Therefore if you are a hardworking, fairly smart and creative person, you will be able to thrive in this economy. My encouragement to you is to know what reality is. Don't just listen to the naysayers, and know the real situation you are in.

An example of the type of question you should ask yourself is "What kind of sales are you going to close within the next 30, 60, or 90 days?" or "Who did you or your sales team talk to or meet with last week or last month?"

Many people are still using a yellow notepad, Word or Excel to help them figure this out. This system takes lots of time and is prone to lots of errors. Today, many contact and sales management tools can easily help you figure this out with a few clicks of a button. You can then easily determine how many prospects you've spoken to in the last 30 days by just running a quick report. As the creator of a sales software company, I will examine how you can increase your sales and customer success in future blog entries.

I look forward to sharing more ideas, experiences and painful lessons I have learned about how to build a successful company. Until my next post, I wish you profitable sales.

James Wong is the co-founder and CEO of , the makers of Prophet, the easy CRM software for Outlook. James is a seasoned entrepreneur and founder of three successful companies, and an active investor and supporter of entrepreneurship.