A Marine corporal was driving a benefits specialist from base to base to deliver lectures on life insurance, according to a story in Reader’s Digest. After listening to a dozen of these talks, the corporal insisted he knew the spiel by heart.

“Prove it,” the benefits specialist said. So at the next base, the corporal delivered the speech flawlessly, until a Marine asked, “What do I pay for insurance after I leave the Corps?”

The corporal temporarily froze before he had an idea. “Marine,” he said sternly, as he pointed to the benefits specialist, “that is such a dumb question that I am going to let my driver answer it.”

That corporal demonstrated two important skills: thinking on his feet and continuous learning.

When I was building my envelope manufacturing company, I was driving all over to get business. I drove 15,000 to 20,000 miles a year, and would constantly listen to audiotapes in the car, and later CDs, to boost my motivation and sharpen my sales skills. I didn’t want the drive time to be down time.

Knowing the average person spends 3 1/2 years over their lifetime in their car, I had a plan to turn my automobile into a university. I wanted to pass that opportunity on to our sales force as well. That’s why for years our company has had a tremendous library of motivational, sales and marketing materials for our employees to use. Now, like everyone else, we’ve moved on to podcasts. Why not maximize your time and learn something new?

Whenever we send someone to a seminar or training program, we ask them to come back and teach everyone at our company what they learned to maximize the return from our investment dollars. This is true for anything our people learn that might benefit others. That way, the entire group can improve their skills.

No matter how long you have been building your career, and how much you have learned with experience, there’s always more to absorb. Getting better at your job goes far beyond just learning the ropes; it’s a forever process. Maybe you can’t learn something new every day, but you can take advantage of every opportunity to learn.

Does your organization know how to learn? Here are four ideas to create a learning organization:

1. Encourage self-directed learning for employees. Don’t tell anyone what to learn, but give permission for people to explore what they think is important. Provide resources and access to information and the internet, and time off and tuition reimbursement if possible.

2. Promote inter-department collaboration. Bring together members of teams from different departments and let them share ideas and strategies. Encourage staff to share different opinions and points of view, so that meetings produce thoughtful, innovative results.

3. Use open-ended language. In your meetings and discussions, ask questions that stimulate creative thought and learning without simply focusing on finding “correct” answers. Show everyone on your team that you consider striving for improvement more important than arriving at a single “right” answer.

4. Treat mistakes as learning opportunities. Hold honest, straightforward conversations when something doesn’t work as anticipated. On a regular basis, ask team members what’s working and what isn’t. Look for lessons that might improve the process next time, as well as ideas for new processes that might result in an innovative product.

A baseball manager made an announcement to his team at the hotel on the morning of the game that there would be two buses leaving for the ballpark. “The 2 p.m. bus will be for those players who need extra work, and the empty bus will be leaving at 5 p.m.”

We all need extra work if we want to improve.

Everyone is fascinated with big plays -- a “Hail Mary” pass in football, a grand slam in baseball, a hat trick in hockey. However, quite often it’s the smaller plays, like a base hit, negotiating a new labor contract or finding a way to improve a manufacturing process, that consistently achieve success. Never downplay the everyday efforts to up your game and keep making progress, no matter what business you are in!

Mackay’s Moral: You don’t just get better; you make yourself better.

There is an Apache legend that the Creator gave human beings the ability to talk, run and see. But he was not satisfied until he also gave them the ability to laugh. Pleased with what he had done, the Creator said, “Now you are fit to live.”

With so much uncertainty in the world right now, one thing remains the same: Humor is a tremendous stress reliever and is more important than ever if we're to keep an optimistic outlook for the future. Besides, April is National Humor Month. I like to readjust my outlook by reading stories that have a message that stays with me. Here are some of my favorites.

At the end of a particularly frustrating practice one day, a football coach dismissed his players by yelling, “Now, all you idiots, go take a shower!” All but one player headed toward the locker room. The coach glared at him and asked why he was still there. “You told all the idiots to go, sir,” the player replied, “and there sure seems to be a lot of them. But I am not an idiot.”

And speaking of idiots, a minister, a Boy Scout and a computer executive were flying to a meeting in a small private plane. About halfway to their destination, the pilot came back and announced that the plane was going to crash and that there were only three parachutes for four people.

The pilot said, “I am going to use one of the parachutes because I have a wife and four small children,” and he jumped.

The computer executive said, “I should have one of the parachutes because I am the smartest man in the world and my company needs me,” and he jumped.

The minister turned to the Boy Scout and, smiling sadly, said, “You are young and I have lived a good, long life, so you take the last parachute and I'll go down with the plane.”

The Boy Scout said, “Relax, reverend, the smartest man in the world just strapped on my backpack and jumped out of the plane!”

While we’re on the subject of truly smart people, here are a couple goodies about two giants in American history, Henry Ford and George Washington Carver.

Ford, the founder of Ford Motor Co. who introduced mass manufacturing techniques to America, was asked at his 50th wedding anniversary about his secret to a good marriage. He replied, “The formula is the same as in car manufacturing. Stick to one model.”

