One of the challenges with being remunerated entirely by commission is the risk that clients do not value and respect your time and advice – because they aren’t directly paying you a fee. This can be one of the frustrating things with being a mortgage broker. How much free information and work should you give before asking the client to make a commitment?

Don’t punish everyone just because of a few bad apples

Most people don’t expect anything for free. Most people will be very appreciative of you putting aside your own interests to help them. However, of course there are a few bad eggs that will take everything they can get without any concern for “fairness”. So what do we do? Do we design our business processes and approach to guard against us getting hurt by the small percentage of people that are in fact looking for “something for nothing” and punish the genuine people in the process? That doesn’t sound like the right approach to me.

The law of reciprocity is very powerful

The law of reciprocity states that If I give someone something with no expectation of getting something back in return, that the person will feel indebted to me. They will feel like they have to give something back. They owe me something.

One of the biggest components required to build trust is for you to demonstrate that you have an absence of self-interest. That is, if you can act and behave in a fashion that demonstrates to the client that you are only putting their best interest first (and not your own), you will build massive trust. Giving first (i.e. giving your time, your attention, your care, your advice, your empathy) is a great way to build trust. Not being generous with your advice won’t help you attract the clients you want.