In sales, most people think their job is to sell a product or service. Wrong. A salesperson’s job is to help your customer buy, to help them find the exact product or service that meets their needs, wants and desires and to make sure their experience is positive.

“Just Do It.” We all know this Nike slogan. Nike, however, probably didn’t realize how profound or lasting it would be. It’s become the mantra of people and businesses across the world. Consider sales. If salespeople today simply focused on just doing the best job possible, clients would never consider going anywhere else. It is like New England Patriots’ coach Bill Belichick said, “Just do your job — well.” The emphasis is on “well.” Yet every day, people don’t deliver often because of one or more of these three barriers to success:

1. Lack of understanding of the job
2. Fear
3. Attitude

Understanding – In sales, most people think their job is to sell a product or service. Wrong. A salesperson’s job is to help your customer buy, to help them find the exact product or service that meets their needs, wants and desires and to make sure their experience is positive. This can only happen if you are 100% present and ready to work with a single-minded focus for each customer; you ask the right questions, actively listen, learn and understand problems from the customers’ point-of-view, and finally, you help customers “fall in love” with the product or service.

Fear – Fear is a recipe for failure. In business we’re told that fear typically comes from a lack of empowerment. Yet, empowerment comes from the individual, it’s not something you are given or granted. Empowerment is the process of enabling yourself to take action, control work and make decisions independently. When salespeople wait to be empowered they are giving their own power away. Within any company salespeople have the ability to act empowered to help clients.

Attitude – What’s your attitude? Every day you have a choice about the kind of attitude you will bring. In sales, a positive attitude helps make empowered choices that help clients find the right product or service.

By focusing on what you want, you can make it happen, for yourself and for your customers. You may not win every sale, but if you can honestly say you did everything possible to satisfy the customer, then you win in the long run.