You don’t know what you don’t know – it’s a saying that I use quite often.
Let me explain …
I remember one of my first jobs was selling televisions for a home appliance retailer in Auckland. I’d moved up from the King Country as a pretty naive farm boy and moved to the big city, working in the appliance business and being introduced to some of the technology.
Where I Heard The Saying
I remember one day quite vividly where I was talking to one of the store owners, and I had a couple of questions about the televisions that we had.
We had a whole wall full of televisions and we stocked brands like Panasonic, Sony, Philips, Sanyo, Toshiba, LG, Samsung, plus a few others. And I asked the owner why we stocked such a range.
Why didn’t we just stock the best one?
It seemed like quite a logical question to a young boy from the King Country, but then I was given a couple of words of wisdom which have stuck with me for the rest of my life. He said “you don’t know what you don’t know” and luckily he expanded on that. He said, you might know what the best television is because you’ve researched it, but what you don’t know is what our customers want unless you listen to them and ask questions.
In those days, Toshiba was the best television on the market for that size. It had the best picture of all the televisions and actually made the screens for other brands like Sanyo, which was also a highly regarded brand. But that didn’t mean that everybody thought that Toshiba was the best television.
Often people would come in with a preconceived idea and in those days, both Panasonic and Sony were the two top brands in televisions. They were the top brands not because they were necessarily the best, but because they had excellent marketing.
It was also explained to me that people don’t just buy a television for the best picture. Often they’re buying a television and the features that they might want are different. In those days, the speakers in the televisions were not that great, but obviously some were better than others. So some people were buying a television that had better sound quality and often people would choose a television because of a specific feature, or something as simple as the remote was very easy to use.
So while in my mind Toshiba was the best television, it wasn’t necessarily the best for everybody.
There was also the price to consider as the Toshiba was not the cheapest television – in those days Samsung and LG were cheaper. Samsung is now a well-known and respected brand, but back then it was a newbie and they were a cheap option, and to be honest they were not that popular.
What’s The Relevance
So you might wonder how all this about televisions relates to home loans.
Well, in many ways there are some key similarities in how we purchase things.
Most people consider television a fairly major purchase and even though you can research a lot today online, most people will still go into a shop and talk to somebody about the television purchase. They might have gone into the shop with something specific in mind, but after learning a little bit more they often will have left the shop with something else. They were given advice, and based on that advice they could make a decision.
They went into the shop not knowing about the options, and as we know you don’t know what you don’t know.
So getting back to the home loans...
Just like televisions, when you look at home loans there are lots of options.
It’s a good thing of course as it gives you choice, but it also can be confusing.
Just like televisions, home loans are all designed to do the same job, but they’re not all the same.
Some will have better interest rates today or tomorrow, some will have more options or have more flexibility and be easier to use.
Just like televisions, many people will start looking at home loans with an option in mind. Generally, people will think of the bank which they have a relationship with because they know that brand. So if you’re banking with ANZ, you might automatically think that ANZ is the home loan you’re going to get.
Just like televisions, after seeking some advice and learning what the options are, you may very well end up with a brand that you had not previously considered.
When I was selling televisions, most people did not come into the shop looking for a Toshiba television. But most people left the shop with a Toshiba television once they compared them and learned more about the differences.
In the same way, ANZ is the most popular banking brand in New Zealand so more people will probably talk to a mortgage advisor expecting to go with ANZ, but after learning the features and differences, most of those people will not end up with an ANZ mortgage and instead they will go with one that’s better.
It’s Great To Have Choice & Advice
Whether you are buying a television or getting a home loan it’s great to have choice and access to advice.
I still use the phrase, you don’t know what you don’t know, very often and it’s a way to remind myself not to rely solely on what my ideas are, or what I may have seen advertised. Just because a company is good at marketing, does not mean that they’re the best product.
I just need to look around at some of the purchases I’ve made in my life to realise that.
- I purchased a Husqvarna chainsaw when really, in my mind, I was going to purchase a Stihl. But for the size chainsaw that I was after, the Husqvarna was a better product and it was slightly cheaper as well.
- Interestingly, our televisions are now Samsung’s. As I mentioned, they were regarded as a bit of a junk brand back when I was selling televisions but now they’re one of the premier brands and the features that they have suit what we use. Unlike the way I previously thought, we did not purchase them for having the best picture as they all have pretty good pictures, but we were more focused on the features that they have..
It’s strange how things change over time, but it’s also interesting how things remain the same.
We should get advice, especially for big purchases like televisions or home loans and often when we get that advice we end up with something different to what we expected.
At least with having good advice we know that we can go forward with confidence that we’ve actually made a good decision.
So remember that you don’t know what you don’t know but you can always find an expert that can give you advice, and for home loans we’ve got a team of mortgage advisers that really know what they are talking about.
