a MTA Motivational Speaker Article

Progress Takes Persistence (part 2)

(excerpt from The Progress Challenge: Working and Winning in a World of Change by MTA Motivational Speaker Dean Lindsay.  “More than a , Dean Lindsay is The DEAN of Sales and Service!” – Jeff Chernoff, President, Consumers’ Choice Award ®  ) motivational speaker

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Every moment that we focus on the strong reasons that have inspired our goals, the closer we are to taking determined action toward their achievement.  The key is to not let reasons for pursuing other goals steal our attention, or become more compelling.  We must keep our focus (and our employees’, customers’, and prospects’ focus) on the Six Ps of Progress that will be felt in accomplishing the goal. 

The Progress Challenge Riddle (a classic): If there are five frogs on a log and three decide to jump off, how many frogs are still on the log?  Answer:  Five.  Deciding is not doing.

Decided to make sales calls? 

We may have decided to make a sales call, and it may even play out very nicely in our minds, but until we pick up the phone and dial, we are not making sales calls. 

And we can’t let a misguided desire for perfection stop us.  We don’t have to be perfect to Be Progress.  We can always improve our technique, improve our plan and our actions. 

 Progress does not demand perfection, only persistence.

Things can and do go wrong.   Missed opportunities should not be allowed to become big emotional “downers.”   Self-pity is not part of a Progress Agent’s makeup.  We must reframe setbacks to our advantage.  Most “successful” people say they learned more from their failures than their successes because they were eager to learn what went wrong and to avoid repeating it. 

Being persistent does not mean being bullheaded.  If what we’re trying isn’t working, we must take a fresh approach.  Consider that by eliminating another idea that didn’t work, the path to progress became clearer.  When things go wrong, we can let Thomas Edison light our way.  Asked if he was discouraged after thousands of attempts at creating a viable light bulb had failed, he replied: “Why would I feel like a failure? And why would I ever give up? I now know definitively over 9,000 ways that an electric light bulb will not work.”  Make time on a regular basis to revise the plan. Creating a feedback loop is vital – even if we’re the only ones in the loop. 

Fill days with action toward crafted goals.  Start and, if we get sidetracked, we must acknowledge that the reasons for pursuing some other goal or goals have become stronger in our mind. Then is the time to ask:  Why?

If the promise of our goals no longer propels us to action, we need to do a gut check. 

Are they still our goals? 

Are the reasons strong enough to propel us to persistent action?

“What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for some goal worthy of him. What he needs is not the discharge of tension at any cost, but the call of a potential meaning waiting to be fulfilled by him.” — Viktor Frankl

Each step toward a goal is progress.  It is powerful for us to appreciate all that we’re doing to stay on track, and to express our gratitude to those who are helping and supporting us.  Find ways to enjoy the journey.  Pat yourself on the back.  Reward yourself.  These are our lives we are talking about here.

 Go.  Do.  Progress takes persistence.

 Be Progress.

Progress Takes Persistence is an excerpt from The Progress Challenge: Working and Winning in a World of Change by MTA Motivational Speaker Dean Lindsay.  The ‘MTA’ refers to an endorsement about Dean from Consumer Choice Award … “More than a , Dean Lindsay is The DEAN of Sales and Service!” – Jeff Chernoff, President, Consumers’ Choice Award ®motivational speaker

a MTA Motivational Speaker Article

Progress Takes Persistence (part 1)

(excerpt from The Progress Challenge: Working and Winning in a World of Change by MTA Motivational Speaker Dean Lindsay.  “More than a motivational speaker, Dean Lindsay is The DEAN of Sales and Service!” – Jeff Chernoff, President, Consumers’ Choice Award ®  ) 

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“Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence.” – Calvin Coolidge

Personal, professional, and social progress demands persistent action.  The greatest goals, ideas, plans, and skills in the world are useless unless they are combined with a generous amount of persistence.  Persistence is a byproduct of passion.  Passion leads to a zest in the pursuit.  To keep the passion, we must constantly remind ourselves of the benefits we are expecting from our efforts. 

