Loan Officer Coaching

I’ve been told that my Saturday emails are very helpful in giving ideas on how to close more loans in less time.  This one is a particular biggie.  

Be sure to read on and I’m sure you’ll agree with me.

Picture this, you have a pre-approved buyer who is out looking for a home, and out of frustration, they decide to put this on hold.

So in reality, everybody loses here.  

They were moving to solve a problem, perhaps a bigger home, a smaller home, closer to work, out in the country for more privacy and fresh air, perhaps a home with a “home office” room so they don’t have to work at the kitchen table with the kids running around…

Then they got frustrated and stopped looking at new homes.

You get the idea.

The buyers’ agent loses out, because they just lost a commission check.

And of course, the LO (you) lose out.  You spent the time getting the lead / referral, spent the money to pull credit, took all the time to structure the best mortgage plan with them, all resulting in zero dollars made….

I bet this sounds all too familiar right now.  So how can we fix this?

Easy, read on….

In my branch, we call the pre-approved and looking people every Thursday.  

That day wasn’t just pulled out of a hat.  I actually did some scientific studies that proved that it is the most effective day.  (I knew that science degree would pay off some day)

Perhaps on an upcoming Saturday email we can talk about why Thursday is the best day, but for brevity, just know that day has at least 4 reasons why it’s the best day.

The purpose of the Thursday call is to do a couple of things….

#1: Get more referrals (I’ll show you where to get the script we use for free in just a minute)

#2: To keep them motivated to keep looking and making offers (as long as that’s in their best interest of course).

#2 is what we will talk about today… and this is THE Biggie!

The biggest reason buyers get frustrated and stop looking and stop making offers isn’t because of inventory issues…

The reason they get frustrated is that they forget why they were wanting to get a new home in the first place.

They forget that they are tired of paying high rent.  

They forget that they can’t get their work done when they are working at the kitchen table with the kids playing video games 5 feet away.  

They forget how much their family will enjoy the new pool…

They forget the reason why they were motivated to start the home buying process in the beginning.

So it’s our job as the pro to remind them of why. 

Once you master this “Art of Influence”, you and everybody else in the process, will benefit from it greatly… and it only takes about 3 mins per week per PAAL (Pre-Approved And Looking).

Here’s the name of the technique that you want to master on that call:

Future Casting (I’ve also heard this called “Future Pacing”)

Future casting is where you get somebody to envision that they already have that very thing that they want.

For instance, let’s say they are buying a home so that their family has a pool home.

On that 3 minute Thursday call, I’ll say something like…

Me:  “So <prospects name>, if I remember right, you guys are buying this new home so your kids have a pool to play in this summer, is that right?”

Them:  “Yes”.

Me:  “Wow, how your kids will love you for that.  I can hear them splashing in the pool and then you and the Mrs. (or Mr..) will be the “cool” parents because their friends will come to your house on the weekends to hang out and spend time with you guys.  I can smell the poolside BBQ on the grill already.”

You see, you want your pre-approved buyers to visualize what it’s going to be like.  You want them to hear the kids laughing and smelling the BBQ.

Whatever problem they are solving by buying that new house, you want them to have a mental picture of what the solution feels like with great detail.

If they are moving closer to work, have them visualize being able to save 45 minutes of drive time so that they can go take a walk around the lake at the park before picking up the kids from school.

Can you see how this reignites the fire and helps to influence them in a cool way to push past the frustrations because the end result will be worth it?

There’s an old saying, “Wherever your head is, your butt will soon  follow”.  
Once you master this high level of influence tool, they win, you win, and the buyers’ agents win. 

I’ve also found that the buyers’ agents will send even more referrals, because “you” are the LO that helps convert leads into closed transactions, so that the agents can work with even more buyers.

It has a snowball effect.  More referrals to you = more closings = more referrals to you… and the ball keeps growing (as does your bank account).

So this Thursday, put this into action.  It’s very powerful and rewarding to help even more families turn their dreams into reality.

Get my full script for free here.

I’ll give you a free 1 on 1 coaching call as a demo to exactly how we help high level LOs in our group do this very thing in full detail.

Imagine getting even more referrals, resulting in even more closings, and helping even more families, and building up your own bank account. 

I want you to picture what you would do with the income you would make with an extra 5 closings next month.  What would you do with an extra $10,000… perhaps an extra $15,000 just from this one simple technique.

Pretty darn cool!

When I was a wee lad, I dreamed of sitting in “important” business meetings that “made things happen”.

So when I became a loan officer and then a branch manager, I found myself having a daily morning pipeline meeting every workday. 

And as my personal pipeline grew from a few loans to 50-70 each month, and then as a branch manager, well there are now many hundreds of loans in our pipeline and I found the meetings that started as a quick 15 min update, became an hour or more.

2 problems with that.  #1: Getting bombarded with information that I (you) personally didn’t need to know (my team needs to know, but I don’t), and #2:  While I was in that meeting every day, I wasn’t doing PROACTIVE outbound activity to bring more loans in for the next month.

Hence resulting in the ol’ “up a month and down a month” loan officer rollercoaster.  <can you relate?>

So I made a drastic reconstruction of my daily morning meeting that gave me all the information I needed, and could run through a pipeline report of dozens and dozens of loans… all in about 15 minutes.

Here’s the format that I strongly recommend….

It has 3 parts:

1. <me asking>, “What leads came in the last 24 hours (or since our last meeting) and where are we at with those leads?”

This helps ensure that no lead slips through the cracks and we are then able to update our referral partners and the listing agents and then asking for even more referrals from those agents going forward (resulting in getting even more loans coming in for the next month).

2. <me asking>, “What files are in jeopardy of closing late, what are the issues causing that jeopardy, and what are you people <my team member(s)> doing about that / those issues?”

See, you don’t need to know the appraisal and title work has been ordered.  Of course they have been ordered. 

You don’t need to know that the bank statements are in, of course they are in. 

You don’t even need to know what issues the team is working on.  You only need to know if a file is in jeopardy of closing late and what they are doing to fix it on this file and what they are doing to ensure this issue doesn’t happen on future files.

If we have a team that can’t do their job, then things aren’t likely to work out well for you until you replace that person(s).

Our job is to bring more loans in the door, to get more applications.  If you are tied up so you can’t do that, well, in today’s market that is poison for your stability and success.

3.  The last item we discuss on the morning meeting is what I call MOD.  Moments Of Delegation.  It’s where you say “Hey team member Bob or Jill, here’s something I need you to help me with or do for me today…”

Which is basically clearing everything off of your plate that is keeping you from doing even more prospecting.

If you haven’t noticed, the days of sitting around and watching our phones ring with the next lead, well, let’s just say things have changed a bit lately. 

We have to maximize our time spent actually doing outbound activity to bring in new referrals and applications.  If we don’t do that, well, everybody’s job is in jeopardy…
So these meetings should last a max of 15 mins if you have 20 loans or less, and 25 mins max for those of you closing 30, 40, or even more per month.

Those that are able to learn and adapt will do exceptionally well in the next upcoming months, because most loan officers will continue to do things how they did last year, and for most, well, it may not work out so well.

Also, it’s more critical than ever that we have assistants to help free us up.  Those that get rid of all their help and the LO is now chasing conditions and putting out fires, well, that is how some will plan to continue to slow up more and more until they come to a very painful stop.  Don’t put yourself in that fatal situation.

When you are ready to focus on getting even more purchase business, let me know and I’ll hook you up here.