Carver, the agricultural scientist and inventor who discovered more than 300 uses for the peanut and helped to save the South with his crop rotation plans, told this lesson on humility and humor. “When I was young, I asked God to tell me the mystery of the universe.

"But God answered, 'That knowledge is reserved for me alone.' So I said, 'Then, God, tell me the mystery of the peanut.'

"And God said, 'George, that’s more nearly your size.'”

Speaking of peanuts, they say elephants never forget. Ask the man who had gone to the circus as a small boy and didn’t make a return visit until years later. He was sitting in a cheap seat when an elephant came along, reached up into the stands, wrapped his trunk gently about the man and carried him over to deposit him gently in the best seat in the circus tent.

The man turned to his neighbor and said, “The elephant remembered that the last time I was here, years ago, I fed him peanuts.”

Just then the elephant came back, lifted his trunk, pointed it straight at the man and blew a stream of water in his face.

“Oh!” the man said. “I forgot I gave them to him in the bag.”

Now for one of my all-time favorites. A carpenter entered a doctor’s office. The receptionist asked him why he was there.

“I have shingles,” the carpenter replied. And so a nurse was summoned.

“Why are you here today?” she asked the carpenter.

“I have shingles,” was the answer.

She took his blood pressure, temperature, height and weight, and told him to change into a gown and wait for the doctor.

When the doctor came in, the carpenter told him again, “I have shingles.”

“Where?” the doctor asked.

Impatiently, the carpenter said, “Where do you think? Outside, in my truck.”

I hope these anecdotes have brightened your day. A good sense of humor is a lifeline to better days ahead.

Mackay’s Moral: Remember, tough times don’t last, but tough people do!

More and more people are working from home in the midst of the current national emergency. Between their computers and phones, an incredible amount of business is being conducted. These devices are keeping companies open for business.

I’ve always felt that the phone is one of the most awesome tools we have available, especially to salespeople. We’ve all had years and years of experience using a phone, so why are so many people bad at using it?

Here are a few tips I’d like to pass on to you with the help of Art Sobczak, president of Business By Phone. Art has helped sales professionals prospect and sell effectively by phone for more than 35 years.

The first objective of every sales call is to have a plan of what you want to accomplish. Prepare your questions and decide how you want to persuade a prospect into taking action. Art also advises you to have a “secondary objective for each sales call ... something you’ll strive to accomplish at minimum, every time.” It could be as simple as sending the prospective customer your literature.

Always treat the gatekeeper or call screener with respect. Ask for their name and use it. Gather as much information as you can about the gatekeeper as well as the decision maker. Knowledge does not become power until it is used.

Once you reach a decision-maker, it’s important to first ask if this is a good time to talk. Start the conversation with good news and also have a positive close. Focus on the prospect and listen to what they have to say. The goal is to pique their curiosity and interest. Art says, “You must answer, ‘What’s in it for me?’ for the listener, or they will immediately begin the getting-rid-of-you process.”

If people have questions, be prepared. Have the information handy or know where you can get it fast. Ask only one question at a time and avoid questions like, “Is everything going OK? What are your needs? Are you having any problems now? How is your service?”

Then quantify the problem whenever possible. “How does that happen? How much do you think that is costing you? How much time does that take?”

Art says: “Resist the tendency to present. Some reps get so excited when they hear the slightest hint of an opportunity that they turn on the spigot of benefits.”

When it’s finally time to get a commitment, think big and ask large. Buyers will often move down from a large recommendation, but they rarely move up from a small one. Remember to never ask for more than what is in the best interest of the customer. The important thing is to ask for a decision. “Maybe” is the worst answer a salesperson can get because a maybe can last forever.

There will always be objections, so be prepared for them and resist the tendency to be defensive. If you have an indecisive prospect, Art advises that you get their mind off the buying decision and on the problem or pain. For example, “Jan, let’s look at this another way. What would happen if you did nothing about the situation?” Price is one of the biggest objections, but don’t be too quick to offer price concessions.

Chances are you will be sending some information out to the prospective customer. Tell them what to look for and make it meaningful. Always summarize the agreed-to actions by both parties to avoid disagreements. Agreements prevent disagreements.

Keep your attitude up despite dealing with rejection. Rejection is a part of life. But you can’t let the fear of rejection paralyze you from the start or you’ll never get any sales. Don’t take rejection personally.

Art said: “Imagine every day is the end-of-quota-period day,” noting that sales reps tend to pick up their pace when they reach this time and try to get a few more sales.

Take pride in how to properly use the phone because few people in the world do it well. It’s difficult to persuade someone to take action and make a decision based almost solely on the words and ideas that come from your mouth.

Make that small marvel of electronics and convenience in your hand your best friend. Continuously work at improving your phone skills and watch your business improve. It may never replace face-to-face interaction, but a friendly voice makes for a great connection.

Mackay’s Moral: You can ring up more business when you dial up your phone skills.