News flash!!! – Goals can be achieved without a plan.  It will most likely take us much longer, but we will eventually progress if we stay committed.  The dangerous thing about not having a plan is that the longer it takes to progress toward a goal, the more likely we are to search out or give in to other ways to try to feel the Six Ps of Progress. Note that I said other ways, not better ways.  And I said try to feel, not feel. 

Without a plan, we are likely to get discouraged and give up. “Losing sight of the goal” means that it has not been defined clearly enough, and/or not held on to long enough, to be realized. A plan helps us achieve our crafted goals faster and more efficiently, without wasting resources or pulling our hair out. 

Let’s say I wanted to travel:

From: Columbus, Ohio (girlhood home of Erma Louise Fiste, later known as Erma Bombeck).

To:      Hannibal, Missouri (boyhood town of Samuel Clemens, later known as Mark Twain). 

Maybe I’m hoping to start a tour business, highlighting the childhood towns of America’s wittiest.  Anyway, I’m ready to roll, and my wallet’s bulging with fifties, so I get into the car and buckle up. I have everything I need, except for a plan: no map, no GPS, no particular itinerary.  I have a full tank of gas, so I turn the key and drive.  I am committed to getting to Hannibal. 

Will I eventually get to Hannibal? 

Yes, if I am persistent, I will eventually make my way to Hannibal.  It might take me a week, and I may run out of money, have to sell the car and then hitchhike the last 75 miles, but if I’m persistent, I will eventually get to Hannibal. 

A plan would certainly help me get there a lot faster, without having to ask a bunch of people for directions, without running out of money, or hitchhiking.  However, it is not the plan that makes achievement possible.  It is persistent action.  And action is initiated and sustained by strong, internalized reasons. 

Don’t get me wrong. I am a firm believer in planning.  But the best-laid plans of mice and men will not take us where we are not committed to going.

Keeping our thoughts constantly on the reasons behind our goals is the stimulus that keeps us committed and able to dispense with setbacks quickly, and to decisively redirect our efforts. 

“Nana korobi ya oki” is a popular Japanese saying that vividly expresses the importance of persistence, despite setbacks.  As the proverb teaches, the eventual winners are those who “fall down seven times, get up eight.” 

“Making miracles is hard work.  Most people give up before they happen.” – Sheryl Crow

Part Two of Progress takes Persistence in the next post.

Be Progress.

Progress Takes Persistence is an excerpt from The Progress Challenge: Working and Winning in a World of Change by MTA Motivational Speaker Dean Lindsay.  The ‘MTA’ refers to an endorsement about Dean from Consumer Choice Award … “More than a motivational speaker, Dean Lindsay is The DEAN of Sales and Service!” – Jeff Chernoff, President, Consumers’ Choice Award ®

Inspirational Motivational Speaker Video from Dean Lindsay

“More than a motivational speaker, Dean Lindsay is The DEAN of Sales and Service! Energetic, Funny and Thought Provoking, Dean delivered an outstanding presentation to our elite group of business people. We look forward to inviting Dean back to our next business event!” - Jeff Chernoff, President, Consumers’ Choice Award ®               

“Dean Lindsay is an outstanding thought leader on the subject of developing priceless business relationships.” – Willis Turner, President, Sales and Marketing Executives International     

COOL NEW THING! – Dean Lindsay was chosen as having one of the ‘100 of the Most Inspiring Business Videos on YouTube’ by Zen College Life, the #1 Destination for College Information Online. Others chosen for this honor include Oprah Winfrey, Richard Branson, President Barack Obama and Jack Canfield (author of Chicken Soup for the Soul).  Cool, huh?

