Mortgage Broker Training + Time Travel = interesting blog post that you gotta read!
What if you could just start all over? What would you do differently? What if you could go back in time, and shake some sense into yourself? Laugh all you want, but as I was sitting back and vegetating this past weekend (I had a busy week – cut me some slack!) when Back to the Future came on. I enjoyed the show as a kid, so I decided to watch it again to see if I would still enjoy it.
The week previous, I had picked up a book from Borders called Time Travel in Einsteins Universe. An amazing book that details some of the most fringe scientific theories today regarding time travel, (Go figure) and what it would would be like based on current understandings. It’s a lot more fun to read than I’m making it sound…. No really!
So what has this got to do with loan officers, mortgage brokers, and lead generation? The combination of the book, the movie, and a whole lot of Cherry coke and wine ice cream (Wine ice cream sounds gross doesn’t it? It was better than I anticipated. You should try it sometime) got my imagination burning: “What would I do differently in my career if I could go back in time?”
While some things never change within a sales and marketing industry, some things have evolved quite a bit. If I were a loan officer training to get started ASAP, here’s what I would do:
1. Start building Realtor relationships the right way
When I first started working with Realtors, I was a machine. Nearly 40 Realtors in 90 days is a heck of a lot of agents to have. But would I choose to go that route a second time around? Yes and no. Yes I would still use the same techniques to market, and yes I would still want as many agents as I could handle. The no comes into place when we look at why there were so many realtors.
See, as I got started, I was not aware of that all important figure that can be found at NAR: “Around 70% of real estate agents close fewer than 4 transactions per year.” I learned this the hard way! By the time I reached the 6 month mark, I had taken that group of 40 agents and filtered it down to 25. I reduced the number further still as time went on.
I took my lumps and learned from them. Real estate referral business was my primary source of business, but I had to learn how to be picky. If I had an opportunity to start over, I would be much more selective and target my efforts to market to agents who were closing at least 3 – 5 million per year in production. If I’m going to work my rear off to add value to the relationship, I want to know without a doubt that they have something to reciprocate with.
2. Create and use a database/follow up system earlier
I laugh when I look at how much business was wasted in my early career. They’re not laughs of joy though. More like chuckles of the near deranged as I contemplate just how oblivious I was to the large number of loans just slipping through the cracks as my antiquated hand written records laughably served as my follow up system.
It’s not that I was unaware of what a database was, or how valuable it could be. I simply thought I was “too busy” to be bothered with the details of selecting a system and writing the follow up messages. It wasn’t until my 3rd year in the business that I got serious about follow up, and I’m still angry with myself!
In today’s market where every single lead matters – you cannot afford to keep ignoring follow up! There are 139 excuses not to setup a follow up system, and only 1 reason to set it up: Because it will make you more money. There… Is that a good enough reason for you?
I’m bombarded with all these question and reasons for not proceeding with a follow up system. “But I don’t know what my follow up emails should say” is the most common.
Something is better than nothing as long as the email does not say “I’m just checking up on you,” (Shudders) that’s a quick way to get people to stop reading your emails. Put pen to paper imaging what you would want to hear from a service provider… That’s a start.
3. Online Marketing
What Mortgage Broker Training issue would be complete without at least 3 “Here’s what Chad regrets” examples? I was for all intents and purposes a ‘technophobe’ until 2003 – 2004. Even after setting up my first website, I did not truly understand the finer points of online marketing.
I was one of those guys who thought that online marketing began and ended with setting up the site. After paying over $1,500 for a website, and $150 per month for nearly 6 months without a single lead to show for it, I decided that I needed to find out what was wrong. (Notice I didn’t scrap it because it wasn’t working? I decided to troubleshoot!)
My biggest revelation came from reading how important it is to get good search engine rankings. I thought “Wait a minute… I’m already on the front page of the search engines!” I went to Google, Yahoo, etc, and typed in the name of my site, and poof! There I was!
It took a phone call to my “SEO Guy” to learn what now seems an embarrassingly simple concept. If I could go back in time, I’d shake myself while saying “Hey Chad! People don’t already know who you are! They’re typing in keywords such as st louis mortgage, st louis loan officer, and st louis real estate! Those are the words you want to be on the front page with!”
If I could push that restart button, I’d have my website up and running at least 1 year sooner, and have it optimized for search engine marketing right from day 1. I would then use it as a tool to funnel in dozens of extra leads each week, and show off those leads (I would target home buyers, not just refi leads) to my local real estate community to attract the heavy hitters earlier.
Ahhhh… What if, what if… Would you like to know what the real great part of this article is? You can learn from my mistakes and take action right here and right now.
We may not be able to jump back in time, or restart the cycle, but we can sure as heck make certain that we’re not looking back a year or 2 from now frustrated that we wasted a bunch of time not doing things the smart way!
This issue of Mortgage Broker Training is officially over with! I hope you learned something. If not. Well, if only I could click the restart button and rewrite thi….. Naaaah…
VV good post, I’m with you all the way here. Vetting realtors is easy, and if you don’t have numbers, just get on someone’s just sold filter.
Thanks Chris. Glad you found the post a good use of your TIME… Sorry… Sorry… Couldn’t resist the pun. Hope all is well.
CW -
Great mortgage brokers can make the difference in getting a loan for investors and individuals. My thoughts are here: http://ratenerd.com/mortgage-brokers-are-your-friend-59
Hahah, a very good use of my TIME as well! And though you can wish to go back and know that page rank for keywords is the most important, at least you now realize and can start the google climb!
It is an easy mistake to do; searching for your blog by title or by your name, and forgetting that people will be looking instead for keywords.
