Progressive Distributor Resource Library

The Progressive Distributor Resource Library
brought to you by Progressive Distributor magazine

The Progressive Distributor Resource Library contains information for the industrial distributor. You can purchase materials by downloading the order form at the end of the paragraph, and faxing or mailing it to the company indicated on the form. Books with * can be ordered online.

Here is a list of our current selections:

From Randall J. Gillary*
Protecting Your Commissions: A Sales Representative's Guide

From Dave Anderson*
Up Your Business!: Seven Steps
to Fix, Build, or Stretch Your Organization

From Robert S. Boyles Jr.
Succeeding With Distribution Technology

From Dick Grote*
The Performance Appraisal Question and Answer Book

From T. Scott Gross*
MicroBranding: Build a Powerful
Personal Brand and Beat Your Competition

From Scott Benfield and Jane E. Baynard:
Pricing Management: Capturing Value for Distributors

From Dave Kahle
10 Secrets of Time Management for Salespeople: Gain
the Competitive Edge and Make Every Second Count*
The Six-Hat Salesperson: A Dynamic
Approach for Producing Top Results in Every Selling Situation*

From Tom Reilly
How to Sell and Manage in Tough Times and Tough Markets*

From Jon Schreibfeder of Effective Inventory Management:
Achieving Effective Inventory Management
Achieving Effective Inventory Management spreadsheets
The Foundation of Effective Inventory Management

From John Carroll:
Sales Illustrated: 68 Sales Lessons from Everyday Life

From Neil Rackham and John De Vincentis
Rethinking the Sales Force*

From David F. D'Alessandro
Brand Warfare: 10 Rules for Building the Killer Brand*

From Dr. Tony Alessandra and Rick Barrera, CSP
Collaborative Selling: How to Gain
the Competitive Advantage in Sales*

From Tim Smith
Loyalty-Based Selling*

From William "Skip" Miller
ProActive Sales Management: How to
Lead, Motivate, and Stay Ahead of the Game*

From Steven Wheeler and Evan Hirsh
Channel Champions: How Leading
Companies Build New Strategies to Serve Customers*

From Mack Hanan
Consultative Selling: The Hanan
Formula for High-Margin Sales at High Levels*

From John Puzier
Get Weird!: 101 Innovative Ways to
Make Your Company a Great Place to Work*

From the Power Transmission Distributors Association:
Partnership Planning Guide
Market Planning Guide
Guide to Understanding Value
Guide to Win-Win Sales Meetings
Sales Job Descriptions and Evaluations
New Employee Orientation
Employee Recruitment and Selection
PTDA Power Transmission Interactive

From Barbara Hemphill
Kiplinger's Taming the Paper Tiger at Work*

From Brian Tracy
Focal Point*

***************************************************************************

Protecting Your Commissions: A Sales Representative's Guide
by Randall J. Gillary

In a perfect world, sales representatives never have issues with their employers or principals. However, when sales success generates large commission checks, things can go wrong. For more than 20 years, lawyer Randall Gillary has helped sales professionals resolve commission disputes. In refreshingly clear language, this book discusses the law regarding sales commissions and shows independent reps how to deal with potential problems head-on; prepare written sales agreements; handle customer ownership changes; maintain good records; renegotiate commission rates; manage potential and actual conflicts of interest; determine whether to quit or not; and decide if they need a lawyer.

***************************************************************************

Succeeding With Distribution Technology
by Robert S. Boyles Jr.

Technology is more important than ever to distribution companies. Whether you are considering buying a new system or adding functionality to your existing one, making the right choice is vital. The wrong move can cripple your operations and cost you dearly. But the right technology can pave the way for better customer service and higher profits. Now you can learn a professional's trade secrets for a successful technology initiative.

***************************************************************************

Up Your Business!: Seven Steps to
Fix, Build, or Stretch Your Organization
by Dave Anderson

Up Your Business! is a no-holds-barred manifesto dedicated to one thing and one thing only - making your organization perform at the highest possible level. Straightforward, honest, and in your face, this book doesn't offer empty buzzwords or mysterious acronyms or questionable cure-alls. It outlines seven no-nonsense steps you can take to fix, build or stretch your business.

***************************************************************************

10 Secrets of Time Management for Salespeople: Gain the Competitive Edge and Make Every Second Count
by Dave Kahle

The typical salesperson today is overwhelmed, trapped in a chaotic, pressure-filled environment with too much to do and not enough time to do it. Salespeople need help!

