be with them. Excellent listeners are welcome everywhere, in every walk of life, and they eventually and ultimately arrive at the top of their fields.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.
First, remember that your first job in the sale is to get the customer to like you and believe that you understand his situation. Paraphrasing is the way you accomplish this.
Second, be sure that the customer agrees with you completely when you feed back his concerns to him. Only then can you really start selling.
Your Belief Becomes Your Reality
By: Brian Tracy
The Determinant of Your Success
Perhaps the most powerful single factor in your financial success is your beliefs about yourself and money. We call this the Law of Belief. It says simply this: Whatever you believe, with feeling, becomes your reality. Whatever you intensely believe becomes your reality. That we have a tendency to block out any information coming in to us that is inconsistent with our reality.
What Successful People Believe
What we've discovered is that successful people absolutely believe that they have the ability to succeed. And they will not entertain, think about, or talk about the possibilities that they'll fail. They do not even consider the possibility of failure.
Positive Thinking Versus Positive Knowing
You always act in a matter consistent with your beliefs. The most important belief system you can build is a prosperity consciousness where you absolutely believe that you are going achieve your financial goals. We call this positive knowing versus positive thinking. Positive thinking can sometimes be wishing or hoping. But positive knowing is when you absolutely know that no matter what, you will be successful.
The Foundation of Willpower
Another principle related to your beliefs is willpower. We know that willpower is essential to any success. Willpower is based on confidence. It's based on conviction. It's based on faith. It's based on your belief in your ability to triumph over all obstacles. And you can develop willpower by persistence, by working on your goals, by reading the biographies of successful people, by listening to audio programs, by reading books about people who've achieved success. The more information you take into your mind consistent with success, the more likely it is that you will develop the willpower to push you through the obstacles and difficulties you will experience.
Beat the Odds on Success
Remember that success is rare. Only one person in one hundred becomes wealthy in the course of a lifetime. Only five percent achieve financial independence. That means that the odds against you are 19-to-1. The only way that you're going to achieve your financial goals is if you get really serious. To succeed, you must get serious. You must get busy. You must get active. You must get going. Remember, everything counts.
Resolve to Achieve Greatly
Self-mastery, self-control, self-discipline are essential for anyone who wants to achieve greatly. And control over your thoughts is the hardest exercise in self-mastery that you will ever engage in. See if you can talk and think about only what you desire and not talk or think about anything that you don't want for 24 hours. Then you'll see what you're really made of. It's a hard thing to do but with practice, you can reach the point where you are thinking about your goals and desires most of the time. Then, your whole life will change for the better.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do to build a belief system consistent with the financial success you desire:
First, continually repeat to yourself the words, pictures and thoughts consistent with your dreams and goals. Whatever you repeat often enough, over and over, becomes a new belief.
Second, set a goal for yourself to think and talk only about the things that you want for the next 24 hours. This will be one of the hardest things you ever do. But if you can keep your mind on what you want and off of what you don't want for 24 hours, you can begin to change your entire future.
Increase Your Earnings 1000%!
By: Brian Tracy
Here's an exercise for you; imagine that it's possible for you to ear n ten times your current annual wage. If you're ear ning $25,000, imagine for a moment that it's possible for you to ear n $250,000, a 1000% increase.
Believe In Yourself
The first reaction of most people to that exercise is to smile briefly and then to begin thinking about why it isn't possible. One man said to me, "If you knew how many years it's taken for me to get to what I'm ear ning today you wouldn't be suggesting that I could ear n ten times as much."
There Are No Excuses
Mark Twain once wrote that there are a thousand excuses for every failure but never a good reason. The tragedy of the average American is that whereas his or her main preoccupation seems to be money, or the lack thereof, the average person has the inherent potential to ear n far more than he or she is doing currently
Can Someone Be 10x Better?
Is the manager ear ning $250,000 per year ten times as smart as the manager ear ning $25,000? 10 times as experienced? Does he or she work 10 times harder? Of course not. None of these are physically or mentally possible, but there are people in every business ear ning many times more than others with the same average age, experience and intelligence.
I.Q. Doesn't Really Matter
In fact, a few years ago in New York, a thousand men and women were selected at random and tested for I.Q. Between the one having the highest I.Q. in this sample and the one with the lowest, there was a difference of only 2 1/2 times. But between the person ear ning the most, who by the way, was not the one with the highest I.Q. and the one ear ning the least, who was not the one with the lowest I.Q., there was a difference of 100X in inc ome.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do to start increasing your earnings:
First, identify the highest ear ning, most successful people in your field and find out what it is that they are doing differently from others who aren't doing as well. Resolve to copy them every day.
