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Anytime I hear “stop begging for business” or “stop chasing business” or “stop chasing Realtors” I know that 1 of two things are true, and maybe both, or either

1. They are getting ready to sell me some magic fairy dust on how I can make sales by doing nothing, or..

2. They are a bad salesperson. 

Let me explain…

I was talking with an LO at an event and he said he didn’t want to beg for business.  I asked him what does begging look like.  He said, you know, asking somebody for a referral, them not sending you any, then asking them again for a referral.

Does McDonalds advertise to you once and then never again.  Does Ford or Chevy show you one of their cars one time on one ad, then never again?

They know that they have to offer you a new car when you need one.  They just don’t know when you need it.

When we ask for referrals, we need to ask when something has gone wrong with their current relationship. 

It’s been my experience that sometimes this “something wrong” can be something as simple as their current loan officer not asking for the business and taking everything for granted. 

We just don’t know when that moment of opportunity is going to exist with that particular agent, so we ask for the business often.

Asking for business; asking for referrals isn’t begging.  That’s salesmanship.  That’s what sales people do, or at least the good ones. 

Again… good sales people think selling is a good thing.  Bad sales people think sales is a bad thing.

Now if the reason I don’t want to ask for the business is because all their loans close late, or they have no help and they’re already working till 9pm every night, well, those things need to be fixed first.

You see, if I know that somebody is better off working with me, than it is likely with most of my competitors, I’ve always thought it’s my moral obligation to offer them my services because I’m helping them.

I put it in my mind that if I don’t ask for the business, don’t ask for the referral, then that home buyer is going to be using another lender, and with that lender closing on time, well, all bets are off. 

Perhaps that other lender will not close on time, causing stress to that family, perhaps the deal will fall through because a backup contract comes into play now, and they lose their dream home… all this because the loan officer that lost the deal simply didn’t ask for the business to help them avoid working with a less capable lender. 

It’s our moral obligation to ask for the business. 

Begging is on your hands and knees with your face at that ankles pleading as if for your life. 
Asking for business with every conversation is just good salesmanship that is practiced by top producers and it is not to be confused with “begging”….   Trust me, any time you hear “begging for business”, hold on to your wallet.

If you need help with scripting, just let me know.  I got your back, and I’ll help you for free.

We’ve all heard an LO saying with great pride, “90% of my closings are purchase deals and not refi’s…” like that’s some badge of honor…

… in reality, THAT IS A HUGE MISTAKE!!!

Now, I get it, the reason so many want to use that as their victory chant is because what they are really saying is “whether rates go up or down, people still buy houses and my mortgage business is stable and not reliant on refi’s and dropping rates”…

And that’s somewhat true, but it has a huge flaw that is likely costing them tens of thousands of $$$ PER MONTH, and they don’t even know it.  Read on..

I have found the most “healthy & stable” ratio is 70% purchase and 30% refinance. 

Here’s why…

If we are refi heavy, doing more refinances than purchases, they are right, when rates go up, these cats fall off the highway faster than a 1971 Ford Pinto on bald tires.

And the real problem with that is, now these LOs which have been ignoring Realtor relationships for purchase referrals, all of the sudden they are starting from scratch and trying to establish relationships, which doesn’t help them with closings this month..

Here’s the thing though, if we are purchase heavy, like the LO boasting they are at 90% purchase, that means they are not farming their own past database for refinance opportunities…

This has 2 problems.
#1  We have the moral obligation to help our past clients when it’s in their best interest to refinance and they just haven’t been made aware of this opportunity (our fault).

#2  We would be missing out on these closings which can add up HUGE when it comes time to the $$$ we make each month.

Last year, my mortgage team ended up closing about 68% purchase and 32% refi’s, very very close to the “Holy Grail” 70% purchase / 30% refi.

Earlier in the year, if we see that we are trending purchase heavy, more than 71% purchase, then we know we need to up our game with marketing to our past database (and / or friends and family if you are new to the business).

If we see that we are refi heavy, more than 31% refi, then we know we need to step up our game on our referral partner marketing, which is actually pretty easy.

So using that matrix, whether rates go up or down has never really had an effect on our growth.

We’ve grown every year.

Always remember that with the refi’s, a lot of our people aren’t refinancing to get a better rate necessarily…

…they are doing it for cash out debt consolidations, to cancel mortgage insurance, perhaps getting somebody off the deed, maybe to cash out to buy a 2^nd home or investment property(s), really any number of reasons.

But we don’t know how we can help them if we don’t call them, with a very simple phone script (that I’m happy to share with you), to check in and see what opportunities there are for us to help them (and make a commission check when we do).

So take a few minutes to see where your ratio was at last year, and then decide what to focus on first, marketing to your database (if you are over 70% purchase), or to focus on referral partner relationships (if you are over 30% refi).

Let me know what you find.

We hear it all the time… 

“You have to bring value to your agents”

And you know what, “they” are right…. And perhaps “they” are missing the real truth..

Here’s the problem.  So many LO’s hear that and then freeze because they think (and have been mistakenly told) that they have to….

… bring their agents buyers

… help the agents build their business

… teach classes
… become the agent’s personal assistant and errand boy/girl

And the list goes on and on and on and on
<usually fueled by somebody trying to sell you something you don’t need>

So now the LO is led to believe that before they can get referrals, they have to learn how to do all those things first… which most of the time never happens…  

Classic overwhelm that is totally unnecessary.

…which results in the loan officer stuck with yet another mediocre month of closings and / or another month of slow, if any, growth.

