Thank Goodness It's Monday #306

MEMORIAL DAY LESSONS

So how’s your long weekend been so far?

• Celebrating the “official” start of summer?
• On the road to the beach, mountains, lakeside, park getaway and taking note of higher gas prices?
• Doing your part to stimulate the economy shopping the spectacular (they say) sales?
• Firing up the backyard grill and still trying to get the pool water clear and pH balanced?
• Thinking about catching some summer blockbuster at the multiplex?
• Just veggin’ out ‘til Tuesday?

Well why are you at your computer reading this? (Just kidding -- sort of.) 

I hope you really make the most of this Memorial Day.  

But while you do: I also hope you’ll take some time – alone or with friends and family – to contemplate: 

The meaning of Memorial Day. The profusion of local parades and municipal celebrations that some of us can recall seems greatly diminished these days. Although hundreds of thousands of men and women, in the service of the nation, are actively engaged and in danger in many corners of the world, it seems the original basis for commemorating Memorial Day slips further from our minds and activities. 

TGIM ACTION IDEA: Take a moment today to get back to the core of Memorial Day. To get the dialogue started, here’s some background and two Takeaways to consider: 

Here’s the background: Waterloo, New York claims it started the first formal Memorial Day practice of decorating soldiers’ graves in 1866. A pharmacist there, Henry C. Welles, suggested to a veterans’ organization that the graves of Civil War dead be decorated. 

Boalsburg, Pennsylvania claims it was doing something similar earlier.  

Either way, in the following years, other cities, states and organizations initiated similar events on a variety of dates. Often, in the states that made up the Confederacy, significant Southern victories or personalities were memorialized. 

After WWI the American Legion took on the task of trying to unify these “decoration day” commemorations on one day. It gave the patriotic observances the “official” name Memorial Day and expanded the concept to honor all American service people from all wars and conflicts.

Miss Matt Moreton,
Mrs J.T. Fontaine,
Mrs. Green T. Hill and
Mrs. Augusta Murdock Sykes
are credited with beginning
Decoration Day
in Columbus, Mississippi.

For our purposes this Memorial Day, let’s go back to the origins for a moment to find lessons worth learning.

Some historians think that both Waterloo, NY and Boalsburg, PA got the idea from a newspaper article in Horace Greeley's New York Tribune featuring women from Columbus, Mississippi who spread flowers on the graves of BOTH Confederate AND Union soldiers as an act of friendship and understanding between North and South at the end of the Civil War.

The story of the unprejudiced acts of these women led to widespread interest in impartial commemorations in memory of the dead. It is seen as a "healing touch for the nation."

We like this version of the day’s origin for two reasons:

#1: It recognizes that, no matter who is victorious or whose cause is “right,” the ultimate sacrifice made in pursuit of sincerely held beliefs is no less painful for the living of either side.

TGIM Takeaway: One of the most effective ways to begin to reach reconciliation and consensus is to find the places conflicting groups hold in common. This principle works at all levels of life, from negotiations with your kids to resolving global conflicts.

#2: One small idea, quietly initiated by a handful of presumably modest individuals, gave rise to a National Holiday.  

TGIM Takeaway: Think of it as another example of The Law of Slight Edge in action –  

Small changes, over time, make a big difference. 

I hope this Memorial Day provides you with a moment to reflect on the ideas of contribution and sacrifice as well as effective ways we all can contribute to making a Best Year Ever for ourselves and our world.

Go Forward! 

Geoff Steck
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing

8 Depot Square

Englewood, NJ 07631

201-569-5373

tgimguy@gmail.com    

P.S. The post-Civil War-era poem The Blue And The Gray by Francis Miles Finch (1827-1907) is said to be inspired by reports of the actions by the ladies from Columbus. Here’s the last stanza:

No more shall the war cry sever,
Or the winding rivers be red;
They banish our anger forever
When they laurel the graves of our dead!
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the judgment-day,
Love and tears for the Blue,
Tears and love for the Gray.

Stayin' forever young

MAY YOUR SONGS ALWAYS BE SUNG

Happy 70^th birthday to Bob Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman (Hebrew name, Shabtai Zisel ben Avraham) aka Elston Gunnn (sic).

Rolling Stone -- who has a lot to thank Bob for -- has a tribute HERE.