Second, set a goal to double your earnings over the next two or three years and then figure out what you'll have to do to achieve it. Get started!
SikkaSoftware Corporation and Heartland Dental Care announce Clinical PracticeOptimizer™ Beta Launch for both solo and group practices
New product helpsbridge key information gap for dental healthcare providers who want to tracktheir clinical performance and benchmark it with their peer groups. Clinical Practice Optimizer™ addresses the clinical side of dentistry ascompared to Dental Practice Optimizer® that has been primary focused on thebusiness side.
“I believe thisproduct offers something that has never been offered to dentists beforeand CAN revolutionize dental care in
Dr. Rick Workman, CEOand President of Heartland Dental Care said, “The MAPS benchmarkingsystem Heartland has developed over the past two decades is included intoClinical Practice Optimizer. CPO has the ability to compare ones clinicaloutcome with the doctors "philosophical and intellectualbeliefs". Imagine how powerful it would be to be able tocompare what percentage of 40 year olds one treats for perio with practices allacross the country. How doe that compare with the percentage one"intellectually "believes should be treated. How many crowns orrestorations or endos or sealants or oral cancer screenings or localantimicrobial therapy "should" be done per 100 adults? by agegroup, by billing type, by national percentile of enrolled dentists.”
About Sikka Software
Sikka Software Corporation was incorporated in early 2004 with the intention ofproviding best of class business optimization and intelligence softwaresolutions to dental and healthcare community.
Sikka Software Corporationproducts, with 2800 installations, help dentists and teams understand andmaximize their business profitability with best fee schedules, ROI analysis,marketing, patient analysis, insurance analysis, supplies analysis anddemographics analysis. Privately held Sikka Software is headquartered in
About Heartland DentalCare
Heartland Dental Careis a collection of more than 200 hometown dental practices located throughout Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Florida, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Iowa, Virginia, Texas and Arizona .Heartland currently is affiliated with more than 270 dentists and more than1750 team members. In addition, Heartland serves consulting clients in
Limited time special offer for Clinical Practice Optimizer™ Beta is $1794 for a year. That is an incredible 50% off the regular retail price.
The Law of Compensation
By: Brian Tracy
You Get What You Give
Ralph Waldo Emerson, in his essay, "Compensation," wrote that each person is compensated in like manner for that which he or she has contributed. The Law of Compensation is another restatement of the Law of Sowing and Reaping. It says that you will always be compensated for your efforts and for your contribution, whatever it is, however much or however little.
Increase Your Value
This Law of Compensation also says that you can never be compensated in the long term for more than you put in. The income you earn today is your compensation for what you have done in the past. If you want to increase your compensation, you must increase the value of your contribution.
Fill Your Mind With Success
Your mental attitude, your feelings of happiness and satisfaction, are also the result of the things that you have put into your own mind. If you fill your own mind with thoughts, visions and ideas of success, happiness and optimism, you will be compensated by those positive experiences in your daily activities.
Do More Than You're Paid For
Another corollary of the Law of Sowing and Reaping is what is sometimes called the, "Law of Overcompensation." This law says that great success comes from those who always make it a habit to put in more than they take out. They do more than they are paid for. They are always looking for opportunities to exceed expectations. And because they are always overcompensating, they are always being over rewarded with the esteem of their employers and customers and with the financial rewards that go along with their personal success.
Provide the Causes, Enjoy The Effects
One of your main responsibilities in life is to align yourself and your activities with Law of Cause and Effect (and its corollaries), accepting that it is an inexorable law that always works, whether anyone is looking or not. Your job is to institute the causes that are consistent with the effects that you want to enjoy in your life. When you do, you will realize and enjoy the rewards you desire.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.
First, remind yourself regularly that your rewards will always be in direct proportion to your service to others. How could you increase the value of your services to your customers today?
Second, look for ways to go the extra mile, to use the Law of Overcompensation in everything you do. This is the great secret of success.
Practice Golden Rule Selling
By: Brian Tracy
To improve your sales performance, adopt the Golden Rule mentality. The Golden Rule says to, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." It also says, "Love your neighbor as yourself." The Golden Rule mentality in sales, says simply, "Sell unto others as you would have them sell unto you."
Different Strokes For Different Folks
What does this mean? Aren't there all kinds of different personalities that require different approaches and techniques? Well, yes and no. Practicing the golden rule in selling simply means that you sell to other people the way you would like to be sold to. You sell with the same honesty, integrity, understanding, empathy and thoughtfulness that you would like someone else to use in selling to you.
