Don't Forget to Ask for the Business

During a financial audit, I was chatting with the owner about a recent conference he attended. Someone gave an excellent presentation on a new product. He was very interested in the product and, afterward, engaged the presenter in conversation. After hearing more about the product, he was all the more interested. However, the presenter never asked for his business. The conversation ended and no deal was closed.

This small business owner confided in me that he would have purchased the product if he was asked. It's simple, but so easily overlooked. Don't forget to ask for the business. Sometimes we don't need to learn something new, but just be reminded of that which we already know.

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Brain Rule #1 Exercise Boosts Brain Power

I listened to the Audio-tech Business summary of Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School. Rule number one states excercise boosts brain power. Quite simply, exercise improves blood flow and improved blood flow improves brain function. The brain requires a lot of oxygen. The brain, which accounts for 2 percent of our body weight, sucks down roughly 20 percent of our daily calories. It only takes an hour of aerobic exercise per week (30 minutes 2-3 times per week). According to the book, studies show that exercise reduces your risk of Alzheimer's by 60 percent!


Brain Rule #1 - Exercise from Mark Pearson on Vimeo.

Today's takeaway: Get out and exercise! Sharpen the Axe, as Stephen Covey puts it. Set aside 20 minutes per day three days a week. That's just an hour per week.

Make It Easy For Your Customers To Do Business With You

I closed today on my mortgage refinancing. I learned a great lesson of making it easy for customers to do business with you. This is a story of two contrasting banks and how one earned my business.

As many people are doing right now, I decided it was time to take advantage of low interest rates and generate a little more cash flow. I was talking with our business banker at work and told him I was interested in refinancing my home mortgage. He said, sure I will have so and so from our mortgage lending department call you.

When this gentleman called a couple days later he told me that there would be some challenges to refinancing and I might not be able. He sent me some paperwork that I received about a week later and was a half-inch thick. I threw it to the side not having time to go through the document. He never followed up.

A couple weeks later, I was connected with a business banker, Joe Beiting, at Republic Bank through MoneyPath. After talking about commercial loans, he asked if there was anything else. I'm glad he did because I had put refinancing on the back burner. I said, yes, I'd like to refinance my home mortgage. No problem, I'll have Scott Godthaab call your from our mortgage lending department.

Scott called and we went over my current mortgages, rates, and terms. He told me it would be no problem refinancing. We scheduled a meeting at the bank to discuss further. We talked details and went back and forth with various scenarios. Scott was very knowledgeable, patient, and helpful. He and I crunched some numbers to calculate the break-even point on closing costs. It became a no-brainer. I'm sold. Where do we do from here?

Scott printed a few pages of loan documents and walked me through each page. This will lock you into to the interest rate, we will order the appraisal, and then you'll close in a couple weeks. I signed paperwork, met with the appraiser a couple days later, and closed today. It was that easy.

Not only did Republic Bank earn my mortage, it also earned my deposits because of the discount on closing costs for moving my primary checking.

Here's the takeaway: Make it easy for your customers to do business with you. Always say yes. Streamline the process. Train your employees on world-class service. Ask the next logical question. Ask for their business. And thank them when you earn it.