There are over 350,000 books listed right now on Amazon.com that teach the art and science of selling. Since you are a mortgage loan originator, and in fact a commissioned salesperson, it would benefit you to pick up one or two of these books every year and read them cover to cover. You’ll discover new ideas, approaches and principles you can apply to your job every day.
But be warned. Selling isn’t something that happens between the pages of a book; it happens out here in the real world when you get face to face or voice to voice with a customer.
What some loan originators believe to be true about selling is in fact, false. If you are honestly interested in developing your sales talents and growing your production volume as we shift to a
1. Practice does not make perfect. You might think that if you get out and make a lot of sales calls and contacts, you’ll get really good at making sales calls and contacts. Wrong. If you are doing it the wrong way, you’ll just keep repeating the same mistakes, never get any better at it and never get the results you want. Learning how to make effective sales calls and contacts is the answer. Loan originators who take time in advance to rehearse and prepare, open their client conversations correctly, ask intelligent questions, listen carefully to their customer’s concerns, present clear, on-target solutions and recommend appropriate action are continually practicing the right way to sell, and they continually get the results to show for it.
2. Technology is not the solution to your problems. Today’s narrow-minded thinking that technology is the ultimate answer to everything has cost thousands of loan originators millions of dollars over the past few years. Many people want to believe they can “buy” their way to success by purchasing the latest tech tools, online apps and miracle lead generation systems that will circumvent their inability or unwillingness to sell. While technology is an amazing communications vehicle and a powerful enabler of your customer contact efforts, it will never replace your skill in meeting and working with people, because here in the 21st century, that’s what selling is still all about.
3. Product knowledge is not a competitive advantage. As hard as it may be to believe, an extensive knowledge of mortgage loan programs is not a distinguishing factor of top-producing originators. Most megamillion-dollar producers know no more about loan product guidelines and parameters than do average producers. While there is no argument that having a comprehensive understanding of your loan programs is important, you will not improve your sales (or become a mega-producer yourself) by sitting in the office all day reading and studying your loan programs. Acquire enough knowledge to be knowledgeable, then get out there and sell.
4. Working with more Realtors is not always better. Here’s the reality: Almost half of the agents in your market have not been to a closing yet this year and many will sell only one or two homes in all of 2013. Still others deal with marginal properties, credit-challenged clients and quirky, sometime questionable buyer and seller situations. Having more agents as referral partners is not the solution; having a small group of good, quality agents is. It’s a fact that most top producers have fewer than 10 solid Realtor referral relationships, but those 10 relationships generate two to three good, solid buyer leads every week. As a rule, you’d much rather work with five good real estate agents than 50 bad ones any day.
5. You should not always be closing. Contrary to popular teachings by so-called sales pundits, the concept of “always be closing” falls flat in the real world. Buying a home is a major financial decision and one that most people consider thoughtfully. Pressuring and pushing people to act will often force them away from you, and into the helping arms of a professional mortgage lender who takes the time to get to know the client and his situation before recommending specific action. Yes, ask for the business. But ask for the business at the right time in the right way.
For the past two years the mortgage business has been mostly about servicing the incoming requests from homeowners for refinancing their loans.
Very little sales prowess is required to modify an existing mortgage; it’s mostly about packaging the right forms and papers together to take the transaction to closing. For the next two years, this business will be mostly about selling yourself to your referral partners and selling mortgage loans to homebuyers. Do you have what it takes to make the shift?
