If there has been one lesson to heed from the current crisis is that to remain a successful mortgage professional, you need to build a referral-based business. But for quite a few people, they need to know the answer to the basic question how do they start.
Sean Brady, the president of The Industrial and Office Real Estate Brokers Association of the New York Metropolitan Area Inc., and a senior director with Cushman & Wakefield, Inc. in East Rutherford, N.J., recently wrote an article aimed at commercial real estate brokers that suggests they join a trade group. This advice can apply to mortgage brokers as well.
"As competition increases and the nature of client relationships continues to shift from one-off transactions to a much more consultative nature, depth and breadth of vendor contacts—not just personal skill and company platform—have become vitally important in setting oneself apart," Brady said.
"Within this context, today more than ever before brokers at all levels in their careers need to develop and maintain a strong network of business contacts."
Thus it pays to join a trade organization.
In answer to his rhetorical "why network," question, Brady answers that knowing more people will lead to getting more meetings. Someone looking to create a new relationship will have a better chance of getting a meeting if someone with whom they already have a relationship refers them.
He provided his own example of how this works. "I recently read about a company merger and sent an email to multiple vendors asking if they knew anyone at the new parent firm and whether they could provide a name and number to help me canvass opportunities. An attorney I’ve known for 20 years not only provided a contact but suggested that I use his name as a referral. I got the meeting much more easily than I could have with a cold call," Brady said.
It is not just enough to join. Attending meetings of the trade associations he belongs to have helped him to get to know the people involved.
This has created "a close-knit community of people willing to share market information and new ideas—even, at times, among their competition," he said. Brady added that good trade associations have membership diversity, including people at different levels of their careers as well as people who work in ancillary businesses (in his case, those related to commercial real estate).
"In other words, trade groups should enable members to 'connect, learn, lead and succeed,'” Brady said, quoting IOREBA's new tagline.