A nice collection of Bob quotes from lyrics and elsewhere are HERE.

Among the missing quotes:

"Never trust anyone over 30."

Just for the record: Bob didn't originate this idea, although it's often attributed to him. Neither did Jerry Rubin, Abbie Hoffman or any of The Beatles. Currently, in it's 60's anti-establishment context, it's linked to Jack Weinberg when he was a 24-year old Free Speech advocate. 

A real Bob quote particularly appropriate for the day IMO:

"He who's not busy being born is busy dying."

A good way to celebrate? Maybe --

"... dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free ..."

BOB'S BIRTHDAY ACTION IDEA: Dig out the old vinyl, fire up the turntable and Rock & Roll & Rage & Reminisce.

Thank Goodness It's Monday #305

COMMENCEMENT ADDRESSES

YOU WISH YOU HEARD

According to an unscientific poll conducted by Good.com for a recent article, most people don't remember who spoke at their graduation.

I certainly don’t.

I’m guessing that most other TGIM readers don’t either. (If you do, and your commencement speaker shared something memorable, please share it with the rest of us.)

Chances are – no matter who spoke – they rambled on about "good job" … "good luck" … and something about "the future."

While those expressions are nice, most of us can agree they’re overused and not memorable.

While it may be too late for you to have an engaging and unforgettable commencement speaker, Good.com also put together a list of the –

Top 10 Commencement Speakers

You Wish You'd Heard.

TGIM ACTION IDEA #1: Click through HERE and you can see and hear over an hour of “highlights” from the presentations of about half of the ten notables.  

TGIM ACTION IDEA #2: Or continue here for a distinctive quote from each one (compiled by Kristin Piombino of Ragan.com) to send you off today inspired to “commence” your week. 

1. Steve Jobs, Stanford University, 2005 

"Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart."  

2. Theodore Geisel (aka Dr. Seuss), Lake Forest College, 1977, from a 92-word poem – “My Uncle Terwilliger on the Art of Eating Popovers” -- he unveiled on the occasion.  

"And

as you partake of the world's bill of fare,

that's darned good advice to follow.

Do a lot of spitting out the hot air.

And be careful what you swallow."  

3. J.K. Rowling, Harvard University, 2008 

"…failure means a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged."  

4. Bono, University of Pennsylvania, 2004 

"So my question I suppose is: What's the big idea? What's your big idea? What are you willing to spend your moral capital, your intellectual capital, your cash, your sweat equity in pursuing outside of the walls of the University of Pennsylvania?"  

5. Wynton Marsalis, Northwestern University, 2009  

"Blues is survival music. Congratulations y'all. You have survived. And in this moment, perfect in both its accomplishment and its potential, we stand on the threshold of your liberation—and I suspect your parents' as well."  

6. Anderson Cooper, Tulane University, 2010  

"…I realized that I don't need to give you advice, I don't need to try and teach you a lesson. The truth is, your class has taught me a lesson. You're the class that came after Katrina … A lot of folks probably said you were nuts to commit to New Orleans … But you came anyway. You took a chance. You made a tough choice, but look at you now, look at what you've accomplished not just for yourselves, but for New Orleans."  

7. Will Ferrell, Harvard University, 2003  

"Graduates, if you will indulge me for a moment, let me paint a picture of what it's like out there … You're about to enter a world filled with hypocrisy and doublespeak, a world in which your limo to the airport is often a half-hour late. In addition to not even being a limo at all; often times it's a Lincoln Towncar."  

8. Ursula K. Le Guin, Bryn Mawr College, 1986  

"Our schools and colleges, institutions of the patriarchy, generally teach us to listen to people in power … and so they teach us not to listen to … what the powerless say, poor men, women, children: not to hear that as valid discourse. I am trying to unlearn these lessons, along with other lessons I was taught by my society, particularly lessons concerning the minds, work, works, and being of women."  

9. Jon Stewart, College of William and Mary, 2004 

"Let's talk about the real world for a moment … I wanted to bring this up to you earlier about the real world, and this is as good a time as any. I don't really know how to put this, so I'll be blunt. We broke it. Please don't be mad … But here's the good news. You fix this thing, you're the next greatest generation, people."  

10. David Foster Wallace, Kenyon College, 2005 

"The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able to truly care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways every day." 

