“Coaches Playbook® is HERE!”

For years I have had the pleasure to work with hundreds of really great people who are amongst the best mortgage professionals in the country. For more than 25 years I have coached and mentored those just starting out, as well as those who were in the business and just looking for some help. We have seen so many changes in the industry but the one thing that remains a constant is that people work with people they know, like, and trust! People want information and options, they want answers to their questions, and they want the truth! With the changes in how people want their information delivered and the way that information is transmitted to them is an ongoing evolution.

The world has become a 24/7/365 arena and as humans we know we can’t be available to everyone all the time. Instead of struggling trying to manage all the pieces of our professional lives and balance it with our private lives, you really need to understand what you are doing and how you are going to do it. Most importantly, you need to convey that message to your clients and referral partners.

What I have developed for my clients are a series of strategies they can follow to generate opportunities and supply information to the public that can handle the new 24/7/365 world, but allow the mortgage professional to enjoy their lives and have their private time without neglecting their professional obligations. These strategies are part of a new series on the website called “The Coaches Playbook”.

Each “PLAY” from the “PLAYBOOK” is a strategy. I start with a video overview of the strategy to set the stage. Then there is a short ten to twenty minute webinar recorded that fully explains the strategy and provides all the details and direction you will need to schedule and execute that particular “PLAY”. These webinars will show you what to do, how to do it, and what additional tools are available inside the website to help you master each skill.

I have taken the time to put all the content you will ever need to be as successful as you would ever want inside the website. Nothing is hidden or saved, if I wrote it, taught it, trained on it, and if my originators are using it to be better professionals in less time, then it’s inside the client’s site! Coaches Playbook® is my investment in your business. The “ACCESS” program was well worth the money before this latest addition, but there is nothing wrong with providing even more value to my clients.

So on Friday September 1^st, go to the site and look around. Please let me know what you think. I will be sharing the introductory videos on social media as part of a fall promotion to grow new subscribers to the “ACCESS” program. If you know anyone who would like to subscribe to “ACCESS” for only $39 per month, just use the promo code “Blog Post” and you save $20 a month for as long as you keep your account! You can cancel at any time!

Here is a brief introduction into the Coaches Playbook® Click Here

 

Questions or comments: Mike@IMTcoaching.com

“People don’t pay for passion”

I want to share a quote that I think is the single most important quote a service provider can hear. It comes from a guy I respect more than anything. A man who has written a number of books that help people advance better than any single author I know. I have read every word of every one of his books, and most more than once. The man is Larry Winget, and here is his quote:

“No customer ever wrote a check for someone’s passion.

                   Customers buy value and solutions to their problems.”

Nothing I have read has ever been more plain and on point than those words. It captures the very essence of what I have been trying to coach since the very beginning. It is the whole point of all of it. All the work, all the effort, everything I have tried to convey, all wrapped up for me in 17 powerful words. Thanks Larry!

We are in a service business. We are facing challenges from all sides to step in and invade our space. The invasion is working. People are not connecting with people or caring about relationships. People are focused on leads, assistants, and transactions; not the value that they can bring to the customer, not the solution they can share with their referral partner, just generate a lead and churn the system and see what comes out the other end!

There is still a core group of mortgage professionals and Realtors® around who are experts. There are a few that understand that our core business needs to be about value, solutions, and relationships! For those few, take note that there are an increasing number of people who understand that position and want to with you to make that happen! It has to be about the quality of the experience. It has to be about providing exceptional value to the customer and the referral partner. It has to be about being the solutions provider to those that have issues and challenges in our area of expertise. It just has to!

We have talked a great deal about all of these things here in the past. When I saw Larry’s quote I just had to make the point. If you haven’t read any of Larry’s books I suggest you go buy a few and then read them. Then go and share them. Then go back and buy the rest of them and do the same thing. Once you read the first one, you will clearly see why I am a huge Larry Winget fan!

Thanks again Larry for your insight, your wisdom, and your courage to say the things other people won’t say, but everyone needs to hear!

