I see it all the time – the loan officers who are working too hard, at crazy hours of the day and night, running themselves ragged trying to do it all. And then I see the hard-core producers who are just gunning their accelerators in terms of networking and cranking out numbers. Ironically, both ends of the spectrum are missing the real opportunity to be successful in business.
Let me back up a minute… is it important to have and then hit your production numbers? Absolutely. Is a key strategy to generating business leads networking? Yep – no doubt about it. Does it take hard work and going the extra mile to be a successful loan officer? For sure. Hard work is always rewarded, in my opinion… good ol’ fashion “Elbow Grease”.
So yes, all those things need to happen in your business. And, if you’ve been in my world for any amount of time, you know there are ways to make it easier to handle your leads, cultivate relationships and process applications. But that’s not what I want to highlight here because there is a much more significant opportunity that loan officers miss all the time.
Here is a recent conversation I had with a loan officer so you can see what I’m talking about.
LO: I have been using everything you teach in the Freedom Club – from the phone systems (PhoneBurnerFreedom.com) to the automated follow-up systems (AgentLegendLO.com and CRMs). I have a team helping me handle the applications now. And that freaks me out – how am I going to consistently cover all these expenses?
Me: How many people are you talking with each week?
LO: I make 50 phone calls every Monday. I send out weekly texts to all my agents. I have at least two face-to-face meetings and I go to a weekly business networking meeting. I’m posting stuff on my Facebook page.
Me: I heard only two conversations in all that activity. So how many people are you TALKING with each week?
LO: Well, I usually get about 15 people on the phone. But I feel like they’re busy and I don’t want to bother them, so I keep it pretty brief. And I meet a lot of people at the networking event…
Do you see where this is going?
This loan officer is so busy following the system that actually having meaningful conversations with people just don’t make the schedule!
The REAL opportunity for success in the mortgage business is having authentic connections and actual conversations with people and then, secondarily, empowering those people to have a great story to tell about your conversation!
People smell B.S. from a mile away. If you’re so busy being the big networker and just following a system because you heard it works, they’ll know they are just a checkmark on your list. They will know that they are an obligatory part of your day and they will either run away or marginalize the time you do spend with them because they’ll figure you’re just watching the clock to get to the next person.
If this is ringing as a possibility with you at all, consider this your opportunity to get a little deeper with your conversations. Let people know that you care about them and that you WANT to talk with them. The scripts we include in our program are conversation starters – but the secret sauce is really letting your personality show.
When you think about it, it’s the oddities and quirks in people that get our attention. If everyone was the same ‘color’ or ‘flavor’, it would be a really dull world (even if it was all Harley orange and black). What stands out is the unusual. You remember the person who throws salt over their shoulder or who refuses to pay for parking or can’t say the word ‘aluminum’, right?
So be yourself, take the time to care about people, have real conversations, and give your people something to share with their friends (who, by the way, are potential leads for you in the future). You’ll still be working hard but, ideally, you’ll be building solid relationships that stand the test of time and be having a lot more fun at the same time.
If you have questions about this topic, set up a free strategy call with one of our coaches at loanofficerfreedom.com/
Carl White, Chief Officer of Coolness
Article Originally Published on LinkedIn
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