This book provides it. Dave Kahle contends that smart time management is not about cramming more activity into each hour; but about achieving greater results in that hour. The content has been honed in hundreds of seminars and refined by the perceptions and experiences of thousands of salespeople.

10 Secrets of Time Management for Salespeople provides powerful, practical insights and ideas that really work, including hundreds of specific, practical, effective time management tips from dozens of salespeople who are on the "front lines" every day.

The author, Dave Kahle, has been the No. 1 salesperson in the country for two different companies in two distinct industries. He's presented seminars throughout the world, published more than 400 articles, and authored three books and 32 multimedia training programs.

***************************************************************************

Performance Appraisal Question and Answer Book: A Survival Guide for Managers
by Dick Grote

Most managers hate conducting performance appraisal discussions. What's worse, few feel confident in their ability to accurately assess the performance of a subordinate. In The Performance Appraisal Question and Answer Book, expert Dick Grote answers over 100 of the most common, and most difficult, questions about this vitally important but often misunderstood and misused tool, including:

• How should I react when an employee starts crying during the appraisal discussion. . .or gets mad at me?
• Which is more important, the results the person achieved or the way she went about doing the job?
• Is there such a thing as a perfect performance appraisal form?

Many of the answers include a Hot Tip or Red Flag: a note to the reader making a particularly insightful suggestion. This book helps supervisors and HR professionals ease the pain of performance appraisal and use the process effectively.

***************************************************************************

Microbranding: Build a Powerful Personal Brand and Beat Your Competition
by T. Scott Gross

Imagine how it would feel to discover that you already owned a powerful personal or local brand. That's what happened to me.

It took a client to point out that I happened to own the No. 1 brand when it came to customer service, referring to Positively Outrageous Service , the title of my first book and the name of my most requested keynote. And to think we built it almost by accident.

Since that day, I began paying attention to our brand-building efforts and discovered that you don't need to build a global brand to compete in your niche. All you need are a few key brand-building secrets. You need to know how to build a MicroBrand.

MicroBranding is just what the doctor ordered for employees, small business owners, even top dogs (or wannabes) in major corporations. It's a step-by-step guide to building a killer personal or local brand. A MicroBrand.

~T. Scott Gross

***************************************************************************

Pricing Management: Capturing
Value for Distributors
by Scott Benfield and Jane E. Baynard

Written expressly for wholesaler-distributors of all types and sizes, this essential manager's manual shows how to boost profits through a more systematic and market-driven approach to pricing. Too many distributors leave pricing decisions to their field sales personnel, while creating compensation plans that inadvertently reward knee-jerk price-cutting in response to some equally clueless competitor.

"Pricing Management: Capturing Value for Distributors" counsels wholesalers to appoint a corporate-level pricing manager whose job is to fine-tune his prices according to the customer served and his inevitably unique product and service needs. The profit payoff is enormous.

Print, 171 pages

Price: $75

Click here for order form

***************************************************************************

Sales Illustrated: 68 Sales Lessons from Everyday Life
by John Carroll

In professional selling, you either get the sale or you get a lesson. Now you can get both. When you sell for a living (and especially when you think you don't) you'll appreciate and enjoy the new book by John Carroll. In Sales Illustrated, you'll find that reflecting on everyday occurrences can lead to reminders about principles for effective, successful selling. Get yourself re-energized for your next sale with this short, delightful serving of practical wisdom drawn from the world around us.

See what industry professionals have to say:
• "John teaches us how we can actually learn to enjoy our sales efforts through these analogies of life at home. I highly recommend this artistically simple and acutely essential booklet that can help take you well above average in your career endeavors."
~C. Randy Fulmer, vice president of Carolina Equipment & Supply

• "It’s interesting to see someone from our industry relating common-day sales orientation to common-day life. John has taken personal experiences and made them meaningful to sales. If a sales person can relate to his or her own past experiences, as John has done, the benefit from the middle-of-the-road sales person to the experienced veteran will be considerable."
~Bud Pritchard, vice president and general manager of Integra IPS

Print, 71 pages

Price: $6.95

Click here for order form

***************************************************************************

How to Sell and Manage in Tough Times and Tough Markets
by Tom Reilly

How to Sell and Manage in Tough Times and Tough Markets is Tom Reilly’s eighth book. Reilly uses his 20 years of professional speaking and consulting experiences to share with the reader his insights into what "tough timers" do to thrive, not just survive in tough times. As Reilly points out, “Half the battle is in your head and the other half is on the streets.”

