Loan Officers – Don’t Just Sit There!

by Morgan Brown

Mortgage Banker

Author website

Russell Shaw’s great post “I want a LOT of money — would you tell me how to get it?” got me thinking about loan officers who constantly ask me about how they can make “a lot of money,” especially in a tough mortgage market. They lament the current market situation, tell me that people are scared to refinance, that underwriting guidelines are more difficult, that property values are falling. They complain that these factors are squeezing their customer base and making it harder to win business. “What can I do? It’s soooo hard out there right now” is a common refrain I hear constantly. I keep looking for a way to disable the “repeat button.” After having this talk ad nauseum I’ve found that I can ask 6 questions to help loan officers refocus on capturing success. Those 6 questions tend to generate between 4 and 5 AHA!s per person. This realization is rather scary to me as many of these loan officers achieved high levels of success during the “boom” years. It makes me want to ask “How much more could you have made back then if you were actually trying?”

Today I’ll cover questions 1 & 2, and then get to the other three in my next post.

The first question is somewhat rhetorical; “How hard are you working; and, how smart is the work you’re doing?” That usually gives the inquiring loan officer pause. They look at me like a deer in the headlights, frozen by the realization that they’ve been working half-speed for as long as they can remember, stammer a bit, and then finally go quiet. Sometimes you see a little light bulb go on over their heads. That light bulb is the first step in an important process. Question one is my warning shot, to let them know that I have no time for their pity parties and that if they want advice they are going to get it — served cold.

I have found that the average loan officer spends too much time placing responsibility for their success on external factors instead of taking the responsibility to improve their own situation. Only when the loan officer takes personal responsibility for their success is it worth discussing the more tactical elements of the success plan. Step one is to take personal responsibility — without it there isn’t a person out there that can help them make “a lot” of money. Once we get the personal responsibility question out of the way we can get to the other 5 questions.

Question two — “Who knows you are a world-class mortgage expert?” I ask loan officers “How many of your friends, family, associates, service providers, etc. know that you are a loan officer and an expert in your field?” And “When was the last time you told them so?” The answer is usually “never” or “not since I got the new job and sent everyone my new email address” and it often leads to another AHA! moment. Too many of us neglect our contacts and connections. We have them all, sitting there in Outlook, sitting and not working.

Why do our contacts sit? It’s simply because we’re too self-absorbed. Too many of us go through our days working for and thinking about ourselves. Trying to improve ourselves and our personal situation; it’s a natural instinct. Sure we focus on our customers, solve daily problems, etc. However, we rarely think about others that don’t directly impact our day-to-day existence. The only time we think about our contacts is when we need something from them. When we have a problem we go straight to the person we know that can help us. Here at Bloohound we’re obviously a different breed; but many others in our industry tend to think “get” before “give.” This mind set leads loan officers down a narrow sales path with blinders, oblivious to the green fertile pastures of potential business that surround them. When we leave our contacts sitting idly we waste one of our largest potential sales assets. Worse, every time we go to our contacts for help only we wear them down.

Think of each contact as a bank account. Every time you give help you put some money in the account. Every time you ask for help you take money out. Some friends will extend you all the credit in the world, other people will only let you take out what you put in. And there are plenty in between. To successfully leverage your contacts you have to give away information and help constantly, that way you’ll build a nice fat account with each of your contacts to withdraw from when you need it.

The great Jeffery Gitomer book “The Little Black Book of Connections” is a must read for any sales person and focuses on the concept of leveraging the power of connections through giving first.

I tell loan officers to go through their contacts and determine who knows that they are an experienced mortgage professional who provides first-class service. Outside of immediate family their list is usually woefully short. That is a problem that needs to be fixed. How does a loan officer fix it? Easy — provide value to your contacts. When is the last time you sent out a market update? Have you leveraged the national attention on the mortgage market recently to let your friends know you can answer any questions they may have? Do you send out a mortgage or finance tip to your contacts monthly? Weekly? What are you doing to provide value and be relevant to your contacts so that when they think “mortgage” they think of you and the valued and helpful information you’ve been providing? The sooner you start giving the sooner you’ll start receiving.

As more of your contacts feel comfortable with you as a trusted source they’ll not only turn to you, but will begin to refer their circle of connections to you. People like feeling connected. They like the feeling it gives them to refer someone they know to a trusted source. They will refer people to you if they trust you. You earn that trust by providing value and expertise with out expectation. You should never give and expect to receive. Give because it makes you feel good about yourself; let karma take care of the rest.

Now that you know how important your contacts are how do you utilize them? If you’re like most people you’ve never taken a strategic look at your contacts. When you look in Outlook how do you have your contacts organized? Do you have them sorted by industry, geographic location, personal and professional associations, personal and professional contacts? How many ways can you slice your contact database to create different lists of people that you can deliver value to? Having one big pile of names makes your ability to communicate with your contacts inefficient and cumbersome. By dividing your contacts in to lists with similar characteristics you can tailor your messages to the specific needs of your lists. This is essential. If you cast too wide a net your message will lose its relevance. You can’t send out a generic “Hello world” email and expect anything but silence in return. Sales people need to look at their connections in a strategic way that allows them to maximize their “give.”

Using a “give” philosophy can unleash the power of your connections! Here’s how it can work in practice: I recommend that loan officers begin sending out a weekly tip to their contacts, a piece of news about housing or the mortgage market and brief opinion about it from their expert point of view. I say this with a few crucial caveats. 1. This is not the time to ask for a sale, a referral or make any type of “get” action. It’s important that you don’t ask for anything; otherwise you’re emails will be relegated to instant-delete status, negating the power of your connections. 2. Provide value in the way of industry insight. 3. Make sure your contact information is at the bottom of the email. 4. Follow email best practices, don’t disclose the recipient list and provide a convenient way for the contact to unsubscribe from your updates. The point is not to make a sale or get a referral with your emails. The point is to give value. By giving you’ll get your name back “top-of-mind” for each of your connections so that when they, or someone they know, talks about mortgages you come to mind. The key is giving enough so that you’ve laid a strong enough foundation so that person acts by contacting you.

I’ve given one example of “give” by providing mortgage insight email tips but there are many more. Real estate agents are great at providing value added information to prospects and loan originators can learn a thing or two from them. Providing property value information, industry news, local items of interest, and upcoming events are all great ways to get in front of your contacts. No matter what you do start by giving!