Mortgage Marketing Animals

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 (2^nd 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

There’s an old saying, “When the tide goes out, we can see who has been swimming naked”. 

What that means is, when business goes from having a tailwind of 50mph and loans come in from friends and family members like seagulls going after French fries on the beach, and that changes…

… well, we find out who has been working a PROVEN & SERIOUS business plan, and who has been, well, swimming naked. 

Definition of “swimming naked”: Working on activities, strategies, plans, or shenanigans that aren’t proven, not tested, no real measurable results, and often suggested by somebody that is either a low producer, or even some that have no actual loan experience at all… resulting in the loan officer worried about how much their commission checks have decreased.

..and understand, it’s not the LOs fault that they have been lulled into these “no real results” and “struggle bunny” activities.  Oftentimes it’s just a simple matter of trusting advice from somebody that is just simply giving bad advice.

Lord knows I’ve been prey to people giving bad advice in the past too.

So here’s the thing, in this changing market, we have to make sure that each activity that we do, each dollar that we invest, goes towards something that will actually help us close more loans… to get actual measurable results.

That’s always been the case, but when the market changes, well, that’s when we can see who’s been swimming naked.

Truth be known, we really haven’t changed our “loan getting” activities in my mortgage branch from last year to this year.

Our prospecting strategies, the Daily Success Plan, gave us record breaking loans closings per month (measured in the hundreds per month) last year, and those same activities continue to bring us in hundreds and hundreds of REFERRED leads each month this year, along with hundreds of actual loan closings.

It’s really interesting, when I talk to LOs across the country.  They are seeing the same results too.  Those that work the Success Plan, well, seems they are doing very well.

Those that haven’t made the pivot, well, it’s going to be a very hard time.  

Business advice alert:  Don’t be one of the ones that haven’t made the pivot..

Focus on the activities that are 

1. Taught by people actually in the mortgage business

2. Proven by actual loan officers and / or branch managers

3. Measurable in actual closed loans via REFERRED leads

Oh, and don’t be caught swimming naked next time… 😉

Want to see my Daily Success Plan, go here and I’ll hook you up.

I’ve shown literally thousands of LOs across the country how to get loans from it, it’s your turn now 

See ya in the inside,

Carl White