Power Selling: It’s Time for a Little More “Face-to-Face”

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Doug Smith

Doug Smith, founder of Douglas Smith & Associates, is a 24-year industry veteran. His career spans the areas of loan origination, sales training, management development, marketing, personal coaching and corporate sales. Doug’s columns appear in Mortgage Originator, Mortgage Planner, The Mortgage Record and Mortgage Broker magazines. He publishes a monthly newsletter, Power Selling, and authored Climbing the Ladder of Success. For more information, visit http://www.dougsmithonline.com/

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Power Selling: It’s Time for a Little More “Face-to-Face”

Written by Doug Smith

Thursday, 29 April 2010 09:04

These days it seems that fewer loan originators are making sales visits, attending industry and community events and taking their loan applications “live” in front of their borrowers. Many have slowly pulled themselves away from the customer, and the effects are showing.

On the other hand, smart originators recognize the value of “face time” with people. Instead of driving a potential borrower to
their web site to apply for a loan, they are scheduling a face-to-face meeting in their office. Rather than email a loan status update to a real estate agent, they are stopping by the agent’s office to give a verbal status report. When a Realtor has a sale and a new mortgage loan referral, instead of having the Realtor fax the con-tract, they are saying: “I’ll be by in an hour to pick it up!” More face time means more sales time, more relationship-building time, and more chances to pick up more business.

While communicating and selling in person can be more time consuming to some and more intimidating to many, it is infinitely the most effective way to do business. Listen to these true stories I recently heard from loan originators around the country.

“I stopped doing pre-quals and pre-approvals on purchase loans over the phone. I now schedule meetings in my office. My capture rate of clients has doubled.”

“If I have a purchase loan application to take, and that loan was referred to me by one of my Realtors, I plan the application appointment in the real estate office. I get more visibility with the agents there, I meet new agents, and I get to talk to my Realtor about the transaction right after the buyers leave.”

“I started attending my purchase loan closing settlements this year. This is something I’ve always thought about but had never done. I can say that I picked up two new, quality Realtors from this activity alone.”

“I schedule at least one breakfast or lunch meeting with a referral client or a business contact every week. This forces me to follow through with the appointment and get out to see people on a regular basis.”

“I joined my local builder association this summer. They have a monthly breakfast with presentations, speakers and news. Last month the chairman recog-nized me and my company as the only lender in attendance. The group gave me a standing ovation.”

“I used to go to open houses on Sundays when I started in this business. I met a lot of new agents that way. Then I stopped. Now, that practice is back.”
How much time are you spend-ing face-to-face with your cus-tomers? These great stories are
only a sample of what I’ve been hearing.

Yes, we are back to basics. We are back to sales visits, coffee with agents, attending closings, stopping by open houses on weekends, taking applications in front of our borrowers, and back to doing business the right way: face-to-face.

Power Selling
is a monthly publication of
Douglas Smith & Associates.

The editor of Power Selling is Douglas Smith. Please direct any comments or input to 877.430.2329.
© Copyright 2009 DS&A. Reproduction in whole or in part by any means without written permission of the
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