What would you share with the Class of 2011?  

TGIM ACTION IDEA: While I imagine it’s unlikely you or I will be invited back to our alma mater(s) to share our hard-acquired, real-world insights, our increasingly connected digital world gives us the opportunity to do just that with our “friends” and the folks we’re linked to. 

Last year at about this time I set out my thoughts on how such a speech ought to go in TGIM #261. (See it reposted below. Or HERE.)  I’d be interested to know your thoughts along the same lines.  

TGIM IDEA IN ACTION: Writing focuses your thinking. Why don’t you post up – either in your own space, on your Facebook, LinkedIn or similar page – what you’d say. Or respond to by e-mail or in the blog reply space provided. 

TGIM Takeaway: Even if you’re the only person you inspire, that would make a bigger impact than that graduation speaker you don’t remember, wouldn’t it?

“And, in conclusion” (wild applause) “I’d like to say …”

Geoff Steck
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing

8 Depot Square

Englewood, NJ 07631
201-569-5373

tgimguy@gmail.com 

P.S.  “Education: That which discloses to the wise and disguises from the foolish their lack of understanding.” Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.” Author Ambrose Bierce (1842 – 1914) conjured up that definition in The Devil’s Dictionary.

END-OF-THE-WORLD QUOTES & THOUGHTS

Apparently --  

“Due to the lack of experienced trumpeters, the end of the world has been postponed.”

A funny thing happened
at the May 21, 2011
post-end-of-the-world party 

But that’s no surprise to many.  

Claude Levi-Strauss observed, “The world began without man, and it will end without him.”

Henry Miller suggested, “The world dies over and over again, but the skeleton always gets up and walks.”

“An ill beginning hath an ill ending,” we learn from a proverb collected by John Clarke in 1639.

But on the other side of the optimist/pessimist equation, proverb collector and compiler James Howell recorded, in 1659 …

“A good beginning hath a good ending.”

And also:

“A hard beginning hath a good ending.”

Not to be outdone, John Ray, also an English collector of proverbs, noted, in 1678 –

“Good to begin well, better to end well.”

And then there’s a German saying (my people, paternal side):

“A bad beginning may make a good ending.”

“In my beginning is my end,” said T S Eliot.

And, of course he also said --

“This is the way the world ends.

This is the way the world ends.

This is the way the world ends.

Not with a bang but a whimper.”

Not wanting to end this with a whimper: There’s the always quotable Winston Churchill who said, about the British victory at El Alamein in 1942--

“Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” 

… an idea he, perhaps, purloined from Talleyrand who, in 1813 after the Battle of Leipzig, remarked to Napoleon:

“It is the beginning of the end.”

How to end this? I guess I’ll close by quoting the eclectic Frank Zappa:

“It isn’t necessary to imagine the world ending in fire or ice -- there are two other possibilities: one is paperwork, and the other is nostalgia.”

Thank Goodness It's Monday #261

This post originally appeared about a year ago in a digital space I share with my friend and project partner Eric Taylor. I'm reposting it here, now, because: (a) I was recently asked what I would say at a commencement and, of course, having already given it some thought, formed my answer around this premise. And (b) Having revisited the idea of mediocre messages to new grads, I thought next Monday's TGIM message could follow on and so it would be useful to have this on this page as a reference.

CAN YOU BECOME ANYTHING YOU WANT TO BE?

“A new phase of your life is ahead of you. As a new graduate you can become anything you want if you just try hard enough.”

That’s the message I heard repeatedly at graduation ceremonies for family members this past June.

And every time I heard it, I bristled because –

I don’t think that’s true.

And I don’t think it’s useful to tell that to young people about to set off on the next set of challenges in their lives. I’d sooner leave them with a more realistic take on the world they are about to encounter and give them more practical and pragmatic guidance on how to move up as they move on.

What would I tell new graduates?

That’s what I’ll share with you here, today.

Assuming that, as these young people were, they were young adults about to head off to college or on a career path, after the correct observation that “A new life is ahead of you” I’d advise: “At this point in your life –

Focus On What You Do Best

TGIM ACTION IDEA: Identify your strengths and work hardest at developing them. In this talent-driven society, your biggest success awaits you in the place where you fit in most comfortably and can excel at what you do.

