The job of a loan originator is both a salesperson’s job and a technician’s job.  And it is a fine line you walk.  Spend too little time on the technical details and your transactions begin to fall apart.  Spend too much time on the details and you rob yourself of valuable sales and marketing opportunities to find more loans, earn more money and grow your business.  So how do you make it all work?

But how much is enough?  As  a general rule (and a proven idea) you should budget 25 percent of your time for sales activities.  That means if you work an 8-hour day and a 40-hour week, you should budget about 2 hours a day and 10 hours a week for sales, marketing, prospecting, follow-up, networking,  mail-outs, Realtor visits and other activities that fall under the category of “sales.”  That leaves you 75 percent of your time (or in this example, 30 hours a week) for the technical, file management, operational stuff and everything else you need to get done.

This all makes sense in theory, but how is it practiced?  Disci-pline, discipline, discipline!  Most mortgage salespeople are reactive, fire-fighting, “get-er-done” types of people.  They thrive on details and little tasks because they are trying to push loans to closings so that they can get paid.  The inherent problem with that mind-set is that you soon morph yourself into more of a loan processor or file technician.   When you spend too much time on technical tasks, you don’t have enough time left over every day for growing your business, meeting new prospects, originating new loans, and increasing your income.  (I know many loan originators that invest 95 to 99 percent of their time mired in the technical aspects of their jobs, leaving little or no time for proactive selling.  It is this reason why they do poorly, or never really make very good money.)  This is the real “devil” in the details.

If too many details have been constricting you in your business routine lately, maybe this new year is a great excuse to try something new.  Budget time for sales, and then stick to it. Allocate 25 percent of your time for sales activities and leave 75 percent of your time for the rest—no more.  Plan your sales time, put it on your calendar, and commit to execution.  It could be the most important change you need to make to have a great year ahead.

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