“Ok, I screwed up and I think it’s going to delay the closing, what do I tell the borrowers and Realtors?”
That was the question I asked my branch manager my 2nd month in the business (over 2 decades ago). He gave me a formula that I’ll never forget.
This simple formula that I’m going to share with you today saved my bacon more than once over the years.
First of all, understand that things happen, and everybody makes mistakes. We just don’t want to make the same mistake the 2nd or 3rd time. We learn from it, make adjustments, and press on.
Also remember that successful agents, the one’s we get our referrals from, have several deals going on at any given time and as such, your “problem” or issue isn’t their first one and they also know that things happen sometimes.
It’s the ‘struggle bunny’ agents that get all out of whack because they don’t have any other deals closing to make their own mortgage payment. (who could blame them for panicking when it’s the only one that they’ve had for the last several months…)
So when something goes wrong that puts the closing in jeopardy of closing late, immediately call the agents and the borrower(s).
The important thing is to communicate, and here’s how you do it:
1. Here’s what happened. Tell them exactly what happened. Take responsibility. It’s what leaders do.
2. Here’s what we are doing about it / here’s where we are now. Let them know what’s happening now and what action steps you are putting in place and your prediction of if and when it will solve the problem.
3. Here’s what we are doing to prevent it from happening again. Tell them what action steps you are putting in place so this won’t happen on the next referral that they send over to you.
This formula helps to de escalate the emotions AND it helps you put together a better team / system for your ever growing business.
Trying to ignore the issue and / or hiding in the closet, well, that just never turns out well and it just adds to the stress that you may be experiencing.
It is seldom that I lose business relations when I follow this formula, and frankly, following this formula, my business is a well oiled machine because we continue to improve the systems and make sure the team are all “A” level players, all because of past issues.
Nobody likes it when things go wrong, but when it happens, do what leaders do… communicate.
The true key to all of this is, GET MORE REFERRED LEADS!!
It’s way more likely that you’ll close more loans when that is your focus.
How do you do that?
We’ll show you how to get more referred leads here on a quick zoom call.
Once you have more high quality referred leads, no 1 individual deal going sideways will ruffle your feathers as there are soooo many of “them” and only 1 of you. ☺
To your success and coolness,
Carl White
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