TGIM IDEA IN ACTION: Be guided by what feels natural to you; what agrees with the way you think, and fits in with the way you feel and behave.

By now you should have an inkling of your interests and passion. You surely know you’re talented at some things and have greater difficulty mastering others.

In the days and years ahead, invest your time and energy practicing and developing those things you do best and building your knowledge base there.  Consider carefully where you concentrate your efforts.

Don’t be “Rudy.”

It’s likely you know the inspirational, spirit-lifting story of Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger. It became, and remains, an iconic movie tale, based on a real-life story, of “success” by perseverance.

Here’s a capsule version. Then I’ll give my maybe-offbeat take on it:

Rudy was a 23-year old groundskeeper at the University Of Notre Dame, the Indiana football power. At 5’6”, 165 pounds he was an unlikely physical specimen for big-time college football played there under legendary coaches Ara Parseghian and later Dan Devine. Yet that was his desire. He worked doggedly to gain admission to Notre Dame so he could play football there.

He finally was accepted after having been rejected numerous times and, as a walk-on, earned a place on the football practice squad. For two years he took a beating in daily practice but was never in a “real” game. He was finally allowed to suit up for the final game of his senior year. In that game, with Notre Dame well ahead in the score, his teammates agitated to put Rudy in. In the final seconds the coach, Dan Devine, sent Rudy in.

Heart-warming outcome: Rudy sacked the opposing team’s quarterback. Rudy’s an instant hero … cheering fans carry him from the field … he’s later invited to the White House to meet the President, Joe Montana and other world-class leaders.

“So,” you say, “isn’t the Rudy story proof ‘You can become anything you want to be?’”

Well, I say “You can be anything you want to be, if you just try hard enough” is –

A misguided message. While Rudy’s perseverance is noteworthy, in the end, he played a few seconds of football and made a single tackle.

Despite his somewhat deserved current status as a motivator and poster boy for persistence, it only followed on the heels of the success of the movie. Following his 1976 college graduation and brief acclaim, he struggled in life and business.

Yes, someone wins the lottery. But million-to-one odds are not good odds. If buying a $1 ticket and enjoying the process is painless fun, then I’ve no problem with that.

But I don’t see that in the “Rudy” story.

What if Rudy had invested the thousands of hours of he devoted to college football to developing a talent that came more naturally to him?

While we can’t know the outcome, there are many established scientific studies and surveys that confirm that acknowledging weak points and moving in the direction of developing your greatest strengths leads to the biggest and best rewards.

Gallup Polls quantify it this way: People who do have the opportunity to focus on their strengths are six times as likely to be engaged in their jobs and more than three times as likely to report having an excellent quality of life in general.

TGIM Takeaway: Extraordinary room from growth exists in each and every one of us if we put our energy into developing our natural talents. 

So I say to the Class of 2010 and friends and families assembled: Congratulations on all you’ve accomplished so far. Now --

Even if you cannot be “anything that you want,”

You can “be a lot more of who you already are.”

Go for that. And thanks for your attention.

Geoff Steck
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing
8 Depot Square
Englewood, NJ 07631
201-569-5373
tgimguy@gmail.com

P.S. Mark Twain is often credited with a story about the history buff who spent his entire life trying to figure out who was the world's greatest general. So when he died and got to Heaven, he asked Saint Peter if would show him the world's greatest general. Saint Peter took the man through heaven and pointed out a man and said, “That is the world's greatest general." The historian said, "You must be mistaken. That was the blacksmith in my village." And St. Peter said, "You are right. He was the blacksmith in your village. But if he had been a general, he would have been the greatest general of all." 

Thank Goodness It's Monday #304

THREE DAYS OF PEACE AND LOVE,

JERSEY STYLE

Pico Iyer, essayist, journalist world traveler, and friend and biographer of the Dalai Lama made a presentation at the Newark Museum late last week.

His talk was part of the ongoing 100^th anniversary celebration and reinstallation of the museum’s spectacular Tibetan collection. It also served as a prelude to the noteworthy Newark (New Jersey) Peace Education Conference this past weekend featuring the Dalai Lama among the three Nobel laureates, international leaders, local anti-violence activists and, yes, movie stars.

I’ve got notes. A bunch of them that I think are worth sharing. And so I’ll take this TGIM opportunity to do just that.

But before I do, a little preface.