The dominant theme throughout this book is that you can thrive in tough times. Reilly begins with background information; for example, "since 1854, we've had thirty-two recessions, each lasting about eighteen months, and the average expansion lasting three years."

Even though Reilly wrote this as a business book, the positive attitude chapter has wide-range application to anyone who experiences adversity. There is a chapter for salespeople filled with behind-the-scenes and frontline selling tips. And there is a management chapter that hits the leadership theme for tough times.

"Managers attend to the process, leaders inspire their people." How to Sell and Manage in Tough Times and Tough Markets is filled with dozens of practical suggestions for anyone in business. This book is a quick-read, but you will probably read it more than once.

***************************************************************************

Achieving Effective Inventory Management
by Jon Schreibfeder

This book presents the new standard in distribution inventory management. It is a valuable tool for any distributor using any computer system. It includes a comprehensive discussion of every phase of distribution inventory management, including:

• How to meet or exceed your customer's expectations of product availability while maximizing your company's net profits
• Business policies and procedures that are necessary to achieve effective inventory management
• Effective warehouse organization
• Increasing the productivity of warehouse employees
• Best practice methods for maintaining accurate inventory balances
• How to determine the most effective method for determining the future demand of each product
• How to determine when to order a product and how much to order.
• And more!

Print, 174 pages

Price: $69

Click here for order form

***************************************************************************

Achieving Effective Inventory Management spreadsheets
An exciting new tool has just been released by EIM Inc. to help you make the most of your inventory investment using information provided by your current software system! The set contains 12 different Excel spreadsheets loaded onto a floppy disk, a hard copy of each spreadsheet, and detailed instructions, all packaged in an attractive binder. These Achieving Effective Inventory Management spreadsheets are valuable tools for any wholesaler-distributor using any computer system, providing vital information about your specific inventory situation. Spreadsheets in this package include:

Comparative Forecast Calculations – Determines the most accurate of 15 forecast formulas based on the past usage history of an item.

Unusual Usage Identifier – Identifies products that may have experienced unusually high or low usage by comparing actual usage to the calculated forecast demand.

Safety Stock Calculator – Calculates safety stock quantities based on the average difference between the forecast of demand and actual usage. This spreadsheet will also compute the investment necessary to maintain the safety stock quantity that is usually required to maintain various levels of customer service.

Minimum/Maximum Analyzer – This spreadsheet will identify items with sporadic sales and suggest minimum and maximum stocking parameters based on the average sale quantity and optional safety stock quantity.

Inventory Analysis – This spreadsheet calculates the adjusted margin (gross margin less the cost of carrying the average inventory investment) for each product rank as well as the savings that can be obtained (in both inventory investment and carrying cost) by achieving the target turnover.

Value of Lost Material – This spreadsheet determines the amount of additional sales your company must generate to make up for the value of material that was lost, stolen, or is otherwise unusable.

Excess Inventory – This spreadsheet determines what portion of the current available quantity of each item is in excess of an "x" month supply. It also calculates an excess inventory value for each item as well as a grand total for all excess material listed on the report.

Rolling Average Simulator – If you are using a system that is based on the philosophies of Gordon Graham, this simulator will help determine the effect of changing the lead time, review cycle, carrying cost, and/or cost of ordering on your replenishment parameters and inventory investment.

Price Break Analysis (Vendor Line) – This spreadsheet compares the additional discount you receive for placing a larger total vendor order with the cost of carrying more inventory for a longer period of time. You will also receive a spreadsheet that will perform this analysis for an individual item.

Ranking Analysis (Cost of Goods Sold) – This spreadsheet will classify items in "A," "B," "C," "D," and "X" categories based on their contribution to the total cost of goods sold.

Ranking Analysis (Hits) – This spreadsheet will classify items into "A," "B," "C," "D," and "X" categories based on the number of times the product was sold, regardless of quantity. This is a valuable tool for identifying those products that are most important to your customers as well as organizing your warehouse for maximum picking efficiency.

Price: $69

Click here for order form

***************************************************************************

The Foundation of Effective Inventory Management
Available now is a one and a half hour condensed version of Jon Schreibfeder's two-day Effective Inventory Management Seminar on IBM-PC format CD-ROM. While this CD does not include all of the detail included in our in-person sessions, it does provide a good introduction to achieving effective inventory management, and is also a great review for those who have previously attended one of our sessions. Topics covered on the CD include:

What is effective inventory management?
Business policies that are necessary to achieve effective inventory management
Ideas for organizing your warehouse or stocking facility
Basic rules for deciding when to order products as well as how much to order
Analyzing your inventory investment

The CD includes comprehensive graphics to illustrate each concept, an easy to follow commentary, and interactive quizzes to reinforce the concepts presented.

