The Evolution of a Top Loan Officer
When you evaluate the evolution of a top loan officer, there are many ways to measure progress, growth and success. Many mortgage trainers say that the number one measure in mortgage loan origination is, “How do your customers and clients view you?” I don’t agree with this statement as it is. I think that the most important measure is a loan officers ability to close a sale or influence their clients and customers enough to “want to” do business with them. You can’t influence them unless you can get them in the door!
Take the measure of percentage of referral-based business you receive. For example; when someone becomes a loan officer, they have very little (if any) referral business. Unless they have a family member or friend as a referral based client, they would have zero referrals. Referral based clients are Realtors, Builders, CPA’s, Financial Planners and others who refer multiple borrowers to them on a consistent basis. This is a key measure for long-term success as a mortgage loan originator.
If you’re doing it right, your percentage of referral business will increase as your business develops. If you take any new originator (less than one year in the business), they may have a range of 30% to 50% referral business compared to the superstar originators who have between 80% to 100% referral business. If you’re not spending thousands of dollars per month advertising and marketing your loan programs such as sub-prime lenders who have an inside/in-house phone-sales force, then your focus on developing relationships with these referral based clients is critical to your success. Even if you’re a sub-prime/in-house loan officer, developing a high-touch campaign and keeping in touch with past clients could double or triple your business with referrals.
I believe that there are nine critical measures of success for every loan officer. The first seven steps all lead up to building a long-lasting referral based business.
- How well do they close from prospect to application.
- How well they know the loan programs and underwriting guidelines.
- How much creativity they have in customizing and matching loan programs to borrowers. (This comes with experience)
- How much time they have invested in perfecting their presentation. (Learning scripts from the top loan officers is the easiest way to get great at this)
- How much money/time they have invested on improving their business. (How many marketing tools, seminars, books, tapes, sales tools, etc. they have invested in) Every top producer on the planet consistently pays this price as they are always seeking improvement! This is a plant and harvest type of business!
- How much marketing savvy do you have to promote yourself.
- How much importance do you place on how customers and clients view you?
- How well are you at organizing and controlling your time. (Top producers are seriously focused on high payoff/productive tasks) What percentage of your workday is truly spent on productive tasks?
- What percentage of your business is referral based?
If you evaluate your personal production and business, you can measure your success by each of the above categories. Of course positive thinking and attitude play a huge role in all 9 areas. Top producers have a positive attitude toward improvement, growth and learning. They have an attitude of, “There’s always a new level to go to.” In addition, getting to the number 9 above is the most important objective if you're interested in high volume originations and long-term security.
As you seek improvement in these areas, remember that your clients and customers are watching. How they view you is a measure that you must be constantly aware of if you’re going to compete in today’s battle of mortgage originations.
Let’s take a look at the evolution of how referring clients view you.
STARTING OUT…
a) An interruption
b) An annoyance
c) Just another loan officer or salesperson wanting a commission
d) Neutral MIDDLE GROUND
e) Interesting
f) Hard worker
g) Does a good job
h) A loan professional
i) A mortgage debt expert, mortgage specialist and trusted advisor
ADVANCED LEVEL…
As you can see, the ultimate goal is to get to “Trusted Advisor” in the shortest amount of time possible. You can usually bypass a, b, and c above by evaluating your approach. For example, you can approach a Realtor, CPA, or Financial Planner by just walking in their office and asking for some time…interrupter! If you do that more than once, you run the risk of becoming an annoyance! If you continue this process, you may get a few Realtors to do some business with you, but I can tell you that they’re probably not the kind of Realtors who you’ll want to do business with long-term. Why to I say that…because they usually are the type of Realtors that do business the way you are representing and/or they’re not consistent with their own business, and that’s not what you want.
Let me give you a better way that has worked for me as well as many of the superstar originators today. Write a list of the top Realtors, CPA’s and Financial Planners in your area and send them a letter introducing yourself, how you approach your business, and that you’ll be calling them to set a time to meet. Remember, you don’t want to oversell yourself here. Your goal should be only to land an appointment…that’s it. You may want to include something of value such as a great book you may have read or something that will help them grow their own business. Make sure whatever it is; it complements the way you do business. This will get you to the ‘interesting’ stage. You should have a written follow up plan in your contact manager that prompts you to give them a follow up call. If you are having trouble getting a hold of them, keep trying. If you are professionally persistent and you’re giving them value along the way, this will take you to ‘hard worker’ status in their minds. That’s what you want!
You’re now evolving and on the road to ‘trusted advisor,’ but you’re not there yet. In the follow up call, you can give them additional information on how you do business; however, don’t try to do too much because your goal must be to meet with them personally. Remember, if you’ve done your homework, this professional Realtor, CPA, or Financial Planner is successful and has tremendous potential for referring you several loans on a monthly basis. This is a worthwhile investment of your time and resources. Your ROI will be huge if you do this right.
Once they have agreed to meet with you, it’s critical that you have a strong presentation. Remember, the key question that you must passionately answer is, “Why should I refer business to you?” You must give a strong and compelling presentation. The number one tool for this is the Mortgage Coach as they are the leader in mortgage advisory software. There is no other software on the market that does what Mortgage Coach does as far as intelligent, clear, professional presentations that borrowers understand and appreciate. It’s the ultimate presentation tool that is guaranteed to separate you from the competition.
The reason I say that is when the referring client says, “Why should I refer business to you?” You can show them the level of intelligent information that you give to every borrower that they refer to you. For example, you can show them a side-by-side comparison for borrowers seeking to buy a home that calculates and customizes the numbers based on how long their going to live in the property, how many points their going to pay, and the tax benefits for each program based on their own tax bracket. Another report is good for debt consolidation loans and refinances that shows how much money can be freed up in addition to giving them a payoff plan and investment options. The RateWatch report is good for sending to past clients. It’s better than a newsletter because it’s a tracking report that compares your borrowers current loan information against popular loan programs and current interest rates. This report is customized and personal to each borrower. The response on these reports is very high.These presentation reports are user friendly and easy to read and understand. They give the borrower more information that affects the type of loan they choose. The average loan officer today either doesn’t give the borrower this information, or if they do, they just verbally tell the borrower, or write it out on a piece of paper. Remember, top producers are always seeking a better, more professional way to deliver service to their customers and clients. The Mortgage Coach reports cause borrowers, Realtors, CPA’s and Financial Planners to view you as a ‘trusted advisor.’
If you just verbally tell borrowers about this type of information, it takes you to ‘professional loan officer’ status. If you e-mail, fax or send them a professional report with your name, your company, address and phone, you go to the next level… ‘trusted advisor.’ By getting your borrowers and referring clients to view you as a mortgage loan specialist and trusted advisor, you gain the competitive advantage. In doing that, you originate more loans, make more money, and enjoy more success.
10. How much do you 'genuinely' listen to your clients and strive to understand what they 'really' want or need?
Posted by: Sparky | June 22, 2007 at 03:29 PM
Sparks - That truly is the essence of it all!
Posted by: Tony Gallegos | June 22, 2007 at 03:38 PM