My 20 year old daughter has already told me she will be mortified if I use a vaguely suggestive title to draw people to this post. The bottom line is that we are all in the marketing business, and I write to reach the broadest section of AR Nation that I can, so, perhaps, prudes need not read further.
Of course the “T Spot” refers to engendering trust from those you work for, and with. Once trust is established, everything gets easier. In Massachusetts, where I practice real estate law, attorneys are responsible for the mortgage loan closing. The typical Borrower comes into my office ready to distrust, and dislike, me and my firm. There is no question that we are only involved to take advantage of them in some way or other.
To combat this generalized notion, I try to prepare for the closing. I look at the Form 1003 to see if there is some common ground between me and the Borrower. “Oh, you are a nurse; you know, my sister-in-law is a nurse”. “Oh, you have kids in college; so do I. Can you believe how much college costs?” I need some door opener to convince the Borrower that I have the same kinds of hopes, dreams and concerns that they have. I need to make myself into a human, not a robot who is going to make it difficult for them to own their new home.
It is hard to say when the moment of trust will occur. Sometimes, I can go deep into the closing before I feel the pendulum swing, and the Borrower starts to loosen up and enjoy the process. Sometimes, it never happens, and I can chalk one up to experience.
The point of this post is to articulate how important it is for all of us to gain our client’s or customer’s trust. We do this by being friendly and congenial. We do this by working at our trade, so we really do have most of the answers. We also do this by having enough humility to tell the customer that we don’t know the answer but we will try to find it and get back.