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!
A New Post By The Mortgage Cicerone.
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