Why the authentic approach works
I owe much to a friend who gave me Lou Cassara’s book ‘From Selling to Serving”. At that time I was a greenhorn in the insurance and financial services industry. Regardless, I attended countless sales seminars to improve my skills. I even read Tommy Hopkins “How to Master the Art of Selling” which was a tremendous help in closing more deals and substantially increasing my income. Yet there were times I began to question some of what I had been taught? Was I becoming your typical salesman?
3 Comments
Shannon: enjoyed todays Life Lesson – was taught this a boy growing up – service to other and tell the truth – thanks BILL
Shannon,
Excellent, just wish many of the new breed coming into the industry felt this way. Yet on the other hand, this is the only way to be successful in our industry.
Hope all is well with you Shannon, call me or e-mail me sometime, I would like that very much.
John A. Smaldone
There is nothing in discovering the needs of your prospect. But do not be like those who start calling their employer’s customers, your borrowers, or your clients. Neither of the last two names apply to HECM borrowers.
Servicing client needs is much different than providing a customer with the right product. A true client is someone you provide an opinion for or carry out a specific service. Customers should be provided excellent service but you are providing them in our case an intangible product called a mortgage. While professionals working with their clients may use tangible or intangible products in performing their service, it is the service that was being contracted for not the purchase of a product. When the two begin to be confused, then product providers begin thinking they have fiduciary responsibilities, etc. They lose perspective on the fact that their loyalties belong with their employer, not with the customer. Telling people you are one thing when they finally figure out you are another, serves no one well.
What I am not attacking is the idea that we need to provide the best service possible but rather that we not lose perspective that under law our relationship with HECM borrowers is that of a salesperson, not a service provider. Even mortgage servicers are caring for lender customers, not their client base.