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?