We all know about caller ID, the service that displays the phone number and/or name of the person calling you. That allows you to know what to say when you pick up the phone. Remember that the caller is calling you at his convenience, which may or may not be at your convenience. Maybe you are doing something more important and you don’t want interrupted just then.
My phone system does not have that feature, but that's OK. Almost all my calls are from clients and friends, all of whom I want to talk with. But I also get occasional calls from the public. Sometimes it's some guy selling "leads" and I just tell them politely that I'm not interested and hang up.
Sometimes it's someone who might become a client, and we like those calls! Well, usually we like those calls, but not always. I live in an area populated by many successful people and one of the nice things about dealing with these people is that they are smart. I like that because folks like that are willing to acknowledge my expertise. After all, my job is to help them and they like that. My business is built on that.
Not everyone has had the educational opportunities that others have had. Some other people, bluntly, aren't as smart as others. And that's OK too because it creates an even greater need for my teaching skill. As long as they want my help, are willing to see the benefits of getting an education, I am happy to help them. I take great pride in having helped people of more humble origins.
But not everyone sees my role like that. Sometimes we get someone who not only is ignorant, they don't want to correct their ignorance by availing themselves of my talents. How can I help someone who is not willing to acknowledge that he needs help? Some people like that start out the conversation, "What are your costs?" Other act as if they know more about mortgages than I do. Not hardly.
It's at times like that I wish my phone had a caller IQ feature that would identify the IQ of the caller. It would give me a better heads up on how to deal with them.
More to the point, when you are shopping for a mortgage or for other professional services, you don’t want to appear to have an IQ that is a lot lower than it really is. That’s not going to serve you well.
After all, all of us have huge areas of ignorance. We all have some area of expertise that allows us to be successful in some field. But we are really ignorant in many other areas. Smart people just know enough to admit it and seek help from someone who will eliminate some of that ignorance.
Randy Johnson – Author of How to Save Thousands of Dollars on your Home Mortgage and Savvy Borrowerarticles. Randy is a mortgage broker who has financed over $1 billion
in properties. He writes about home buying and real estate finance
topics for CreditBloggers.com.
Randy Johnson Randy is a Credit.com contributor and seasoned mortgage expert. He writes about home buying, mortgage laws and real estate finance issues. He has financed over $1 billion in properties, is the author of How to Save Thousands of Dollars on your Home Mortgage and he is a feature columnist for Savvy Borrower.
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