sales
The fact is that the customers of today are a much different breed than those of yester-years.
For example:
- Email is too clumsy, they want to be texted.
- Information is abundant and at their fingertips, they want you to give them an, “experience” instead.
- If they can’t meet you face to face, they’ll expect you to send them a Zoom or GoToMeeting invite.
- If you don’t have a webpage with an on-line application, educational videos, multiple links to other pertinent sites, free downloads, video testimonials and a blog…well, they’re going to notice and they will make comparisons.
It’s not too difficult to get to know your new customers, either. Their opinions, interests, experiences and family photos can all be found on Facebook, Linkedin, Pinterest, Twitter, etc.
Question of the day: “Are you showing up where your clients are showing up AND are you communicating in ways that are most comfortable and familiar to them?”
Have a few of your loan officers fallen off the track in terms of their sales, engagement and activity? Try pulling them back on course by offering to act as a power production facilitator. Every sales person needs a boost now and again. Be the type of leader willing to provide structure, ideas, the space and time to help others to help themselves.
If there is one thing I ask my seasoned loan officers to change right out of the gates when they first engage in coaching with me, it’s their, “willingness level.”
You may want more business. You may want more Realtor partners. You may want more direct consumer leads, BUT, the most important question to ask yourself is, “What am I willing to do to get more of what I want?”
Your willingness level will always dictate how much opportunity you can expect. And, to be clear, one’s willingness level is not measured in words, it’s measured in action.
Here are a couple of examples of what I tend to hear from seasoned mortgage professionals struggling with a lack of will…
“I did all that networking stuff before and it never works.”
OR
“Yes, I know I’m supposed to be calling my past customers, but I don’t want to feel like I’m begging anyone for business.”
The examples above are rife with assumption-Assuming there’s no new networking opportunities, no new way to glean business from networking events and that their past experience with networking won’t be any different, today. Assuming their customers don’t want to hear from them and don’t want to help them.
All of these assumptions are simply knee jerk reactions to protecting the core issue, which of course whittles down to that nasty, four-letter “F” word…FEAR!
Everyone feels a certain measure of fear when faced with situations that makes them feel vulnerable or requires them to commit to a game plan for the long haul.
At some point, many (not all) mortgage professionals become complacent, too comfy and stop stretching themselves. They want more business, but they’re not in enough financial, “pain” to be willing to get out of their comfort zones to make more happen.
If they’ve got, “enough” in their pipeline, then they’re mildly happy. When the pipeline dips again and they don’t feel like there is quite enough, then they get frustrated, spend money and time here and there on different, “shiny gems” hoping for a quick fix.
99% of the time the, “shiny gem” doesn’t pan-out, the money spent doesn’t lead to the leads they hoped for and the one networking gig they begrudgingly show up to, is a bust.
Then, ‘thank God’, a few good leads suddenly come in from one or two of their old, stand-by referral partners and ‘gratefully’ they immediately turn ALL of their attention to those leads and the cycle of, “just enough business” is set into motion all over again.
If this sounds even mildly familiar, read on…
If one accepts that there are no short-cuts to growing their mortgage business and much of what it took to get going in this business in the first place is still required today in order to grow, then all that’s left to consider is…Are you willing to feel the fear and do it anyway?
Here’s what works to grow the business, always has and always will. The GREAT news is that there’s a variety of creative approaches when engaging in the following activities and I should know, I have an entire roster of mortgage professionals I coach who are tackling these business builders in different ways:
- Various networking (social, business, charity, etc.) and continued follow-up, WORKS!
- Staying in touch in a personal way (live calls, video, client appreciation events, social media) with our past customers, WORKS!
- Making sure we are calling on our Realtors and seeing them face to face (socially and professionally), WORKS!
- Asking for referrals, WORKS!
Stop assuming-Find the will-Get committed-Feel the fear and DO IT ANYWAY!
If you need help getting committed to your business growth goals and getting out of the rut you’re currently in, reach out to me and Ask for a Complimentary Business Coaching Session!
If we aren’t regularly evaluating our business growth efforts, our modes and methods, then there is a high likelihood that we are ignoring the obvious and have some pretty good lumps on our noggins from hitting that brick wall over and over again.
It’s natural to want instant results, an easy path, comfortable, daily routines and absence of confrontation, BUT growth isn’t experienced without some measure of strife and challenge and that goes for both our personal and professional lives.
What you are ignoring the most, in your business, is likely the place where you will find your best opportunities for growth.
Here is a list of things I have found mortgage professionals ignoring the most, regardless of age, tenure in the Industry, or personality type:
- Speaking in public
- Past Clients
- Asking for referrals
- Social media
- Follow-up activities
- Tracking Marketing R.O.I.
- Building new referral relationships
- Networking
If you find yourself having an instant gut-level response to any one of these items, a strange tingle of guilt or annoyance, it may be just the thing to start warming up to immediately.