Questions or comments: Mike@IMTcoaching.com

Here are seven great books from Larry Winget:

“What’s wrong with damn near everything”

“Grow a pair”

“Shut up, stop whining and get a life”

“You are broke because you want to be”

“It’s called work for a reason”

“People are idiots and I can prove it”

“Your kids are your fault”

You can get any or all of these on Amazon. If you do, please use Amazon Smile and use the “Forever 19 Foundation” as your smile recipient. It costs you nothing and .5% goes directly to the foundation that is building memorials to our fallen soldiers. Thank You!

Use this link for Amazon Smile https://smile.amazon.com/ch/47-1017031

“Having nothing is better than a bad something!”

It has been a pretty interesting week. I had a training last week and followed up with some new clients and was really challenged to explain why so many people would rather have bad relationships than no relationships? I firmly believe that having no relationships is better than having bad ones! What do you think?

We all need referral partners and marketing programs that generate opportunities. But far too many originators occupy their time with people and processes that aren’t worth the time and trouble. They certainly don’t generate the results they are looking for!

Far too often originators get stuck in bad relationships with referral partners that consume their time, energy, and money, but don’t produce the quality or quantity of opportunities needed for the investment made! My best example of that was a loan officer I worked with that was pretty successful. She was doing a good deal of business, but working far too many hours for the business being closed. When we did the math, she was spending 70% of her working hours on about 40% of her total business! Anyone can see that that isn’t even close to being of equal value!

I explained to my originator that she either had to modify the relationship or eliminate it. While she was really concerned about the possibility of losing a referral partner that was generating 40% of her business, she also knew that consuming this kind of time for that business was far too stressful on both her personal and professional life! She had the conversation with the referral partner and the referral partner refused to change the way he did business. At that point, she took the leap of faith and fired him! He was SHOCKED! She was scared!

My originator went back to her office and constructed a plan by which she was going to do business and how best to do it. She got really clear in her own mind how it would work, and then she went out and shared the plan with her other referral partners. Those other partners were happy for her efforts and agreed that working according to her plan would be better for everyone and at the same time, provide a better quality experience for everyone involved, especially their customers!

In the year that followed, that loan originator grew her total business by almost double; and her total work hours were cut by more than 30%! Everyone was happy! The clients were happy, the referral partners were happy, my originator and her team was happy, the only one that wasn’t happy was that referral partner who went through a series of new lenders, all of whom either dropped the ball or quit accepting his way of doing business.

You need to clearly make the case for Why?

• Why do we do it the way we do it?
• Why do we work with who we work with?
• Why is the way we work produce a better outcome?

If you can’t answer these questions clearly, you might have a problem. You might be working with the wrong referral partners, the wrong clients, maybe even working with the wrong tools and systems! You need to look at how and who you work with and ask yourself WHY?

Having a bad relationship isn’t better than having no relationship at all. Bad relationships force you to do and act in ways you aren’t happy with and that means you are not doing your best! Being busy isn’t the same as being productive! So take a few minutes and look at your business. Ask yourself WHY?

If you need fresh ideas or new concepts on the way to do what you do, please think about the Fast Start 180 program and invest $3,750 to change your life in the next six months; or subscribe to the “Access” program for only $59 a month and find out what tools you can use and know WHY!

Questions or comments: Mike@IMTcoaching.com

Fast Start 180 is the solution to closing more loans than ever before, visit http://www.imtcoaching.com/fast-start-180.html

“Leads are NOT good enough!”

I hear more and more talk about lead generation and the importance of generating leads. Unfortunately, this focus has become an obsession in some circles and makes me wonder why people in the mortgage business can’t, or won’t do some simple math? Oddly enough, loan officer math has always been a topic of discussion in the management portion of the world, how originators always seem to think they are doing better than they really are. But recently all the conversation about staggering lead generation numbers has caused me to want to slow that conversation down and look at some of the absurdity of some of the claims being made, and if anyone would or should want to have those results?

Leads are not enough. Leads are just one part of our business. Referrals are not enough. They too are just part of the business. What is truly important is; what is the conversion rate of these loan officers or loan origination teams? It really comes down to the basic math. You see, conversion rates start to explain a great deal about the quality of the lead and the quality of the system used to convert that lead into a closed transaction!

I have long maintained that any individual originator ought to be able to generate enough lead opportunities to close 8-10 units a month by themselves! In addition, their system should be such that they could add one addition support person for every additional 5-10 closed units of business. I have stood by these numbers because it forces the originator to fully understand their own system and master it before bringing on any additional help. It also sets a standard of performance and growth profitably! I also want people to be keenly aware of their conversion rates. Anything less than 20 to 25% lead to closing ratio starts to really dig into profitability! In this case, more is less!

