Many mortgage salespeople today are looking for more; more business, more loans, more prospects, more relationships, and more opportunities.  That’s good!  As you progress through your mortgage career you should be looking to grow and expand.  It is growth and expansion that sustain any business over time.

But where do you go?  Where do you find more business, more customers and more loans? There is a process I teach called “Thinking Beyond the Obvious.”  Here is how it works…Take out a piece of paper and make a list of all the places you could go to grow your business.  Don’t rush through this exercise!  The more thought you put into it the better.  Consider your objectives (meet more prospects, form more relationships, write more loans) and where those might come from.  When you have completed your list, you may have eight, ten, even twenty options.  For a retail mortgage loan originator, that list might contain sources like real estate agents, builders, CPAs, financial planners, attorneys, leads clubs, and more. 

Next, scan your list and rank each source based on where you see your best opportunities.

For example (and only for example; your results may be different) your rankings may look like this:

1.   Real estate agents
2.   Builders
3.   CPAs
4.   Financial planners
5.   Attorneys
6.   Leads clubs
7.   Direct mailers
8.   Investor seminars
9.   Small local banks
10. Relocation companies
11. Developers
12. Insurance agents
13. Credit agencies
14. Cable TV ads
15. Wedding planners

First, you’ll notice that through the process of deep thinking, you have gone beyond the obvious (real estate agents and builders) and have included other avenues to business you may not have normally considered.

 Second, you may want to ignore the top of your list.  IGNORE?  Yes, ignore.  The point is that if you thought of it first and ranked it first, so did your competition.  In our example here, if it was obvious to you that real estate agents, builders and CPAs are key sources of mortgage business, it is just as obvious to everyone else.

Look deep into your list.  Look at your number 5 or 10 or even number 15.  These avenues of business are “beyond the obvious” of your competitors.  That means that these options are wide open for you.

As you consider these opportunities deep in your list, determine where you have “in-roads.”  An in-road is a contact, a friend, or a special expertise that can help you be successful as you travel down that road.  For example, if you enjoy speaking in front of people, consider investor seminars.  If you have a neighbor that’s an attorney, call him up.  If your office is next to an insurance company, well, there you go.  The obvious sources of business are obvious to everyone.  Sometimes to be successful in a crowded, competitive industry, you have to go where your competition is not… the road less traveled.  That is where you discover some of the best opportunities.

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