Pico Iyer spoke for a little under an hour from behind a lectern on the stage of the newly refurbished auditorium at the Museum. The space is tech sophisticated, but other than the speaker system, he used none of it.

Yet he held the audience spellbound.

How? Several points were immediately apparent.

His only notes, which he referred to sparingly, were the outline he had sketched out on a single sheet of phone-side notepaper from the hotel where he was quartered.

 And he immediately acknowledged his tech unsavvy-ness. Having no PowerPoint, he said, might lead us to believe his presentation might be both powerless and pointless.   

Which, of course, it wasn’t. He suggested that, since we are now exposed to as many images in a day as Victorians were in a year, it might be refreshing to experience the simple power of the human voice to make a point or two.

And he went on to prove it by speaking from the heart and with a complete command of his subject matter.

From Iyer’s half-century of detailed involvement in personal experiences and journeys with the Dalai Lama, and from a position of unique friendship he has come to hold, I gleaned these additional  TGIM Takeaways that I want to share today:

►Iyer, now in his 50s, is of East Indian ancestry, raised in a sophisticated academic family, growing up primarily in the west, particularly England and the USA. As a small child the Dalai Lama, now 75, ascended to the Lion Throne high in the Himalayas and became the political and spiritual ruler of 6 million people who would shortly be driven from his homeland by the Communist Chinese. Seemingly the two were worlds apart. But --

TGIM Takeaway: We all share common ground. As a child of 4 Iyer received a picture from the exiled young-adult Dalai Lama showing him enthroned when he was also 4. From that moment on Iyer related to their shared status as strangers in a strange land.

► That photo became a treasure that Iyer displayed prominently into adulthood. But after considerable success as a journalist and author, Iyer lost both the photo and many of his worldly possession when a forest fire destroyed his California home.

While he first grieved the loss, and although he was not and is not a Buddhist per se, through his experiences with the Dalai Lama he came to this --

TGIM Takeaway: You can’t cling to the stuff of the world. Take it into you head and heart and hold it there where it can be forever your reality.

The completed mandala

► As I write this the Dalai Lama is at the Newark Museum blessing a delicate, elaborate Buddha of Compassion "Lord Avelokitesvara" sand mandala -- a metaphor of life's impermanence -- painstakingly created over a number of days by a team of skilled Tibetan Buddhist monks. It will be ritually destroyed and dispersed into the nearest body of moving water (the nearby Passaic River, in fact) to create blessings for all.

But despite the attractive ceremony and religious custom in this, the Dalai Lama preaches this --

TGIM Takeaway: Science trumps fate. With all this pageantry and these complex belief systems, the Dalai Lama insists on bringing principles into the real world. He doesn’t even necessarily want people to become Buddhists; he prefers that they remain connected to their roots.

► A message for Newark and the world. “I think a one-time conference may not make a big impact on your community …” his Holiness told a press conference. “But …”

TGIM Takeaway: “… You yourself must make an effort to reduce violence.”

Apart from that reality check, Iyer also reiterated the Dalai Lama’s emphasis on concentrating on the present moment.

It’s classic counsel: Don’t dream or hope or pray for change. Work for it. Meet and engage problems face-to-face.

► A fundamental “truth” and understanding of Tibetan Buddhism is that existence is suffering; it has a cause; it has an end; and it has a cause to bring about its end. That view, however, is a pragmatic perspective that deals with the world as it is, and attempts to rectify it.

Iyer related how, when His Holiness finally reached safety after being forced to flee Tibet, the Dalai Lama’s observation to his brother after a long and dangerous escape from their ancestral homeland was not about tragedy and loss, but about opportunity. He said, speaking with all Tibetan Buddhists in mind, “Now we are free” – to begin on a new political and spiritual path to advance the destiny of a previously isolated Himalayan people into a modern, democratic world.

TGIM Takeaway: You can change the world by the way you look at the world. Suffering is not the same as unhappiness. Happiness has to do with perception, not circumstances.  

►Asked in the Q&A that followed his talk if there might ever be a China/Tibet reconciliation, Iyer reiterated the view of the Dalai Lama, who has given up his political responsibilities to the recently elected, non-monk, Harvard academic Lobsang Sangay who is the new prime minister of the Tibetan government in exile.

TGIM Takeaway: Too much anger destroys and won’t solve the problem.