Seek First to Understand
If you would like a salesperson to take the time to thoroughly understand you and your situation before making a recommendation, you practice the same thing with your customers. If you would like a salesperson to give you honest information and to help you make an intelligent buying decision, you practice the same with your customer. If you would like a salesperson to be thoroughly knowledgeable about the strengths or weaknesses of his or her product or service, and that of his or her competitors, then you do the same with your product or service and your competitors.
Care About Your Customers
Perhaps the most important part of golden rule selling is the emotional component embraced in the word, "caring." Top sales professionals care about their customers. They care about themselves, their companies, their products and services, and they really care about helping their customers to make good buying decisions. If you think about the very best salespeople you know, you will recognize that they are caring individuals.
They Don't Care How Much You Know
If you think about your very best customers, you will recall that these are invariably people you care about, and who care about you. When you think about the people you buy from, you will recall that they seem to care about you more than the average. In every part of your business life, you will find that the significant people all have the denominator of caring as part of their character and their personalities.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.
First, resolve today to sell to your customers with the same honesty, empathy and understanding that you would like them to use in selling to you.
Second, take time to genuinely care about your customers, their individual needs and their unique situations. Make people feel important and they will make you feel important.
Customers for Life
The highest paid salespeople and the most profitable companies have the best reputation for customer service.
It looks like something out of the opening credits of the "Six Million Dollar
Three dimensional, real-time images of teeth rapidly appear one by one on a computer screen as a dentist waves a wand about the size of an electric toothbrush in a patient's mouth.
The whole process takes a minute or two, and the dentist has captured an image of the patient's teeth which can be sent to a lab to create a crown. It's a long way from the uncomfortable process of taking an impression using liquid and an impression tray.
The device, called the Lava Chairside Oral Scanner, is a creation of Lexington-based Brontes Technologies. The firm, part of 3M Co., of
"Being able to do this digitally has many positive effects," said Dr. Steven Spitz, who began using a prototype of the scanner about 18 months ago and now uses it for most of the impressions he takes. "I love the instant feedback," he said. "It's cut out a lot of time."
Although the device currently is marketed only for making impressions for crowns, Spitz has also used it to gather data for creating bridges and entire arches, or one row of teeth.
For Spitz's patient Matthew Pukel, the system resulted in a much more comfortable crown and a virtually touch-free procedure, versus having to hold his mouth shut over a tray filled with goop. "I really hate biting into that gummy paste," he said. "It was a much better experience overall than it was with the old-fashioned technique."
Digital scanning rather than actual impressions can cut down on turnaround time for crowns; create more accurate models of teeth, resulting in a better fit; improve patient education; and give patients and dentists a more comfortable, less invasive way to get the data necessary for crowns.
"It really makes a big impact in the quality of care," said Eric Paley, Brontes Technologies' general manager and cofounder. "It's a much better patient experience."
The scanner consists of high-speed image-processing algorithms, real-time modeling software, and an optical system containing multiple lenses and blue LED cells.
The technology is the first of its kind, according to its creators. Although there are products that create images of a patient's mouth, they use point and click methods - similar to taking pictures with a camera to create an image - while the Lava C.O.S. captures data in a video sequence in real time. It can capture 20 3D data sets per second. The device costs $24,000 and there is a $16 to $20 charge for processing each case.
Once the scan is complete and the dentist is satisfied with the images, they are sent to Brontes Technologies, which in turn sends the images to a dental lab. All that can happen within an hour, compared with a lag time of several days to ship traditional impressions to a lab.
Turnaround time for crowns using digital impressions has been halved from two weeks to a week at Advance Dental Technologies in
"Every once in a while in dentistry a revolutionary product comes out, and I really think this is one of them," said Advance Dental's president, Bob Cohen. "There really is a 'wow' factor." 
The New Mental Diet
By: Brian Tracy
One of the most powerful personal programming activities you can engage in is positive self-talk. Be your own cheerleader and talk to yourself positively all of the time.
Think About Your Dreams
As it happens, the average person talks to himself in a negative way. As much as 94 percent of your inner dialogue tends to be about the things you fear, your worries, the people you're angry at, your problems, your concerns and so on. You have to consciously keep your words, your inner dialogue, consistent with what you wish to accomplish.
The Most Powerful Antidote
Psychologists have proven that the words, "I can do it," are the antidote to the fear of failure that often holds you back from trying. Repeat these words over and over to yourself whenever you feel fearful or doubtful about anything that you want to attempt. Say very enthusiastically to yourself, "I can do it, I can do it, I can do it!" When you start saying, "I can do it, I can do it," you drive that message deep into your subconscious mind. This message lowers your fears and builds your self-confidence.
