Posts Tagged ‘ annuitant

Create a successful loan situation

24After the contractors and managers agreed on how they would work together in partnership to complete the job without spoiling the customers’ experience, the managers used the same partnershipbuilding process—the Partnership Continuum—with the store employees. Employees were under particular stress because they were often required to move stock from one side of the store to another and then be able to direct customers to the new location. Since the new location changed almost nightly for more than a month, there was a huge amount of pressure on everyone. Nevertheless, after partnering with the contractors, the store managers were able to transfer the knowledge they learned to the employees. This created a successful situation for everyone: owner, managers, customers, employees, and contractors. The remodeling was successful; customers continued to shop, and the job was completed on time.

Now here’s the trap of mental maps: they often include prejudice or bias about something or someone. In an imperfect society, prejudice is part of our programming. You can probably recall a time when you were misunderstood, discounted, or labeled by someone else who had an inaccurate mental map of you.

The actual credit spread is explained by credit risk

57One typical reason for spread differentials between bonds of the same rating are liquidity considerations, particularly with respect to stress situations. enerally, bonds with a large issue size, issued recently and actively traded by several market makers tend to be the most liquid. Sometimes old bonds with a small issue size, too, trade at rather tight levels. This is often the case for typical “CDO (Collateralized debt obligations) names”, that is bonds that are often included when CDOs are set up. Another reason for wide spread differentials between issuers with similar credit quality is that many market participants are concerned with potential mark-to-market losses. Therefore, rather illiquid and more volatile bonds require a higher spread, even if spread volatility is rather due to market technicals than uncertainty regarding company fundamentals. Consequently, it is natural that credit spreads differ even for bonds and issuers with the same rating.

But more importantly, only a fraction of the actual credit spread is explained by credit risk, which in turn is reflected by the rating.

Understand which credit to attract

Once a profile of potential customers has been drawn up and their needs and wants identified, it is then possible to:

  • ensure that their needs are met and that the value proposition is compelling enough to sustain their interest;
  • decide how best to appeal to this audience, considering everything from tone of voice to frequency of contact;
  • decide how to engage the target market – when to ask for input, whether to offer discounts and generally how to ensure that the product offer is sufficiently attractive;
  • decide how to capture details of enquirers so that they can be contacted later.

This list is by no means exhaustive. The trick is to start focusing on the target customers and ways of attracting them. It is also worth considering two other things. First, it is important to understand not only which customers to attract, but also which ones you definitely do not want to lose. Second, remember that the customer who makes the purchase may not be the person who decides to make the purchase or the end user, as is often the case with purchases by businesses.