Another branch manager that I hadn’t seen or spoke to in a few years called me up the other day.
“Carl, who turned off the “more loans” switch?” he asked me in a panic.
First of all, we have to have clarity of the current situation. Here’s the truth:
2022 is expected to be the best year ever for purchase mortgage business.
Yepper, you heard that right… 2022 the purchase business is expected to be $1.739 TRILLION. Just for comparison, 2021 was $1.646 Trillion in purchase mortgage business (2nd only to this year’s projections).
So what in the heck is everybody worried about? This is going to be the best year EVER for purchase mortgage business (just in case you forgot I said that just 1 minute ago).
Ahhhhhhh, oh, I see, some LOs haven’t been doing our referral partner marketing as part of their weekly routine.
Ok, here’s the thing, It’s not your fault, I see this kind of thing all the time. Many of our mentors just shared what worked for them way back, and it did work for them way back.
No big deal, it’s going to be ok, we just need to map out how to get agents to refer to us, and it’s not buying Zillow or online leads and dumping those things that will never close on their desk like a pile of rotting fish.
The reason I focus on referral partner marketing is the CLV (client lifetime value) is soooo much higher with them. You see, with each dollar invested and with each hour invested, the return on investment is so much higher with referral partners than consumer direct.
Focusing on “consumer direct” is like trying to fill an empty lake by buying buckets of water. It would cost a fortune and likely evaporate faster than you could fill it that way.
If we want to fill a lake, we need to dig a well, and then run a hose from that well to the lake. In short order, we will be ready to enjoy the fruits of our smart (and wayyyy easier) activity.
While I do some consumer direct, for market research purposes for ongoing loan officer training that I offer and for research for my own mortgage branch, I can tell you that the referral partner marketing is what has made my branch one of the most successful in the entire United States industry… and without overly exerting myself.
So that’s where you and I together want to spend the majority of our time. When we do, all the stress of “what am I going to do” all goes away. ☺
As the famous hockey player said, “Go to where the hockey puck is going, not where it’s currently at..”
It’s a purchase game, and the next two years are slated to be the best purchase market ever, let’s just go there together. ☺
Focus on referral partner marketing and the good news is, we just have to put into place a simple, easy to implement, predictable process to make that happen.
Talk soon.
Carl White
