Mortgage Magic Newsletter

The Marketing Tool No Mortgage Company Uses Properly

2007-08-30 14:03:14

Dear Friend,

The Marketing Tool No Mortgage Company Uses Properly

Pretty bold claim, isn’t it?

What I am about to tell you is not rocket science, but that doesn’t mean that you use this tool properly. In fact, most companies, not just those in the mortgage business, DO NOT use this tool properly.

Let me tell you what I am talking about:

You can convert more potential clients by talking less and showing more.

Showing more testimonials.

Prospects are 5 times more likely to believe something someone else says about you than what you say about yourself. So, let them know what your satisfied clients say.

Create a testimonial folder or album with pictures and letters of all your past clients. The more the better. This works wonders when a prospect is undecided about working with you. How many clients have you worked with in the past? You should have asked them all for referrals. But how many of them did you ask a testimonial from?

A testimonial is a comment regarding your service.

Example: “I loved working with XYZ Mortgage. They made the process of getting a loan so easy and fun that I want to refinance with them right now, just to do it again.”
Marge Simpson, Springfield

Now imagine, you get a list of all of Marge’s friends and send them a letter. And in the letter include what Marge said about you.

Can you see how powerful this is? These people get a letter from a mortgage company and their own friend is saying how great they are.

Ask all your clients to write or say something about you and your service so that you can use it in your marketing. Just call them up and ask. There is no shame in it. Every product you see advertised on TV or the radio uses testimonials. And almost none of them are unsolicited, meaning the people felt so good about the product they wrote a letter without being asked to.

Testimonials are not that easy to get. You cannot sit around waiting for them. I have asked people how they liked my service many times. They all say it was wonderful, great, etc. But when I ask them to write that down and send it to me so I can use it, guess what happens? NOTHING!

They never send it in.

So what I do is ask them how everything was. If they could describe the experience in one sentence what would it be? And then I ask if I can use that in my marketing. They always say yes.

Then I write it up, and mail it to them to sign and return verifying that they said it. This technique works much better.

Then once you get them, use testimonials in all your marketing. Believe me it works.

Just look at all the late night infomercials. They are hard to believe and make extravagant claims, but they sell a lot of product, mainly because of the testimonials. One marketer was explaining about how he increased sales on a product in an infomercial. It was 30 minutes long and had several testimonials. All they did was double the number of testimonials, and it doubled the orders!

If you can, make them visible.

What kind of impression would it make on a couple coming to you to get a loan when they walk into your office and see dozens of pictures on the wall of you and other couples whom you have helped, smiling while standing in front of their new homes?

They sure wouldn’t ask you if you are new in the business, that’s for certain.

You can use testimonials to overcome other objections as well. We all get people who think they can get a better rate somewhere else, but what if you showed them a testimonial or two from people who came to you, thought they could get a better rate elsewhere, and then got ripped off and had to come back to you?

Like I said before, nobody uses this tool, and it’s a shame. I hope you start today.

Happy Originating!

How Credit Scores Affect Your Mortgage

2007-08-23 22:22:49

Dear Friend,

Here's some help with credit scores. Our company hired a well known expert on credit to write up a report on improving credit scores that we could pass on to our clients.

Now you can do the same. Whether it's for your clients or even for yourself, you will learn a lot just by reading it.

You can download a copy in .pdf format. Just right click on the link below and choose save as. Then save it to your desktop.

Http://www.mortgagebrokertraining.com/scores.zip

Happy Originating!

Automated Follow Up

2007-08-30 14:02:11

Dear Friend,

95% of your clients now have an email address.

And there is a cheap and effortless way to follow up with them even on a daily basis if you wish. No wait, what am I saying? There is no wish about it. You MUST.

It is called an autoresponder. It's an email software that blasts emails out to people once they agree to get them. Once someone signs up to your responder, the software automatically sends that person whatever emails you want, whenever you want them sent.

For example, you can set up your responder with 50 email follow-ups. 1 to go out everyday. So when a client’s email address is added to your responder, that email address will get your first follow-up on day one, the second one on day two, and so on.

You can have as many follow-ups as you want. And they don’t cost anything extra.

If you mailed the follow-ups you would have to pay for paper, printing and postage. But with email it’s almost free!

Go to http://www.mortgagebrokertraining.com/resources.html to see which company we use and recommend.

For about $20 a month you can send out as many follow-ups to as many people as you want.

So your clients will never forget you, just like I will never forget you.

That’s what we use to tell you this newsletter is ready. You are on our autoresponder list.

There is no worry about Spam, because the only people who subscribe to your list will get the messages, and every message will have a link at the bottom that people can click if they want to get off your list.

You can send as many messages, whenever you want.

No worries about not being computer savvy either. These companies have made it very easy for you to set up into your own website. Or, you can do it without the website.

Say for example, you want to advertise giving away a free report. All you do is have people send an email (blank or otherwise, it doesn’t matter) to your autoresponder email address. The computer will automatically send them the free report right away. And it will store their email address in its memory. If you have it set up properly, you can them have emails automatically sent to the person who asked for your report.

This would be a great thing to put on your business card or any other ad for that matter. For example:

Ten Things To Know That Will Save You Thousands On The Next Home You Buy – Get this FREE report by sending an email to: anything@mymortgage.com

Or you can use it to be in constant communication with your clients during the loan process. Just enter their email into the system when they sign the loan app, and it can send them messages about what to expect at closing, how to refer you to their friends, not to buy a lot of furniture on credit before you pull the credit report, why they made a great decision in choosing you, etc.

Just brainstorm a little, and you will be able to come up with your own great ideas on how to use this great tool.

Happy Originating!

How Do Homebuyers Choose Their Mortgage Lender?

2007-08-23 23:24:29

Dear Friend,

How Do Homebuyers Choose Their Mortgage Lender?

Interesting question. And the answers will surprise you.

But before I give you the answers, what do you think are the main reasons people choose a mortgage lender? Come on, think a little.

I asked a few brokers in my office, and here were the top three responses:

Lowest rate/fees
Referred
Advertising

What are your top three?

The National Association of Realtors mailed out an eight-page questionnaire to 35,000 recent homebuyers. The survey resulted in 2,703 usable responses with an adjusted response rate of 7.7 percent. Customer names and addresses were obtained from Experian, a firm that maintains an extensive database of recent homebuyers derived from county records.

If you want to get a copy of the results, you may purchase them at www.nar.com

Now, here are the results:

75% of all buyers bought their house through a Realtor. 14% bought directly from a builder.

76% of all buyers, used only one agent to help them search for a home. – Buyers are showing a lot of loyalty to agents.

69% of buyers received a recommendation from their agent about where to get their mortgage. The majority of first time buyers asked the agent for help in finding a lender.

36% of buyers, said that the most important reason they choose a lender, was because of the agent’s recommendation. And keep in mind, that most realtors are not trained properly in how to send business to the lender.

And 41% of them got their information about mortgage lenders from their agent.

14% of buyers chose the lender on price.
16% of buyers chose the lender on reputation.
14% of buyers used the lender they had used before.
13% used the lender they were recommended to by a friend or relative.

Above you can see that 49% of buyers chose their mortgage lender because they were referred either by the agent, or a friend/family member. Our company can help you crack the referral market. Referrals are the easiest loans to get and the most lucrative. See our website for more details. www.referralsondemand.com

Only 14% chose based on the price. And you can be sure that the lenders that were referred, did not offer the cheapest price.

One more stat you need to know is this:

48% of all homebuyers got a quote from only ONE mortgage company when getting their loan. And 28% got quotes from two companies.

Since 49% of buyers were referrals and 48% didn’t shop the loan at all, it is not an off the wall guess to say that people who are referred do not even bother to shop the rate they are quoted. They have such confidence in the lender, because someone (a third party) told them that the lender was good. Based on that information they put total faith in that lender.

If you want to be in that situation, where people are just sent to you by others, and you can charge them whatever you feel like charging (as long as it is competitive and reasonable), then you need to put this system into place right away.

If you are not getting referrals, then you do not even have a chance at getting a loan from almost half of all the borrowers. On the other hand, if you do get referrals, you essentially have no competition whatsoever.

You should also think about getting some Realtors to be partners with you. By setting up business partnerships with realtors, by helping them grow and get more business, you will have the most important piece of the referral puzzle on your team. As the numbers say above, Realtors control at least 36% of the people buying homes. If you are not working with Realtors, they are sending these buyers to someone else, when they could be sending them to you.

And getting Realtors on your team is not as hard as you might think. Especially if you have The Marketing To Real Estate Agents Toolkit. It’s available at www.MarketingToAgents.com. And it has everything you need to get Realtors to call you, wanting to work with you. You owe it to yourself to at least check it out.

Happy Originating!

What Happened To Everyone's Manners?

2007-08-30 14:04:35

Dear Friend,

What happened to everyone’s manners?

I don't think I am out on a limb when I say, it is very rare to find a person that is actually thankful when you do something for them.

While this might be a sad commentary on our society, you can use this to your advantage. You can stand out from the crowd by actually taking the time to say, “Thank You”. And the best way to do it in the form of a thank you card.

You can do it for just about anything.

The impact you will make will astound you. When was the last time you got a thank you card? See, you still remember, if you ever received one.

So to get more business, send out one thank you card every day. Start with just one and make it a habit. Start today. How about sending me one for the idea?

Your cards don’t have to be fancy, but they should come from you. Handwritten. Not some form letter. People see right through those.

I read a story the other day about a man who was on a plane, and found a roach in the meal. He was so upset that as soon as he landed, he wrote a letter to the airline. A week or two later, he got a response from the airline. They expressed their sincerest apologies, and promised to have the plane sprayed and all the food serving equipment sterilized. They also thanked him for his concern and such.

The man was happy that they took him seriously and that they would fix the problem, until he found a post-it note on the back of the letter that must have been left on by mistake. It said, “Send this guy the roach letter”.

No form letters for you.

UPDATE: Since I wrote this issue, over 80,000 loan officers have read it. And guess how man thank you notes I have received so far? 15. It's no skin off my nose if you do not send me a thank you note. But it just goes to show how rare it is. And by the way, I have saved all the thank you notes. I have gotten a lot of emails. But an email does not have the same effect as a handwritten, mailed, thank you note.

Happy Originating!

What Does A Mafia Boss Know About Marketing?

2007-08-30 14:02:53

Dear Friend,

What does a mafia boss know about marketing?

The following is taken from Yanik Silver’s Surefire Marketing Secrets Email Newsletter
You can subscribe by sending a blank email to ==> instantletters@getresponse.com Along with your subscription you'll get a free 3-part 'mini-course' "7 Direct Mail Secrets Guaranteed To Create A Stampede of New Business!" -----------------------------

What does a mafia boss know about marketing?

Lots. Read on to find out...

Do you remember in the movie "The Godfather" when Don Corleone says, "I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse"?

And it's this simple concept that's the backbone of any successful sales proposition you make. (However if I were you, I'd probably leave out the threats of violence in your sales piece.)

From now on, your job is to create such powerful offers that anyone reading it would say to themselves, "My goodness, I'd have to be a complete idiot not to take them up on this deal!"

And creating a powerful offer like this is easier than you think. Let me share with you one of the most compelling offers I've seen. It took a dying hotel on the wrong side of the Vegas 'strip', where you had to watch your wallet at every turn, and transformed it into a super moneymaker.

