Providing Direction to Members To Avoid Financial Tombstones

I Take the Silver Miner Pancakes ...Please


After eight days, one airplane ride, and a 915 mile trek through the desert my family and I sat somewhat comatose in a breakfast grill a block from the OK Corral in Tombstone AZ. We had seen the natural arches of Moab, sailed down the Colorado River, walked the rim of the Grand Canyon, driven down the mountain pass in Sedona and now just wanted the “Silver Miner” pancakes for breakfast.


Our waitress could probably sense our weariness and spent the majority of her time talking to the table next to us. As my family and I sat and waited for our order I could not help but listen in on the conversation she was engaged in with the next table. This was not as easy as you think as I had a ten year old asking me who I would rather have a gunfight with-Wyatt Earp or Doc Holiday.


The waitress explained to the other table that she had been in the town for a year and had moved with her family from another state. Now after a year they were stuck in the town. They had used what money they had to move here and employment was not what she thought. So they were trying to save money to get enough to move to someplace cooler and more populated like Flagstaff.


For those of you who have never been to Tombstone the town is about 1500 people. Other than one or two city blocks there that looks like an old time western town from the 1890’s there isn’t much to see or do. The name kind of says it all.


When our food came I still could not help but think about the plight our waitress had found herself in. While the city name and the individual circumstances varied a little the core issue she faced was one that many people face. A well intentioned decision leads to an unintended consequence. Like the waitress many of us find ourselves stuck in places and we are unsure how to exit. Money is tight, options are limited, and the horizon seems to move further and further away.


That feeling of not knowing your next step can be paralyzing. It can create a sort of tunnel vision that can blind us to those around us who are willing to help us back on our way. I have listened to numerous phone calls in which a member calls in for one option and by the end of the conversation we have helped them see other options available to them. This is especially true with debt and credit.


I truly can’t count the number of times when one of our loan officers or branch managers has helped someone restructure their debt, freed up equity, and lowered the amount of interest the member is paying. Typically this results in more cash flow into the home.


Practical Application:


For those of us who work in financial services this is the opportunity to make an incredible impact in the lives of those who do business with us each day. This is the chance to execute a strategy that moves beyond selling product. Now don’t get me wrong there will always, one can assume, be need for some selling of products or services. 


When the strategy moves from the "selling of product" to the "matching of needs" then the aim of the organization is to make selling superfluous. The new aim of the organization is to know and understand the member so well that the product or service fits him or her and sells itself. Sometimes people just need a direction to move in with their financial lives. Shouldn't that be us with the compass in our hand point out a direction for our members ?