When you uncover what it is that you are specifically ignoring, commit to taking one action, regardless of how small, every single day to fully embrace this new task.
Keep the task in front of you, write it on your white board, set a daily alarm on your iPhone, ask your Coach, mentor or a peer to email you daily to report on the task! After 30 consecutive days, assess your return. Look for the opportunities that sprang from your efforts.
I’ll make a bold prediction… Your daily commitment to this one thing that you’ve been ignoring the most in your business WILL bring you some aha moments, results and growth!
If I’m wrong, then just hit me up for a complimentary coaching session! I’m committed, are you?
Nobody will refute that a lot of blood, sweat and tears goes into gaining leads from Realtors, past customers, your website, Zillow and other lead-generating sites.
At first, each lead is treated like a sudden jackpot and you pour plenty of excited energy into each one and this produces results. Then you get busy. Then you get choosy. Then you even get a little bit annoyed at those, “not-so-hot” leads…you know the ones with overly complicated financial scenarios, the ones you called once or twice and never heard back from, the ones you pre-qual who go totally M.I.A. These leads just hurt your brain and so you conveniently leave their contact info and some scribbled notes in a drawer or folder some place and they never hear or see your name again.
The key nowadays to converting more leads is to stay connected and to stay social. And, even if that lead never becomes ready to buy or refinance for whatever reasons, drawing these leads closer to you out of the gates will gain their referrals to their very-ready friends, family and co-workers and why will they do that?… because they will feel like they know, like and trust you.
P.S. you cannot achieve the, “know, like and trust you factor” just with an email drip campaign.
Here are three tools to easily stay connected and social (And, RELEVANT, by the way)with every lead you gain:
Let’s say all you’ve got is a cell number and a name, you can always take that info and upload it to SlyBroadcast.com, which is a great time savings tool, and then send out pre-recorded messages to that entire group of long lost leads so they can hear your voice. A quick tip about leaving messages and using SlyBroadcast type messaging-Always keep your messages brief, very upbeat and speak like you’re already well-acquainted. Again, you want to bridge that, “know, like and trust factor.”
Always immediately look for your leads on LinkedIn and Facebook and connect there so you become familiar to them on a regular basis through your own postings. Again, this draws them closer to you on a more personal and social level, helps to build-up the trust factor and creates no extra work for you.
Lastly, rather than emailing, try mass texting tools like Mighty Text for Androids (there are apps for iPhone, too!) where you can send one general message out to an entire group from your smart phone. The message will look like an individual, personal text to your receivers. Texting is an immediate communication avenue, much more so than email and absolutely will gain more response.
Voice broadcast tools like, SlyBroadcast.com, connecting via social media avenues and utilizing mass texting services are all superior time-savings tools to bringing the leads you’ve worked so hard to get, closer to you (with much less effort/time) and will absolutely increase referrals, as well as your lead to close conversion ratio.
Ok, for all you thick-skinned producing mortgage managers struggling to juggle it all and feeling like you’re the only one who can’t seem to handle the competing work load in front of you, such as:
- Originating loans
- Recruiting
- Managing
- Networking
- Marketing
- Trouble shooting
- Training
- Corporate meetings
- Sales meetings
- PNLs, Expense Reports, Tracking overhead and all other Corporate-related documentation, surveys and reports you are required to submit…
YOU ARE NOT ALONE!
Reality is that when you opted to have your cake and eat it too, you knowingly or unknowingly accepted the fact that being an A+ Sales Professional and an A+ Manager at the same time, would be a near impossible feat to achieve.
Now of course everyone’s definition of what it means to be A+ at something is going to vary and at the end of the day what really matters is that you go home from work feeling accomplished, satisfied with your efforts, up for tackling tomorrow’s challenges and fully expecting victories.
But what do you do if you don’t feel that way much of the time and after some introspection and a thorough review of your business numbers you find that you’re not setting the world on fire in your origination and your team seems to be sucking wind, too?
First, read through the following most common mistakes of struggling, producing mortgage managers and jot down everything that you can honestly admit that you are guilty of and willing to change.
Next, set a goal to focus on 3 of the items for the remainder of the year and certainly feel free to reach out to me for a complimentary session as the solutions to each of these issues are abundant and I’m happy to share my insights on what would work best for YOU and your particular set of circumstances.
Top 3 Most Common Mistakes of Struggling, Producing Mortgage Managers:
Poor hiring practices: Does not cast a big enough net to locate candidates-Lacks a standard interviewing process-Does little to no background investigation of ability to produce/sell-Hires based on personality vs. sales abilities-Hires friends/family members- Hiring out of desperation to fill seats, rather than waiting for the, “right” team players to fill roles.