This is from a very successful ad that used to run for Bob Stupak's Vegas World hotel. Listen to this deal and see if you wouldn't act on this even if you were just an occasional gambler:

"Act now, to receive a virtually free Las Vegas vacation. For $198 per person or $396 per couple I will:

1) Put you up in a luxurious mini suite in an exciting Las Vegas hotel right on the famous strip.

2) I will give you free tickets to a show with name entertainers.

3) I will put a chilled bottle of champagne in your room for free.

4) I'll let you drink as much as want for free, whether you're at the gaming tables, playing slots or in one of the lounges.

5) I'll hand you $1,000 of my money to gamble with for free.

6) I'll let you keep all your winnings.

7) I'll guarantee you'll win a color TV, VCR or a faux diamond ring.

Obviously I'm not going to give this incredible deal to everybody in the whole world. There can only be (small number) of these vacation packages available. First come, first served."

If that's not an irresistible offer, I don't what is. The closer you can get to something like this, the more customers you'll have falling all over themselves to give you their money.

Does this give you a few ideas?

====================== Using The Bonus Pile On =================

Vegas World's offer uses a concept I call "Bonus Pile On".

And the way it works is to keep piling on bonus after bonus until finally you have to say "no mas" and whip out your charge card.

It was the same thing with the famous Ginsu knife commercials a few years back. They used this technique perfectly to sell millions of dollars of cutlery. The announcer would say

"And if you act now you'll also get..." and then about 15 different knives and kitchen gadgets would pop up on the screen.

It made you think about how much value you were getting for such a little price.

That's the power of the "bonus pile on".

Happy Originating!

The Reading List That Will Make You Rich

2007-09-19 12:34:40

Dear Friend,

Solomon, considered to be the wisest man of all time, has been recorded as saying, "Wise men store up knowledge."

Francis Bacon has told us, "Knowledge is power."

In today's society, it is easier to acquire knowledge than in any other time before. The purpose of this letter is to provide you with a starting point of knowledge.

Listed below is what I call my Reading List. It is comprised of the books that I think are absolutely essential to being successful in business and life.

I have personally read all these books, many more than once, and recommend them all. They should all be in your library.

Jim Rohn, a famous speaker, has said, "just walking into your own library makes you feel smarter".

Ever wonder how Oprah Winfrey became a billionaire? Once of the reasons is that she reads two books a week, even with her schedule she still finds time to read.

So read, my little guppie, read.

1. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill - The greatest book on personal development and making money every written.

2. The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber - Great for small businesses. Follow the formula and your business will run like clockwork.

3. Influence by Robert Caldini - Learn how to get others to do what you want. Why do we buy the things we buy and do the things we do?

4. The Greatest Salesman in the World by Og Mandino - Great story. Easy read. Great lessons.

5. Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki - new way to think about money. I think I have read this book 6 times.

6. 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey - a business classic. Is rewuired reading in my Jump Start Your Mortgage Career class.

7. Relationship Selling by Jim Cathcart - Great ideas and methods to increase sales.

8. The Success System That Never Fails by W Clement Stone - This man made his fortune in the depressions and built one of the largest insuance companies in the world. Great sales techniques.

9. The Richest Man in Babylon by George S Clason - The best way to get rich.

10. Unlimited Power by Anthony Robbins - Get your emotions, values and life all aligned. Learn how to motivate yourself to be able to do anything. No more excuses!

11. The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peal -

12. How To Sell Anything To Anybody by Joe Girard - Great stories and strategies that you can implement in your business right away.

13. Triggers by Joe Sugarman - Use these elements in your sales copy and pitch to increase conversion.

14. Tested Advertising Methods by John Caples - A classic advertsing book.

15. How To Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie - the name says it all

16. Residential Mortgage Loan Origination Made Easy by Abby Kamadia - the #1 selling mortgage trianing manual available today.

17. Raving Fans by Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles - How to look at customer service

18. See You At The Top by Zig Ziglar - Great for motivation

19. How To Make Your Credit Sparkle by Ameen Kamadia - My first book. If you want to improve your credit to help clients to improve theirs', this is the book for you.

20. The New Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz - Get your brain to do what you want it to.

21. Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude by W Clement Stone and Napoleon Hill - Another great self-help book

22. Missed Fortune by Douglas Andrew - Talks about using home equity to start a life insuance policy and get rich.

23. Getting Everything You Can Out Of All You've Got by Jay Abraham - Marketing strategies and ways to increase profits in your business.

24. Good To Great by Jim Collins - how to improve your company and what to avoid while growing

24. Adventure Capitalist by Jim Rogers - a trip around the world in a car with a billionaire. Great insights to other economies and lessons on investing.

25. Awaken The Giant Within by Anthony Robbins - Another great Robbins book.

26. Retire Young Retire Rich by Robert Kiyosaki - Working til 65 and then retiring is not mandatory. Learn how to retire fast, and then do only what you want to.

27. So You Want To Be A Mortgage Broker by Ameen Kamadia - Answers the question - "How to do become a loan officer or mortgage broker and what is it like?"

28. Marketing Outrageously by Jon Spoelstra - Fun to read. Great stories. And some great ideas.

29. Customer Loyalty by Jill Griffin - How to take your prospects and tuen them into advocates. A great primer for doing business by referral.

30. The Marketing Game - by Eric Schulz - a cross between a marketing textbook and a case study. Learn how real compaines do market research and advertising.

31. Jump Start Your Business Brain by Doug Hall - a business book about what is takes to make a product successful.

32. The Power of Full Engagement by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz - Managing Energy, not time, is the key to high performance and personal renewal.

33. The Sales Bible by Jeffrey Gitomer - an easy read about how to be a better salesperson.

34. How To Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie - a classic that everyone should have.

35. Jump Start Your Mortgage Career. A 30 Day Plan To Skyrocket Your Production by Ameen Kamadia. A must have for every loan officer. Called by some readers, the "Bible of Mortgage Marketing"

36. Winning Through Intimidation by Robert Ringer. Life lessons from a pro real estate salesman.

37. Made To Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip and Dan Heath

Happy Originating!

7 Cheap and Easy Ways to Generate Leads

2007-09-19 12:39:58

Dear Fellow Loan Originator,

Need a few more loans but don't have the cash to do some serious marketing? Have no fear! In this issue I am going to reveal 7 fantastic ways to generate leads almost for free. These methods are super cheap (most are free) and work like gangbusters.

How do I know? Because I shared them with my coaching clients and they had excellent results.

These 7 methods are just a few of the over 30 cheap marketing methods I share in one lesson of my 22 lesson Jump Start Your Mortgage Career E-Class. This new class is for any loan officer who is new and struggling or any verteran that just needs a little help with their marketing. It took me over 2 years to create the content for this 12 week, 22 lesson class, and I can honestly say there is nothing available out there that compares to this class.

If you could use more loans, then do yourself a favor and check it out for yourself. http://www.JumpStartYourMortgageCareer.com

Here we go...

Cheap Mortgage Lead Generation Tip # 1. Join an Association

People join associations for one of three reasons:

Social - they want to build or maintain friendships and influences that may have taken years to build;

Promotional - they want to offer their own products or services to others in in a cost effective and positive way;

Educational - they want to see what their competition is up to, and find out about the latest developments within their industry

Grow your network and your database by joining groups of already established people. By socializing with people who share common interests with you, it makes it easier to generate business. People like to do business with people they like and trust. Most people like others who have the same interests as they do.

Cheap Mortgage Lead Generation Tip #2: Use Book Stores and Libraries

One of the questions I keep asking all my coaching clients is "How can you tell if someone is getting ready to need a mortgage? What do they do? How do they act?"

This is the million dollar question. If you can answer this question, you can easily be rich in the mortgage business. By being able to identify that they want a mortgage before they start looking for one, you can get a jump on all the other loan companies. This is one area of our business that still annoys me. Most other businesses have a way to identify when someone will need their service, and can market to them accordingly. Like when someone buys a new home, they most likely will be buying furniture, blinds, home accessories, etc. So if we were selling any of these items, all we need is a list of new homeowners to market to. And that list is easily available. But how the heck do we figure out who is "thinking" of getting a mortgage?

The answer one of my coaching clients came up with was that they might go to the bookstore or library to read books on home buying, or mortgages, or real estate in general. And that's true. Every bookstore has a real estate section. And most of the books are for consumers who are buying and selling real estate.

So my next question is, "Now that we have identified what they do, how do we get our message in front of them?"

And my client came up with this simple method: Go to the bookstores and libraries and insert a business card into each book.

After doing it for a couple months, he came up with some simple observations:

First, he learned that the best place to put the card was somewhere in the front. Try for the first chapter because not everyone reads the whole book.
Second, pick the books with the best covers and graphics inside- they sell the best.
Third, not all books sell and some are sent back to the publishers.
Fourth, having a USP on the card helps boost response.
Fifth, it takes about 10 minutes per bookstore.
Sixth, he averages 3-4 calls a month, and one loan per month.
Seventh, he now has his assistant do it. And she goes once a week.
Eight, the people who call are in search of more information, so offering them unbiased advice and more resources really turns them on.

If you have the time, and are brave enough to be seen doing it, try it and see what results you get. I wanted to test it in my market. So I went to three bookstores and put in about 120 cards. I got 2 calls, and one of them is a very serious prospect. If I do it more often, I have no doubt that it would work for me as well.

Cheap Mortgage Lead Generation Tp #3: Orphan Files

When a loan officer leaves a company the clients he/she brought to the company are called orphans. These clients now belong to the company. Ask your manager to see if you can contact any orphan files in your office to see if they need any mortgage or real estate help. Be nice enough, and they will allow you to add them to your database.

Cheap Mortgage Lead Generation Tip #4: Tradeshows

Another coaching client of mine goes to tradeshows. But not the ones related to our business. He goes to unrelated trade shows: electronic shows, design shows, car shows, and his favorite: women's trade shows.

Most of the time, he is the only mortgage company there. And he is averaging 2-3 loan applications per show. The trick is to tie in your business with the show. If it is a car show, you can advertise that you can help anyone buy any car in the place.

If you can pre-approve someone at a car show for a cash out refinance, they can go and buy that hot car they have been salivating on for the last 2 hours. Instant gratification.

Cheap Mortgage Lead Generation Tip #5: Join A Local Real Estate Investment Group.

Every major city has one. And they are full of people buying and selling houses. They need money to buy houses, and they need money to help others buy their houses.

Cheap Mortgage Lead Generation Tip #6: Realtor Open Houses

Stop by at realtor open houses on the weekends. Offer to leave some financing materials.

When you get to know a realtor, you can offer to do open houses for her where you sit in the house instead of her. It is not a fun way to spend an afternoon, but you might get some good leads out of it.

If you decide to go this route, make sure the house is in a well trafficed area and easy to get to. And make sure the agent does some advertising and lends you signs and balloons. You do not want to sit in a house, where no one shows up because it is hard to find or no one knew about the open house.

Another tip is to meet the neighbors of the home you are holding open. See if they know anyone wanting to move or buy. Chances are someone will know of a family wanting to move into the neighborhood.

