Blogging Begets Referral Sources

A New Post By Shailesh Ghimire
Mortgage Banker - Arizona
Read other posts by Shailesh Ghimire

As an originator you're told to develop solid referral relationships in order to build a consistent business. This mantra is breathed into your ears the day you step out of your comfort zone and decide to originate loans. This message is pounded into you in every major mortgage origination related magazine, radio show and seminar. The reasons to develop solid partisanships are numerous and the benefits are tremendous. For loan originators the best referral sources are of course real estate agents, CPA's, CFA's, builders, etc. This message truly gets any freshly minted originator really excited!

The main problem with this message is that all the others in the business heard it too. Very quickly you realize that you're never the first one to market to any of the valuable referral sources. You quickly discover that many of these professionals have already been pursued by other originators and you're the umpteenth to ask them for a relationship. If you're having coffee with a CPA after after one quick phone call, it's most likely that the CPA is fresh out of college and wanting to develop their own business. Hardly the kind of relationship that will yield the type of results you are expecting.

This is why you must stand out and there must be an immediate value proposition you can offer the referral partner. You know you're wonderful, the referral partner needs to know you're wonderful. So, how do you communicate your wonderfulness to a potential referral parter?

My answer is simple: blog! Blog away your wonderfulness. I can guarantee you that once you do this consistently, over a period of time potential referral partners will come to you!

There are many reasons why a blog can be a major point of differentiation. A blog is your own little corner real estate on the Internet.  You can be you to the extent you want to be you. It allows you the space to demonstrate your expertise. You have free reign to discuss your lending philosophy, show the world how much you know about the current issues of the day, and at the end of the day demonstrate your professional value to the world. You can't possibly do all this in a one hour lunch appointment and certainly not in a five minute phone call.

When you start to blog, at first it may not seem like anyone is reading, but as you promote your blog and begin networking with other bloggers, you'll start to build a reputation and a certain visibility. All of a sudden you'll start to appear on search engine results for all kinds of keywords you've never even imagined. And this is where the fun begins.

A potential referral source is conducting searches on a mortgage related issue and your blog post pops up high on Google. Hurray! The conversation begins. I've had this happen to me many times over the past three months. Agents from across the country have called me wanting to refer their clients to me because they saw that I know about "kiddie condos" or "foreign nationals program" or whatever else I may have written about. These are agents with qualified borrowers ready to purchase. This initial contact has afforded me the opportunity to begin a dialog with these agents. Now they are in my CRM system and there is opportunity for a lasting relationship.

I'm not saying that blogging is going to solve all your production problems, but I am going to assure you that if you do it, you'll be one step ahead of the competition and have a bunch of new business referral sources! Not bad for sitting in front of the computer and not making a single out bound call!

Comments

[Shailesh Ghimire]

Thanks Tony,

Many ask about ROI - but the calls I get from agents I've never met pretty much covers all the gas and flyer costs I normally would have spent to get those calls in a different era.

[Wade Young]

I disagree about the referral relationships being over-farmed. The message may have been preached, but originators haven't moved on it. Yes, realtors have been hounded to no end, but it's not so with other professionals. I have spent 2008 facilitating relationships with financial planners, CPAs, architects and other professionals, and what I have found is that NO ONE is calling these people. I'm not against blogging, but from my experience, I'm first to the market in reaching out to professionals (excluding realtors, of course).

[Rhonda Porter]

I still maintain my referral partners however, blogging has become a major part of my mortgage practice and at this time, is more rewarding than my referral partners. There's more benefits to blogging than just business, too...I think it's a form of therapy! :)

[Shailesh Ghimire]

Wade,

It could be a function of the local market - but I can't tell you how many times the CPA's I've contacted have said they do not meet with mortgage brokers and some CFA's have said the same thing. Despite this, I do have some CPA and CFA partisanships - but it took a long time and a lot of perseverance.

I am certainly not discouraging originators to go out and seek these relationships, I'm saying blogging can be a powerful weapon to give you an added advantage.