Quarter Life Crisis

Sales is pretty fascinating stuff…. Pay attention to the bolded part. You don’t have to be a Slick Willy to be a good sales guy.

Q: What is the most common mistake in relationship building?
A: Trying to be too friendly too quickly - and thereby seeming like a phony just trying to make a sale. Hold back on the friendliness and increase your level of curiosity. Be interested in the customer as a person and in the customer’s motivations. (Earl)

Q: How can I have a good customer relationship if I don’t have much in common with the customer?
A: It’s sometimes easier to have a great relationship with somebody who’s different because it’s easier to be curious about that person’s life, the way that person thinks, the way that person works. Talking with somebody who is similar can be predictable and boring. (Jerry)

Q: How can I cover for the fact that I’m new to the job and don’t know much about the product?
A: You can’t. The only thing worse than ignorance is the illusion of knowledge. If you start a relationship by lying, the relationship is doomed, because the lie will sooner or later (probably sooner) quickly become obvious. (Jerry)

Q: How can I build good customer relationships when I’m not very outgoing?
A: The outgoing “people person,” would often talk rather than listen. When it comes to relationship building, it’s actually better if you’re a bit introverted because your ability to sense your own emotions helps you better understand, and care for the concerns, of your customer. (Jerry)

Q: How can I move gracefully into information gathering?
A: Don’t push the process forward too quickly, but instead let it evolve naturally out of the conversation. First ask permission to ask them further questions. For example: “Do you mind if I ask you a couple of questions so that I can understand your situation better and figure out if there’s any way that I can help you?” (Earl)

Q: How do you introduce a solution without going into “sales mode”?
A: Don’t see yourself as a hero who swoops in and solves the customer’s problem. Let the customer be the hero by positioning your solution from the customer’s benefit and viewpoint. Don’t ask: “what would it mean to you if we could solve that problem?” Instead, ask: “What would it mean to you if you could solve that problem?” (Earl)

Source: BNET

I am officially done with grad school at UCSD.  I wouldn’t say I learned too much about engineering, but I did make the most out of it I feel.  Now, onto other things.

Reverse mortgage in a nutshell:
Instead of the borrower making payments to the lender, the lender makes a payment or payments to the borrower. The borrower keeps control of the house and doesn’t have to repay the money as long as he or she lives there. When the homeowner dies or moves out, the loan is typically paid off by selling the house, and any money left over goes to the homeowner or the homeowner’s estate.

With the growing class of aging baby-boomers, the demand for reverse mortgages is booming. This could revitalize the business of structuring, or repackaging mortgages and other loans.  This could offset, though not completely, the decline of “normal” mortgages to repackage. Reverse mortgages currently represent < 1% of the overall U.S. home loan market at ~ $10 trillion.  The number of federally backed rev mortgages grew 41% the fiscal year ending Sept 30.

In the past, the reverse-mortgage market has been constrained by having one main buyer, Fannie Mae. But a half-dozen investment banks, including units of Lehman Bros. and Bank of America, have started buying reverse mortgages in the past few years, with plans eventually to package and sell them.

Short summary by former Fed chairman Alan Greenspan.

“If it had not been triggered by the mispricing of securitized subprime mortgages, it would have been produced by eruptions in some other market. History has not dealt kindly with protracted periods of low risk premiums.”

“The current credit crisis will come to an end when the overhang of inventories of newly built homes is largely liquidated, and home price deflation comes to an end. That will stabilize the now-uncertain value of the home equity that acts as a buffer for all home mortgages, but most importantly for those held as collateral for residential mortgage-backed securities. Very large losses will, no doubt, be taken as a consequence of the crisis. But after a period of protracted adjustment, the U.S. economy, and the world economy more generally, will be able to get back to business.”