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Episode 656 · Sep 28, 2022

21 Ways to Sell More, Faster, and Easier in Tough Markets

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Selling is one of the most powerful skills you can develop, and most people either avoid it or misunderstand it entirely. On this episode of The Daily Mastermind, George Wright III draws from Brian Tracy's book *Be a Sales Superstar* to walk through 21 practical ideas that can help you sell more, communicate better, and close more confidently, whether you are brand new to sales or a seasoned professional looking to sharpen your edge.

George frames the conversation with a key reframe: when you are passionate about a product or service that genuinely helps people, selling becomes an act of service, not manipulation. That mindset shift is the foundation everything else is built on.

Why Selling Is a Skill Everyone Needs

No matter what you do for a living, sales is at the heart of it. Persuasion, communication, and influence show up in every aspect of business and life. George points out that if you do not learn to sell and communicate effectively, you will struggle with success, because at its core, sales is nothing more than the art of persuasion. The goal is not to pressure people but to lead them toward something that genuinely improves their lives.

Brian Tracy trained over half a million people on sales techniques in 20 languages across 38 countries, and his book compresses that expertise into 21 actionable principles. Here are the highlights.

How to Build the Right Mindset for Sales

The first several principles from Tracy focus on your inner game before you ever pick up the phone or walk into a meeting.

  • Commit to excellence. Make a decision to become one of the best salespeople in your field, and keep going until you achieve that goal.
  • Act as if it were impossible to fail. Do the thing you fear, because the death of fear is certain once you take action. Most people fear the phone call, the pitch, the ask. Do it anyway.
  • Put your whole heart into selling. How you do anything is how you do everything. Total commitment to your profession drives better results across the board.
  • Accept complete responsibility for results. See yourself as the president of your own personal sales corporation. Focus on making progress, not making excuses.
Most people fear picking up the phone, giving that sales pitch, contacting that customer. So just do it as if you were guaranteed not to fail.

What Preparation and Professionalism Actually Look Like

Once your mindset is right, the next layer is about how you show up.

  • Position yourself as a real professional. See yourself as a consultant, an advisor, a valuable resource. When you believe in your product, that confidence comes through.
  • Prepare thoroughly for every call. Preparation increases confidence, which increases results. It is the most important ingredient in a sales conversation.
  • Dedicate yourself to continuous learning. Sales, communication, and persuasion are learned skills. Deliberately investing time in developing them compounds over time.
  • Become brilliant on the basics. Know the fundamentals: the introduction, the qualifying questions, the presentation, the trial close, and the close. Skipping steps means presenting to people who may not need or want what you offer.

How to Build Credibility and Handle Objections

The middle section of Tracy's 21 principles zeroes in on trust and the friction that comes up in every sale.

  • Build long-term relationships. People buy from people they like. Relationships are a compounding asset in sales.
  • Build mega credibility with every prospect. Look the part, use testimonials, and validate your offer. Everything counts.
  • Handle objections effectively. Learn to resolve customer concerns in advance, before they even come up. If you cannot speak fluently to why someone might not buy, you will struggle to close.
  • Use education selling with every customer. As consumers get more informed, the more value and education you provide, the better you sell.
  • Deal with price professionally. Be proud of your product and your pricing. Do not apologize for a higher price. Confidence in your pricing signals confidence in your value.
Don't be an expense for people. Be a return on investment for them.

How to Close More Sales and Manage Your Time

The final cluster of principles deals with execution, time, and momentum.

  • Know how to close the sale. Most salespeople simply do not ask for the sale. Learn closing techniques. There are trial closes and methods for leading a prospect toward a decision rather than surprising them with an abrupt ask.
  • Make every minute count. Your time is your most precious resource. Use it intentionally in every presentation and conversation.
  • Apply the 80-20 rule. Spend more of your time with the most qualified, most valuable prospects. Staying on the phone with someone who is not qualified is not productive, no matter how willing they are to talk.
  • Keep your sales funnel full. Dedicate time to prospecting, presenting, follow-up, and onboarding. When all four phases are active, your pipeline stays healthy.
  • Set clear income and sales goals. What you focus on grows, and what you track gets results. Be intentional: how many calls, how many prospects, how many new clients do you want this week?
  • Manage your territory well. Group your activities and time-chunk your schedule to spend less time traveling and more time face-to-face with prospects.
What you focus on grows. What you track will get results.

Action Steps

  • Pick up a copy of *Be a Sales Superstar* by Brian Tracy. It is a quick read, a couple of hours at most, and packed with examples and stories behind each principle.
  • Identify the two or three principles from this list where you are weakest and focus on those first. Targeted improvement beats scattered effort.
  • Start tracking your sales activity daily: calls made, prospects contacted, follow-ups sent, closes attempted. The data will show you exactly where your funnel is leaking.
  • Practice handling your top three objections out loud until your responses feel natural and confident before your next sales call.
  • Reframe your relationship with selling. If you believe in your product and know it helps people, communicating about it is not manipulation; it is service.