And even for those LOs that do spend all their time doing those things and finally “deem themselves worthy”, what if you found out all that was totally unnecessary and putting in all that work actually slowed your growth…

Here’s the real truth of it all…

YOU ARE ENOUGH!

Let me explain.

The thing you bring of value is “YOU”.

For example, let’s say your friend owns a car wash.  Where would you go to have your car washed?  At your friend’s car wash of course.

Even if another one was a bit cheaper and / or a bit closer.

I want you to think of who your best friend is.  Got their name and their face in your mind now?

Now I want you to think of why they are your friend.  Is it because they come over and mow your yard every Saturday for free?  Do they come over and clean your windows every Monday?

Of course not, that’s not why they are your friend.

They are your friend because of how you feel about them, and how they make YOU feel when you are around them.

Now, if you REALLY needed your yard mowed and your windows cleaned, would they come help you out of a bind?  Of course they would.  Just like you would for them.  But the actual service isn’t why you are friends.

Same thing with referral partners.

I work with people who I genuinely like.  We just happen to do business together also.
These are people who I would hang out with anyway, we just happen to now work together also.

And here’s the other “truth” I have discovered.  There are over a thousand agents in our areas and there’s only 1 of you (me).  That puts the odds highly in our favor. 

It turns the table that YOU are the prize.

Now, with our friends (agents) that we work with, do we refer business to them when the opportunity arises… of course.

Do we help them build their business once we are working together… yes.  But keep in mind, I have found it best to work with very successful agents who already have a successful business and they really don’t need any help in that area.

Do we teach classes?  Well only if that is something that you truly enjoy doing, of course.  But understand, it’s totally not necessary.

Do we help them with social media?  Perhaps, but again, only if you already know how and only if you enjoy doing that.

They don’t work with us because of those things.  They work with you because you genuinely like them and people like people who like them and then refer to those people that they like.

In other words…

YOU ARE ENOUGH.

Now, do we need to close their loans on time.. yes

Do we need to give great communication during the loan process.. yesDo we need to follow up on their referrals like green on a pickle so they get more referrals from those leads going forward… absolutely. 

By the way, that’s the 3 things that over 10,000 agents said were most important to them during a large survey I did with agents.

So instead of spending a ton of time on doing things that are actually totally unnecessary, let’s spend that same time and energy actually connecting up with the agents who are already successful and simply find out which of those we have a natural connection with because….

YOU ARE ENOUGH!!!

Then and only then, of course you can learn how to help out in other ways… even though that is likely totally unnecessary.

Something a little different this Saturday to help you out.

In this short video, myself and the lovely Mrs. White will give you the script to get more assistant help to close more loans in less time… even if you don’t have an assistant now!

This simple script has worked for me every time I have used it, and it also worked when one of the LOs in my branch used it on me…. (sneaky rascal she was..)

Let me know what you think.

Watch Short Video Here

Your Mortgage Maverik,

Carl White

I’m going to show you the 2 reasons why most LOs don’t ask for referrals, and then How To Fix It… read on…

Most loan officers rarely, clearly and specifically, ask for referrals, or as some say it, “ask for the business”.  (which is costing them a true fortune by not doing it)

There’s two reasons they don’t ask for referrals…

First, most people think that asking clients for more business is begging. And it makes them appear weak or that they can’t get business on your own. 

(Most of the time, this is being taught by somebody that’s trying to sell something that you very likely don’t need, or by somebody that has never actually been a successful loan officer themself)

But here’s the thing…

Rather than looking at referrals as a favor, that Realtors, past clients, and friends do for you… 

Understand that the ONLY reason people refer is because it makes THEM feel good about themselves!

They want to feel like an insider. They want to feel like a trusted advisor to their friends… and raise their status in the herd.

Remember this: Referrals are never about you. They’re about the person who is doing the referring.

And the second reason why most loan officers don’t ask for referrals is… 

They don’t understand that all referrals happen as a result of a conversation.

And in order for that referral to take place, three things need to happen…

Number one. Your client has to notice the conversation is about whatever it is that you do. In our case, helping people with their mortgages, buying homes, and / or debt consolidation.

Number two. Your client needs to think about you.

And number three… they have to introduce you to the person they’re in conversation with.

Now, don’t get me wrong. Referrals do happen spontaneously all the time. The problem is, you don’t have control over what happens next.

Think about it. How often do you meet somebody and they say, “Oh yeah, I tell everybody about you…” or, “Hey, did Bob call you? He was looking for a mortgage and I told him to contact you…”

How often do these things happen to you but people never show up at your door?

The reality is, for every referral that you do get, there’s probably five or seven more that never happen…

And therefore, once you understand WHY referrals happen, and HOW they happen… then it becomes all about engineering situations where they can happen more often.

Look at it this way: At the end of the day, orchestrating referrals is all about creating opportunities where…

You make people feel good about themselves.

The more referrals they give you, the more they feel good about themselves. 

It’s actually a byproduct that you happen to get more closings, thus more $$$.

A friend of mine, Dean Jackson, helped me out with this years ago, and I’m just paying it forward by sharing these words of wisdom to you now.

So go out there and help as many people feel good about themselves as you possibly can.  It’s the right thing to do and it’s very, very profitable without having to buy yet another shiny whistle.

It’s your turn now ☺

If you want some help with scripting, let me know. 

I got your back!

Oh, and can I count on you to forward this email to 3 of your friends that are also LO’s?  <ppssst, I just asked for a referral from you ☺ >

Your homie,
Carl White