In the current NBA Finals series, both Steph Curry, the Warriors star, and LeBron James have needed IV treatment for dehydration. Curry needed fluids last night, which surprised people because he made the game look easy. He looked fresh, fast, accurate, and had a bounce in his step. LeBron, on the other hand, looked understandably exhausted, lumbering, fighting, and as he has all playoffs, often missing.

At the restaurant, nobody wants a waiter or waitress who is panting and sweating and furrowed at the brow. Because that person is efforting, and it’s tiring to experience.

In business, the appearance of hard work is similarly unhelpful. If you’re a manufacturer, or distributor, or service provider — and especially if sales is a part of your job — your customers turn to you to make their lives easier. If you make it look difficult, they’ll know it is, and they’ll know sooner or later it will probably be difficult for them. You don’t want to be seen as efforting. People want to be around people who make the difficult look easy. Even when it is labor-intensive, or complicated, or frustrating.

Even when it is hard work, make it look easy.

The Evangelist Marketing Institute is a revenue growth consultancy specializing in aggressive sales growth for closely-held companies. If you’d like to discuss growing your business quickly and easily, please call Alex Goldfayn directly at 847-459-6322, or email at alex[at]evangelistmktg[.]com

My new book, The Revenue Growth Habit, has been selected one of the five best sales books of the year by 800-CEO-Read. I’m appreciative of the honor. You can buy it on Amazon here.