My wife and I are purchasing a home. An inevitable part of that process is calling around to find the best mortgage rate we can. Below is a paraphrased version of a real conversation that I had many, many times this week:
Me: “Hi mortgage guy, I’m purchasing a home and looking for the best rates I can find”
Mortgage guy: “Hi Matt, our rates are X%”
Me: “Wow, that’s high. I’ve been quoted (X minus a lot) at three different places”
Mortgage guy: “Weelllllll, I think we could come down that low for you”
Really? We still play these games? You just tried to rob me of tens of thousands of dollars in superfluous interest payments and now you’re asking for my business? You can sleep at night knowing that you operating this way?
Fyi mortgage guy, the internet ended this game years ago, the rules have changed, you’re playing alone in an empty stadium. The reality is that we know with exceptional precision what the going rates are before we even make the call.
The lesson? We need to look at our businesses and operate under the assumption that our customers know as much about our products, pricing, margins, customer service as we do. When we think that way, it’s a lot less tempting to try and trick them.
I have learned that any fool can write a bad ad, but that it takes a real genius to keep his hands off a good one. - Leo Burnett