Too many times we hear business owners and sales professionals giving excuses for why they aren’t achieving their goals or why their business is not where they wish it was.

Let’s be clear:  don’t confuse the complexities of the business you’re in with your own current skill set and capabilities. 

Many times, the goals people set simply don’t match their current capabilities.  But that’s ok!  The first step is setting goals and truly committing to achieving them.  I set huge goals that both excite me and scare me.  But once this step is done, I get to work on improving my own skills and capabilities needed to ensure I can make my goals a reality.  This includes studying, reading, finding mentors, investing in coaching, etc.

Take the mortgage industry for example.  Many residential mortgage lenders (insert nearly any commoditized sales role) go through their days, weeks, and months, complaining about clients and referral partners being “fickle”, and “shopping them” for the lowest rate or fastest turn times, or not being loyal, etc.  But this isn’t really the problem, is it?  Wouldn’t the real problem be that you just haven’t done a good enough job to earn loyalty, or be worth potentially costing more?

If all you’re selling is price, then you better be the cheapest.  If all you’re selling is speed, you better be the fastest.  But don’t complain when a client ditches your “21 Day Closing Guarantee” for the new, sexier “19 Day Closing Guarantee”.

Life gets exponentially easier when you just take the time to figure out how to add unmatched value to the lives of your prospective clients and partners.  It will raise you above all the commodity aspects of a transaction.  But, if there’s no other unique value being offered, then of course a consumer’s decision will come down to rate and fee.  When that happens, we can’t argue that people just want the cheapest, fastest, and easiest.  If that was truly the case, Nordstrom’s wouldn’t exist anymore and every human on the planet would shop at Walmart.  In addition, top financial professionals and attorneys around the country would be out of business.

People will buy from you if they perceive that the value they will get from you far exceeds the money they will spend.  This law of nature exists everywhere.

But if you’re capabilities aren’t to the level (yet) to effectively showcase and articulate your value to the client and help them make a smarter buying decision, then you have work to do.  But don’t be fooled into thinking “that’s just how people are” or “that’s just the way my industry is”.  If there is someone in your same industry making more money than you, closing more business than you, has more clients than you, or converting at a higher percentage than you, then rest assured…it’s not the business, it’s you.

And do you know what the best part of adopting this mindset is?  It empowers you and gives you the confidence that YOU are in control of your future.  Now get to work on yourself!