Inspirational Motivational Speaker, Dean Lindsay, is the author of The Progress Challenge: Working and Winning in a World of Change and Cracking the Networking CODE: 4 Steps to Priceless Business Relationships

Customer Service Training Tips on Serving Inside Out (part 2)

4.  Customer Service Training Tip on Serving Inside Out - Show Appreciation & Compliment

Sincere appreciation and compliments are great way to show you know Service is Everything. 

 We thank external customers, right? 

We know we should never take our external customers for granted, right? 

How about our internal customers?

 “A group becomes a team when each member is sure enough of himself and his contribution to praise the skills of the others.” — Norman Shidle

Sincere compliments cost us nothing yet can become priceless for both the giver and receiver.  As Mark Twain wrote, “I can live for two months on a good compliment.”  It takes some confidence to notice good things about others and to tell them about it. Smile, say thank you and mean it.  Giving team members a lift has the power of raising our confidence even further because when we start noticing good things about others, we often start noticing more good things about ourselves.  But be careful, compliments that are ill-timed or thought to be insincere are likely to have the opposite effect than intended.  Start by finding something, however small, to genuinely thank or praise others for.  The more specific the better because it shows the person we truly noticed them. 

“If people did not compliment one another there would be little society.” – Marquis De Vauvenargues

 5.  Customer Service Training Tip on Serving Inside Out - Don’t air dirty laundry.

Resolve internal conflicts so they don’t seep into the service.  Grumbling, complaining about co-workers and lack of cooperation will start to chip away at confidence in you and ECI.  If we don’t feel good about our team, our team won’t either. 

 6.  Customer Service Training Tip on Serving Inside Out - Spread the bounty

When a manager or someone on the team receives a thank you or Holiday gift from a customer or vendor, sharing it with the ECI team is a progress –heavy teambuilding move.

 7.  Customer Service Training Tip on Serving Inside Out - Cherish and Cultivate Constructive Communication

All should be in the loop as to developments within the company.  Team members must feel they are not only ON the team but important TO the team. 

“If you get everybody in the company involved in customer service, not only are they ‘feeling the customer’ but they’re also getting a feeling for what’s not working.” — Penny Handscomb

All team members must feel they are ‘being progress’ for the organization.  Just like with our external customers, internal customer feedback needs to be encouraged and their insight followed up on.  Work to make all communication ripe with respect, kindness and goodwill.

Service is Everything.

Be Progress.

Inspirational Motivational Quotes from Dean Lindsay, Author of The Progress Challenge and Cracking the Networking CODE

“We create our future with our responses to change.  Be Progress.” -Dean Lindsay

Inspirational Motivational Quotes

“When the going gets tough, sometimes the mind has to get tough to get going.” – Dean Lindsay

Inspirational Motivational Quotes

“Change is inevitable, Progress is a Choice.” – Dean Lindsay

Watch Dean Lindsay Videos

Inspirational Motivational Quotes

“Time management is really self management with a respect for time.” – Dean Lindsay

Inspirational Motivational Quotes

“Turn people on to you by tuning into them.” – Dean Lindsay

Inspirational Motivational Quotes

“If an organization wants first rate external customer service, their internal customer service must be first rate first.” – Dean Lindsay

Inspirational Motivational Quotes

“Progress in service leads to progress in sales.” – Dean Lindsay

Inspirational Motivational Quotes

“Stop changing and start progressing.” – Dean Lindsay

Inspirational Motivational Quotes

“Keep your eyes, ears, mind, and heart open for ways to progress.” – Dean Lindsay

Dean Lindsay Booking Information

Customer Service Training - Tips on Serving Inside Out (part 1)

Most of us know it is mission critical that every contact between internal customers and external customers be professional, positive and effective.  Unfortunately it is common to overlook the fact that it is also mission critical that every contact between two internal customers be professional, positive and effective.

The cool thing is that the tips and strategies about how to treat external customers apply to internal customers also.  Listen.  Care.  Smile.  Respect.  Bathe.  All rock solid tips when it comes to treating co-workers, employees, direct reports and others.

