Power Selling: Tips for the Telephone

Member Login

Quick Links

Follow us on:

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/

More Articles...

Power Selling: Tips for the Telephone

Written by Doug Smith

Perhaps 80 percent of your new loan business starts with a ringing telephone. You get calls from real estate agents referring a buyer, calls from people respond-ing to a letter or post card you mailed, calls from your past customers looking to refinance, and so on. The telephone is perhaps the biggest money-making tool in your business. Let’s make sure you are using it right.

Do you answer your tele-phone correctly?
Some originators answer their calls in a rushed and frenzied way. Their introduction is often inaudible. Be sure that when you answer your phone, you pick up the receiver slowly and introduce yourself in a clear and under-standable way. By the way, don’t forget to smile. People can actually “hear” a smile over the telephone. This tells them you are glad they called.

Are you focused on the caller?
Look away from your computer screen or that file on your desk and give the caller your undivided attention. Remember, this call could be worth $1,000 or
more to you. Isn’t that worth your complete consideration?

Do you take notes?
Always have a paper and pen handy to take good notes. Who referred this buyer? What are they looking to do? Do they have a contract? When are they scheduled to close? What are their questions and concerns? It’s foolish to rely on your memory for every call, you will forget. Take good notes on your conversation and be sure to capture the caller’s contact information for follow-up.

Are you moving the caller forward?
A telephone call is just the beginning: a closed loan and a new client is the end you want. Your conversation should be designed to help take the caller and the opportunity to the next step. Do you want them to go to your website? Do you want to set up an appointment? Lead the caller toward the next step.

Do you end on a positive note?
You are fortunate to get the call in the first place. Do you know how many lenders and loan originators there are in your market? Hundreds? Thousands? And YOU got the call! Show your appreciation and cement the opportunity at the end of the call by saying something like: “Mr. Jones, before we hang up I just want to say thanks so much for calling me today. I really appreciate that. I am truly looking forward to meeting you and helping you any way I can.” Leave the caller with a powerful, positive impression.

It is likely you answer your telephone five to ten times each day. That adds up to 100 to 200 calls a month. Anything you do that much is worth doing right!

Tip of the Month!
The first quarter of 2010 is in the books. How is your year going so far? Are you ¼ of your way toward achieving your income and loan production goals? Now is the time to review your goals, your game plan and your strategy for the year. If you are behind or off track, make course cor-rections now, while you still have nine to ten months left. It can mean the differ-ence between a disappoint-ing or a successful year.

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

This publication is intended for subscriber use only.

The editor of Power Selling is Douglas Smith.
Please direct any comments or input to 877.430.2329.
© Copyright 2010 DS&A. Reproduction in whole or in part by any means without written permission of the editor is prohibited.
www.DougSmithOnline.com

Comments

Add New