Tibet may be viewed as just a small finger on hand that is largely Chinese that, in turn, is part of the body that is all mankind. But to hurt it or torment it eventually injures the whole body. Why would anyone continue to do that?

And it’s not just Tibet. We are all interdependent. There are 200 million “displaced” people in the world, people removed from their ancestral connections. Every person’s destiny is, in a sense, the other person’s destiny.

►That just about brings this TGIM message full circle. Buddhism teaches that desire and ignorance lie at the root of suffering we mentioned early on. Still, the realm we live in, the realm of man, is considered the highest realm of rebirth.

Train your mind. Without the capacity for mental concentration and insight, Buddhism explains, one's mind is left undeveloped, unable to grasp the true nature of things. Good actions bring about happiness in the long run and offers

 The opportunity to achieve enlightenment, or Nirvana.

Hope this has been enlightening.

Geoff Steck
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing

8 Depot Square

Englewood, NJ 07631
201-569-5373

tgimguy@gmail.com   

P.S.  “Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.” His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, religious name,  Tenzin Gyatso, (shortened from Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso,) born Lhamo Dondrub in1935, said that. But I bet you guessed that already. 

Thank Goodness It's Monday #303

CLOSE EARLY …

CLOSE OFTEN …

CLOSE LATE

“What separates an order taker from a consummate sales professional?

Closing Power! No matter what sales methodology you may be a fan of … no matter how consultative and value-added your process … no matter how complex or low key the product or service you’re offering, as the legendary Yogi Berra intoned –



from Yogi's 1948 Rookie Card



“It ain’t over ’til it’s over.” A sale’s not “made” until you’ve locked up the buyer’s commitment. In other words, no matter how “consultative” the process you employ, the job of a sales professional (and, as we know, everyone sells), isn’t over until the prospect says so.

And since most folks are naturally reluctant to finalize that commitment, it’s the task of the person on the selling side of the equation to get the job done.

Trouble is, many even quite successful sales pros tend to hang tough and postpone the “close” until they believe they’ve detected the one and only psychologically right moment when the buyer is ready to buy.

TGIM ACTION IDEA: Sell yourself, and sell any sellers you can influence, on the idea that every presentation has not just one or two but many closing opportunities.

Consistently high producers know there are actually dozens of Close Early … Close Often … Close Late opportunities and the professional who acts on each is the one who will come away with the most business most efficiently.

TGIM IDEA IN ACTION: Here’s a roundup of just a few times when a trial close can and should be attempted. Compare them to similar moments in your sales process. Share and discuss them with others and lay out your own best practices.

►Close Early! You’re just settling down to begin your presentation and are laying out your sales materials when the prospect picks up the spec sheet for the line your pre-call research suggested suits his needs.

Stop right then and start closing. You’ve just be flashed a buying signal. Obviously your counterpart has done preliminary digging as well. For whatever reason, he’s beyond where you expect him to be. You’re seeing indications of readiness to buy. Go immediately to the details you would ordinarily have postponed to the end of any presentation. Close now!

►Close Often! Oops, it seems that the spec sheet reader is not quite convinced. So it’s back to the presentation of product benefits. You go on. And a few minutes later the prospect asks, “How fast are your deliveries?”

Stop right then and start closing. The prospect has just announced he can use your product. Don’t waste any more time gilding the lily (and endangering the sale by saying something that can undo your success). Close the sale, now!

“Well,” says the waffling prospect, “we’ve bought from the same source for the last five years. I see no reason to change.”

Great news: This classic comeback is no surprise for the prepared sales professional. You whip out the testimonials from other satisfied buyers who have switched, hand them over and –

Stop right then and start closing. “These other long-established accounts found it profitable to adopt our product,” goes the counter. Then the close: “Would you like to start with a month’s supply or take advantage of the discount for a bulk order.” (Maybe not that overt, but you get the idea.) Don’t kill the sale with too much extraneous talk. Trust your testimonials to be convincing and close, now!

Important reminder: Every objection is a natural bridge to a trial close. Overcome the objection and go for it. The worst that will happen is that the prospect will put up another objection that then can be dealt with.

►Close Late! You have to keep moving the prospect. Few prospects are ready to tumble right at the start. But most are inclined to decide in your favor; otherwise they wouldn’t have seen you in the first place.

