When people struggle with lead conversion, or “closing leads into loans”, it’s often because of one simple mistake…
The loan officer doesn’t actually have a “true” lead.
You see, there is a major difference between an internet “lead” and a true REFERRED lead… Huge difference.

See, 98% of the time (literally), an internet lead that the LO either buys for themselves, or worse, buys and gives to an agent thinking they are “bringing something of value”, they are actually making their life and their agent business worse… worse with useless clutter.

It’s totally not their fault, but…
…Beginning and low producing LOs fall into the trap thinking that in time they will actually convert the internet leads into closings…

But the reality is…
There’s practically nothing you can do to convince anybody of anything… unless they already want it, and 98% of the time, internet leads don’t “want it”.

You can’t wrestle your leads down until they give in, can you?
The only thing you CAN do is to find out who already wants what you have.
In other words…

You can’t turn someone into a 5-star prospect, but you can discover who already IS one.

And you can do this simply by using the following five-step criteria…

Number 1: They’re willing to engage in a dialogue…
Number 2: They’re friendly and cooperative when you talk with them…
Number 3: They know what they want…
Number 4: They know when they want it…
And number 5: They want YOU to help them.

Which is much much much more likely with referred leads than with internet leads.

But here’s the thing…
All five of these steps have to be true in order for you to be working with an ideal client.
You can’t skip ahead. And you can’t artificially speed the process up.
So instead of being focused on short-term results of trying to convert internet leads… 
Think of it as a long-term investment. Something you’re willing to spend your time on…

… Which is getting REFERRED Leads

You patiently educate and motivate prospective referral partners… week after week…
Until they convince themselves that referring to you is the right thing to do.
And make no mistake. It’s always until THEY convince THEMSELVES.
Because you can’t wrestle anyone into using you as their lender.
So…

Step 1:  Focus on getting to know people who are already talking to your ideal client. 

Step 2:  Have conversations with those people and simply ask for referrals.

The end.

(Everything else is clutter and unnecessary work that is designed to keep you “busy” but not productive)

When you are ready to copy how we epically and successfully do Step 1 and Step 2…

Meet me here and I’ll give you the same exact demo that our top producers get in the Loan Officer Freedom Club.

Talk soon.

Carl White

Many thanks for my friend, Dean Jackson who taught me this simple message 15 years ago.  

Ok, I’m not actually sure if this is officially a “sneaky trick”, but it certainly falls into the “clever” category…  read on…

Here’s how to get your clients to talk to you during your regular office hours instead of them wanting to talk to you after hours (that time is carved out for family or just chill’n).

This is a note that Loan Officer Freedom Club leader, Tyler Osby sent to me.  It’s absolutely brilliant:  <here’s his note and clever idea>

…Hey Carl, if you ever have a client that’s not willing to carve out the time to discuss their loan during business hours, I’ve been having a lot of success saying the following:

“No problem! We can find a time outside of market hours to discuss your loan!

Before we do though, I wanted to confirm you knew what that meant to your loan terms…

Did you know when the market is closed, you actually pay .125%-.25% higher in rate because of something called ‘overnight protection’?

We can do a call after-hours, but it could literally cost you $20-$60/month to do it. Let me know!

My goal is always to help you secure the best terms possible, so I wanted to make sure you knew what it meant!

Are you able to carve out some time for a brief break, or lunch break to avoid the increased payment?”

….Tyler told me that he’s never had someone NOT carve out time after saying that.

So yea, hopefully that helps someone if you’re still running into friction on after-hours appointments.

Just sharing some morning coolness that was shared with me, because that’s how we roll around here ☺ 

Be sure to thank Tyler next time you see him for sharing with us.

Here’s some video shorts that will teach you how to cover the top 5 buyer objections so that you can give a quick answer that helps convert more prospects into buyers.

Top 5 Buyer Objections   <no charge and no opt-in required>

We’ll cover:

1. “I’m just shopping around for a mortgage right now…”

2. “Your rate seems high..”

3.  “I want the lowest rate…”

4.  “My Realtor gave me 3 lenders to call…”

5.  “I don’t want you to pull my credit because it will drop my score…”

Watch the videos then swipe and deploy ☺

You’re welcome.  That’s just the way we roll around here.

Talk soon,

Carl White

I got a great question the other day that I thought may help you, so I’m forwarding it to you here. This will be worth your time to read.

Question:

“I have an assistant who is AMAZING. UNICORN AMAZING! We both have school aged kids and our school districts have the same breaks. I don’t want to tell her no, because she deserves the time off…but I also want to take my kids as well on those dates. Ideas?? Solutions??”

My Answer:
Great question.

I’ve often thought the toughest part of growing is that stage where we have 1 assistant and not quite ready for the 2^nd one (for just this reason)…

…Any time they go on vacation or call in sick or whatever, 100% of our help is out that day.  Kind of like United Airlines having all their ground crew calls in sick, well, no planes will fly that day.

While we certainly can’t hire yet another person just for those time (because it may throw us into being not profitable), what we can do is really focus on the DSP (Daily Success Plan) and have our current team focus on it to, so that we can close even more loans which then supports the hiring of the 2^nd assistant, which then makes that issue less of a problem… all while we make more money for ourselves.

And then the 3^rd assistant makes it even easier…

So the opportunity here is to ask, “How many loans do we need to close each month that would require and support the 2^nd assistant (who could hold down the fort during those rare times the 2 of you are off at the same time) and how many referred leads do we need to close that many loans, and finally, what is the 1^st action item to get that many referred leads?”

For instance, let’s say 14 loans closed each month supports that 2^nd person…

… if we close 25% of incoming referred leads (which is about normal), we need 14 leads per week, or 2 referred leads per day.

What specific action do we need to do to ramp up to 2 referred leads per day?  That’s the $1,000,000 question…

Actually, that’s the $500,000 question. 

How do we get 4 leads per day is the $1,000,000 question (perhaps literally)…

The funny / bizarre thing is, it’s really a quite simple answer.

Want to do a 1 on 1 zoom call and have it all mapped out for you? <no charge>

I’ll hook you up here

This is the book that thousands of Loan Officers have bought and is now a #1 Amazon Best Seller.

This book is great for helping you make the calls you need to make, to get the business that you want.

Even if you are a rock star “Call Crusher”, this will give you some great pointers and can also help you share ideas to help other LOs that are on your team, or that are friends of yours.

I have found that when we help Loan Officers with this 1 simple issue, well, it’s the 1 problem solved that solves 50 other problems…

Thanks for letting me be a part of your journey of awesomeness.
Grab your copy here.

Carl White