Great article in the March Harvard Business Review, titled the above, hits the spot on doing battle with the logjam we are currently in. When the market is either stuck in full catatonic panic mode or is stubbornly sitting across from you, arms crossed, head shaking NO!, you need to act like Cher in Moonstruck. (remember when she slapped Nicholas Cage's face and said "Snap out of it!" to get him out of his funk?) http://au.truveo.com/Moonstruck-Snap-Out-of-It/id/3119376309
Typically the best of us use a probing, consultative approach to sales, working with our customer to find a solution to a problem that both sides agree exists. The budget is there to solve the problem, its just a question of which solution is best. Provocation-based selling is needed when the customer doesn't acknowledge the problem, has budget concerns and bottom line doesn't believe they need whatever IT is that you are presenting.
The last ten years plus it's been easy in our business. You didn't have to convince many people that refinancing to a lower rate or taking cash out of their home for slightly higher payment was a good thing. Of course who can argue with buying the American Dream of a first home, larger dream home with better schools, vacation home, early retirement home or becoming a landlord?? You were just competing with other people with the same products. The low barrier to entry forced you to compete with loan hacks pricing to a commodity with no added value. When purchases slowed down and rates went up we all ended up in the mud of alt-a, sub-prime and 80-20.
Well it's a new regulated world with a highly conscious public just waiting for you to do something stupid. (In my hometown the local police blotter stated that a resident called in a 10:49 on a Friday night to say that their broker had misstated their income and assets on their mortgage application!!! 911??)
BUT there is also a good size portion of the public dying for professionalism and quality advice at a fair price. We are seeing Financial Planners and Investment advisors with great reputations, transparent services at flat fees, and long track records crow about increasing new business coming in the door as the public is humbled. Now banks have an advantage in the reputation war but really are they that much better? We will have another 2 years of bank failures across the land and no one respects them; it's just that they suck less than mortgage banker/brokers in the public's eyes.
If you can engage the public by making a strong business case for buying, refinancing or restructuring and then provide technical proof how (Mortgage Coach is great for this along with good articles for support) you become the man with all the answers. Without you they wouldn't have realized their problem. You saved them from their issue by looking out for them AND having the solution. Gain the customers respect; attack a prevailing point of view with facts and offer a theory to resolve. Force the customer out of their shell of fear; tell them you are taking the other side because that is your job as a professional debt manager. Tell them "what good would I be as a finance professional if I just executed what you said and didn't probe and push to get to the right answer with you?"
Your agenda for the discussion should be to gage their fears, present your provocation, capture their reaction to the provocation, discuss real life war stories that support your case bracketing their fears, and offer to prove how their case may fit. In a closed mind and tight budget world, you have to create your own space in their minds and budgets to be able to succeed today.
You can take the conversation from "I cant afford to" to "how can you afford not to". I'm not talking about putting customers into something unsuitable. I'm talking about you holistically looking at their entire financial picture, understanding their goals, gaging their fears and making a strong case for why they should overcome them. We as a nation have gone too far as is typical. We opened up the wallet too wide and no we have sealed it shut, exacerbating our problem to a frightening degree. It's time to push the public to do the right thing and not just cater to their fears.
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