TGIM Takeaway: It’s up to you to keep the ball in play. Close, and if you don’t lock up the business then and there, go back to the drill and keeping selling … consulting … providing value and information. Sooner or later the prospect will say or do something else that gives you the opportunity to move in again and make the sale.

Q: Have I sold you on the idea of Close Early … Close Often … Close Late? I hope so, because as Yogi also said –

“If you ask me anything I don't know, I'm not going to answer.”

Geoff Steck
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing

8 Depot Square

Englewood, NJ 07631
201-569-5373

tgimguy@gmail.com   

P.S.  “Dispatch is the soul of business and nothing contributes more to dispatch than method. Lay down a method and stick to it inviolately, as far as unexpected incidents may allow.” Lord Chesterfield (1694-1773) advised that in a letter to his son on February 5, 1750.

Obama Got Osama

THIS IS THE END OF THE BEGINNING

I like this; always have, hope I always will:

"Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction.."

Martin Luther King, Jr. said that.

And my Facebook friend Jill Garrafa posted something like it today in reference to events following the destruction of Osama bin Laden. And as I said, I “liked” it.

Here are some other thoughts on this moment in history:

● We live in a digital age #1: The first news of the bin Laden raid was Tweeted before any official announcement.

● We live in a digital age #2: It turns out, there may have been an app for that -- an app maker for the military may have supplied an iPhone app they used to plot and share coordinates just before the raid.

● The digital age is on hold #1: Even at the late east coast hour of the original announcement, people went outside to be with other people … in Times Square, at so-called Ground Zero, outside the White House.

● Free enterprise triumphs: Where many of the folks gathered “Obama Got Osama” T-shirts were on sale almost immediately, as well as other instant-manufacture merchandise such as buttons.

● The digital age is on hold #2: The story, preserved in print, wins the day:

100,000 extra copies of the NY Post jingoistic "Got Him: Vengeance at last! US nails the bastard" were printed and, presumably, sold.  

The New York Times doubled or tripled the number of newsstand copies it printed for several markets, including New York, Washington, Boston and San Francisco. The Washington Post said it printed an additional 70,000 copies, which is about double its normal print run, excluding home subscribers. USA Today added roughly 200,000. The Los Angeles Times printed 100,000 extra copies and kept printing plates in place "if we need to run more," said a spokesperson. 

● The confluence of “new” and “old” media: So many people (reportedly as many as 2,800 per second) wanted to print copies of newspaper front pages, the website for the Newseum, which presents the front pages for over 800 newspapers, crashed.

● After the buffalo have gone: Apparently the code name for bin Laden was “Geronimo.” Apt at one level, I guess. Still, the Native Peoples can’t seem to catch a break anywhere.

● Great communicator? The Obama announcement has been labeled “pitch perfect” and I pretty much agree. But don’t you think an evolving draft had been around for quite a while? And since the “Go” decision was made on Friday, don’t you think there were alternative announcements drafted for alternative outcomes? Reminds me that there was a Nixon speech ( first line: "Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace.”) in the can in case the first moon landing went awry.

● Illuminati/NWO/JFK “theorists:” Speaking of 9/11 and moon landings: Skeptical is one thing; coming across as obsessive is another. Pick your moments and messages more precisely and perhaps you’ll be more convincing.

● Speaking of what’s important: The Royal Wedding? Donald who? Charlie who?

● About the 24-hour news cycle: See above. And consider how quickly memories fade as news -- and “noise” -- streams in.

● In the 21st Century, we are the media: As consumers we drive what the “professional” media brings us. Most of us are virtually always connected and ready to receive. And with the mobile digital technology we carry and the instant outlet of networks at our disposal, we can break news as well as consume it. But the bin Laden compound had neither phone lines nor an internet connection. Why? In part because "connected" flows both ways and that reality has consequences.

Q: Can you do more than take a picture with your cell phone? Be prepared. Keep your eyes and ears open.  Master your electronics, don’t just carry them around.  Everyone has the potential to be a Zapruder in 2011.

● When the cheering dies down: Yes, some have said “We’re not cheering death, we’re cheering closure.”  Others have rightly observed that “Cheering a monster’s death is not the same as patriotism.” The closing credits of the 1950’s black-and-white sci-fi classic Destination Moon” comes to my mind. “This is the End” appears over a shot of stars against the earth in the blackness of space and slowly the line appears “… of the beginning.”

