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PSYCHOLOGY


Work Hard, but Also Work Smart MALCOLM FLESCHNER


Through the years salespeople have been told that sales success depends almost entirely on sheer effort. Managers interested in hitting the numbers hammer home the virtues of hard work and persistence, and the need to “go the extra mile.” Despite revolutionary changes in profes- sional selling, hard work may be valued more today than ever before.


However, according to one researcher who’s also a professor of marketing, more than 10 years of research in sales and motivation indicate that, for


many of today’s sales professionals, working “smart” is even more impor- tant than working “hard.” “Most research on this area of sales


40 | MAY/JUNE 2021 SELLING POWER © 2021 SELLING POWER. CALL 1-800-752-7355 FOR REPRINT PERMISSION.


has focused on motivating salespeo- ple to work harder – getting salespeo- ple to call on more customers, make more calls, and work longer hours each day,” the professor says. “While hard work does partially determine a salesperson’s success rate, in many sales jobs the direction of this effort is likely to be much more important than the quantity of effort. Most sales- people do work hard, averaging 53 hours per week. Whether they work smart is less clear.” In other words, working hard may


produce some results, but working smart will often deliver genuine suc- cess. The professor defines working smart as “tailoring presentations to


MONSTER ZTUDIO / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM


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