Consider for a moment the internal customers you serve.

How can we serve fellow team members better?  Will we?

Here are the first three of Seven Solid Tips for Serving Inside Out.

1.  Customer Service Training Tip on Serving Inside Out  – View co-workers as customers.

Helping fellow employees do their jobs more efficiently and effectively not only helps our organization, it helps us too!  It is important to learn to view team-focused interruptions as solid opportunities to help our organzations.  When our organizations progress, we progress.

Providing service that helps other team members rock ‘n roll is what it is all about.  Get jazzed about your role in sharing information and take pride in helping your colleagues.  As a bonus: when we are cool about helping co-workers get their jobs done, they will likely be cool about helping us. 

2.  Customer Service Training Tip on Serving Inside Out - Have Fun Together

Create an company sports team, or better yet you’re creative, come up with something unique that fits your organization’s unique vibe.  Sure some of your ideas might take some extra time and bit of money, but the company-wide results will far surpass the effort and added expense.  Even a monthly breakfast or lunch on the company dime is good for morale.  It would be a good move for the breakfast or lunch to cost the company more than a dime.  Super cheap is a buzz killer.

“It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important.” – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

 3.  Customer Service Training Tip on Serving Inside Out – Surpass the expectations of your internal customers.

I don’t know about you but I get a kick when someone exceeds my expectations.  It makes me want to exceed theirs.  That old saying of ‘under-promising and over-delivering’ works with internal customers as well.

Next up 4 more customer service training tips for Serving Inside Out!

Service is Everything.

Be Progress.

“More than a motivational speaker, Dean Lindsay is The DEAN of Sales and Service! Energetic, Funny and Thought Provoking, Dean delivered an outstanding presentation to our elite group of business people. We look forward to inviting Dean back to our next business event!”
- Jeff Chernoff, President, Consumers’ Choice Award ®  

Booking Info on Customer Service Training with Dean Lindsay

Sales Speakers Endorsment (NEW) from DORMA

“Dean was asked to speak at our sales leadership conference to support our theme of “a new day for new thinking”.   Dean took the quality time up front to understand the deliverables we needed for our specific audience and he delivered as promised.  His style, material and overall delivery and facilitation hit the mark for our group. 

Many participants later commented about enjoying the 4 hour session but also benefiting from it by getting new ideas to bring back to their territories to go after additional sales.  I would certainly work with Dean again and recommend others to as well.”

 - Larry O’Toole, President,  DORMA Americas

“Progress in SERVICE leads to Progress in SALES.” - Dean Lindsay, Sales and Customer Service Speaker

Watch Video Clips of Dean Lindsay, Sales Speakers

Booking Info for Dean Lindsay

A Customer Service Speaker Training Ideas Post

Serving Inside Out (Part Two)

an excerpt from Customer Service Speaker, Dean Lindsay’s new book (being published in early 2012, SERVICE IS EVERYTHING)

Link to Part One

One of the surest ways to drastically reduce negative employee and external customer service issues is to create work environments that are upbeat, positive and collaborative.  It is well documented that team members that receive solid internal customer service are more likely to voluntarily offer assistance to other team members.

Our feelings about our internal customers are on display with every internal contact.  It shows in how we greet co-workers at the beginning of the day.  It shows in what we do when a superior asks for information needed to wrap up a project.  It shows in how quickly we respond to that sometimes kind of pushy team member who has another question.

How can we expect team members to care about and listen to customers when they are not offered that by other team members or management?

A pledge of internal service must be felt all through a company, from head to toe and back again.  Nordstrom’s, Disney and Southwest Airlines – all toting world class service buzz  – didn’t get that way without (most) everybody in that company being enthusiastically on board.  It is an ideology, an understanding that everybody serves and lifts up everybody else in the organization and that everyone within the organization has an affect – positive or negative – on the outside customer.  Everyone has each others back. 

