Mortgage Loan Officer Blog | Loan Officer Freedom

Ten Cents of Water for $2.50: Convenience Trumps Price Almost Every Time

June 24, 2018

So thirsty, have to pee, so thirsty, have to pee! Just up head I see my favorite local convenience store. I pull in, park right in front, jump out of the car, run inside to the men’s room. Back out, grab the biggest bottle of water they have, oh and a vitamin water, and a Slim Jim. Nope, put Slim Jim back. I’m “being good right now”. OH, they have turkey jerky instead! Definitely need that. “Ring me up Mr. Cashier”. Cashier says, “Carl that will be $12.50”. Swipe my card, and I’m out the door. It only took 8 minutes out of my time, and wow does that $2.50 bottle of cold water taste good. But wait, $12.50 total? How much was that turkey jerky? Who cares! It is really hitting the spot right now. I may stop by for more tomorrow . . .

People really value convenience. Now we all know someone that will shop that bottle of water until they find a $5 for 24 deal. Then they will pack water and a snack for the road. However 99.99% of us just aren’t that person. We want to be able to proceed with something with little effort or difficulty.

Convenience: the state of being able to proceed with something with little effort or difficulty.

Point being the less pain we feel in doing something, the more likely we are to do it, and then do it again. And also recommend that others follow suite.

So let me ask you this friends, how painful is your mortgage process? The big online mortgage companies are all advertising how convenient they are. Since we know Rocket Mortgage is smoke and mirrors, how do we offer the same convenience?

Everyone assumes its technology, but let’s go the old fashioned way first. Convenience is in the eye of the beholder. So let me ask you, did you design your loan process around you or your customer?

I sat down with our digital marketer to write a Facebook ad recently. The digital marketer asked me to start by writing out what my clients hate. Well, that was easy to list: Bank statements! Processors that over ask for things, taking too long in underwriting, last minute signatures on forms. Documents sent in ten different ways!

DM: “Carl, that’s what you hate. I asked what your customers hate.”

Me: “Oh? Don’t my clients hate the same things I hate? “

DM: “NO. You are not you, you are them.” “Try again.”

Me: “Okay then” . . . re-thinking . . . re-thinking . . . “They hate uncertainty. They hate feeling messed with. They hate it when we aren’t helpful, or talk down to them. They hate it when we make things so darn hard they want to give up. They hate inconvenience. “

Technology can open the door, but what your customers really want is set expectations, consistency and helpfulness.

If you need some help putting together your perfect loan process, hiring the right staff to carry out the process, and recommendations for the best technology to use, come join us at our next 3-day event. You can get the skinny on that here: http://www.mastermindretreats.com/

Remember: Convenience is in the eye of the beholder.

Yours in Coolness,
Carl
Article Originally Published on LinkedIn

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“Damaged” doesn’t mean “Broken”

June 20, 2018

I had a live mastermind event in Florida a couple of weeks ago.

After one of the sessions, I happened to walk by two Freedom Club members talking about something called “Kintsugi”.

“Bless you!” I said.

They laughed and explained what they were talking about.

“No Carl, I didn’t sneeze, I was telling Joe here about Kintsugi. It’s a Japanese form of pottery, where they take a pot that’s cracked or broken in pieces, and they repair it with gold lacquer, so that it’s repaired, but now it’s cracks and damages are the most beautiful part of it.”

In that moment, I had something like an epiphany. Just because you’re “damaged goods”, does not mean you are broken, my friend. You are still just as functional, as successful, as useful as you’ve always been, even if you’ve been through the wringer a time or two. Maybe it’s been an especially hard time. Maybe you’re in more pieces than you’d like to be. But guess what, you are strong, you are capable, and you are resilient. You’ll make it through whatever trial you’re facing, I guarantee it.

You might be thinking, as you’re reading this, “I don’t know Carl, this time it’s different, I don’t think I can put myself back together again, what do I do?”