Price: $149

Click here for order form

***************************************************************************

Partnership Planning Guide
Improve business relationships with key channel partners with this simple step-by-step process to identify and resolve points of tension. Includes surveys to be used by both distributors and manufacturers to evaluate each other’s performance and expectations in key operational areas, and summary sheets to mutually identify key issues/areas within the business relationship that need improvement.

Print/Electronic, 30 pages

Item # 947 $49.95

Click here for order form

***************************************************************************

Market Planning Guide
Enhance joint distributor-manufacturer sales and marketing efforts with this simplified process for developing strategic marketing plans for key and target accounts. The guide takes distributors through a simplified process to define their core business, analyze and segment existing and potential customers, differentiate customer segments, develop profiles of key and target accounts and create key and target account plans.

Print/Electronic/Audio, 25 pages/3.5 hours

Item 1008 (With audiotape) $179.95
Item 1008A (No audiotape) $119.95

Click here for order form

***************************************************************************

Guide to Understanding Value
Developed by Tim Underhill, Underhill & Associates with input from PTDA’s Industry Relations and Marketing Committees, this innovative guide explains how to identify services valued by customers, analyze and measure the service’s potential to impact the customer’s bottom line, and present documented savings to the customer. Includes a matrix delineating six categories of value; the indicators of each value, uptime and yield; and the array of potential solutions that distributors can provide to add value, as well as sample worksheets for documenting costs.

Print/Electronic/Audio, 50 pages/2 hours

Item 1022A (With audiotape) $134.95
Item 1022 (No audiotape) $89.95

Click here for order form

***************************************************************************

Guide to Win-Win Sales Meetings
Based on the philosophy that successful sales meetings are a partnership between distributors and manufacturers, the guide outlines a process for channel partners to work independently and together towards achieving a successful sales meeting. Sections cover barriers to effective sales meetings; alternatives to formal sales meetings; planning a win-win sales meeting, including target frequency, attendee and meeting length; developing a win-win meeting agenda based on distributor personnel needs and tips for meeting facilitators.

Print/Electronic, 15 pages

Item # 1024 $49.95

Click here for order form

***************************************************************************

Sales Job Descriptions and Evaluations
Improve job specification and employee evaluation for distributor inside and field sale personnel. Based on extensive research conducted by PTDA specifically for the power transmission/motion control industry, the guide outlines the philosophy behind developing job descriptions and personnel evaluation forms. Includes sample and template job descriptions and performance evaluations for these two key staff positions. May be used alone or in combination with other Human Resources Solutions products.

Print/Electronic, 45 pages

Item # 1007 $69.95

Click here for order form

***************************************************************************

New Employee Orientation
This step-by-step guide to developing an effective orientation and evaluation includes information on development and content of an orientation program with sample checklists, instructions for performing employee and organization performance evaluations and sample evaluation forms. May be used alone or in combination with other Human Resources Solutions products. An audiotape with handouts, discussing how to incorporate the guide into corporate human resources procedures, is also available.

Print/Electronic/Audio, 25 pages/4 hours

Item 1013 (With audiotape) $110.95
Item 1013A (No audiotape) $69.95

Click here for order form

***************************************************************************

Employee Recruitment and Selection
This practical guide to recruiting and selecting the best employees focuses on developing a strategy that reflects a company’s long- and short-term business objectives. Includes step-by-step instructions for a successful recruitment and selection process: job specifications, writing and placing ads, where to find qualified applicants, referral bonuses, screening and interviewing techniques, reference checking and making the offer. Template and sample forms are included for job requisition, employment application, interview evaluation, information release authorization, reference verification, offer and rejection letters.

Print/Electronic, 30 pages

Item # 1037 $69.95

Click here for order form

***************************************************************************

PTDA Power Transmission Interactive
Power Transmission Interactive: The multimedia primer for the power transmission industry, this CD-ROM training tool provides basic training on power transmission/motion control products, their various types and uses, maintenance and diagnostic tips, and basic application and selection criteria. Text, graphics, voice, animation and interactive quizzes create a multi-sensory learning environment that enables students to learn at their own pace and increases retention. Built-in supervisory functions allow employers to specify, track and recognize performance achievement.