And that brings me full circle, for now.

Keep watching the skies. Fight against “a deeper darkness devoid of stars.”

Geoff Steck
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing

tgimguy@gmail.com   

Thank Goodness It's Monday #302

M-O-T-I-V-A-T-I-O-N

VIEWS YOU CAN USE ANYWHERE

“Motivation can be easily encouraged,” says Arnold Rincover, Ph.D., internationally known child psychologist and parenting consultant. “Effective parenting can make a tremendous difference.”

“Whoa!” you say. “Hold your horses. Since when has TGIM started doling out parenting advice? I’m not starting my week with a ‘nature vs. nurture’ debate. Wrong topic for my needs.”

Perhaps not. Certainly the subject matter here is largely about self-improvement and workplace empowerment. But I do try keep it “family friendly” and broaden the examples to home and community when particularly applicable.

So it strikes me as not impractical to source useful ideas from the “other” side of business life once in a while and sort of reverse engineer them to apply them to the workaday world.

TGIM ACTION IDEA: Rincover suggests that parents be guided by strategies that follow the letters in the word “motivation.”

Alright! Since we love acronyms and Dr. Rincover’s talking M-O-T-I-V-A-T-I-O-N, he’s got my attention and perhaps deserves yours, no matter where you are in the “parenting” world.

TGIM IDEA IN ACTION: Let’s take a quick look at the alphabetic breakdown as he presents them for parents, and then consider the work-world, apply-it-to-yourself-and-your-business and the community at large aspects.

Model your behavior. The fastest way to teach something is to model or demonstrate it, even elaborate or sophisticated skills. Yup. Works for kids; works for adults.

Offer feedback. Feedback is essential for learning. It tells learners – children or adults – whether they’re doing well or if they can do better. For best results, couple feedback with praise.

Talk! Many everyday situations in family life and in business and community life provide opportunities for talking and learning.

Case in point: Grabbing a quick lunch in a fast-food eatery. For kids it can become a learning experience by discussing, say, the nutrition value of the ingredients. With business acquaintances, talk marketing strategy or site location or central distribution policy.

Instill. In children, Dr. Rincover maintains, the desire to succeed does not develop entirely genetically. They learn it if adults make it an important part of their life. So it goes in the workplace. The more coworkers and management make goals clear to others, the more those others will feel motivated to take a role in meeting them.

Vary praise and rewards. Try praise first. If it seems more is needed, use rewards. When they are truly earned and are not so overused that they become commonplace and are discounted, both are powerful ways to motivate children and adults.

Attitude is everything. Differences in children’s attitude about achievement do not come purely from differences in ability, Dr. Rincover finds. They can be greatly shaped by parental attitudes. Adults, too, will take their attitude cues from authority figures. So you can be shaped according to who you allow to influence you. And you can apply what attitudinal clout you have to persuade others to your view.

Train independence. Parents of highly motivated children often have shown that they expect their children to do well. In short then, pressure to be self-reliant has been found to foster achievement. And this can play out in the adult world. If you manage others, be clear you expect great performance. If you manage managers, let them manage. Train them to give subordinates leeway to do their jobs.

Interest your child in learning. Research has shown that immediate praise, feedback, and other incentives increase interest in learning many fold. Make it interesting for others to connect to new information, learn new and better skills.

Offer a choice. This can take the sting out of undesirable tasks. Let the child who hates to go to the supermarket pick out the ice cream and you win willing cooperation. Let workers set their own rotation to the tasks they deem most unpleasant.

Never stop praising. This is the easiest, most powerful way to motivate. Yup. Works for kids; works for adults.

That’s it. Ten steps so simple, as they used to say, even a child can do them. Hope they (and I) M-O-T-I-V-A-T-E-D you to read this far.

And since, if you’re reading this you did, applying a few of them –

“Good for you.” “Great job!” “I’m proud of you.”

“Keep up the good work.” You know I’ll try.

Geoff Steck
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing

8 Depot Square

Englewood, NJ 07631
201-569-5373

tgimguy@gmail.com   

P.S.  “No man does anything from a single motive.” Poet, critic and philosopher Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772 - 1834) noted that.