I’ll tell you what you do. You reach out to me here, on LinkedIn, or on Facebook, or call my office, and I will work together with you to repair your cracks and fix them all up with gold so that you’re back and better than ever. I promise you this, I am with you every step of the way my friend.

You are stronger than you think. Keep on keeping on, my friend. I’ll be cheering you on wherever you are.

You’ve got this.

Carl White, Chief Officer of Coolness
Article Originally Published on LinkedIn

PS: When you are ready, here are the ways we can help you best.

1. Work with us one-on-one
If you’d like to work directly with us to map out a dream mortgage business – one where you have an epic income while actually working less weekends and evenings (if any at all) – just Click Here and tell us a little about your business and what you would like to work on together, and we will get you all the details.

2. Get your complimentary 1-hour strategy session
You are entitled to 1 full hour strategy call to map out a step-by-step plan on exactly “how to write more loans while working less hours.” Simply tell us a little about your business to help us prepare for your strategy session, and then you’ll have full access to our calendar to schedule your call. At the end of the call, you can ask us to help you implement that plan, or you are absolutely welcome to take that complete plan and work on it by yourself. Click Here to schedule your call today!

3. Click Here for information about our next 3-day “How To Close More Loans Now” event!
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The Perfect Gift

June 6, 2018

One of our Freedom Club members (our top-level LO mastermind group) asked a great question…

“I’m am seeking some ideas for unique closing gifts that I can send out. Ideally something universal that I can leave a lasting impression and that has my branding on. Any ideas you can share with me?”

My response:

Great question! Here’s the thing, we have found that we don’t need to leave a “lasting impression”, as we will be contacting them quarterly with a phone call (using our past database scripts and the automated system) and monthly with our “handwritten” note (also done automatically).

Think of it like not needing a lasting impression when you leave a friend’s house after playing cards. You’ll be back next week…

Follow up out trumps a closing gift every time.

The follow up we do is 3 fold:

1. Call with a simple script 4 times a year (this is the most powerful and we have figured out a way to automate it).

2. Snail mail once per month. This has proved to give us huge results. The trick is to NOT send a newsletter or corporate looking postcard. We have found that an actual letter produces more goodwill and leads than anything else (I can show some examples of what we do).

3. And finally, a weekly email. The email we have found that gets us the best response isn’t about mortgages, it’s about what’s going on this weekend around your area. At the end of the email, there is a simple call to action that we call the “Super Signature” that has proved to be the secret sauce.

When I did a closing gift that had a “last impression”, it had zero effect in my closings from those past clients going forward. It wasn’t until I added the 3 fold follow up strategies that I saw an explosion in my measured results.

This follow up approach gives us an average of 1 closing per 100 people in our database per month. So if you have 500 people in your past database, that would be 5 closings… PER MONTH, just from this simple strategy.

Now, to answer your most excellent question, I found giving them pizzas on moving day worked very well for me. After all, it’s what friends do for each other.

Carl
Article Originally Published on LinkedIn

P.S.
If you want to schedule a time where we can map out and share how we do all this, along with my proven scripts, just shoot me an email and I’ll get you set up. After all, it’s what friends do for each other…
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Be Aware Of What You Are Fishing For…

May 31, 2018

I had one of my private LO clients reach out to me yesterday and said he had just gotten a referral from a new agent he had be prospecting using our famous “Thor’s Hammer” Script.

The issue was, it was a $700K purchase, thus a Jumbo loan. Well, the mortgage company that this LO works with is an amazing company with very competitive rates…. but not for Jumbo mortgages.

He told me that he was looking for a pricing exception from his company to be able to match what the borrower was quoted from his local bank which this borrower had a business relationship with as this borrower is a local medical surgeon.

He also told me that he really wanted to save this deal with this new referral partner as she “does mostly high end homes with Jumbo loans”.

Here was my response to him on this subject.

“One thing we have to be careful is, we’ll catch what we fish for…

What I mean by that, is most people that apply for Jumbo loans do have banking connections.

