If you’ve been following the economic news lately, you pretty much hear nothing but doom and gloom. Energy prices climbing; the housing market continues to fall; the dollar is weak; economic growth in the fourth quarter climbed but at a much slower rate due to weak holiday sales; the consumer spending binge seems to be slowing; and then, as I write this, I see on my newsreader “Inflation rate is worst in 17 years.”

All I can say to that is, “What a perfect time to do business!” Now before you start filling out the commitment papers, let me tell you something; there is no better time to do business than during a down economic period and for one simple reason: most of your competition has given up. It is my belief that during down economic periods or recessions, salespeople stop selling long before customers stop buying.

Sure there might be less business out there, and, most likely, the size of the average sale might decrease; but, with less people chasing the business, it will be a lot easier for you to get what’s out there. It is the perfect opportunity for each and every one of you to go out there and grab market share.

One thing we know about the economy is that no matter how bad it may get (and I don’t think it will be that bad. Remember, good news doesn’t sell), the economy always comes back. If you capture market share when business is down, you’ll be perfectly positioned to explode your business and crush your competition when things turn around.

It is so critical for you to be more visible than ever to your clients and prospects, because of the perceptions you create. During good times, if your clients and prospects don’t see you for a while, they just assume you’re busy. But if they don’t see or hear from you during tough times, they just assume you’re gone.

The average to poor salesperson is not looking for business: they’re looking for an excuse and a recession is a great excuse. They can go see one prospect or client who will tell them, “Business is tough right now, we’re not buying,” and turn that into “Nobody’s buying.” You see this way they can’t actually fail. They can tell their manager, “I’ve been out there. Business is bad, nobody’s buying.” Their ass is covered. Of course, they never do succeed: which is what it’s all about.

Don’t you just love it when people say, “Nobody’s buying?” What the hell does that mean? The United States has a 13 TRILLION dollar economy. If it went down 10%, which is unheard of and would cause panic in the streets, there would still be 11.7 TRILLION dollars of economic activity going on: Somebody’s buying something.

Do yourself a favor, don’t listen to the negativity: let your competition do that. Just go out there and show up. Keep talking to prospects and clients and keep asking for the sale. Lot’s of companies will be buying and you might be the only salesperson out there who’s actually selling.