Selling is a skill anyone can build with the right focus and the right framework. When you learn to sell and communicate, you become more confident, more fulfilled, and more productive in every area of your life. It is never too late to start living the life you were meant to live.

READ THE FULL TRANSCRIPT

All right, welcome back to The Daily Mastermind. George Wright III here with your daily dose of inspiration, motivation, and education. Today we're talking education. I want to talk to you about sales. Now, I know what you're thinking. I know what most people think when you hear the word sales or selling. You know, most people don't like it. The bottom line is that we've either felt the pressure of being sold or the idea of selling someone on something is not something that we like to do. But what I'd like to explain to you and really have you sort of think about is that no matter what you're doing, and I don't just mean in your business, but in your life, if you don't adopt and accept and learn how to become a great salesperson or communicator, you're going to struggle with success. Because at the end of the day, sales is nothing more than the art of persuasion. communication and I think what you've got to do is you've got to learn how to become a great salesperson now most people try to think of the skills and techniques and closing and things that you would do as a salesperson but what I would argue is that when you become passionate about the products that you have and when you become you know sold behind the purpose of what you're trying to do then you will desire to persuade people to your product your idea your thoughts, your direction, your passion, your interest. And so I want you to take a different perspective on sales and I want you to think about sales under the assumption that you do have something that you're passionate about. Otherwise, sales just becomes the art of manipulation. And I don't think that that's what any of us want, but I also think that you will have a much more successful business and focus if you find the products that you believe in and that you truly believe people need to have in their life to make their life better. And so when you have a product or service that fills a need and that helps create results for people, you're going to be very passionate about it. So I want to share with you today, if we have enough time, I want to share with you actually a favorite book of mine, BSL Superstar by Brian Tracy. I was looking at this the other day because back in 2002, actually, I had, and for many years after I've had Brian Tracy speak for us, and you know, this book that he had kind of signed for me, I go back to every once in a while, and it's 21 Great Ways to Sell More, Faster, Easier in Tough Markets, and I thought, man, what a great title right now, because I'm sure many of you want to be able to sell more, faster easier and in tough markets and so what I'm going to do there's 21 ideas on how to become a more effective better more result salesperson okay and I'm going to buzz through these for you because I want to basically save you some time give you the highlights and go through these because these are all tips and strategies and I think Brian Tracy a master at this I mean he He trained over a half a million people on sales techniques and strategies 20 languages 38 countries I mean, this guy is by far one of the best professionals when it comes to sales and communication. And I think you're going to really enjoy it. So let me buzz through these 21 great ideas on how to sell more faster and easier in tough markets. The first one is, and these are basically 21 ideas you can adopt to become this better salesperson or this better communicator. The first one is commit to excellence. Make a decision today to become one of the very best salesperson in your field. Keep going and keep going until you achieve your goal. So you've got to commit to excellence. You have to take this idea and know that you're going to run with it to be a better salesperson. Second, act as if it were impossible to fail. I like this, especially in life. you know do things you fear and they um and the the death of fear is certain do the do the thing you fear and the death of fear is certain sorry i was kind of slow on that one do the thing you fear because if you act as if it were impossible to fail and so you just do the stuff you fear you're going to overcome most of the challenges that you have especially in sales because most people fear picking up the phone giving that sales pitch contacting that customer so just do it as if you were guaranteed not to fail. Now, number three, put your whole heart into selling. Make 100% total commitment to your profession of selling. And I think that's a key. When you have a profession, whether it's your primary objective or not, when you make a wholehearted attempt at whatever you do, how you do anything is how you do everything, right? You're going to be more successful. Number four, position yourself as a real professional. See yourself as a consultant, an advisor, a valuable resource. When you believe in the product that you have, you're going to believe in the results it's going to create for people. Number five, prepare thoroughly for every call. Preparation in my mind is the absolutely most important ingredient in sales because it increases your confidence, it increases your ability to communicate and your results. Let's see here. Number six, dedicate yourself to continuous learning. Learning the skill and trade of sales and communication and persuasion is something you should specifically spend time on because that right there is going to help you to be a more effective professional. Number seven, accept complete responsibility for results. See yourself as the president of your own personal sales corporation, completely in charge of your own life and sales activity. Instead of making excuses, focus on making progress in your sales work. And I think taking responsibility for doing the activity of sales is one of the best ways to create results as well. Number eight, become brilliant on the basics. Learn and practice the fundamentals of sales process. These are things like the introduction, the blast, the probe and qualify, the sales presentation the trial close and the close And I say that we could probably cover that in a different call but a different episode But at the end of the day understand there is a process to sales And that if you don't understand and qualify your prospect and capture their attention initially, qualify them and then present, you could be just given a presentation to somebody that doesn't actually need or want your product. So that's really