Cheap Mortgage Lead Generation Tip #7: Realtor MLS

Want a source of thousands of people who will be getting a mortgage within the next couple months?

It's sellers. And the Multiple Listing Service used by Realtors is full of them. Do a search of homes for sale, get the owners' name from the tax records and you have yourself a good prospect list.

Mail them something about you or an offer for free information. Call them if you can get their phone number and they are not on the Do Not Call list, or just drop by their house if you have the guts.

This is exactly what one of my coaching clients does. He calls Realtors who have listings and asks them if he can market his services to the home sellers. Many Realtors say yes. When they do, he contacts the sellers, and tells them that their realtor said it was ok to call on them.

He tells me the majority of home sellers he talks to are willing to talk to him and he gets several loans a month using this trick.

If you liked the above lead generation tips and would like more, check out my Jump Start Your Mortgage Career E-Class today. As I said, these are just a few of the dozens of cheap lead generation techniques I share in one lesson of the course. The other lessons cover every aspect of mortgage marketing that you need to suceed in this business.

Happy Originating!

4 Simple Steps To Get As Much Business From Realtors As You Want

2007-09-19 12:43:03

Dear Friend,

Here are the 4 simple steps to get as much business from Realtors as you want.

1. Make them call you. A realtor will not respect you if you go into their office trying to bribe them with donuts, or even worse begging for loans.

2. Make yourself stand out. The only way a Realtor will do business with someone they have never worked with before instead of the millions of other mortgage companies out there, is if you offer them something that they cannot get anywhere else.

3. Act like a partner. Help them grow their business even before they produce any buyers for you. Most realtors suck at marketing and need help - so help them.

4. Follow up. Have a systematic follow up program that will show them you are a professional and that you will not go away until they try you.

Now, you are probably thinking to yourself,

"Yeah, this all sounds good, but how do I do this, and when will I find the time?"

I have got your answer.

I have already done it for you.

In order to get Realtor business I have created a marketing system, that

a. gets them to call you

b. gets them to want to meet with you

c. provides you with a marketing system they cannot live without

d. provides you with all the marketing and follow up materials you need to put this system into action.

Trust me, the first three months I tested the system, I met with 26 realtors. 20 of those agreed to work with me and sent me 22 loans. In only 3 months!

Please do yourself a favor and read more about the system and how you can try it out at www.MarketingToAgents.com

Happy Originating!

What I Learned On My Honeymoon

2007-09-19 12:45:21

Dear Friend,

I just got back from Alaska. What a great place for a honeymoon!

Yup, I got married, and we took a cruise/land tour package. The scenery is breathtaking. If you have never been, you must go. It's amazing.

Anyway, while I was there, I learned a very important lesson in marketing and customer retention. One of the people on our table, (for dinner you sit with other people on one table), was a dentist. He said he had a decent sized practice, but that he made very good money. One of the reasons was that he charged one-third more than any other dentist in his town.

He could do this because he had extremely loyal patients. Well, I didn't buy that for a second. Customers can be pretty fickle, so I kept asking him how he could say that, and what made them loyal.

He told me that he kept in touch with all his patients, every month. He sent them a short letter with teeth tips, jokes, and an update of what was going on in his office.

He would also have parties 2-3 times a year (not during the holidays) and would invite all his patients. (Nothing extraordinary so far.)

Then he showed me 300 postcards that he had bought in Anchorage that day. He was going to spend the next few hours writing out messages to all his 300 clients, and then mail them from the next port of call.

I had to admit, if I got a postcard from my dentist from Alaska, telling me he was thinking about me on his vacation I would be pretty impressed, even if he did charge more.

It didn't cost him a lot, 25 cents per postcard and 37 cents to mail. But he told me he mails postcards once a year from vacation and his clients love it. They talk about it for months to all their friends, and that has resulted in many new customers as well.

Those few hours spent in writing postcards, have allowed him to take many more vacations.

So the next time you go on vacation, spend a couple hours writing to your best customers, telling them you are thinking of them, even though you are on vacation. It'll blow 'em away.

But make sure to mail them from your vacation spot.

Happy Originating!

You Are A Spammer!!!

2007-09-20 11:33:27

YOU ARE A SPAMMER!!!

That's right! You send SPAM to people. But don't feel bad, because just about everyone that sends email sends SPAM.

Well actually it's not SPAM. I mean I am sure you don't think your email is SPAM and the recipient might not think your email is SPAM but if his/her computer thinks it is then the result is the same -YOUR EMAIL WILL NOT GET DELIVERED!

Last week I sent an email to the few thousand people on our mailing list. I thought everything was OK until I got an email from a friend and customer. Randy emailed and said,

"Ameen, I almost didn't get your email. It was put in my SPAM box. Good thing I checked and recognized your name or else I wouldn't have gotten it. But I want to keep getting your emails. What do I do about this?"

We all face this same problem as marketers. It is estimated that 40-50% of all emails not do not get through Spam Blocking Software.

So half of the people you send email to do not even get your email. Is there anything we can do about it? Not much, but here are a couple tips.

1. If you use AOL to get your email, you might want to switch. AOL is notorious for forcing people to use their SPAM filters. Believe me, I use AOL and have missed many important emails because of this.

2. Do not use the word mortgage in the subject of your email. Words like free, mortgage, quote, sale, sex, all set off alarms for Spam filters and these emails get flagged and taken out of your inbox.

3. If you use an autoresponder service, they now offer a way to check if your email will make it through the filters.

4. Add in your signature of every email a reminder for people to add your email address to their list of approved senders. Something like,

"To make sure that you receive all my timely mortgage emails, please make sure to make the needed changes to your email spam filters so that it will not block my emails."

5. Add a page on your website where people can go to see the emails that you have sent. This works best if you offer an email course or more information via email. For example, this newsletter is being posted on the archives page so that if anyone misses or stops getting the email announcements, they can still stop by to read the new articles.

This Spam problem is going to get worse before it gets better.

So what you might want to do is rely less on email and more on regular mail. Don't stop send out emails, but be careful how much you rely on them.

Happy Originating!

Builders Are Getting Sneakier Everyday.

2007-09-20 11:40:16

Builders Are Getting Sneakier Everyday.

Here's a stat you won't like.

Did you know that Builders do 80% of the loans on homes they sell?

If you live anywhere near a new development you already know that builders will do anything to get the loan. And there is little we as brokers can do about it. I mean, how do we compete with them when they are offering $10,000 in free upgrades?

But they have gotten even sneakier.

Abby, told me just last week about a new test program started by Pulte. If it's successful they will role it out nationwide. But other builders have already started to copy them.

Here's what happened. One of the loan officers in our office, also has a real estate license, and he was showing a couple a new Pulte home. The couple really liked the home and were almost ready to sign the contract.

While the couple was downstairs looking at the model, the L.O. went upstairs to introduce himself to the builder rep and to inform her that he was the Realtor AND the mortgage broker for this couple so not to try to weasel the loan away.

She commented that almost 70% of the Realtors she meets with say the same thing to her. And because of that, Pulte has a new program where is the Realtor/L.O. does not get in the way of Pulte doing the loan, Pulte will pay the Realtor 6% commission instead of the normal 3%. But if they could not do the loan or give a competitive rate, he could then submit a GFE and still get the 6%.

When I first heard this, my jaw hit the floor. They are basically bribing Realtors to let them do the loan in exchange for a double commission!

What I can't decide is, if this is a good thing or bad thing.

In this case, the house price was about $140k. So 3% is a lot more than this L.O. was going to get doing the loan. He made out better for doing less work.

But if you are in the same situation and you do not have a real estate license, forget about it. If all builders adopt this policy, they will capture 100% of the market very soon.

So if you can, (some states don't allow it) get yourself a Real Estate license. It's the trend across the country and has already become very common in California, Texas, and Florida.

Happy Originating!

Jump Start Your Mortgage Career

2007-09-20 11:42:43

Could it really be true?

Are there really lead generation "secrets" that only the most successful loan officers know?

Honestly, I don't think there are.

However, there are several things that make lead generation easier if you do them.

For example, you need to stand out from the crowd. If prospects see you as much better than all the other loan officers out there, they will come to you on their own, and they will be willing to pay more.

It would also help if you were famous. If you are Oprah's loan officer, I think you would get a lot of people calling you.

How about if there was a niche market that no other loan officer was targeting? That would make lead generation easy as well.

The secret is not in knowing these things, but in knowing how to be different, or how to be Oprah's loan officer, or how to find that special niche.

As it turns out, it is not too hard.

In fact, if you have 30 days, I will show you exactly how.

I would like to announce the unveiling of my new book, Jump Start Your Mortgage Career: A Proven Plan For Loan Officers and Mortgage Brokers Who Want To Skyrocket Their Income in 30 Days.

Yes, the title is a little long, but I wanted to make sure everyone knew what it was about.

I wrote this book for two reasons.

1. I got tired of answering the question, "How Do I Become a Successful Loan Officer/Mortgage Broker?"

Now I don't have to say anything. I just tell them to read this book. And since the price is so low, no one can have any reason not to get a copy.

2. I got really aggravated by all the *&% that is being sold nowadays as mortgage marketing. Most of it is by failed loan officers who couldn't make a dime in the mortgage business and are now trying to rip other loan officers off by selling junk. My book contains actual strategies my coaching clients and I use in our businesses. Bottom line: They work, and with the price of this book so low, no one has an excuse to buy any more "junk".

For more information please visit: www.jumpstartyourmortgagecareer.com/book.html

You can even download a free chapter which will show you, How To Get Your Prospects To Do Whatever You Want.

Happy Originating!

The Best Place To Work If You Are Lazy

2007-09-20 11:48:47

I got the following email this morning,

"Dear Ameen,
I just bought your marketing to real estate agents kit.
I think the idea is really good, although involves a lot of work. One
thing that did make me regret my investment with you is the quality of
writing, grammar, etc. I would never market this quality to 100 hopeful
associates. I will most likely return the product, but I wanted to give
you an idea of what you could do to make this thing work."

First, let me thank this fellow for at least trying to help, but I think he missed the point.

Does it really matter if the writing is not of Stephen King quality? Especially if it is proven that it works just the way it is?

In fact, one of the items in the Toolkit is a letter where every word is misspelled on purpose, but you can still read it. (That letter is in there to prove another point.) I did not get an A in English class, but I did graduate with Honors. I read at least ten books a month from the largest publishers, and many of them have mistakes as well. I am sorry if there are errors in anything we send out. We do get everything edited, but mistakes happen. If you want marketing that makes you money, I am your guy. If you want proper english, then take a marketing class at your local university.

My point is, if you are going to be turned off to something by the way the message is presented, you are going to miss out a lot in life. If you only go to restaurants that look the fanciest, you will miss out on a lot of great places that serve much better food.

This guy admits the ideas are good, but he wants his money back because the grammar was incorrect in a few places. Give me a break! Does he want to be a rich mortgage broker or an English teacher? On top of that, his grammar is not perfect either!

Second, I think he gave away the farm when he mentioned in the second line that the kit is too much work. Hmmm, let think about this a second. Run ad, answer phone, meet Realtor, and do follow up. Yup, that's too much work. This guy was right. The 2-3 hours that would take is definitely not worth the $40,000 in commission you can earn from just one good Realtor.