A loan office told me a story about an originator that was generating all kinds of leads. They stated that this “system” was generating almost 2,000 leads a month! They also stated that it took nine people to sort through all of these leads and they were closing almost 400 transactions a year! While that sounds impressive at first blush, the numbers aren’t as good as they sound. These people were sifting through 60 people to get just one transaction to close! With nine people working these leads, you were averaging less than four closed units a month per person on that origination team! And what about the 23,600 leads that they didn’t close? What on earth happened to them? And credit reports, what about the cost of all of those credit reports? And the market, how sustainable is churning 24,000 people a year to close 400 units? And why did 23,600 people do something else with someone else? All questions I don’t have the answers to.

The point is, be careful when you hear stories and big numbers. Do some math and some basic calculations before thinking that some system is working better or more efficiently than the one you are using. Big numbers aren’t always as important as they seem. It really comes down to the number of opportunities that close, and the quality of the experience for the people you work with, as well as the people you don’t! Sometimes less is more!

If you are looking for the strategies and tools to improve your performance and your closing ratio, you might want to look into the Fast Start 180 program and get yourself on track to your best possible total experience.

Questions or comments: Mike@IMTcoaching.com

Are you ready to jump start your results and start really EARNING?  Visit http://www.imtcoaching.com/fast-start-180.html

 

“Becoming the solution is your business evolution!”

Forget what anyone ever told you about the mortgage originator being a salesperson, it’s not the case! While basic sales techniques are certainly part of the business of an originator, you can’t “sell” your way to great relationships! You can try and sell rates and service, but who is going to believe you any more than the other fifty people they saw in the last month saying the same thing? I have argued in the past you might even be better off by telling people you didn’t have great rates or great service, at least they might see you as honest?

My thought process has always focused on being a solutions provider. Locate a challenge and provide a solution. Find a problem, and offer a solution! Build long term relationships by providing answers to questions and solutions to the issues found in your market! It’s as simple as that. Tight market and trouble with listed inventory for qualified buyers; get out and work with your Realtor® using any of the success strategies to generate new listings! Having an issue with lack of down payments; master USDA loans along with possible grant and down payment assistance programs. Not sure you know what the issues are in your market; go out and talk to the people and ask them!!!

One of my clients in Louisiana was new to the business and had no idea where to start. I told her to go out and share 50 business cards a day and just talk to people and see what they say. She found out that many people wanted to buy homes, but they lacked down payments. She looked at her area and saw most of it was eligible for USDA financing. She took some time, learned the program, and went out and shared the solution. At first, many people were cautious because prior lenders had issues getting these loans closed quickly. Working with her underwriter, she went deeper in the pre-approval stage so that once in contract, these files were quickly ready to underwrite! She also kept in close contact with her local USDA group to monitor turnaround times so she could keep everyone aware of the timing of each deal. In less than a year, she became the number 2 USDA lender in the country!

That same originator lived in an area that was overcome by a flood. Many of the homes were damaged or destroyed. Even her own house and office were flooded by more than four feet of water! Working from her assistant’s kitchen table, they closed the loans they had on the unaffected properties in their pipeline, and then went to work mastering rehab loans! Imagine learning new loan products, working from your assistant’s kitchen table, trying to supervise the rebuild of your office and your own home, while living in a trailer and the second floor of your flooded house? And close more than 175 loans in the process?

Our ability to solve problems is what humans are all about. See a problem, find a solution! To build lasting referral relationships, you need to show your people that you are more than a salesperson, you are a solutions provider! Use the tools and the strategies inside the website to help you identify and solve issues. If you need help working with your Realtors®, invite them into www.rlppnow.com and share the Power Partnerships modules and show them proven solutions to their challenges!

“Becoming the solution is your business evolution!” If we don’t evolve we die off! Use the tools and technology to help you in your professional evolution! If you need some help, look into the “Fast Start 180” program as a way to get started.

Questions or comments: Mike@IMTcoaching.com

Ready to skyrocket your results?  Visit http://www.imtcoaching.com/fast-start-180.html