important. Number nine, build long-term relationships. When you create relationships in sales, you will be more effective. People buy from people they like. Number 10, be a financial improvement specialist. Look for ways to demonstrate to your prospect that your product or service has a definite return on investment. That is a key. Don't be an expense for people. Be a return on investment for them. That's so huge. Number 11, use education selling with every customer. I do love this, especially now, because most consumers are becoming more educated. So the more you educate, the more you give information, the more value you give, the better you're going to sell. Number 12, build mega credibility with every prospect. Everything counts. Be sure that you look the part of a believable and trustworthy sales professional. Use testimonials. Use credibility. Those are all very, very important to validate any type of product that you're trying to sell. Number 13, handle objections effectively. Learn how to resolve customer concerns, and I'm going to add, in advance of getting the concerns. When you know how to respond to an objection, you're going to be more confident and you're going to be more productive. If you don't practice and understand the reasons why someone wouldn't buy your product, it's going to be extremely hard for you to sell your product. Number 14, deal with price professionally. Be proud of your product and your pricing. Don't apologize if you have a higher price. And that confidence is going to come through and that confidence is going to help your customer, professional partner, affiliate, whoever it is, be more comfortable buying and purchasing your product and doing business with you overall. Number 15, know how to close the sale. Learn proven sales closing techniques. There are techniques. When you just fumble around or more importantly, most salespeople or most people just don't ask for the sale. Learn closing techniques because it's always a process of leading a prospect to a close rather than just coming out of the blue and just asking for it. Understand that there are trial closing methods. Understand that there are ways to lead your prospect into a close on a sale. Number 16, make every minute count. Your time is most precious resource you have. It's all you really have to work with. So make every minute count in your presentation and in your communication. Number 17, and I love this one, apply the 80-20 rule to everything. Spend more and more of your time on the most important and valuable prospects and customers. Sometimes we spend a lot of time on individuals that are not qualified to buy our product because they willing to engage us And you have to realize that your time back to that time point is so critical as a sales rep It not about staying on the phone or being in front of people that are willing to talk to you It about being in front of the right people and leading them through the prospect and the process of the sale and not wasting your time. Number 18, keep your sales funnel full. This means you've got to have a certain amount of time for prospecting, for presenting, for follow-up, and for onboarding of your product. Understand those different phases so that you'll always have your sales funnel full and you'll always be productive. Number 19, set clear income and sales goals. One of the biggest challenges I've seen, and I've had thousands of salespeople that I've trained and have worked for me, is that they don't track their sales goals and activity. What you focus on grows. What you track will get results. So make sure that you set goals. Be intentional with what you're doing. How many calls do you want to make today? How many people do you want to talk to? How many new clients do you want for your business? You've got to be intentional with your process of selling. And then number 20, manage your territory well. Now this is the idea that you could spend less time traveling and more time face-to-face when you actually group your activities together and you time chunk, like a lot of productivity and time management individuals have said. So manage your territory and your time, I would say, well. And then finally, practice the seven secrets of sales success. And I'm gonna leave you with that little bit of a nugget because I want you to actually follow up and look at this book. This book, Be a Sales Superstar by Brian Tracy. It's a read you can do in just a couple of hours. There's tons of powerful messages, stories, examples. But I wanted to give you those 21 today for a couple of really important reasons. Number one, I want you to prioritize your ability to sell and communicate. And number two, I want you to learn that everything in life, almost everything in life, everything in life, as far as I know of, can be a learned, trained skill if you put time and attention on it. And selling is no different. The more you understand and learn and grow with sales, the better you're going to be at it, the more results you're going to get. And I promise you, if you learn to sell, if you learn to communicate, you're going to be much more successful. And that will carry over into the rest of your life. You'll be more confident. You'll be more fulfilled. You'll feel more productive. So learn and apply the principles of sales. I hope that's something that will help you today. That's my message. I'd love to hear what you maybe struggle with when it comes to sales or communication. Hit me up on The Daily Mastermind. Also, if you haven't downloaded The Daily Mastermind mobile app on iTunes or Android Marketplace, make sure you do that because we're adding a whole bunch of new content in there as well. And I look forward to talking with you soon. Once again, my name is George Wright III. This has been The Daily Mastermind. Have an amazing day.

About the host
George Wright III, host of The Daily Mastermind

George Wright III

George Wright III is an entrepreneur, investor, and the host of The Daily Mastermind. Over more than two decades he has founded and scaled several multimillion-dollar companies and built a renowned seminar business that put some of the world's biggest names and brands on stage. With 25+ years across marketing, sales, and executive leadership, he's made a career of turning bold ideas into results — and momentum into lasting growth.

Today his mission is singular: empower driven entrepreneurs everywhere to master their mindset, unlock their potential, and live their ultimate destiny. Through The Daily Mastermind, George shares the Prosperity Principles and strategies that help people create massive change — in their business and in their life.

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