People look, if you are allergic to work: GO GET A JOB WITH THE GOVERNMENT!

If you want to get ahead in this business or any other, some amount of work is required. Sorry, but that's the way it works. And if you get everything you need to get Realtor business handed to you already 90% done, and you still complain it is too much work - there is only one thing for you - euthanasia.

Happy Originating!

How To Address Client Expectations

2007-09-20 11:55:00

My wife and I spent the weekend at a newlywed retreat. What a great experience! It was a cross between a seminar and a vacation. We learned about marriage, had fun, and met new people at the same time.

One of the sessions reminded me of the mortgage business.

What we did was, as a group, we listed what we thought love was before we got married.

The list included things like:

Fairy tale romance
No fights
Lots of time together
Unconditional acceptance

Then we made a list of the way we think of love after marriage which included:

Lots of work
Compromises
Sacrifices

Big difference huh? And if you're married, you probably agree with these lists. If you're not married, you have been warned.

Anyway, I got to thinking that many of our clients have similar experiences when it comes to mortgages. Except many of them do the reverse. They think of it as a negative thing and then feel good about it when it's over. With all the negative publicity in the media, they come to us thinking they are in for a battle. They think we are going to rip them off, and we are only interested in their money. They get defensive when we ask about assets and many times aren't truthful.

But afterwards, they see that we are not the monsters the media makes us out to be. We don't charge junk fees or use bait and switch tactics. We really do care about their well being.

So how do we get them to change their attitude before the transaction?

I got the answer at the retreat as well. Before we started, they gave out a pre-evaluation. We were asked what we expected to learn and what we expected to get out of the program.

We can do the same thing: - a pre-application evaluation.

Ask potential clients what they expect from you and what they want. Get them to list 4-5 items, or make a questionnaire and ask them to rate items in terms of importance to them. Then give them proof of how you excel at the areas they listed.

For example, let's say they said they wanted to choose from a variety of loan options. You could show them a listing of all the lenders you deal with, and a list of all the loan programs each lender provides. That demonstration shows that they can choose from amongst thousands of loan programs by working with you. Of course, most of the loan programs will not be appropriate for what they want to do, but just showing them what you have will put them at ease.

Or, say they said they wanted to understand the loan process and not just be told what to do. In that case, you could give them some reading material, let them borrow a book, give them a list of websites, or invite them to a seminar you put on.

Do something that will address their concern and show them that you care. This will not only put them at ease, but make them easier to deal with throughout the loan process, increase the number of referrals they send you, and make you stand out from the competition.

Happy Originating!

Year End Review

2007-09-20 11:59:24

This article was originally written in late December.

***********************************************************************************************

I love and hate this time of year.

I love it because it gets cooler. People are in a better mood. Just about everybody is celebrating something, and people are shopping like crazy.

I hate it because not too many people are shopping for houses. Not that many people think about buying a house or refinancing the last 3 weeks of December.

But that's OK. We've got other things to do too.

Like reviewing how we did this year, and organizing for next.

Whenever you get a chance in the next week or so, take a look at all your production numbers.

Did you hit your yearly goals? Why or why not?

Which month was the best? Why?

What were your best methods to bring in new customers?

Were your expenses higher or lower than they should've been?

Taking a look at your records and asking yourself these and other questions are great ways to go through the whole year and analyze what you did right and what did not go according to plan. Try to identify areas where you can improve.

Then, it's time to start thinking about next year.

1. The best way to make sure marketing gets done is to have it set up in advance. Plan out your marketing for the whole year now. Decide what you are going to do and when.

2. Set up your goals for this coming year.

# of loans?
average net per loan?
% of prospects converted to application?
% of application that close?
hours per week worked?

These are just a few of the main ones.

3. Then ask yourself what you will do differently to achieve your goals. You cannot expect business to get better if you do not do anything about it. Sorry, but waiting for the economy to get better is not going to work. Rates are going up. And they will keep going up. The economy is doing OK. If you want things to change, you must do the changing.

So what will you do differently?

Will you get a coach to mentor you? (Our coaching program has been a booming success for everyone involved- visit www.mortgagebrokertraining.com/coaching.html for more info)
Will you invest in more education?
Will you try 1, 2, or 3, new marketing techniques?
Will you do all of the above?

I wish you the best of luck in whatever you choose to do, but make sure you do something. If you stop moving forward - you are moving backwards. It's not my rule, it's nature's law.

Happy Holidays to you and your family. May you be blessed with a wonderful new year, and may all your wishes come true.

Happy Originating!

The Mortgage Jokebook

2007-09-20 12:02:42

I need your help. I was recently looking for a mortgage joke book for some of my writings and I couldn't find one. Nor could I find any stories about loan officers, so I though it would be cool to put one together. Perhaps something like a Chicken Soup for the Loan Officer Soul or something.

That is where I need your help. I need your stories, jokes, sayings, and anything funny or uplifting that relates to our industry. This can include things that have happened to you, your associates, clients, etc, that are funny, odd, or bizarre.

If you have something to submit please send it to me at ameen (at) mortgagebrokertraining.com.

If your piece is selected, we will make sure you get proper credit as the author or submitter.

It's a great way to share the joy of mortgage brokerage with others. And it's a great way to get your name in print.

So if you have a story, hear one, or remember anything that you feel others in the biz would get a chuckle from, please send it in.

In the meantime, here's one that is making the rounds:

A Loan Officer died and met St. Peter at the Pearly Gates to present himself for admittance to Heaven.

Peter said, "You did a lot of good helping people get into homes and you donated a lot to charity. You even worked on that Habitat house. But you told too many fibs to the underwriters and were very unkind to both your processor and office staff.

We aren't sure where you're going to fit...so, we've decided to show you around both Heaven and Hell and see where you feel comfortable."

As they toured Heaven, the Loan Officer really liked the big mansions and the streets paved with gold, but the harp music did get on his nerves a little.

Then, when they showed him around Hell, he noticed everyone had their choice of playing golf or tennis, hanging out by the pool smoking and drinking, or dancing and playing cards in the clubhouse. He told St. Peter…"Oh, this is going to be hard! Can I sleep on it?"

So he was allowed to think it over during the night. The next morning they asked him for his decision. He quickly replied, "Oh please send me to Hell!"

They opened up the doors of Hell, but the whole picture had changed! It was just like you have always heard with lots of fire and brimstone. People were burning and being tortured and screaming! Oh, it was so hot and horrible!!

"Hey that's not what you showed me yesterday!!" the Loan Officer cried.

St. Peter's reply was cold and abrupt: "I know, you should have 'locked it' in yesterday."

Author Unknown

Happy Originating!

The Fastest Way To Generate Loans For People New To The Business

2007-09-20 12:06:46

I first learned this trick when I became a real estate agent in Miami with Coldwell Banker. Thankfully, I am no longer a real estate agent. But, I have great respect for those of you who work in that profession because it is not easy catering to people 24 hours a day.

I no longer work on other peoples' schedules. I make my own. But when you are starting out, you sometimes have no other choice.

But I digress.

Here is what I learned and how you can use the same techniques to boost your sales.

Step 1: Make a list of everyone you know. Include their phone numbers and addresses.

Step 2: Send them all a personal letter telling them that you are now in the mortgage business.

Step 3: Follow up with a phone call 3-4 days after you mail the letter.

Step 4: Follow up regularly.

This is how I started in the real estate industry. This was the first thing my manager had me do. And it worked. I started talking to people I knew but hadn't talked to in years. I discovered who was renting and who in my database owned homes. I got referrals and leads to work on. If you are new and you haven't done this yet, DO IT TODAY!

In our product, Referrals On Demand, we take this simple procedure and expand it to make sure it will result in big business.

This list that you have just created is the starting point of your database. These people, if contacted correctly, can result in several mortgage referrals monthly.

The more people in your database, the more referrals you will receive. Referrals on Demand will show you how to easily build your database to several hundred people and how to be able to keep adding to it everyday.

Keep in mind, there is a lot more to generating referrals than just having a database. You must also offer Amazing Service (covered in Referrals On Demand), as well as keeping yourself in the conscious mind of your database.

The bare minimum that you should be contacting your database is once a month. Follow up with them either by mail, phone, fax, or in person.

By just following these four steps, you have a great chance of generating business right away.

And if you want to generate a lot of business, you'll need all the tips shared in Referrals On Demand.

Napolean Hill Secret

2007-09-20 12:09:23

You probably know who Napoleon Hill was....I hope. He was the author of Think and Grow Rich, the most influential book about making money on the planet.

Good, now you remember. If you have never heard of this book, go to your bookstore and buy it TODAY! You can thank me later.

You would think that Mr. Hill would be one of the richest men in the world. I mean, he did write the book on getting rich. But guess what? He wasn't. In fact, if it wasn't for a man named W. Clement Stone, Mr. Hill would have died broke. Why is this?

In my opinion, the book has two major flaws.

#1. The emphasis is on thinking. Yes, thinking is vital to the process, but without action there is no chance of becoming rich. You can sit in the corner and think all you want, but if you don't get off your duff and do something, you will never be rich.

#2. This is the reason Mr. Stone got rich and Mr. Hill didn't. In his own writings, Mr. Stone wrote how the book Think and Grow Rich helped him get rich. He used Mr. Hill's own book, got rich, and then hired Mr. Hill to work for him. How did that happen?

What was the missing link that Mr. Stone found, but that Mr. Hill lacked his entire life?

What is the missing link in the most influential business book in the world?

The answer is in Mr. Stone's book titled: The Success System That Never Fails. Actually the answer is in the title itself.

SYSTEM

In order to succeed, you must have a system. That is, a set of procedures that create a predictable response every time they are used.

Mr. Stone developed such a system and created The Combined Insurance Company of America, the largest insurance company in his day!

If you want predicable results in your business, you must have systems. The more the merrier. Every successful mortgage company has lots of systems. Marketing Systems, Service Systems, Processing Systems, Quality Control Systems, etc.

The only way to deliver Amazing Service to your clients is by having systems.

You probably already have some systems: the way you answer the phone is an example. Chances are, you say the same thing every time you answer the phone. That is a very, very simple system. By thinking about it from a customer's standpoint and adding steps to the system, to WOW the customer, you can take a simple system, and make it into something that creates customers.

Here are a few steps to take to create your own systems:

For a complete list you will need The Systems Manual that comes with our product Referrals On Demand. The Systems Manual goes into detail on how to determine what systems you need, how to create them, and how to implement them.

1. Pick a process that you do everyday. Example: Greeting a client who comes to the office for an interview.

2. Write down all the steps of this process. Example: Clients enter, get greeted by secretary, secretary pages loan officer, loan officer escorts clients to meeting room, etc.

3. Think of ways to add value and a "WOW factor" to each step. Example: When clients enter, they are greeted by name.

4. Add "WOW" factors to as many steps in the process as you can, and write down each new step in the system.

5. Distribute new system to everyone involved, rehearse if needed.

6. Follow up and evaluate the system to see if it is working.

Napoleon Hill never figured this out. He never created a system for himself to create wealth. He spent his life learning about how others got rich, and teaching others to get rich, but he missed the point of the system, and that led him to never get rich himself.

Don't let that happen to you. Create SYSTEMS for everything you do.