“If you are not serving the customer, your job is to be serving someone who is.”  — Jan Carlson

Showing team members that ‘Service is Everything’ is essential to the external customer feeling you know ‘Service is Everything’.  In assisting others on your team, you are helping yourself progress.  Every contact a customer – internal or external – has with our organizations gives the customer insight into the ideology we hold dear. Make your ideology  ‘Service is Everything’.

 Show you know ‘Service is Everything.’

In the next couple of Customer Service Speaker Training Ideas Posts, I’ll share seven tips on Serving Inside Out.

Service is Everything.

Be Progress.

Watch Customer Service Speaker Dean Lindsay in ACTION!

Customer Service Speaker Article

Serving Inside Out (part One)

By Dean Lindsay (from his upcoming book, SERVICE IS EVERYTHING)

A company’s progress hinges on the progress of its people.  What many organizations often overlook in their search for ways to improve their level of external customer service is the importance of their internal customer service.  It is vital to know that ‘Service is Everything’ to Everyone.

“A customer is anyone who can influence a sale, or a suit, a vote, an appropriation, a budget…a job or a career.” — Warren Blanding

In the big picture, whoever is affected, positively or negatively, by the work we do is our customer.  Every person, in every role, at every level, in every organization has customers.  Every team member is a link in the customer-service chain.  To some degree, each individual is responsible for creating world-class customer service.  When a team member not dealing directly with customers drops the ball or is slow to respond to another team member’s organizational need they are weakening the external customer service.

 “Love all, Serve all.”  — Motto at Hard Rock Cafe

Internal customer service is the support we provide team members and the attitudes that go along with that support.  All the folks within an organization need to be treated like the vital components they are. 

“For an organization’s external customer service to be first rate, its internal customer service must be first rate first.” – Dean Lindsay, Customer Service Speaker (from his upcoming book, SERVICE IS EVERYTHING)

There is overwhelming evidence to the direct relationship between employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction.  External customer satisfaction rarely rises above internal customer satisfaction.  In other words, it is tough to get our external customer service better than our internal customer service.  If a company wants its employees to exceed customer expectations, a solid first step is for the company to create a work environment that exceeds the employees’ expectations.    

In many organizations it is common to find that employees and co-workers – internal customers – don’t treat each other nearly as well as they do the organization’s external customers.  This is un-FORTUNE-ate because internal customer service touches all aspect of a business including morale and productivity.  Companies that suffer in internal customer service usually face challenges with turnover and absenteeism as well as lower external customer satisfaction.

Be Progress.

More on SERVING INSIDE OUT in the next post!

CLick to Watch Dean Lindsay, Customer Service Speaker, in action.

More than a Motivational Speaker Series – 5 Quotes from 5 Greats   

Title for series inspired by this endorsement:  “More than a motivational speaker, Dean Lindsay is The DEAN of Sales and Service! Energetic, Funny and Thought Provoking, Dean delivered an outstanding presentation to our elite group of business people. We look forward to inviting Dean back to our next business event!”  - Jeff Chernoff, President, Consumers’ Choice Award ®   

5 Great Quotes from 5 of my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE Motivational Speakers, Authors and Coaches

“Don’t brood. Get on with living and loving. You don’t have forever.”

- Leo Buscaglia

“Be prepared and be honest.” 

- John Wooden

“The more one forgets himself – by giving himself to a cause to serve or another person to love – the more human he is and the more he actualizes himself. What is called self-actualization is not an attainable aim at all, for the simple reason that the more one would strive for it, the more he would miss it. In other words, self-actualization is possible only as a side-effect of self-transcendence.”

- Viktor Frankl  

“Give a lot, expect a lot, and if you don’t get it, prune.”
- Tom Peters

“You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want.” 
 - Zig Ziglar

Be Progress.

Motive for Action – Another ‘MTA Motivational Speaker’ Blog Post 

MTA Motivational Speaker Dean Lindsay VIDEO CLIP