Selling in a Crisis

26Work Harder, Longer, and Smarter

Before the crisis, you could get away with taking your foot off of the accelerator and coasting a bit. You could take a break and catch your breath.

Now you must drive without brakes. You'll need to put in longer hours. Skip meals to do deals. And work much harder than you did before – sometimes just to get the same results.

There is no easy way out of a crisis. You must grind to shine. Forget about “working smarter, not harder.” In a crisis, you are not going to get ahead by working less.

Don't allow anyone to outwork you or out-hustle you. Winners find the will and the way to keep going. They push through adversity and remain focused on surviving, selling, and thriving when everyone else quits.

It's going to wear you out and wear you down. It will drain you. This is why a crisis is so efficient at separating the winners from the losers. Don't quit. Don't slow down.

This does not mean that you shouldn't be smart. Smart matters. Investing your time on the right activities, right prospects, and customers at the right time will accelerate your climb out of the crisis. Organizing your day, using technology, and leveraging techniques like high-intensity activity sprints will make you more productive.

When you work longer, harder, and smarter, very good things happen for you.