I ride a bicycle for exercise. I promise myself to ride at least 1,000 miles at an aggressive pace every season, which in this Wisconsin climate means May through September. Every spring I hang a calendar on the garage wall near where I park the bike and write on each month my mileage goal.

Then I track progress. After each ride, I mark the mileage on the calendar. At the end of the month, I total it up. I’ve made my goal in each of the five years I’ve been doing this. I got the idea – putting my goal in writing – from salespeople I’ve met in previous work lives.

There is something a bit magical about committing goals to writing. Maybe I would still do my 1,000 miles if I didn’t have that calendar on the wall. But it helps my discipline to know it’s there: The calendar makes it that much harder just to skip the ride on an evening when I don’t feel very energetic.

I’ve picked up many bits of wisdom from salespeople. While I’m not in sales, I respect people who are and who make a success of it. Selling is tough. It’s also a function without which most businesses could not survive. Almost without exception, the people who do it well have learned lessons that can help people new to the profession, and for that matter, people in almost any profession.

In particular, their wisdom can help people who own businesses and are ultimately responsible for growth and prosperity. Here are a few lessons I’ve learned.

Live in day-tight compartments.

This bit of advice belongs to a noted physician, Sir William Ostler (1849-1919). To Ostler, it meant living today, without regretting yesterday or fearing tomorrow. Salespeople I’ve known put an additional twist on it: They set daily goals as well as long-term goals, and they stick to them.

Suppose your goal is to visit at least 10 new prospective customers per five-day work week. That amounts to two per day. So if you’re living in day-tight compartments, you want to see those two prospects per day, every day, without exception.

Why not give yourself a little slack? Suppose it’s Monday and you only make one visit. You’ve got the rest of the week to make it up, right? Salespeople tell me that’s a slippery slope. If you make concessions like that, pretty soon you’re telling yourself it’s all right to see only seven in a week – you can catch up later in the month. And so it goes, all year long.

Have a mission-first mindset.

You’re out there selling to make a living, but if all you think about is the money, you increase the chances that you will fail. That’s because customers don’t want to deal with someone who only looks at them as a commission. They want to deal with someone who cares about solving their problems.

So keep your mission first and foremost. Why are you in business? What exactly is it that you offer that makes you and your business essential to people? At the end of the day, what (besides money) gives you real satisfaction? Whatever that is, keep it in your sights all the time. In the end, you will earn more money if you do.

Never sell a service.

Always sell a program. A service feeds you for a day. A program feeds you for the long run. It may be a service (unclogging a drain, repairing a lateral) that gets you in a customer’s door. But never miss the opportunity to sign that customer up for a program, such as a scheduled maintenance plan.

Invest in yourself.

If you’re going to sell clothing, the saying has it, you had better be a sharp dresser. Invest in what it takes to look the part of a professional who believes in what he or she is selling.

Beyond that, invest in the skills and resources you need to be as effective as possible. Subscribe to all trade magazines relevant to your specialties. Attend industry trade shows and conferences regularly. Take advantage of all relevant training. Invest in modern equipment and systems. By doing this, you’ll position yourself to deliver top-shelf service to customers and gain a critical competitive edge.

Concentrate on your unique abilities.

The conventional wisdom says to work on your weaknesses. Current wisdom says to make the most of your strengths – and hire people who are skilled in the areas where you are weak.

Do some soul searching and identify your unique ability – the thing you can do better than almost anyone else, the thing you find easy, fun, energizing and motivating. Most likely, the more time you spend putting that ability to work, the more successful you and your business will become.