If you need Marketing Systems, then we have the best ones around. Each one is developed in a way, that all you need to do is follow the directions to set it up. Then just let the system run on its own. Check out the systems at www.mortgagebrokertraining.com/marketing-products.html.

Happy Originating!

Increase The Response Of Your Direct Mail

2007-09-20 12:15:15

How To Increase The Response Of All Your Direct Mail

A coaching client recently asked a great question, and I want to share the answer with you here.

Here's the conversation we had pretty much as I remember it.

Coaching client: How do I improve the response to my direct mail?

Me: There are a zillion ways to improve response. Most of them you all ready know.

Improve the copy
Improve the call to action
Offer something with no risk
Personalize the message
Improve the mailing list
Sequenced mailings

Coaching client: Wait. What the heck is a sequenced mailing?

Me: That's where you send the same mail piece or a similar one to the same person a number of times.

Coaching client: Are you telling me to mail the same letter that they did not respond to the first time again?

Me: Exactly. And maybe even more than just one more time. At least 2 more times.

Coaching client: You're joking right?

Me: Nope. See, the first time you sent your letter or postcard, the person might not have even seen it. Or he might have had a bad day, or maybe the wife got to the mail first, or he just didn't think he needed what you offered.

But things can change in people's lives very quickly. Let's say you sent a letter to this fictitious fellow about cashing out some equity of his house. But the first time he throws the letter away and you get no response. Four days later he learns his father is ill and needs money for the hospital. 2 days later, your second letter shows up. And boom, you get a call.

There is no way to tell what is happening in the lives of the people we are marketing to.

This process of sequenced mailings works best with people who have already asked you for information - leads. Sequenced mailing to a cold list might not work as well. But then again, you never know until you test.

We did a sequenced mailing to local insurance agents. The letter was asking them to become loan officers and work with us. This way we could tap into their customer base. The first time we sent the letter we got no response - zero. But I was stubborn and did another mailing, this time making some changes to the original letter. We mailed to the same list. Result: 3 new loan officers. We should've mailed again a third time.

---End of conversation---

I don't know who originally came up with this idea. But Dan Kennedy is the one who has been promoting it heavily for the past few years.

If you think you'd like to learn more about sequenced mailing and how to make them work for you, Dan's Magnetic Marketing Toolkit is what you need. In his toolkit he shows how to take your business, and

increase leads
spend less per lead
and convert more leads into commissions.

The Toolkit is available in our Mortgage Bookstore.

Happy Originating!

How To Improve Your Website's Search Engine Rankings The Easy Way

2007-09-20 12:17:49

Today I want to talk about how to increase the search engine ranking of your web pages.

Lately, I have been studying this a lot. Many of you have your own web pages, and most of them were bought from third party mortgage website providers. Our company, MoneyTree Mortgage also has a website, which we got from the largest company in the mortgage website industry. I am not going to mention their name because the site is not worth the money.

Anyway, if you don't already know, getting your web site listed high on the search engines is a tough job. Mainly because there is so much competition. And because of this, we are told by the website sellers that we need to do pay-per-click. This is where we pay the search engines to display our ads for keywords we choose and if someone clicks on our ad and goes to our site, we pay the search engine an amount we determine.

Sounds like a great concept. But if you want your ad listed high enough to generate any clicks you will have to compete with all the other mortgage web sites and end up paying $1 or more per click. And that can get very expensive very fast.

So what do we do?

This is a pretty important topic, and that is why I am going to cover it in this month's Millionaire Loan Officer Newsletter.

There are several things we can do. One is to hire a search engine optimization company. But you will probably need a web designer to implement all the changes they request. Even then, there is no guarantee it will work.

The other is to try it yourself: if you have a couple hundred hours to devote to this topic, you might be able to crack the code.

What I did:

We get a lot of traffic at MortgageBrokerTraining.com from our pay-per-click efforts. But we couldn't get into many of the search engines. So I hired a SEO company to help us. Boy, did I learn a lot! It turns out that my web designer had put a code into the design that kept the search engine spiders, (if you don't know what a spider is, I will cover it in this month's newsletter) from indexing the site.

We also updated all our keywords, titles, link titles, alt tags, meta tags, meta descriptions, robots file, and a whole bunch of other complicated things. And so now I think I have a good idea of how you can also improve your rankings.

Here's a quick answer for you:

One of the things I learned, and that everyone agrees, is that the more web sites that link to your web site the better. Google, which accounts for almost half of all web searches, especially places a high value on what they call Link Popularity.

If you have a popular site, that gets a lot of traffic to link to your site, your Link Popularity increases, and your site could move up in the search results. The more links you have the better for you. The trick is to have only related sites link to you. If you have a link to your mortgage site from a dog walking web site, it will not do you much good.

But say you had a link to your site from a mortgage training web site that gets a lot of traffic, like MortgageBrokerTraining.com, that would be very helpful.

And so here is the solution: You link to my website, and I will link to yours. But don't just stop at one link, get other sites to link to yours as well. The more the merrier. There are many sites out there that will link to your site if you just ask. Get your lenders, re agents, title company, appraiser, pest inspection company, and any other vendor you use to link to you. Bribe them with a link, and get one in return.

I just started asking for links, and just today I got four more sites to link to us.

If you would like to participate in MortgageBrokerTraining.com's Link Exchange program, just visit the link exchange page at http://www.mortgagebrokertraining.com/linkexchange.html. Do it right now!

Happy Originating!

How Stupid Can I Be?

2007-09-20 12:19:27

No matter what we know, we still need to be reminded of it from time to time. Take for example what happened to me recently. Normally when I send an email that a new issue of this newsletter has been posted the subject line is:

"(your name), new edition of Mortgage Magic Marketing Newsletter is here"

And I thought it was fine. But then I got an email from a reader. Here's what he wrote:

" Hi Amanda: thanks for the head sup alert: Now here is one for YOU>
You probably dont know how your message shows up in my e mail box roster. I mean what it looks like in the mess of other competing message lines. Your message when sorted by sendee is amanda K etcc. NOT EXACTLY EYE GRABBING.
Ripe candidate FOR A JUNK MAIL DELETE .... after all we don't even date yet.
Then the message line starts with John Vaughan . WOW I know that guy and
so does every porn pedler, and enlargement lotion sales site on the web.
When I sort by subject line there are usually four or five lines that start
that way. Scrubb this junk turkey message ! NO NO WAIT , burried way
over there it says MORTGAGE now that is a hot word to me. Lets click the
message and see what she has to say.
Let me suggest that you forget the sendee . . most people cant do much
about that . But by all means use the HOT WORD as the first word in the
subject line. not necessarily as part of a sentence. i.e. MORTGAGE MAGIC-
How to double your Real Estate Leads before Breakfast. You'll always get
me. And if you don't its because I'm now in the dog food business.
Thanks for your information . . . hope you will profit from mine.

John Vaughan, Loan Officer, House2home lending.com, Peoria AZ,"

Please don't judge John by the misspellings, he was typing very fast, and was nice enough to point out my mistake.

At first I didn't understand what he was saying. Plus, he was calling me Amanda (have no clue why). But when I reread the mail it made total sense. How stupid could I be? I am the one preaching to you about how you should lead every email with a catchy headline, and my own subject line is boring and worth deleting.

So from now on, I am going to take John's advice (thanks John), and change the subject of all my emails into something that gets opened.

This is a great tip: Every email you send to your customers should make the person sit up and take notice. Your goal is that when your recipient opens his inbox in the morning, and he sees a dozen or so new emails, that the first one he opens is yours. And you can have that happen by having a subject line that grabs him by the seat of his pants and compels him to read what you have to say.

This goes for all your autoresponder messages as well. And your own email newsletters to your Personal Sales Force. If you don't have a Personal Sales Force, you need Referrals On Demand now.

Happy Originating!

How Many Loan Options Do You Offer A Client?

2007-09-20 12:20:59

The number of options you present to a prospect greatly influences your conversion rate. Simply said, the more options you present, the greater the chance the prospect will do nothing.

That's right! It's a proven fact. Too many options leads to inaction.

At Columbia University, Professors Sheena Iyengar and Wei Jiang did a study to understand the relationship between the amount of choices offered in 401K programs and participation in the plan. They looked at 657 companies that matched at least 50% of employee contributions.

When the 401K plan only had two options to choose from, 75% of employees signed up for the plan.

For every additional 10 options that were added to the plan, 2% fewer employees signed up. And the company that offered the most choices in their 401K plan had the lowest amount of participation.

Another study that was done in 2000, showed similar results. In supermarkets that offered 24 different types of jams, only 3% of people bought jam. When there were only 6 types of jams offered, 30% of shoppers bought jam.

What the heck is going on?

The problem lies partly in Buyer's Remorse. People don't want to make a mistake and have to regret it later. When given too many choices, the decision becomes too hard.

I tried to get some toothpaste the other day. Man, there were over 50 different toothpaste varieties to choose from. Crest has over 30 different options by itself. Different flavors, whitening, baking soda, gel, with mouthwash added, and who knows what else. It drove me nuts. I stood there for 10 minutes trying to get the best one. In the end, I chose whatever I had been using before.

And our prospects are the same way. We all offer 100's of loan programs. And it is a good thing to state that in our advertising. But when it comes down to it, you need to take charge and ADVISE the prospect which loan is the best for him. You are the professional. You need to tell him which loan will be best for him based on the information you gather from him.

If you leave it up to the prospect, he will never be able to choose.

By using the proper questions in your interview you can find what he wants and offer it to him.

In the end, I suggest you offer your prospects three different loan programs. Describe the pros and cons of each and let them choose from those three. This technique gives you the best of both worlds. You are seen as a trusted advisor offering multiple solutions to satisfy their needs. As well as offering crucial expertise and advice. On the other hand, you are not pushing any particular loan program upon them, so they cannot say that you did it just for the commission. This also reduces buyers remorse because they are informed of the pros and cons and will know that they made the best choice. They also cannot blame you later if their situation changes and desire a different loan.

Offering just one loan is not enough, and more than three leads to confusion and stalling. Stick with the 3 Option Technique and you will convert more prospects.

Happy Originating!

Is Your State Gaining Or Losing Prospects?

2007-09-21 10:05:25

Here are some Census Stats you might find interesting.

Three states - Florida, California and Texas - would account for nearly one-half (46 percent) of total U.S. population growth between 2000 and 2030, according to Census Bureau state population projections released today. Consequently, Florida, now the fourth most populous state, would edge past New York into third place in total population by 2011; California and Texas would continue to rank first and second, respectively, in 2030.

These three states would each gain more than 12 million people between 2000 and 2030. Arizona, projected to add 5.6 million people, and North Carolina, with 4.2 million, would round out the top five numerical gainers. As a result, Arizona and North Carolina would move into the top 10 in total population by 2030 - Arizona rising from 20th place in 2000 to 10th place in 2030 and North Carolina from 11th place to seventh place. Michigan and New Jersey are projected to drop out of the top 10.

The projections indicate that the top five fastest-growing states between 2000 and 2030 would be Nevada (114 percent), Arizona (109 percent), Florida (80 percent), Texas (60 percent) and Utah (56 percent). Most (88 percent) of the nation's population growth between 2000 and 2030 would occur in the South and West, which would be home to the 10 fastest-growing states over the period. The share of the population living in the South and West would increase from 58 percent in 2000 to 65 percent in 2030, while the share in the Northeast and Midwest would decline from 42 percent to 35 percent.

