Posted by John Scott Smith on Thu, Nov 05, 2009 @ 10:50 AM
Before you answer that question, answer this one: do you like to receive handwritten notes? How about those "thank you for helping me get my mortgage" letters? We especially love the ones that people send with a picture of their family in front of their new house. Those get posted in your cubicle. We love it!
Relationships are what get us business, and handwritten notes (along with timely phone calls, professional care, and personal concern) are what build those relationships.
The thing is that you're reading this online. Most of our reading is done online, now. Emails, blog posts, newspapers all make it faster to connect, but less meaningful. One of my favorite tongue-in-cheek business slogans comes from "someecards" where they brag,"when you care enough to hit send". Cute, isn't it?
My point is that when you want to stand out in the mortgage industry, one inexpensive but effective way to do so is with handwritten letters and cards. They really don't take much effort, but they make a significant, lasting impression.
If this is something that you'd like to start doing more often I have found a few ways to make it easy on myself. Maybe you will find this helpful, too.
- If you're having a hard time getting started, pick up a copy of "Business Notes: Writing Personal Notes That Build Professional Relationships" by Florence Isaacs There are excellent examples of short notes and letters in Isaacs' book, and she covers every business occasion that I have encountered. I refer to it often when I'm sending out my own letters.
- Pick up some stationary. There are inexpensive but nice letter-sized papers and envelopes at Hallmark, Papyrus, and even Whole Foods. Get a stash and keep it in your top desk drawer, along with a book of stamps.
- Write out holiday cards right after you close each mortgage. Make them friendly with at least one personal comment about your customer, their kids, or their pet enjoying their new home for the holiday. Collect your stack of these until Black Friday, and then drop them all in the mail to spread the cheer and remind your customers that you exist, that you're thoughtful, and that you care. (Special tip here: on the day after Christmas, I go to Hallmark with my wife. While she gets ornaments and wrapping paper, I pick up several boxes of the nicest holiday cards I can find for next year's batch. They're priced at 40-60% off, and they are sitting in my bottom desk drawer, right now!)
- If you'd like to really get into writing, you can even order special stationary or a nice pen. In order to make my letter-writing as natural as possible, I've indulged in personal stationary and a heavy fountain pen. When letter-writing is a delight (and, much more pleasant than sitting in front of the computer) it comes easily and more often.
Besides remembering and using someone's name after being introduced, I've found that sending out handwritten letters makes the next biggest impression.
So, what do you think? Too "old-school" or out of fashion enough that it works? I'd love to hear your thoughts.
If you'd like to listen to my electronic ramblings more frequently, I'm on Twitter and facebook. If you'd like a personal, handwritten letter from yours truly, become a customer! ;)
Posted by John Scott Smith on Thu, Aug 27, 2009 @ 09:35 AM
What is the difference between a loan officer who closes 4% of their leads and one who closes 5%? It could easily be twenty-five thousand dollars per year, or more, and the methods can be simple and painless.
Every day I speak with lenders who are looking for leads. And every day, I ask them the same set of questions. How do you manage your leads? Are you using a CRM (Customer Relationship Management program) like Leadmailbox, Leads360, or Kaleidico? What do you do with your prequalified leads if you don't have a real estate agent to send them to?
The vast majority (over 90% of our customers and prospective customers) do not, yet, have a plan for leads that are not ready to pull the trigger.
Designing answers to these three questions can bump up your closing rate, your gross revenue, and most importantly your commission by having a short, boilerplate "treatment plan" for each type of lead that you encounter.
If your lead is ready to move forward, you already know the drill. We don't need to discuss that because that's why you're in this business, and why you make money at it. That's your 4% closing rate in our example. What we are going to focus on in the next couple of paragraphs is how to drive that number up to a 5% closing rate or higher.
We've all missed deals because we didn't get back to someone soon enough. Or, because the lead lost our phone number. Or because we got busy and didn't follow up. Think of all of the reasons that you DON'T get a deal with a lead, immediately, and put those reasons into simple categories. Yours may well be a variation on these: purchase, no property; not enough money for downpayment; not working with one of "our" real estate agents. Let's discuss.
Treatment plan: keep track of all leads.
Bill Rice, the CEO of the mortgage CRM, Kaleidico, freely shares that the most simple lead management tool that you need in order to improve your closing rates is a pen and pad next to your phone. Setting a legal pad and pen next to your phone will ring the cash register. Keeping track of who calls and never abdicating that job to your memory or scraps of paper is going to make sure that you don't let leads fall through the cracks.
Treatment plan: figure out a next step, and commit it to your calendar.
Your first contact with lead can be a very rudimentary pre-qualification. Now, your next step is to pull credit and make sure that things are as they seem. Before you leave, they leave, or you hang up the phone (depending on how this conversation is taking place) get a commitment and an appointment to meet, if appropriate, or schedule your next phone call. If your lead is supposed to call you on Thursday at 2 pm, then ALSO put in your calendar to call THEM some time after that appointment, in case they don't follow through. By making sure that you have a clear, next step in your appointment book, you ensure that you do not lose track of someone who could be one of your next deals simply because they forgot to call you back at their appointment time. Do this at each and every step in the process all the way to the closing table, and you will free yourself up to focus on the work at hand. Your calendar will become your guide telling you what to do, and when to do it.
Treatment plan: set up a real estate agent referral system.
If you already have a real estate agent in your zone of influence to whom you can send your prequalified lead, of course that's your next step. But what about when the lead is looking in an area in which you do not have a real estate agent to send them to? Relocation programs can drive more business back to you and your branch. Set up a relationship with a relocation program so that when you need it, you can send your lead to the program and they will take care of getting your lead set up with an agent.
Here at MyFHA, we can provide that relationship for you with our relocation experts at Cartus. In utilizing the service, you send over a short form saying where the lead is looking and how much of a purchase price they are qualified for, and Cartus takes care of the rest. Further, Cartus, and many other relocation services have a reciprocal agreement set up so that the agent is bound to send the leads BACK to you to get the mortgage once an offer has been accepted. This step with save you time and make you more money.
When you invest time developing lead management strategies, you will have an easy time actually managing those leads: put them into your systems, and do the next, right thing.