Poor management style: Acts as a crutch, a motherly/fatherly figure rather than empowering team players and teaching them how to find their own solutions-No set on-boarding & training schedule for new hires-No set scheduled time for employee concerns, questions, suggestions, loan challenges, etc.-Brings personal issues/shares personal issues at work-Leans towards wanting to be liked more than wanting to lead- Blames Corporate for challenges-Passes the buck-No accountability measures-No formal progress reviews-Does not walk their talk-No communication regarding goals & vision, expectations & boundaries.
Poor planning/poor time-management: Does not engage in daily planning-Does not review and reset goals on a weekly basis-Does not review business numbers consistently-Lacks a Business Plan-Lacks a proper project management system-Does not fully utilize/embrace tools & technology-Does not properly delegate-No set work hours-Allows too many personal/family interruptions.
It’s important to have a set of open-ended questions prepared that will allow the other person to be in the spot light and share their business growth goals, hopes, ideas and challenges with you so that you can pin-point ways in which you can help them and vice versa.
Here are two sets of questions that I hope will aid you in this extremely important endeavor, which is a key pillar to growing your business…
Questions for Financial Planners, CPAs & Insurance Agents
- What types of marketing methods or lead-generating type activities are you engaging in this year to grow your business?
- How are you hoping to separate yourself from the competition, your brand, your special services, tools or systems you offer, etc?
- Where do you network or what groups or memberships or associations are you a part of that helps you to meet people and add them to your database?
- Do you ever give presentation or, “Lunch-n-Learns” for your clients or for the general public?
- If you felt zero fear, what would you do in order to build-up your business?
Questions for Realtors
- What types of marketing methods or lead-generating type activities are you engaging in this year to grow your business?
- How are you hoping to separate yourself from the competition, your brand, your special services, tools or systems you offer, etc?
- Where do you network or what groups or memberships or associations are you a part of that helps you to meet people and add them to your database?
- What do you feel are some of the biggest mistakes you’ve seen Realtors make, that you want to make sure to avoid?
- What types of scenarios have been creating hiccups for you and your clients in terms of closing deals and working within today’s mortgage loan processing environment? (This is how we get them to open up about “complaints” “gripes” “mishaps/disappointments” with other Lenders)
- Is there any type of home buyer situation that has been tripping up your team, such as condos, 203K, VA buyers, buyers from overseas, down payment assistance issues, etc.?
Come prepared to your face to face meetings, ready to facilitate, ready to inquire, ready to listen!
One of the toughest things to do as a solo-entrepreneur is to tell yourself the big, bold and sometimes, ugly TRUTH 100% of the time. The second toughest thing to do is to ask yourself questions, that telling yourself the truth about, will create real and positive change.
As sales folks, Mortgage Professionals must keep a keen focus on their customers at all times. If they don’t, the outcome has a direct and immediate effect on their pocket books. A regularly generated paycheck, regardless of effort, focus or customer satisfaction, simply is not part of the Loan Officer package. Every dollar derived is in direct correlation to the Loan Officer’s individual efforts with their customers.
The following, highly-specific, customer related questions may be tough to swallow if you’re not ready to tell yourself the 100% truth. However, I believe, if you’re up for the challenge, your answers to these questions will lead you to take actions that will surely have a positive impact on your pocket book in 2017.
This exercise is also an excellent one to share with your team of Loan Officers if you happen to be a Branch Manager.
- Do you do what you say your going to do BEFORE you say you are going to do it?
- Do you take a complete application, ask your clients the right questions and get the appropriate information/documentation up front?
- Do you know your program underwriting guidelines?
- Do your underwriters think you know your underwriting guidelines?
- Do your processors respect you?
- Do the processors in your office refer their family and friends to YOU?
- Do the title/escrow reps think highly of you?
- Do you go ahead and do a loan for a client even though you know it is not the best thing for them?
- Do you return ALL your phone calls?
- Do you return all your emails?
- Do you do the things you least want to do first?
- Do you complete your, “things-to-do” list for the next day before going to sleep?
- Do you prioritize your tasks and work on them in their order of importance?
- Do you surf the web when you still have calls or tasks to complete?
- Do you AVERAGE more than 30 minutes of television a day?
- Do you complain about not having enough business?
- Do you keep in contact with all your clients?
- Do you have all your clients, prospects and referral partners in a database (ACT, etc…)?
- Do you mine your customer database?
- Do you have systems in place to optimize your clients’ mortgage experience?
- Do your clients always know where they stand and what they need to close their loan?
- Do you withhold information from your clients and let them know “the real story” towards the end of the transaction?
- Do you read at least one book a quarter on business development, communication, ethics or the mortgage industry?
- Do your clients want do business with you again?
- Do your clients refer people to you?
- Do you have a compelling reason for someone to do business with you?
- Do your referral partners and clients think of you as an expert?
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