Other highlights: In 2000, each of the nation's 50 states had more people under 18 than 65 and older. In fact, in about half of the states, the ratio was more than two to one. In 2030, 10 states are projected to have more people 65 and older than under 18: Florida, Delaware, Maine, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Vermont, West Virginia and Wyoming.

In six states, more than one in every four residents would be age 65 and older in 2030: Florida, Wyoming, Maine, New Mexico, Montana and North Dakota.

As the oldest baby boomers become senior citizens in 2011, the population 65 and older is projected to grow faster than the total population in every state. In fact, 26 states are projected to double their 65- and-older population between 2000 and 2030.

These projections were produced by the Population Division in correspondence with the U.S. interim projections released in March 2004. They were developed for each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia by age and sex for the years 2000 to 2030, based on Census 2000 results.

These projections differ from forecasts in that they represent the results of the mathematical projection model given that current state-specific trends in fertility, mortality, internal migration and international migration continue. The projections to 2004 have been superseded by population estimates at www.census.gov/popest/estimates.php.

So what does this all mean for you?

If you are in a state with people coming your way, you need to determine how to target these people either before they show up or as soon as they do. Because you can be sure they will be wanting to buy property and homes. They might even take several trips looking at homes before they purchase and move.

If you live in a state where the population is aging quickly, you might want to look into reverse mortgages and equity loans so you can attract senior clients.

If your state is quickly losing population, you might consider moving yourself. It's not easy to do or even consider, but you are in the business to make money. There is no reason to make it harder for yourself than it already is.

Happy Originating!

Can Your Services Be Digitized?

2007-09-21 10:07:07

One of the best ways to stay on top of the industry is to read, a lot. Not only do I recommend reading the mortgage news, but I suggest you read Realtor magazines as well. The Realtor Associations are much more on the ball than our Mortgage Associations when it comes to research, trend awareness, and service issues.

The following is an article by Toni C. Nelson, elected leader of the board of directors for the Houston Association of Realtors. Toni is also Vice-President for Coldwell Banker United Realtors. You can contact her at toni@har.com. Thank you Toni for your permission to use your article.

There is a lot of gold in this article. And many of the same things I teach myself. Wherever she uses the word Realtor just substitute the words Loan Officer in your head. And where she uses real estate just substitute mortgage.

*********************************************************************************

Can Your Services Be Digitized?

by Toni C. Nelson

What a pleasure it has been to meet and converse with so many REALTORS® across the Houston area! I have been able to hear, firsthand, the concerns of members about our industry these days. Many conversations have revolved around the changing real estate climate and how one competes in real estate when competitors are not playing by the same rule book.

When I began my real estate career, essentially everyone practiced under the same rules and had the same business model. Today, more than a decade after the onslaught of the Internet, we see a far more diverse group of REALTOR members, varying Internet real estate models, online lead generators and more than enough advertising and media which downplays our value or worth in the transaction.

Our response at HAR has been to:
1. Research and bring technologies to market that make REALTORS more effective, efficient and profitable,
2. Expand our educational offerings to meet the current skill sets needed,
3. Raise the bar in the quality of our MLS so that consumers continue to view us as the ultimate source of information on homes on your Web site and www.har.com and;
4. Constantly and consistently communicate the value of a REALTOR in the news media.

While these sound simple, the steps taken and the future steps we continue to take are far more complex than could be communicated in this one article.

Most important to me is the individual agent who is out there practicing in an environment that has changed, dramatically. You may learn many things and see the industry shifting, however, it is still difficult to see if your actions will generate your desired results.

First, I think we all have to "get over" expecting others to practice real estate in the same way that we do.Variety has entered the stage in which we play and we have to adapt to its various nuances. It is much more important to focus on how you can retain your value and sustain your career.

Secondly, the operators and originators of new business models will get louder and louder about their value proposition. Those of us who have been in the business for awhile need to market our value proposition just as loudly! New competitors enter the market everyday and we cannot rest on our laurels. Nothing wilts faster!

To get a broader perspective, and understand where we need to go, let's look outside of our business and see how the same paradigms have changed other professions.

Enter the stock broker.
The stock broker who merely executes transactions is history. Online trading services do this far more efficiently. Those who have survived understand that they are not just stock brokers, but are providers of financial services and solutions. They understand a client's broader financial objectives and know their dreams, aspirations and where they want to go at each phase of their life. They deliver results that help to move a client where the client wants to go.

How About Lawyers?
If you go to www.completecase.com, you can get an uncontested divorce for $249. If you visit www.USLegalForms.com, you can download for a small fee, fill-in-the-blank wills, contracts and articles of incorporation. Lawyers were also like us, gatekeepers of the information, but not any more. Their value now lies in abilities that cannot be digitized - understanding the law and art of negotiation and convincing a jury to see the case in favor of their client. These are very valuable and well remunerated skills.

Accountants?
Ever heard of TurboTax? How about a $500 a month accountant in India? It would be best for the accountant to broaden his skills to deliver services that cannot be digitized.

If your business model is to merely execute transactions, you may be at the lower-end of the value service chain and should charge accordingly. Suppose your business model is real estate services and solutions. You give advice and counsel, based on the knowledge of your client's home buying or home selling objectives. You work hard on the client's behalf insuring they get the best price, and your communication and negotiating skills make a big difference in the value one derives from working with you. In other words, your worth goes far beyond crafting a transaction. You are building relationships and delivering skills that no computer can emulate. This is the high-end, high-value end of the real estate value chain.

Each of us has to decide at what point on the value chain we want our business model to scale and then develop a method to attract prospects desiring those values. My experience has always shown me that consumers demand much more than ever, and yet, they are willing to pay more if they perceive the value is higher. And the key word is perceive.

Many of us are still marketing the same and making the same presentations, and yet the consumer has changed. So, when consumers hear the same thing from everybody and one charges less; guess who wins? Consumers want to know "What's in it for me if I use you and are you worth what you charge and why?" Vanity marketing and espousing your success doesn't resonate with the new consumer. They want what they want (their terms, their perspectives) and they have alternatives to your business, just a mouse click away if you cannot answer those simple basic questions about your value.

According to Dan Pink, author of "Revenge of the Right-Brain," to flourish, we need to supplement our high-tech abilities with aptitudes that are "high concept" and "high touch." High concept involves the ability to create artistic and emotional beauty, [like featuring pictures of our listings that evoke emotion and charge the soul], to detect patterns and opportunities, to craft a satisfying communication and to come up with solutions the world didn't know it was missing. High touch is being empathetic, understanding human interaction, and finding joy and eliciting it in others. We have always been well known for this attribute.

What I have most admired in REALTORS is their ability to adapt. During the short-lived "dot-com" era, we all got better because the competition was forcing us to do so. Today is no different. No matter what competition is thrown our way, I believe the best REALTORS out there that will change for good, for better and forever. And I am sure you are one of them!

Happy Originating!

If You Buy Leads You Must Read This Right Now!

2007-09-21 10:09:24

Do you buy leads? Do you call these leads yourself?

If yes, then here is something that will scare the daylights out of you.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued a forfeiture notice to Dynasty Mortgage, LLC in the amount of $770,000 for 70 phone calls made by Dynasty to 50 consumers who were listed on the Federal Do Not Call List. According to the notice, Dynasty obtained the leads from a lead broker, who claimed the leads were scrubbed prior to Dynasty's purchase of the lead.

The forfeiture notice also found that Dynasty failed to comply with the Federal Do Not Call laws by failing to adequately train employees, maintain written guidelines, maintain an internal company do not call list, and failure to regularly download the Federal Do Not Call List and use the current list to scrub phone numbers before calling consumers.

In the notice to Dynasty the FCC also made it clear that purchasing a scrubbed list from a lead broker or aggregator is not compliant under the law.

The Dynasty Mortgage forfeiture notice is likely to have a sweeping effect on the mortgage industry. "I think this case is a wakeup call to all the mortgage companies out there that thought the federal DNC laws didn't affect them. This case shows that even companies that only conduct business in a local market within a single state need to comply with the federal guidelines," said Barry Kaye, a Beverly Hills attorney that specializes in compliance issues for mortgage companies. "It's a scary day for anyone that has relied upon buying "pre-scrubbed" leads since in and of itself this offers no protection."

Source: www.ftc.gov

What can we do so we don't get fined?

1. Stop calling people yourself. Unless you have a dedicated phone room and are compliant with all the Do Not Call requirements, DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME! Find a company that will do the calling for you.

2. Thoroughly investigate the company you are buying leads from. Find out how they get leads, what questions they ask, and what guarantee they provide before you give them a dime.

3. The larger the company the less risk for you. This still does not absolve you of any responsibilities, but the larger a company is, the more they have at stake to lose and the more likely they will be following all the laws.

4. Generate your own leads. Use the Greed Stimulator to get homebuyer leads, The Marketing To Real Estate Agents Toolkit to get Realtors to send you leads, and Referrals on Demand to get your personal sales force to send you leads. By having these three areas covered, you never have to put yourself at risk of getting ratted out to the FTC by people who you paid good money to contact.

Happy Originating!

The List Makes All The Difference

2007-09-21 10:11:24

Have you ever tried getting a refinance loan from a person who doesn't own a home? I can tell you from experience that it's not easy. In fact it's downright impossible, mainly because the prospect has no interest in what you are selling.

It's the same thing with selling ice to Eskimos. They already have all they can handle.

That is why you need to know exactly who you are targeting with your marketing and advertising. You cannot guess and you cannot kinda sorta know. If you want to close more loans with less work, you need to know every detail about your prospect BEFORE you make your pitch.

When you advertise for refinances, you need to target only people who own homes. But what if you could take it a little further? What if you could target people who own homes with a rate that is higher than normal? Would that result in a better response rate? Probably.

What if we took it further? People who own homes, have a higher than normal rate, and got their loans 5 years ago. Better response? You bet.

Let's go even further. People who own homes, have a higher than normal rate, got their loans 5 or more years ago, and have a child going to college this year. Would this be an amazing prospect or what?

Can you get a list of people that meet these criteria? Sure you can.

If you want, you can get a list of people that own Toyota 4-Runners, live in a house that is in the $300,000-$500,000 range, subscribe to SkyDiving Today magazine, and have three credit cards, two kids, 1 dog, and 1 iguana in Wilmington Delaware.

Chances are your list won't be very long. But if there is anyone out there that matches this criteria, you can find them. Face it, we have no privacy anymore.

So now how do we use this info to make more money?

Easy. Go through your past clients, and find the traits that most of them have in common. Put together a sketch of what your average client is like. Age: Sex: Marital Status: Neighborhood: Profession: Kids: Hobbies: Financial Status: Debt: Etc:

Once you have your list, it is time to find people just like your average client. The easiest way to do this is to call a good mailing list broker. Look them up in the yellow pages or on the Internet. They can help you determine how to refine your list to match what is available.

You now have a great chance to have your marketing message hit home with everyone on that list. Talk to them in their language. Get them to understand that you know what they are going through in life, that you understand their problems, and that you have a solution.

Market to them again, and again until they come into your fold.

