Everyone Is Selling Something. It Doesn't Mean You Should Be Buying

This Fish Took The Candy

This past weekend, coffee in hand, I was reading a recent article by Barry Ritholtz titled “Don’t Take Candy from Strangers.” Technically, it wasn’t about candy—it was about strangers. As full-grown humans, we don’t necessarily worry about strangers per se, but we should worry about the candy—also known as advice—that they try to give us.

By the way, is it just me, or is the word stranger a bit odd? It seems to suggest that people we don’t know are inherently strange. Hmm.

Selling an Opinion

Barry summarized a great topic that we often think about but don’t always practice: taking advice from someone while forgetting that much of it may serve their interests, not ours. Humans love to give opinions. If you have any doubt, take a trip to X (formerly Twitter), Blue Sky, Reddit, or Facebook, and you’ll likely get a virtual rock thrown at you for having a differing opinion. Or maybe you’ll throw a rock yourself. We’re all guilty. You do you.

But let’s take a journey beyond the hecklers hiding behind handles and screen names, and into the real world of sales and marketing. You can run, but you can’t hide. At every turn, you’re being sold something—maybe it’s a diet idea, a new car or, of course, financial “advice.” As Don Draper said in the infamous series Mad Men, “People want to be told what to do so badly that they’ll listen to anyone.”

Below are some classic roles where others’ interests masquerade as your own:

Selling Cars

Most of us love new cars but hate feeling like a piece of meat when we walk onto a lot. Which one of the five salespeople is going to make eye contact and zero in on me like a zombie who hasn’t eaten in days? Then it begins. The best in this job connect with the consumer and help you feel like, even though they’re ultimately trying to benefit their own wallet by selling you a car, you’re actually making a smart decision—for you. And if it’s not the right fit, bow out. There are a few true professionals in this field. I’ve seen it. As for the others—don’t take the candy.

Timeshare Sales

I’ve written about them before. They’re savvy, painting pictures of your dream vacation life right in front of you. But in the end, do they really know what’s good for you, your family, and your long-term financial picture? You’re just a number on a spreadsheet, and they need you to make a five-figure decision in 45 minutes. If you lose your job and can’t afford the payments in five years, they won’t be sending you a sympathy card. They will sleep just fine.

Televangelists

Not wasting keystrokes here.

The financial world is polluted with candy—and its fair share of strangers. The concept of not taking candy from strangers is just as true for a 3-year-old as it is for a 103-year-old. It all comes down to a few questions you must ask yourself: Does this person truly care about the outcome of my decision? How does this affect my retirement goals? Do they even know my goals? How can they say this is great for me when they haven’t even looked at my net worth statement?

It happens all the time. Selling illiquid deferred annuities to elderly folks is a common example.

Financial sales and advice practices hit home. Part of the problem lies in the nature of the industry. Finance encompasses insurance sales, bond sales, stock sales, annuity sales—you name it. Products, in other words. Then there’s a whole other category of financial professionals who sell nothing. They provide advice and guidance, solve problems, create solutions, and are held to multiple legal standards to do so. (My team and I fall into this category; in case you haven’t guessed already.)

The problem is that the public lumps us all together. And if it’s true that you’re judged by the company you keep, I’m the one pointing and saying, “I’m not with that guy over there.”

The Series 7 license has long been considered the holy grail for stockbrokers. It allows brokers to sell securities and financial products to consumers. Nowhere does it say those products (the “candy”) have to be in the client’s best interest—they just have to be suitable. (Socks with sandals are suitable too, but never in someone’s best interest.)

The good news is that consumers have been catching on to the truth about this candy since the Great Financial Crisis of 2008. As one anonymous author once put it: “He’s got a Series 7, which means he’s licensed to sell you the Brooklyn Bridge—with a 3% upfront loan and a trailing commission until you die.” Again, beware of strangers offering you their candy.

Spending Father’s Day weekend with my nephew reminded me of the old saying: “Don’t take candy from strangers.” He’s barely six years old, loves candy, and has a line of BS a mile long. Taking my job as an uncle seriously, I hope to keep him on the right side of the fence as he grows up. Put people first, grow up kind, and don’t buy crypto coins from a flyer in the mail.