Great info Chad. For anyone looking for this kind of timely marketing help I can vouch for Chads content. I put up my blog at http://www.rosevillecahomesforsaleblog.com two weeks ago and found myself at number 29 on google in that short time from scratch. Keywords rock!
Hey Doug, thanks for the comment. I hadn’t seen your new blog until now. Good job and looking good! Congrats! See you on Fridays training call then?
Great tips all. As for the search engines, it is a good idea to make yourself familiar with the concept, but I wouldn’t get too caught up in it. Unless you have the content and the expertise to keep your visitors happy, it’s a a bit deceptive. When they start, very few people know how to maintain a site, keep visitors happy and build up the content – all at the same time. Takes some trial and error, and once you know what you’re doing, then you can start thinking about the search engines.
You have wonderful points here and bring up a great item many of us overlook: keyword searches!
Number one on my list would be the database.
Nothing else really matters. Any Realtor contacts you make – have to go in the database to maintain consistent contact. I would have added EVERYBODY I knew & came in contact with.
Of course, a database without a marketing plan is pretty much useless, so that would have been my second project. This would have gone beyond just online marketing.
Thirdly, I would have joined & become active with networking groups. This would have turbocharged the growth of my database AND enhanced my reputation and status in my communities.
This would have all led up to cultivating relationships with not only Realtors, but also CPA’s (best referrers if you can gain their trust), Financial Experts, Estate Planners, etc.
All things I’m doing now, but ah, if only I had done them from at the beginning of my career:)
Great blog post!
The list is great; online marketing has been the key to generating my traffic. Great topic to bring up for all of us!
You have to look at all avenues to cover and add your business presences offline and online. In these hard times, looking for ways to advertise cheaply, one must invest the time to push one’s business thru the search marketing. Whether you’re in the mortgage or replacement window, you have to do something and not be complacent.
In this market, it really is crazy for everyone to not take advantage of social networks for their business, be it real estate or sewing. Social Networking has increased the traffic on my blog, and in turn, brought me new clients.
I think many of us would go back in time and start our site/blog/networking even sooner than we did. Great points on how important keywords and the proper use of all these is.
Thank you for sharing your experience. Providing good keywords will surely help the websites’ ranking, along with other important seo stuff.
with reference to getting forst on the search engines you are so right….even now you can look at the title text of websites on pages 5 onwards and see that a lot of them clearly have no idea of how the system works. What is more worrying is that the sites are often designed by ‘professionals.’
To Chad’s point, specifically regarding, “Start building Realtor relationships the right way”-Share the gift of education with your Realtors by sending them this link to a FREE Real Estate Cyber Convention taking place from 2/22-2/28: http://recyber.cyberconventions.com/
Why?
#1-To provide value that’s business-growth specific for them and cost effective for you.
#2-Creates a reason for follow-up.
#3-A great reason to grab a cup of coffee together and talk about their take-aways from the event-continue to nurture the relationship and build trust.
Also, might not be such a bad idea to attend yourself and see what additional value you can glean and share and possibly even get enough tips, tools and ideas to put together several agendas for an on-going, monthly Realtor Mastermind Group.
Great post. Keywords is the main criteria for PR. Nicely told about keywords and use of it in the article. There is a huge difference between sites designed by graphic artist and a geek.
Akshob
http://www.p2w2.com/akshob
I agree about the follow up comments. I’m old enough to say that in the old days, we called it a “tickle file,” and it meant that you waited and then followed up and contacted a potential client to “check up” with his status. Today is it crucial, because if I don’t follow up, people just go to the next guy and buy from him instead of calling me back for a competitive counter offer or quote. I started working before the internet (imagine!), and now, I can only add that the world is spinning very fast – no one waits for me to figure out I have to call someone back. People are more savvy in every industry now, in regards to sales, who needs a sales expert anymore? You can go online now and get anything from anyone, anywhere in the world, everyone is an expert today in sales.
Lots of great replies! Hey Akshob… Did you just indirectly call me a Geek?
Chad Weber – Loan Officer Marketing Lab
It is always essential to speak with an independent financial advisor when looking to refinance your home. This is especially true if you have High value mortgages which need to be looked at in considerable detail.
Good post, but have you thought about Mortgage Broker Training and Time Travel before?
Akshob,
You make an excellent point. Lots of great looking websites out there. Just as there are plenty of good looking buildings. But the site, or the building do not make the business. Most graphically designed websites are counterproductive… Too heavy on the bells and whistles and too light on the usable content.
I often compare it to a movie that has great special effects, but ultimately a terrible story line. You walk away feeling disappointed. Not quite the feelings we want our potential clients to have when visiting our sites…
Anyone who is not working with Chad is missing out…he’s a great coach with great material that always has time to help you out.
I wish I had started a blog a long time ago combined with a good database management system. The blog would have had more time to season in the search engines before everyone else decided to jump on the blogging train. It would be awesome to have a couple thousand articles out there working for me that I could leverage on the spot when mortgage updates hit the news.
Mortgage shopping is getting a bit easier now, lenders will compete. I used this site http://loanlane.com/make_lenders_compete.php
Don’t know if my post took, but I’m using http://loanlane.com/make_lenders_compete.php
Another fantastic post.
A little tip from the SEO world. Install an email autoresponder such as Aweber and keep those contacts warm. Not only prospective borrowers, but also realtors, industry colleagues, title people, etc. This can go a long way.
Great mortgage brokers can make the difference in getting a loan for investors and individuals. My thoughts are here: http://ratenerd.com/mortgage-brokers-are-your-f...