If you need help determining your average client, I might be available for short duration consulting. Email the office if interested.

Happy Originating!

How To Get Your Prospects To Trust You

2007-09-21 10:13:20

The easiest way to increase your closing percentage (the ratio of prospects to closings) is to get your prospects to genuinely trust you.

Did you know that there has been more than one survey done where the public ranks loan officers only a little higher than used care salesmen and insurance salesmen in terms of trust? Put in another way, we have a serious credibility issue.

The media does not help us much either. There are more stories on mortgage fraud and predatory pricing in the news than there are stories of all the good and charitable work the mortgage community does.

In order to fight this, you need to get personal. You need to first of all get your prospects to TRUST YOU. You do this by establishing your credibility.

1. Use Testimonials. The more the merrier. Use pictures, audio and video if you can.

2. Join the Better Business Bureau or get your manager/owner to join. Then put their logo on all your marketing materials. It costs $400 or so a year, but it is worth it.

3. Join your Chamber of Commerce, and put their logo on all your materials.

4. If you are a member of your state's Association of Mortgage Brokers or Bankers use their logo and the National one as well.

5. Use the Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae logos. You can get them from their websites.

6. Use the HUD logo. This makes you look as if you are affiliated with the government and that brings peace of mind to consumers.

7. Get certified by NAMB and add some letters to your name. They have the following certifications: GMA - General Mortgage Associate, CRMS - Certified Residential Mortgage Specialist, CMC - Certified Mortgage Consultant.

Taking these small steps can put your prospect's minds at ease, especially if you are a small shop without a big name. By affiliating yourself with these other big names, you can share in their credibility.

Remember, prospects have to like you and trust you before they do business with you.

Happy Originating!

Get Free Advertising, Get More Referrals, Have Fun, and End Global Poverty At The Same Time!

2007-09-21 10:15:12

Would you like to get free exposure to thousands of people, show your clients that you are a wonderful person, have fun with your family and friends and help end global poverty at the same time?

Well then you need to register for the AKF Partnership Walk.

This year I am responsible for Walk Teams for the Houston walk. The Walk itself is a tool to raise funds for the AKF. The AKF helps the unfortunate in Asia and Africa. You can read more about the walk at www.partnershipwalk.org and about AKF at www.akdn.org.

So how do you get free advertising?

Simple.

Here's my idea.

Find a cause, like the AKF.

Find if they have a fun fundraising event where they need volunteers to come - like the Walk. But there should be a lot of people there. At the Walk this year there will be more than 9,000 in Houston alone.

Form a Walk Team. Have your coworkers, family, friends, and especially your clients to join your team. The more the merrier.

Have T-shirts made, advertising you and your services. Print your USP and website really big on all the shirts. Choose a shirt color that stands out, like bright yellow. The shirts will cost you about $5 each.

You can also print up a banner advertising yourself. Or your company.

Get as many people on your team as you can. The more people there are wearing your shirts the better for you.

Try to make them raise money too.

Have fun!

The AKF only has Walks in five cities: Houston, Dallas, LA, Atlanta, and Chicago. But the March of Dimes has their walks all over. And there are probably other causes that have walks in your area.

The beauty about a walk is that it is non strenuous, no bike riding or anything like that. Kids can join in too. Plus it can be over in 20-30 minutes. The rest of the time you socialize with your past clients who joined you, and talk to anyone you want to network with.

These fundraising walks usually have thousands of people there from all walks of life. So far at our Houston walk, we the following celebrities coming: The Mayor of Houston, The Mayor of Sugarland, The Mayor of Friendswood, a few city council members, at least 3 anchors of the local news, Congressman Tom Delay, Representative Sheila Jackson, and more that I am forgetting.

Plus, all the money raised goes to a good cause. Even if your database does not join your team and walk, you earn brownie points just by having a team and asking them to join you. Most people only ask friends and family to help them in things like this. So by asking them, you are sending a message, that you consider them friends. Just contacting them will keep you in their conscious mind.

As I always say, you must keep in contact with everyone in your database, and this is a great reason to call or write. Who knows, they might even send you a donation on their behalf.

So if you are in Houston or its suburbs and you want to form a Walk Team, email me or register online at www.partnershipwalk.org. If not, look for a walk, or similar event, that you can use to get more business and make a difference in the world at the same time.

Happy Originating!

Push vs. Pull Marketing: What They Are And How To Use Them

2007-09-21 10:17:17

I was in San Francisco last week. My wife and I stayed there a couple days while we took a week off to celebrate our 1 year wedding anniversary.

The last day of our stay, we decided to eat Chinese food, and being tourists, we wanted to eat in Chinatown. So we drove there, found parking on a very steep hill, (Never had to use both feet to drive an automatic before) and started walking around looking for a place to eat.

If you have been there, you know that there are hundreds of small restaurants all over. Our tour guide from the previous day had advised us that most of them are not very good and the best way to tell was if the place was busy. Makes sense, doesn't it? That's why I advise you to keep stacks of files around your office so prospects can see them.

Anyway, we are walking down the street and see a place call Silver Restaurant that looks good. As we are looking over the menu posted outside, a woman comes over and hands me a coupon for a restaurant right across the street. "Free Appetizer. Free Ice Cream. Good Food." She tells us. I look at the coupon, and it says they are celebrating their 85th anniversary. Hmm, I think to myself, they must be good if they have been open that long.

So we decided to check it out and start to walk across the street, but my wife paused for a second. The Chinese woman basically pushed us into the street and "escorted us" to the front door. That's where I stopped to see if a) I liked the menu and b) if there was anyone inside. It didn't seem like there was, and the prices were almost double of the other place. No wonder they give free ice cream. So we decided against it, handed back the coupon and walked back across the street to eat at the Silver Restaurant.

Side Note: Even after all that, I was up all night vomiting because of the food poisoning I got at the Silver Restaurant. Oh well.

So what can we learn from this?

In the story, there are two main types of marketing. The Silver Restaurant used Pull Marketing where the door was open, they had an attractive window with ducks, chickens, and pigs roasting in the window. The other restaurant was using Push marketing, salesmen on the street to give out coupons, and push people into the restaurant.

In our case, the pull marketing was more effective because the push got too aggressive. But the push almost worked. If the prices were similar and the woman had not physically pushed us, we probably would have eaten there. Why? Because she asked us to. And, we thought we were getting a deal - free ice cream, and because they had been open for 85 years (blowing their own horn), and because we didn't know the difference between the two.

Which of these two styles do you use?

Do you simply advertise and wait for people to come in or to call you? Or do you have a way to push them to you?

Which one should you use?

I suggest you use both styles.

If a prospect cannot tell the difference between you and your competition then you need to find a way to portray yourself as different (push).
When they come to you, they need to feel that you are competent and knowledgeable (pull).
You should have people referring you to others (push). Learn more about this in Referrals on Demand.
They should have a strong reason to choose you (push)
You should offer everything they need (pull)
You should take care of all their needs (pull)

If you are having trouble generating prospects, then you need to do a whole lot more pushing. If you have prospects but not enough of them are converting into loans, you need to work on your pulling.

Use these two styles together to get people to you and convince them that you are the one they need to work with.

Happy Originating!

The Joke's On Us

2007-09-20 12:11:14

Mortgage brokerage and lending is a serious business. And that is why we sometimes need to step-back, take a look at what is really important, and be able to laugh at ourselves.

It is with this goal in mind, that I am trying to put together a Mortgage Joke Book. I tried finding one, but so far no one has thought about publishing one. So I guess if I want one, I'll have to publish it myself.

Anyway, if you would help that would be great. If you have any funny mortgage/real estate related jokes, stories, sayings, anything at all that you would like to share please email them to me at ameen (at) mortgagebrokertraining.com.

I will try to give credit to everyone in the book who contributes.

And here's a website you should check out for today's chuckle. Thanks to Richard Walter Davis for telling me about it.

www.fantasylandmortgage.com

Happy Originating!

Want To Easily Impress Your Prospects?

2007-09-21 10:18:57

Here is an easy way for you to impress your prospects.

Do the math in your head.

Simple addition, subtraction, and a little multiplication. I am not talking about calculus or algebra here. I am talking about leaving the little calculator in the drawer and being able to do some number crunching in your head.

For example: If the PI is $1,342 and the TI is $682, what is my monthly payment? Quickly now. In your head please. Can you do it?

If not, then do not worry because most of your clients cannot do it either. There is no shame in bringing out the calculator.

But what if you could do it in your head?

As soon as a prospect asks what his payment will be, give him the PI and TI separate just like I gave you above. Tell him to determine the monthly payment all he has to do is add them together. As he sits there looking all confused, blurt out the answer. If you think he doesn't trust you, get the calculator and let him use it to verify the answer. No, make sure he verifies your answer so there is no doubt in his head that you are right.

Or give him the calculator and blurt out the answer before he can finish keying in the numbers.

This is impressive, because you look smart. The impression is that you know what you are doing. If you can do math in your head, the math that he can only do with the help of a machine, the prospect will start to see you as smarter than him.

And smarter than any other loan officer he talked to already who needed the calculator.

Later on, he will question you less when it comes to numbers (like on the GFE or HUD), because you have proven yourself to be a math "genius".

Is it really that easy? Are people really that ignorant about math? I am sad to say, yes.

Visit any fast food restaurant and try to get correct change back when the register isn't working.

I went to Sonic for lunch today. (Sonic is a drive in hamburger place). The exact change to give to customers is printed on the bottom of the receipt in big bold numbers. No joke. These kids working there do not have to think for themselves.

People just do not use their heads to do math anymore. With computers and calculators, even us, as loan officers are guilty. I am too. I hate doing math in my head. But when I did it in front of prospects, it sure made me look good!

Oh, one final warning: Make sure you do not get the number wrong. That wouldn't be a good thing.

Happy Originating!

How To Compete When You Can't Compete On Price

2007-09-21 10:21:21

Many loan officers feel the only way to compete is by price. They think that if they have the lowest rate and fees, they should be flooded with business. And in many cases this is true. Take a look at Wal-Mart. They have become one of the largest companies in the world if not the largest, and their main claim to fame is "Always Low Prices".

Does that mean no one can compete with them? Hardly. Target competes, so does Nordstrom, and every other retailer in town. A dollar spent at Wal-Mart is a dollar not spent anywhere else. So how do others compete? Target stresses high design at low prices. Nordstrom stresses service and quality at high prices.

Not everyone shops by price alone.

But money is a commodity right? One mortgage is the same as any other correct? So what's a loan officer to do when others are advertising lower rates than you have access to and no fees?

To answer this question I want to use Circuit City as a case study.

A couple months ago I was in the market for a Tomtom GPS navigation system. Online I went to pricegrabber.com to see what it would cost me. Prices for this gizmo ranged from $699 to $599. Circuit City was the most expensive, by a hundred dollars. Why would anyone pay $100 to buy the same gizmo? So Circuit City probably doesn't sell any of these units at all right? Wrong. They sell more then anyone else. The interesting thing is why.

They sell more because they can offer what the others cannot. I saw one of their commercials just a few minutes ago. In it they didn't talk about price, it talked about their main advantage - that you can order online at their website and pick up the merchandise within 20 minutes at one of their stores. And since you can pick it up at the store, if there is anything wrong with it, you can also return it or exchange it at the store. You can't do that with the others.

