Please sit back, relax and turn up your speakers to watch our new 3 minute movie Paper Airplane…a lesson in flying outside the box. Click on this link to watch.

When we sell something, a verbal thank you is almost automatic — so automatic sometimes it can be perceived as less than genuine – a “comment on the weather” filler at best.

Should we do more? Of course.

Most of us work extremely hard to bring in new customers and once we do, we’re given an opportunity to begin building a “barrier to entry” for our competitors – a much more enjoyable position than fighting through gatekeepers and prospect apathy.

A quick sales check…

During a typical year, how many non-verbal expressions of gratitude do you and your team give to your important prospects and/ or customers (beyond an email)?

What’s the appropriate number? Tough to say, really. It depends on so many different variables (e.g., your margins (what you can afford), the potential future business from the customer and/ or the customer’s colleagues (referrals), what your customer might personally feel is appropriate, etc.).

Start with a handwritten note of thanks – making it a rule rather than the exception.

Then, invest some time outside the money hours (you and/ or your team) in developing some creative ways to show your gratitude year-round.

There are roughly 250 sales days a year for most people. Each is an opportunity to sell. Each is an opportunity for gratitude.

Be real. Be constant. Begin.

When I was a freshman in college I learned an unforgettable lesson.

I was having a rough week when there was a lot to do and very little time to do it. I was overwhelmed. I panicked.

That night a friend stopped by my dorm room. When I told him my problem, he said, “Mac, I’ll share something with you that my grandmother told me a few years ago. She said to always remember: ‘Inch by inch, life’s a cinch. Yard by yard, life is hard.’”I said, “Bob, here I am drowning in work and your lifeline is a quote from your grandmother. Come on!”

After he left, however, those twelve little words kept dancing in my head. I took out a piece of notebook paper and listed all the things I had to do in the next three days. That night I began knocking them off one by one.

Three days later I took out that paper and marked through the last thing on the list. It felt great! And then I took out another piece of paper and wrote down the words: “Inch by inch, life’s a cinch. Yard by yard, life is hard.” I then folded the paper and put it in my wallet. As many of you know, I’ve been collecting quotes ever since. You see, over the years I’ve learned that success doesn’t come cascading like Niagara Falls; it comes one drop at a time through short-term, realistic goals. Experts on motivation disagree on a lot of things, but one thing they all agree on is that your levels of motivation are directly tied to your expected probabilities of success. In other words, if you believe you can do something (the goals are realistic), you’re likely to be highly motivated. If, however, you think you can’t (because the goals are unrealistic) your motivation level falls greatly.

The lesson here is to continue to dream big dreams, but realize that the short-term goals that take you to the next plateau are the real keys to success.

Start your work week right with Quick Takes on Life, a no-cost e-mail subscription of original quotes that will make you smile and give you something to ponder. What better way to spend 30 seconds on a Monday morning?Check out a sample of the Quick Takes, in a one-minute flash movie, at http://takeabreakmovie.com

Movie clip displays someone doing something so simple, but so wonderful. Someone who some people might never even give the time of day to, but if they would, they could be changed in such a positive way.

Click Here to watch.

On Nov. 18, 1995, Itzhak Perlman, the violinist, came on stage to give a concert at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center in  New York City.  If you have ever been to a Perlman concert, you know that getting on stage is no small achievement for him. He was stricken with polio as a child, and so he has braces on both legs and walks with the aid of two crutches. To see him walk across the stage one step at a time, painfully and slowly, is an awesome sight.

He walks painfully, yet majestically, until he reaches his chair. Then he
sits down, slowly, puts his crutches on the floor, undoes the clasps on his
legs, tucks one foot back and extends the other foot forward. Then he bends
down and picks up the violin, puts it under his chin, nods to the conductor
and proceeds to play. 

By now, the audience is used to this ritual. They sit quietly while he 
makes his way across the stage to his chair. They remain reverently silent while he undoes the clasps on his legs. They wait until he is ready to play. 

But this time, something went wrong. Just as he finished the first few 
bars, one of the strings on his violin broke. You could hear it snap - it went 
off like gunfire across the room. There was no mistaking what that sound meant. There was no mistaking what he had to do.   We figured that he would have to get up, put on the clasps again, pick up the crutches and limp his way off stage - to either find another violin or else find another string for this one. But he didn’t. Instead, he waited a moment, closed his eyes and then signaled the conductor to begin again. 

The orchestra began, and he played from where he had left off.   And he played with such passion and such power and such purity as they had never heard before.  Of course, anyone knows that it is impossible to play a symphonic work with just three strings. I know that, and you know that, but that night Itzhak Perlman refused to accept it. You could see him modulating, changing, re-composing the piece in his head. At one point, it sounded like he was de-tuning the strings to get new sounds from them that they had never made before. When he finished, there was an awesome silence in the room.  Then suddenly people rose and cheered. There was an extraordinary outburst of applause from every corner of the auditorium. We were all on our feet, screaming and cheering, doing everything we could to show how much we appreciated what he had done. 

He smiled, wiped the sweat from this brow, raised his bow to quiet us, and then he said not boastfully, but in a quiet, pensive, reverent tone … 

“You know, sometimes is the artist’s task to find out how much music you can still make with what you have left.” 

What a powerful line that is! It has stayed in my mind ever since I heard it.  And who knows? Perhaps that is the definition of life - not just for artists but for all of us.    Here is a man who has prepared all his life to make music on a violin of four strings, who, all of a sudden, in the middle of a concert, finds himself with only three strings. 

So he makes music with three strings, and the music he made that night with just three strings was more beautiful, more sacred, more memorable, than any that he had ever made before, when he had all four strings. 

So, perhaps our task in this shaky, fast-changing, bewildering world in which we live is to make music, at first with all that we have, and then, when that is no longer possible, to make music with what we have left!

Will it save me money or time or work
Or hike up my pay with a welcome jerk?
What drudgery, worry, or loss will it cut?
Can it get me out of a personal rut?
I wonder how much it would do for my health –
Could it show me a way to acquire more wealth –
Better things for myself and the kids and the wife –
                                    Or how to quit work somewhat early in the life?

I see that you’ve spent quite a big wad of dough
To tell me things you think I should know,
How your plant is so big, so fine, so strong –
And your founder has whiskers, so handsomely long.
So he started teh business in old ninety-two–
How tremendously interesting that is — to you.
He built up the thing with the blood of his life –
I’ll rush home and tell my wife!

Your Machinery is modern and oh so complete –
Your “rep” is so flawless — your work is so neat.
Your motto is “Quality” — with a capital “Q” –
No wonder I’m tired of “your” and of “you.”
So tell me quick and tell me true –
Or else, my friend, to heck with you –
Less how this product came to be –
More what the darn thing does for me!
-Anonymous