So, I recently got a call from a client who said, “Man, I’m really struggling today. It looks like my call reluctance is rearing its ugly head….again.” ☹ Since most Loan Officers deal with call reluctance at some level, I thought it would be good to share an idea that has coalesced into a guiding principle.
I asked, “So, what is at the heart of your call reluctance? Is it a fear of all calls or ‘just’ a fear making cold calls?” She said, “I really hate making cold calls.”
As an aside, if your call reluctance is a fear of making ANY phone calls, you may need to reconsider whether this is the profession for you. If you fear making cold calls, which is really the fear of rejection, take heart, you’re in good company and depending on your situation, you may be fretting over nothing.
“Fair enough,” I said. “I’m just curious. How many loans with contracts do you currently have in your pipeline?” “About 12,” she replied. “Cool,” I said. “Do you remember that ninja system we have for marketing to your pipeline, which, by the way is your number one source for new business?” “Yes,” she replied again. “Great! Have you made those calls for this week?” I asked. “Well, no. Not yet.”
“Ok, well whom should you be calling first for more business? Is it people with files in escrow in your current pipeline who actually WANT you to call them, or people who don’t know you, aren’t working with you and want you to just leave them alone? ‘Uh, well clearly, the people in my pipeline,” she answered.
“That’s right!” I continued. “Now, after your pipeline, your next best source for business is your past client database. Are you totally current with your quarterly calls, your monthly mailer and your weekly emails to your database?” (pause) “….uh, no.” “Ok, so same question, whom should you call first for more business? Is it people that you have already helped and know how awesome you and your team are, or people who have never worked with you and don’t know what you can do?” “Well, it would be the peeps in my database,” she answered again.
Ok, good. Now let’s talk about Realtor calls. Why do we even make them?” She answered, “So that we can book face to face appointments to create new referral relationships.” I said, “Correct! Now, who is it easier to get to meet face to face with you, Agents you know or Agents you don’t know?” “Agents I know, of course,” she said. “Right.” I continued. “So, who should you be calling first for appointments?” “Agents I know.”
I then asked, “Do you have any issue calling Agents you know and inviting them to coffee?” “Nope.”
“Ok, well you’ve been doing loans in this town for over 20 years. You must know dozens of Realtors.” “I do,” she agreed. “Perfect,” I said. “So, using our Thor’s Hammer system for reaching out to Realtors, if you call through your known Agents first, you’ll likely never even get to the ones you don’t know.” She responded “Wow! I guess I never thought of it that way.”
So, in summary, FIRST we call though our pipeline, THEN we call through our database, THEN we reach out to our known Agents. After these calls have been completed, then in your spare time, if you feel like it, you can make cold calls to unknown Realtors. 😀 Understanding this Hierarchy of Leads and using it to prioritize your calls really can help you overcome call reluctance.
Now, what if, on top of having call reluctance, you’re brand new in the business (or just returning), have no pipeline or database and you don’t know anyone? The good new is that we have an excellent strategy for working with Title Companies to generate an unlimited warm list of producing Realtors who are expecting your call. The bad news is that that will have to wait for a different post, OR if you’d like that information sooner, why not click the banner on this page to schedule a free strategy call? In addition to that strategy, we’ll help you take an inventory of the business assets you have and then map out a blueprint to help you move forward by using what you have to get what you want. You may discover that your call reluctance is “much ado about nothing.”
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