Make A Million!
Another thing you can say to yourself is, "I make a million. I make a million." Impress that message into your subconscious mind. Whenever you think about your work, say over and over again, "I'm the best, I'm the best, I'm the best." Making any one of these three statements, or anything that is positive makes you feel good about yourself and causes you to be more motivated. You become more focused, more determined. Wealthy, successful people have a continuous inner dialogue that is positive and constructive and uplifting and consistent with their goals and objectives.
Feed Your Mind Continually
Feed your mind from morning to night with words, pictures, information and ideas consistent with your goals for financial success. Develop the habit of thinking positively and confidently about wealth accumulation. Read stories, books and articles about other successful people. Think about how you could be like them. Visualize yourself, imagine, fantasize, pretend in your mind that you are like the kind of people that you admire and respect and want to be like.
Select A Role Model
Psychologists have proven that role models are essential for magnetizing your mind with the qualities and characteristics that you wish to develop in yourself. Pick a person that you admire. Whenever you face any kind of difficult situation, ask yourself, how would this person act in this situation? What would this person do? How would this person behave? You'll find that when you think about how someone you admire might behave, your own thinking becomes better and you tend to act at your very best.
Become An Expert
Read everything you can find about your business. Become an expert in your field. The more you learn about your profession, your trade and your craft, the more confident you will become that you can do well in it.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do to put yourself on the new mental diet for financial success:
First, repeat to yourself, over and over again, the wonderful words "I can do it! I can do it! I can do it!" Whenever you are anticipating any new goal or opportunity. This affirmation builds your self-confidence and conditions you for success.
Second, monitor your mental diet the way you would your physical diet. Be sure that you feed yourself throughout the day with positive stories, words, pictures and conversations about the things you want to have in your life. Refuse to read, watch, listen to or discuss things that are negative or depressing. This will make a tremendous difference in how you feel and how you act.
The Key to Influencing Others
By: Brian Tracy
Do Nice Things For Others
One of the best ways to influence someone is to do something nice for him. I know many successful salespeople who make a habit of taking their prospects out to breakfast or lunch. During the breakfast or lunch, they do not talk about their products or services unless the client brings it up. They merely make small talk, ask questions and listen. They work on building trust, and they work on establishing a friendly relationship. At the end of the breakfast or lunch, they tell the prospect that they will be getting in touch with him sometime in the future with the possibility of talking to him about helping him in some way.
See Them As Friends and Partners
The best salespeople and businesspeople in America today are those who look upon their customers and prospective customers as friends and partners. They always look for ways to help their partners improve their lives in ways that are not directly related to the products or services they sell. They sow seeds, and they reap a harvest. They trigger a desire in people to reciprocate. When the time comes for those salespeople to approach their prospects with the possibility of buying their products or services, the prospects are wide open to the questions and inputs of the salespeople. The prospects have a deep-down desire to reciprocate.
Send Thank You Notes
One of the best ways to use this principle in your interactions is to continually look for ways to say and do positive things for people. Look for ways to do kind acts and favors for your friends and prospects. Send thank-you notes. Send birthday cards. Send clippings from newspapers about subjects that you feel may be of interest to them. Always keep your promises, and follow up on your commitments. Always do what you say you will do. Do everything possible to put in, knowing confidently that you will ultimately be able to get out far more. You will reap if you sow.
Be A Go-Giver Rather Than A Go-Getter
Someone has observed that no one ever built a statue to a person to acknowledge what he or she got out of life. Statues are built only to people to acknowledge what they gave. The most powerful, influential and successful people you will ever meet always look for ways to do nice things for others. When you meet someone under almost any circumstance, one of the best questions you can ask is this: "Is there anything that I can do for you?" Always look for ways to put in rather than to take out. The successful man or woman of today is a "go-giver" as well as a go-getter.
Be Open and Empathetic
The more that people feel that you are open and empathetic and sensitive to their needs and concerns, the more open they will be to your influencing them positively in some way. And the more you can influence others with the power and impact of your personality, the more you will accomplish, and the faster you will accomplish it. The more rapidly you will move toward the great success that you desire and deserve.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.
First, look for ways to do nice things for other people, especially your family, friends, and customers. The more nice things you do for others, the better you feel about yourself.
Second, take time to really listen to people, especially your staff and coworkers. The more and better you listen to others, the greater is your influence over them.