Two discs include fourteen separate modules covering fundamentals, bearings, belt and chain drives, clutches and brakes, conveyors and components, couplings and U-joints, gears, hydraulics and pneumatics, linear motion products, motors, adjustable-speed drives, controls and sensors and accessories. Ideal to train new employees on PT/MC basics, evaluate knowledge of current inside and field sales staff, screen prospective hires' product knowledge and provide value-added technical training for customers. Single-user program; additional copies must be ordered for each trainee.

Electronic

Item # 1038 $149.95

Click here for order form

***************************************************************************

Brand Warfare: 10 Rules
for Building the Killer Brand
by David F. D'Alessandro

Click the link below to order online
0-07-136293-2:Product Link on Barnes & Noble.com.

One of the most debated issues in the business press is the topic of branding, and few executives are more able to effectively address this critical issue than David D'Alessandro. As CEO of John Hancock Financial Services, which The New York Times recently named as one of the world's top ten brands, D'Alessandro has overseen the transformation of his company into a cutting-edge industry leader with an aggressive "brand first" philosophy. D'Alessandro now reveals the secrets that fueled John Hancock's amazing successful brand strategy and provides advice that will prove invaluable to his fellow executives, marketers, and business owners.

***************************************************************************

Collaborative Selling: How to Gain
the Competitive Advantage in Sales
by Dr. Tony Alessandra and Rick Barrera, CSP

Click the link below to order online
0-471-59665-5:Product Link on Barnes & Noble.com.

Designed to help you attain exceptional levels of success in today's new sales environment. Shows why a quantum shift in the current marketplace requires a fresh way of selling--by eliminating tension in the sales process and using relationship tactics instead of pressure. Explains the procedure of collaborative selling: how to develop long-term partnerships with your customers. Demonstrates how any sales person or organization can and must develop and articulate a statement of competitive advantage.

***************************************************************************

Loyalty-Based Selling
by Tim Smith

Click the link below to order online
0-8144-7104-8:Product Link on Barnes & Noble.com.

Becoming the top-ranking sales rep is the burning desire in the hearts of thousands of reps. This heated competition to become number one exists at virtually every company that has a sales force of two or more people.

Now readers can achieve this goal with Loyalty-Based Selling. Unveiling seven powerful steps, this action-packed book offers readers a foolproof way to learn and execute exactly what it takes to get to the top. The concept is so simple, yet so profound, that salespeople will wonder why they didn't think of it years ago. Readers will learn how to:

• deliver the best service customers have ever received;
• elevate relationships to the pinnacle level—friendships;
• turn angry customers into deeply loyal ones;
• convert customer loyalty into skyrocketing sales numbers;
• make huge positive impressions on customers;
• use creative and effective techniques to thrill customers; and
• save time for themselves and for their customers.

Respectful of time and intelligence, Loyalty-Based Selling moves quickly, teaches quickly, and makes results a reality.

***************************************************************************

The Six-Hat Salesperson:
A Dynamic Approach for Producing
Top Results in Every Selling Situation
by Dave Kahle

Click the link below to order online
0-8144-0465-0:Product Link on Barnes & Noble.com.

You're a salesperson, so no one needs to tell you that selling has gotten tougher in the last decade. The Six-Hat Salesperson gives you a unique system that looks at all the pressures and challenges that you face, and shows you how to use critical thinking skills to make the most of every situation, of every "problem." Kahle presents six "hats," or roles, that you can use to make the most out of whatever sales circumstances you find yourself in.

***************************************************************************

ProActive Sales Management:
How to Lead, Motivate, and Stay
Ahead of the Game
by William "Skip" Miller

Click on the link below to order online
0-8144-0545-2:Product Link on Barnes & Noble.com.

By providing proven, easily implemented methods for managing people and the sales process, this book hopes to help sales managers avoid reactive management, with its long hours and constant stress, and replace it with proactive management. Written for sales managers in any field, the author provides the keys to becoming proactive, more effective and more efficient, which he believes will allow managers to regain control of their lives. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

***************************************************************************

Channel Champions:
How Leading Companies Build
New Strategies to Serve Customers
by Steven Wheeler and Evan Hirsh

Click the link below to order online
0-7879-5034-3:Product Link on Barnes & Noble.com.

