Posted by John Scott Smith on Thu, Mar 25, 2010 @ 02:11 PM
As part of my daily reading, yesterday I came across an excellent article on using social media in sales by Bill Rice that inspired this post.
I recently published a post asking is "Social Networking Overrated for Mortgage Professionals?" After some discussion in the comments and more on Twitter, I wanted to tackle how you *can* use social media more effectively for mortgage sales. It's not difficult once you understand a little bit about consumers' behavior, starting with your own. Let's do a quick walk-through.
First, take a quick look at how YOU are already using social media for your OWN consumer behavior. Whether you think about it in that context or not, you have probably already used social media to help you with a buying decision. How?
Do you ever read the reviews on Amazon? Do you ask your circle of friends on Facebook for their advice? Are you looking for their experience or for their recommendation on a product you're thinking about buying? Ever "tweet" questions like that? If so, you've been using social media to help in your buying decisions.
Personally, I've posted questions about pasta makers, minivans, and computer software on Facebook, on Twitter, on blogs, and over instant message to friends so that I could draw on the collective experience of my network to find out what they recommend. I ALWAYS read the product reviews on Amazon before I decide which product is going to meet my needs, especially since online shopping means that you can't get a close look at it before you pull the trigger.
These behaviors are the tip of the ice berg for using social media for your business and your personal brand. Let's talk about just using a couple to get started, and then we can grow it, together, from there.
- Google Alerts. Who is talking about you? Who is talking about your business? What are they saying? Google alerts are free, easy, and (mostly) instant, so get 'em going! This is another Google feature that allows you to use ANY Google account, like we mentioned in our recent blog entry. Just set up the alerts around the name of your business, your personal name, or any other word or phrase that you'd like to track. I use these to keep tabs of who's talking about me, my business, FHA mortgage leads, you name it. Very helpful.
- Advanced Twitter Search. Tres chic!! Using this application, you can keep track of ANYONE talking about your service anywhere, or within a certain mile radius of yourself. I use TweetDeck, myself, but that's because I'm constantly "plugged-in." Advanced twitter search allows you to look, at your leisure, OR you can even set up an RSS feed into your reader if you want to get more technical.
Once you find people talking, introduce yourself and answer their question(s) with an eye toward being helpful instead of toward selling.
Imagine tweeting a question about a product and hearing back with an answer from a representative of that company with an answer...It's happening out there, RIGHT NOW, and you can be a part of it fifteen minutes from now by getting set up and getting started.
What do you think? Are you already using techniques like these? Tell us about your experiences.
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Posted by John Scott Smith on Tue, Mar 09, 2010 @ 03:32 PM
Remember The Waiter Rule? It says that you can learn a lot about my character by how I treat the waiter. The waiter rule exists for a very simple reason: I already know how you're going to treat me to my face. What I want to know is are you looking out for me. Are you concerned about my outcome? Or, are you just in this for yourself?
Particularly after the housing meltdown, customers are leery. They are suspicious of mortgage brokers. After all, they don't really want a mortgage: they just want a house. Our customers are looking for clues, any clues they can find, about who we are and how we'll treat them. Of course, the good news is that means that every single person on our team has the chance to turn the next prospect into a lifelong customer.
I'm a parent of young children which means that going out to dinner can sometimes be...challenging. Recently, when we were at a restaurant the boys were being very good, but it was getting a little late for them. I ordered my burger medium-rare. (Yes. I know. I live on the edge...) Sadly, when it came, it was way overcooked. No biggie. I'll just eat it so we can get the kids home.
The waitress made her routine rounds and asked me how everything was. I just said, "fine," and went back to eating. A moment later, she was back with the manager. The manager said, "Julie (our waitress) told me that she thought that your cheeseburger came out overdone."
"It did, but I hadn't even said anything."
"That's no problem. She noticed and asked me to come over and make it right for you. Would you like me to bring you another one? Or, can I bring you another beer, on us?"
Talk about "above and beyond!"
Julie has a thing or two to teach me about sales. She probably has a thing or two to teach all of us, really.
Look out for our customers. Even when they say that everything is okay, make sure they're taken care of. And, of course, they'll be back. With friends. Besides, after that experience, where else would I go next time? Where would you go?
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Posted by John Scott Smith on Mon, Mar 08, 2010 @ 12:59 PM
Are you a parent? I am. Of two young boys. My oldest is two and a half years old, and is no longer into Elmo, Big Bird, and "Sesame Street". He's moved on to "The Wiggles." Now, that's what we watch, right before bed, as part of his nighttime routine. When he shouts, "It's our SONG!" as "Rockabye Your Bear" comes on, it kind of melts your heart, no matter what my day was like.
Curious, I did a little research on "The Wiggles" and found out something that hadn't occurred to me: "The Wiggles" weren't always "The Wiggles". They had been aspiring musicians, each with a different level of success. After leaving music, three of them met while working on degrees in early childhood education. They had been studying to become teachers.
Money quote from the a New York Times article about them, Murray Cook (one of the founding members) "I'd played in rock bands and didn't get anywhere in the 80's."
For their school courses, they made a music project incorporating early childhood lessons with original music and dancing. And, it caught on. Caught on in a BIG way. (In 2005, they raked in forty-five MILLION dollars from their CD's, concerts, and merchandising.)
What does this have to do with mortgage sales? Pop music was a tough market. But, by discovering an unfilled demand in the marketplace for quality children's music, they got to perform for larger audiences in more venues making a LOT more money.
Right now, amidst this mortgage wreckage, there are still underutilized skills, and market demands that are not, yet, met.
Where can you specialize and make more money? Your unique patch of grass has its own answer, but foreclosures aren't going to end any time, soon. What if you learned everything there was to know about getting people financed to buy foreclosures? Do you know enough, yet, to give an informed presentation on FHA 203K mortgages to your local Realtors Association? On a more basic level, do you know everything there is to know about the changes taking place with regard to FHA mortgages beginning on April 5th?
For a living, I have to stay up on all changes to FHA, so I read several articles per day for my work, here. I am constantly amazed by how much information I find out there that is flat out wrong on ActiveRain and other real estate sites.
If you're still in the business, there are unexploited areas that offer less resistance for those who study and do their homework.
Right now, most of us are struggling pop musicians. Maybe it's time we became "Wiggles".
What do you think? What areas can expand into in your area?
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Posted by John Scott Smith on Tue, Oct 20, 2009 @ 01:11 PM
I admit it. I'm on Twitter. I'm on facebook. I read and comment on blogs. Struggle that it is, I try to send only "good" Tweets, and avoid contributing to the pointless babble with which these networks are wrought. I do all of these things with the stated goal of promoting my business, but, mostly I do it because it's fun!
Traipsing through the Internets, it will seem that everyone talks about how invaluable these services are to business. Many real estate agents and loan officers out there saying that social media are important to them, too. But, how are they important?
The very best description that I've heard of the usefulness of social media for most of us was from an interview with legendary social media expert, Chris Brogan, when he spoke on HubSpot TV. Brogan explained that social media was a great place to keep people (leads, customers, prospective customers) warm between meetings with them. That's it.
My thoughts are that Twitter, facebook, et.al. are an excellent way to interact, lightly and occasionally, with your leads and customers, but probably not a very good way to get new customers.
What do you think? How are you using social media for your mortgage business?
(By the way, if you would like to read my very own brand of pointless babble, I can be found on both Twitter AND facebook.)
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.