Every time our economy falters, we hear those four magic words: “Work harder, not smarter.” We find ourselves surrounded by catchy phrases like “productivity gains,” which can often be a euphemism for “We just fired the person in the cubicle next to yours, so now you’ll do her job just as well as yours.”

When times get tough, the tough once in a while want to intellectualize. You can think of yourself to get out of many problems in life, but you cannot think of how to get out of a hole. You have to grab the rope and start climbing. Falling into the “work smarter, not harder” trap is nothing more than an excuse for you to stop working and start daydreaming. Successful selling is never a matter of what you know. It’s a matter of what you do with what you know. While all living and breathing creatures must evolve, maybe the problem isn’t the fact that you need a new game plan. Maybe you have a great one and you just aren’t working hard enough on it.

This doesn’t mean that continuing education should be absent from your sales career…quite the contrary. You must learn something new every day. But you must learn while doing. Greatness has never been achieved strictly through the pursuit of knowledge. Greatness is achieved by learning and applying that knowledge, taking action and taking risks and falling and getting up and doing it all over again.

Professional selling is built on a foundation of several pillars that may vary in appearance, but are always consistent in principle.

First, you must love the art of selling. If you don’t, you’ll never be a successful marketer. He must adopt selling as his chosen profession and must have a deep and burning desire to excel. When you show up for a job you don’t like…maybe even a job you hate…you look at the clock, contribute only the bare minimum that will keep you employed, show up late, leave early, take long lunches, browse the Internet when your boss isn’t around, make personal phone calls, email your friends, and spend all Saturday and Sunday dreading Monday morning. That is not life. That is a prison sentence.

Second, you have to think like Elvis Presley and Take Care of Business…”TCB” Elvis distributed gold-plated “TCB” trinkets to members of his “Memphis Mafia” as a constant reminder of his personal manifesto. What is your manifest? Is it to arrive late and leave early, to take care of business, or somewhere in between? People must be able to trust that you will keep your word and deliver on everything you promise. You will occasionally encounter extreme and unpredictable circumstances that are not within your control, but most people will understand and appreciate your honesty and direct, immediate communication during these times. On the other hand, if you let something go to waste due to your apathy, laziness, or carelessness, you’ll start to erode any trust you’ve built between your clients, colleagues, or peers, and you’ll be on the fast track. to “unemployed”.

Third, you must believe in the product or service you are selling with an unshakable sense of faith. You must believe that while you may have competitors, you have a superior offering. You need to be able to back this up with customer testimonials and success stories, not just plain arrogance. If you don’t already have this belief, or can’t nurture it over time, you’re selling the wrong product or service. Go out now and find the right scenario for you.

Fourth, you must embrace the ancient wisdom of goal setting that dictates that you will strive for “this or better.” You can never control the end result. You can meet a potential customer and close the sale after one or two short conversations. You can also spend considerable time on proposals or inquiries, only to discover that the prospect is shopping around or just curious, with no means or motivation to buy in the near or distant future. Both scenarios are realities in the professional sales landscape. You must accept what is in your glass, be it fine wine or ashes, and realize that your path is forward. You have no time for self-pity, anger, hurt, or resentment. As you walk away from your failed sales call, struggling with your emotions, your prospect is buying a candy bar from the vending machine and thinking about 100 other things that don’t involve him. Celebrate successes and move on. Acknowledge the lesson of defeat and move on. Never stay still.

Fifth, always win the sale. The exact moment you earn the respect, admiration, and future referrals of your customers is the exact moment you give them everything they paid for, everything they expected…and you haven’t slowed down one bit. They got everything they promised and are still delivering. One aspect of sales that is true in any economy, strong or weak, is that the salesperson who consistently exceeds expectations is the same salesperson who will never charge an empty or diminished pipeline. He is as passionate about his clients’ success as his own.

Finally, follow the advice of a wise old friend of mine. When you face the lion and the lion has only one thought… to eat you… stand firm, stand tall and look the lion straight in the eye. Smile and say “I hope it tastes good.” Fear, weakness and doubt have no place in sales. Savings come and go. When he builds his motivation on favorable circumstances and a level playing field, he will reap nothing but low-hanging fruit. In a tight economy, that fruit has already been picked by your competition. You must resist, decide to fight and work harder.

The vast majority of limits in life are self-imposed. The concept of an “eight-hour workday” applies to companies that must pay overtime for anything over eight hours. If you are a professional seller…especially if you are a sole proprietor or entrepreneur…there is no time clock. There are no weekends.

There is only life. Life is what is happening to you right now, while you are reading this article.

There is your work, your passion, your trade, your success. Don’t work smarter. Hard work. You already know what to do and how to do it. You’re just not doing enough. Make a decision right now to change that behavior. You can do it, and you will see immediate results.