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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/ |
| POWER SELLING: You Don’t Want to be “Stuck in the Middle” |
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Most large mortgage companies break down their sales force into quartiles. You have 25 percent of the producers in the first quartile, 25 percent in the second, 25 in the third, and the final 25 percent in the fourth quartile. The first quartile is full of movers and shakers. These are the men and women making most of the money and having the most fun. In many cases, these people out produce and out earn the second quartile by as much as 300 percent! The bottom quartile is reserved for new hires working their way up and failures working their way out. (Not a place you want to stay very long!) And then we have the middle— that 50 percent of the sales force somewhere in the second and third quartiles. For some people this is just fine. “I don’t need to be a top producer,” they say. Or, “At least I’m not down in the bottom 25 percent!” This is sometimes called settling for the status quo. Many stay stuck in the middle forever, producing a handful of loans every month—not enough to make really great money yet not so few as to get themselves fired. Are you stuck in the middle? Simple math says one out of every two mortgage salespeople is and that means there is a fifty-fifty chance you would answer yes to that question. So what’s happening? If you’ve been floating around in the middle of the pack for quite a while, it is likely that somewhere along the way you settled. You may wish to argue this point. “It’s not me, it’s the market!” you might say. “That’s why I am not closing more loans.” Sorry, I don’t buy it. Nor do I buy any excuses about your lack of loan products, no company name recognition, not enough support, out-of-date technology or anything else for that matter. I will not allow you to sell yourself short on your goal to become a success. The real culprit here is you, and settling for what you have. If you contend that outside circum-stances are the reason for your ranking, I can gladly show you the names of your peers, colleagues and competitors that are closing a lot of loans and still making a lot of money in this market…and perhaps with just as many or more obstacles than you have. You know this and I know this. And that’s the truth. So, what do you do about it? You make a plan to leave the middle for the top—and you follow it! And that plan can be built around just three questions:
That’s it. You answer those three central questions with solid answers, implement what you write down and follow it, and you will find yourself quickly on your way to more loan production, more money, more freedom, and a place among the top 25 percent of your industry. Make a decision you are not going to stay stuck in the middle. Leave mediocrity for others. You are better than average.
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