One of the great faults that many people in sales have is thinking that they know better than their clients. They feel that their knowledge of the product that they are selling somehow entitles them to the freedom of making decisions for those who are the ones who are spending the money. Having this feeling or attitude creates many unnecessary problems. Having this feeling or attitude leads the sales person to somehow think that they have the right to decide what their clients should purchase, and how much they should purchase. After all they are the experts on the product and they know best.
When I first got into sales, selling Life Insurance in a small territory where you went into the houses of those who had insurance policy's with me, and collected the premium on a weekly or monthly bases. Some of you might remember the old weekly nickel policy's, well I was one of those insurance agents. As a result of being in these homes at least once per month, I started to form opinions of what my clients could or could not afford, based on the life style that I saw them living. Most of them lived a very modest life style and APPEARED to have nothing. So I would hesitate about asking them to purchase additional life insurance, knowing full well that what they had would never be sufficient to take care of the expenses that the family would incur if something should happen.
I will never forget telling my Sales Manager that my clients just could not afford any more insurance, and that I had to find others that could. His response to me was one that has stuck with me for some 34 years now. He looked at me and he said "you need to have enough respect for people to let them decide what they can or can not afford, and give them the opportunity to make their own decisions". I have never forgotten that, and to this they I follow that advice.
You see as it turned out many of those that I thought could not afford to purchase any more insurance turned out to have a lot more money then I ever thought they had. The reason why they lived so modestly was because they were saving up every penny they had to purchase that first house. That was their dream, and they were willing to make whatever sacrifice they had to purchase it. But just because they chose to do without did not mean that they were not willing to make sure that their families were provided for should something happen to them.
I feel that a lot of times we do the same thing in the Real Estate Business. We look at someone and automatically decide what they can or can not afford, and what they should buy. We judge the book by its cover. Now don't get me wrong, as a Loan Officer I am privileged to more financial information than I was as an Insurance Salesman, but that still does not give me the right to make decisions for someone else, especially if all the date says they can. My job as a Loan Officer is to give my Borrowers all the information that they need to then be able to make their own decision once they have qualified up to a dollar amount that falls within the qualifying Debt-To-Income Ratios for a Loan Program.
This is something that is very hard to do, and I some times have to tell myself that I might know their income, and I might know their existing debt, but I don't know what sacrifices they are willing to make or not to make. Realtors are even more guilty of this then Loan Officers, because they are in many cases making decisions for their Buyers without any of their financial data, and decide ahead of time what they should or should not buy.
Does this mean that we just let people get in over their heads and drown, while we turn our heads the other way, no not at all. But what it does mean is that we give them all the necessary information so that they can come to their own decision on whether or not they should purchase.
There is nothing wrong in giving our clients our opinion, but in the end we need to "respect others enough to let them make their own decision".
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Info about the author:
George Souto is a Loan Officer who can assist you with all your FHA, CHFA, and Conventional mortgage needs in Connecticut. George resides in Middlesex County which includes Middletown, Middlefield, Durham, Cromwell, Portland, Higganum, Haddam, East Haddam, Chester, Deep River, and Essex. George can be contacted at (860) 573-1308 or gsouto@mccuemortgage.com
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