The channels by which goods are marketed and distributed have become the new drivers of economic success. From these channels flow customer satisfaction, market share, revenue gains and profitability. It's not so much what you sell today, but how you sell it. And there is no going back. "In Channel Champions, Booz-Allen & Hamilton consultants Steven Wheeler and Evan Hirsh write about dozens of companies that have excelled in this channel-driven economy.

***************************************************************************

Consultative Selling: The Hanan Formula for High-Margin Sales at High Levels
by Mack Hanan

Click the link below to order online
0-8144-0503-7:Product Link on Barnes & Noble.com.

There are two major problems in sales strategy, and if you're trained in consultative selling, you're equipped to handle both: (1) how to make sustainable high margins even on mature commodity products and services, and (2) how to control the costs of sales by condensing the selling cycle. Consultative Selling shows you how to reengineer sales strategy into sound business strategy. As a consultative seller, you sell improved customer profits rather than products or services. You generate returns on customers' investments - not tradeoffs of products for price. You partner upstairs with customer operating managers, rather than just vending to purchasers. You work within long-term, continuing relationships, not from bid to bid. You focus on making your customers more competitive - not on gaining advantage over your own competitors.

***************************************************************************

Get Weird!: 101 Innovative Ways to Make Your Company a Great Place to Work
by John Puzier

Click the link below to order online
0-8144-7114-5:Product Link on Barnes & Noble.com.

How can companies recruit, retain, train, motivate, and reward great employees—especially in a tight labor market? How can they win new customers and boost sales? The secret is to lighten up and get a little weird! Creativity and productivity can go hand in hand, as this chock-full-of-ideas book amply shows.

Like a Christmas stocking crammed with treasures, GET WEIRD! overflows with irresistible techniques for innovating and problem-solving. It explains how to start thinking "outside the box," then presents 101 adaptable ideas, each in a reader-friendly two pages or fewer. For instance, readers will learn about:

• Whaddya Know? (learning through puzzles, quizzes, and games);
• Hire-Times (post-interview fun—a night-on-the-town with host employees);
• Wall of Fame (display of individual successes);
• Rock Me, Baby (give techies and GenXers the rock-concert tickets they crave); and
• Galloping Gourmets (take-home gourmet dinners for employees and their family).

Slightly off-the-wall at first glance, the book is firmly rooted in solid performance theory. Managers can use it to find quick, effective, fun solutions to work challenges.

***************************************************************************

Rethinking the Sales Force
by Neil Rackham and John De Vincentis

Click the link below to order online
0071342532:Product Link on Barnes & Noble.com.

In today's markets, success can no longer be obtained by salespeople communicating the value of a product or service - it rests on the critical ability to create value for customers. Enter Rethinking the Sales Force. Best-selling author Neil Rackham and international sales and marketing consultant John De Vincentis have created this guide for sales and marketing executives. Rackham and De Vincentis help sales forces rethink and retool their selling strategies by introducing eye-opening insight for winning in the new marketplace.

***************************************************************************

Kiplinger's Taming the Paper Tiger at Work
by Barbara Hemphill

For 20 years America's leading professional organizer Barbara Hemphill has shown people how to create workable paper-management systems. Here, Hemphill thoroughly covers work-place organization, including how best to use computer and paper systems together.

***************************************************************************

Focal Point: A Proven System
to Simplify Your Life, Double Your
Productivity, and Achieve All Your Goals

by Brian Tracy

When our "ordinary" neighbor, colleague, or cousin suddenly rockets to success, most of us chalk up their good fortune to pure luck, politics, or backbreaking work. But in most cases these factors have nothing to do with it.

Author Brian Tracy lets us in on the true secret of high achievers: They know how to find their focal point--the one thing they should do, at any given moment, to get the best possible results in each area of their lives. In this powerful guide, Tracy brings together the very best ideas on personal management into a simple, easy-to-use plan. Focal Point helps readers analyze their lives in seven key areas and shows them how to develop goals and plans in each.

This book answers those nagging questions that haunt us throughout life:
• "How can I get control of my time and my life?"
• "How can I achieve maximum career success and balance personal life?"
• "How can I handle it all and still be happy and fulfilled?"

Tracy provides timeless truths that have been discovered by effective people throughout the ages. He shows how to develop absolute clarity about who you are, what you want, and exactly how you can move quickly toward accomplishing those goals that bring you the highest level of personal satisfaction. Readers who follow these simple steps will accomplish more in the next couple of years than most people achieve in a lifetime!