When a salesperson calls on one of their accounts, it's of vital importance they are able to impart information onto their client. This information may be found in a variety of creditable sources, industry publications, informational websites etc; you want your client to depend upon you as an information source.

Obviously, in order to do that, the sales person needs to be informed themselves. They must read pertinent articles about financial matters, changes in the industry, etc. During a sales meeting, each week, sales people should be encouraged to participate in a round table discussion of these ideas.

The ideas I speak of here are to be used by salespeople when calling on their accounts, in order to engage people in conversation. It is very important that we all appear to be knowledgeable of the workings of our industry. For example, if you're a mortgage
professional you'll want to be familiar with: wall street, the federal national mortgage association (Fannie May), the federal home loan mortgage corp. (Freddie Mac),federal housing administration (f.h.a.), etc.

People who know me would never believe that I could ever get "stuck" with nothing to say; but they would believe I would say something, anything, just to elicit a response. And believe me; I do it all the time! I believe that one of the most important things a salesperson does is to get people to ask a question. That of course, gives me the opportunity to answer you, and maybe even ask you a question.

At each regular sales meeting, have someone present an "Idea of the Week", an idea that everyone can use that week. Here are a few examples for mortgage Salespeople.

1. "Did you know that Mr. Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve is having his monthly session with congress this week?" They always discuss what the economy has done and what he thinks the congress and the fed need to do to keep the economy stable, yet growing.
   
   
2. Did you see what the long bond did this past week?
   
   
3. I read in the Wall Street Journal that the economic forecast for the next quarter is positive and should help our industry, both with employment and real estate sales.

These statements of course are totally hypothetical, having no basis in fact. But you can make it your personal responsibility to have an idea each week. Ideas which will enhance your reputation with your clients; will ingratiate you, and make you appear knowledgeable in related fields.

Although, I strongly believe we should never give our impression to our applicants of what interest rates will do in the future, I do believe it is our responsibility to be informed of the components of interest rate Futures and be able to discuss them in detail with our clients. When a client asks what I think interest rates will do between the time of application and closing, I tell them "Change"! That's the only thing I can guarantee. Anything other than that puts me at risk of leading them to make a decision based on my supposed expertise.

A client has just as much ability to determine future rates as I do. Therefore, if all I say is that rates will change, then "how can I be wrong"? One thing I will never be responsible for is being accused by a client of picking the wrong interest rate. And as usual I only ask that you "Do it, don't just think about it"!

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