Those banking connections will often write a loan at an actual loss, because they are looking for all of the borrowers’ other business too (credit cards, car loans, investment products, their office banking and such).

If this agent does mostly jumbo deals (per your observation), this will be a likely occurrence on almost all of her deals and not make it a profitable relationship for you.

This would make it that most of her deals is going to require your company to stroke a check for $9k for every loan just to close it. (that was the cost to the mortgage company if it did the pricing exception)

This may not be the best agent to partner with because of her large Jumbo loan clientele.

Love the fact that you are using the Thor’s Hammer scripts and strategy to land these agents to start referring to you.

It may be even better for you to pursue agents that work with primarily non-jumbo clients.

It’s the one area where the banks are hard to beat, because, again, they often do them as a loss leader.

Just my thoughts”

I posted this here thinking it may be helpful for you in your referral partner prospecting.

When you are doing your marketing and looking to pair up with referral partners, make sure ahead of time that they are #1 Active and actually working with clients that they can refer to you and #2 Work with the type of clients and homes that you can write loans to easily and profitably.

Thanks for letting me share this with you today. See you on the web, and thanks for letting me share my thoughts with you!

Carl
Article Originally Published on LinkedIn
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#LoanOfficer #LoanOfficerFreedom #LoanOfficerFreedomPodcast #LOFPodcast #LOFBlog #LoanOfficerFreedomBlog #TheMarketingAnimals #AgentMastermind #MortgageMarketing #MortgageMarketingAnimals #TheMortgageMarketingAnimals #FreedomClubFriday #LOFreedomClub #FreedomIs #MastermindRetreats #ThorsHammer #AxeOfFreedom #CallReluctance #CrushingCallReluctance #ChiefOfficerOfCoolness #WorkWithWetPants #BeMoreFootbally #LORollerCoaster #StopTheRollercoaster #GreenOnAPickle #AlwaysBeClosing #MortgageIndustryGoingStrong #MortgageCoaching #LoanOfficerCoaching #HighEndCoaching #LifeCoach #LoanOfficerLife #LoanOfficerLifestyle #LoanOriginator #LoanOriginators #LOCoaching #Mortgage #MortgageAdvisors #MortgageBanker #MortgageBanking #MortgageBroker #MortgageCoach #MortgageConsultants #MortgageExperts #MortgageGuru #MortgageIndustry #MortgageIndustrySpecialist #MortgageLender #MortgageLife #MortgageLifestyle #MortgageLoanOfficer #MortgageLoanOfficers #MortgageLoanOriginator #MortgageLoans #MortgageOriginator #MortgagePro #MortgageProfessionals

Loan Officer Heading To Horizon…

May 26, 2018

Sometimes I find myself focusing on the things that I didn’t get done and maybe coming down on myself a little bit about what I didn’t accomplish or “what I’m not doing”.

I recently realized, we really need to focus sometimes on what we have accomplished.

It goes back to instead of looking at the horizon and trying to paddle out to the horizon, which keeps moving forward, (as we paddle out, it keeps moving in front of us, we never actually get to the horizon), that sometimes we need to turn around and look to see how far we’ve come from the shore, how far have we gone, look at what did we accomplish.

I think it’s really healthy for us to do that sometimes and to reach around and give ourselves a pat on the back.

Right now, as you’re reading this, make a list of a few things that you’ve accomplished and look at that and be proud of what you have done.

Let’s not just always focus on what we haven’t done. Let’s focus on what we have done.

I just want to thank you so much for being part of my journey. I really appreciate you.

I just want to let you know that I believe in you, that you’ve done great things, you have accomplished things, and take recognition of those things that you have accomplished.

That’s it.

Thanks again, and I appreciate you letting me be part of your life. It’s a true honor.

Carl
Article Originally Published on LinkedIn

Want some help mapping out the direction of your JOA (Journey of Awesomeness)?

Here’s the best way to do that: www.LoanOfficerStrategyCall.com
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