So when someone is buying one of these gizmos they have to decide:

Do I want to pay less money, but pay shipping and wait for it to arrive? Then take a chance that there might be a hassle if it has to be returned. Or pay more, get it right away, and get piece of mind?

I ended up buying it at a Circuit City store and paying $699. (By the way, their so-called price match guarantee is a con. They don't match prices on the Internet.) I figured that since I was already paying a lot of money for this thing, it would suck if it didn't work. And I have had a ton of bad luck when it comes to electronic stuff not working for me the way it is supposed to.

Would I have liked to save the $100? You bet. But I wasn't going to risk it.

And that is precisely the mindset that many of your prospects have when searching for a loan officer. They want to get the best deal, but not if it means getting the wrong loan, or losing the house.

What you need is a benefit that others do not provide even if you are more expensive. Come up with something that is unique to you, like Circuit City's buy online and pick up at the store concept.

What can you do to add more "oomph" to your service? When you come up with something, make it the focus of your marketing instead of price and you can stop worrying about competing with others.

Happy Originating!

Why News Releases Fail And What to Do About It

2007-09-21 10:23:31

The following article is from Paul Krupin. I have used Paul's service in the past, and it is something you should check out if you are using press releases to boost your business.

Why News Releases Fail -- The Most Common Reasons & What to Do About It

By Paul J. Krupin

Sorry about my otaku with this issue (otaku = more than a hobby, a little
less than an obsession).

Many of you may know me, since I run Imediafax, the Internet to Media Fax
Service. I send out over a million news releases a year for people via fax
and email. You probably think that I’ve got news releases failing on me day
in and day out.

Actually, I don’t. The news releases I write and send out for people do
quite well. My clients are quite happy with me because they are successful
with their outreach efforts.

It’s the draft news releases that people send to me that are my problem.

Fixing the problems I see in the news releases people send me takes
forever. It is also very painful.

I’ve seen a lot of news release failure over the years, and I now know what
the key problems look like and how to fix them.

My plight as a publicist is that I spend a lot of time educating my clients
trying to get them to understand the psychology of dealing with the media.

The rubber meets the road in the news release because this single sheet of
paper is the key nexus for all communications with the media. The
importance of the copy on a news release cannot be overstated. It has to
be free of negative issues or factors that will reduce or eliminate media
interest and response. One fatal error and it’s all over.

So identifying the problems and revising the news releases is crucial. I
spend a tremendous amount of time and effort trying to avoid sending out
news releases with problems still in them.

The issue is that when people send me news releases, it often takes a long,
long time to identify and communicate the problems, and then more time
again to explain and negotiate all the word changes with the clients, and
more time still to finalize the news release and have it ready and approved
for transmittal.

Honestly it can be very painful for all involved. I’m quite brutal on my
clients, since their success is all that matters. I don’t pull any punches. My comment process can bruise a lot of highly inflated egos of some otherwise very accomplished people, on the way to a problem free news release that maximizes the chances of success when finally sent. Lots of people think they can write a news release. Very few of them can do it
very well.

They simply haven’t followed the media response to enough news releases to
learn the errors that are made when they write news releases. They haven’t
yet learned what the mistakes are, so there is no learning from continuous
improvement.

This is where the blood, sweat and tears of the copywriting business is
truly found. It gets even tougher when another professional publicist
wrote the news release for the client. Now the client is getting opposing
advice from two professionals. One says “Make it Hot” and the other says
“Cool it”. What’s a publicist to do?

So my motivations for doing this article are really quite selfish. I want
to spend less time doing this. My life will be significantly improved if my
clients send me news releases that take less time and energy to fix. Very
simply, for each and every news release that comes in and doesn’t have
these problems, I’ll free myself to spend more time doing things that are
more profitable for my clients and me.

The issues listed here have all been identified as reasons for the failure
of a news release. This is based on over 20 years of experience in dealing
with the aftermath the actual number and quality of responses generated
from the transmittal of a news release.

So here are the most common reasons why news releases fail:

1. You wrote an advertisement. It’s not a news release at all. It
sells product. It fails to offer solid news of real tangible interest,
value-added information, education or entertainment.

2. You wrote for a minority, not for a majority of people in the
audience. You simply won’t compete with other news releases that clearly
are written for a larger demographic of the media audience.

3. You are the center of attention, not the media audience. You focus
on your business and your marketing, instead of things the editor and his
or her audience will be interested in.

4. You forgot to put the five W’s up front. (WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN
and WHY THE AUDIENCE WILL BE INTERESTED). You didn’t clearly and
succinctly tell the media why the audience would be interested in this.

5. You are too wordy and text dense. You focused on details and
minutia, instead of the most important ideas, issues, factors, facts, and
news angles. You fail to address the real significant impacts your story
has on people.

6. You place too much information on one page the one page news
release has a font size so small an editor needs a magnifying glass to read
it.

7. You included corporate logos and other non-persuasive low value
added graphics that distract the editor from your key message. You may
have also used an unusual fancy font or a file format that turns to
gobbledygook when it goes through a fax machine.

8. You wrote a personally biased article for the media to publish,
instead of pitching the idea to the media and the objective reasons why the
media audience will be interested.

9. You wrote about features and facts, and forgot to explain what it
means to real people. Tell a story about real people. Add in real life
human interest.

10. You wrote about how your news ties in to someone else’s fame and glory.
Forget it. Never stand in the shadow of someone else. Make your own
light. Tell your own story.

11. Your news release responds to something that just happened. You’re too
late. You’re behind the eight ball. Forget it. Get out in front of the
news.

12. You included too much hype, self-laudatory praise, pithy quotes,
useless testimonials, jargon or gobbledygook. Get rid of it.

13. You may have also identified prior media coverage, which indicates it’s
no longer a new issue. Get rid of it. Let each news release stand on it’s
own two feet.

14. You tried to impress and be clever or innovative but you come off
naïve, less than expert, biased, flippant, arrogant, or crazy. Tone it
down. Get straight.

15. You made vague and unsubstantiated claims, or wild and outrageous
claims, or you included a statement that simply rubs the media the wrong
way. Get rid of them.

16. You are trying to be different, just for the sake of it, but you come
off eccentric. Forget it. Don’t create a false or inflated image. Be
yourself.

17. You wrote a rant and rave, worthy of a letter to the editor, instead of
a problem solving tips article, worthy of a feature story. Decide what you
want, put your best effort into it.

18. You are simply not credible. It could be your ideas are simply not
well thought out, or that you have offered old well-worn material, or that
you are too extreme or controversial, or not qualified. You may not be
expert enough, or sufficiently qualified, to make the statements, compared
to others in your field. You need to present information that qualifies
you properly and adequately.

19. You provided poor contact information. You need to identify the best
single point of contact and the correct phone number so interested media
can reach you and get the best possible attention and response from you to
meet their needs. One key person, one phone, no fax, one email address, and one URL (with no long string addresses).

20. You did not include a clear media call for action. You didn’t tell the
media what you want them to do with your news release. You need to tell
them what you are asking for or suggesting or offering. Then you need to
offer the media incentives value-added reasons to do so, like free review
copies, free test samples, interview questions and answers, media kits with
story angles and stats and data, relevant photographs, etc.

21. You did not incorporate and integrate a primary response mechanism. You need to include a value-added reason, which motivates the editor to publish or mention your contact information, which will generate calls, traffic,
interviews, or requests for more information. This usually means something
unique and of special value to the audience, that the editor feels good
about mentioning. Use an offer for a free problem solving report.

22. You sent the release to the wrong media. Target the media that your
clients read, watch and listen to when they are in the right mood, that is,
receptive to hearing about your news, and willing to take action when they
get your message. Work with your publicist to target the right media.

23. You rely on a single fax or an email to produce an avalanche of media
calls. You conduct no follow up. Get real. Follow up properly and you
can triple or quadruple your media response rate. Better still, you can
ask the editors “what can I give you to support a feature story and meet
your needs”.

Finally, the biggest reason for news release failure is one of attitude.
How do you define success or failure? It’s called unrealistic expectations.

Get real. You won’t get rich off one news release. You’re chances of
getting famous are just about as slim.

You might be able to break even.

Look at your investment and compare it to what you need to break even on
your investment. If you need to sell 100 books to cover the costs of a
$500 outreach effort, you need ten articles because each article only
produces ten sales. So that’s your break even goal. More books per
article, means less articles will satisfy your needs.

You may simply have to be realistic and understand that while you are
wildly interested in the topic, it may not have the broad general public
interest that you have for the subject. If you wrote an article that has
local interest and you expect national media to pay attention, think again.

If you want to be on the Oprah Winfrey Show, then you'd better pray because
chances of doing it off one news release are very slim, near zero in fact.
Get real. If she calls, then congratulations are in order. But don’t count
on it.

If you wrote an advertisement and wanted a feature story and interviews,
don’t be surprised if the only media to call is the advertising manager
offering you a package deal. You get what you ask for. What you offer is
often times what you will get.

Even if you do get publicity, it may not come out exactly the way you want
it. More often than not, the bigger the media, the less likely they are to
run contact information.

Often times, the quality may be there while the numbers are not.

One or two quality media responses may be what you want or need. If you get
that, it’s a success.

One article in USA Today may out perform ten articles in small dailies and
weeklies in the mid-west.

On the other hand, it may not. The small high quality articles may
outperform the small mention in the big media.

Similarly, one quality 30-minute interview on a well-liked talk show on a
radio station in the middle of nowhere out in the mid-west, will likely
outsell a five-minute interview on an Arbitron rated radio station in the
middle of the morning talk show in a major metropolitan area. You can't
tell the listening quality of the audience.

So when you write a news release please review it against these criteria to
see if you've made any of these errors. Then fix each and every one of them
yourself, and when you are done, feel free to send me your final draft.
I’ll be happy to take a look at it.

So listen to your publicist. Heed these warnings and reduce the risks of
failure. Fail to pay attention to these issues, proceed at your own risk.

Paul J. Krupin is the author of the book “Trash Proof News Releases” and creator of IMEDIAFAX - The Internet to Media Fax Service.

His service transmits news releases to custom targeted media lists via fax and e-mail

Visit www.Imediafax.com

There are more articles, strategy and tactics at the Imediafax.com website.

You can also download the free pdf file ebook version of his classic manual for publicity practitioners, "Trash Proof News Releases" so to be updated and released in a brand new second edition.

Happy Originating!

The Action Formula

2007-09-21 10:27:23

I subscribe to several newsletters to stay on top of new developments in the business world and so I can pass on the best ones to you guys.

I got an issue yesterday that was great. It has a lot of amazing ideas and ways to motivate yourself.

I am copying it here for you. The author even provides a valuable free gift that you should download and use. It's from the TalkBiz Newsletter by Paul Myers. If you like this issue, you might want to sign up for his newsletter at : http://www.talkbiznews.com/index.html

Taking action was the challenge that seemed the most serious for the people who mentioned it. And it's one we all have to deal with at one time or another.

I personally go through periods when I can't stop creating and other periods when the motivation to do something is hard to find. It's a complicated thing to manage.

I was sitting at my favorite brainstorming restaurant the other day, at my favorite booth. I had spent some time thinking about this and, in the middle of my salmon, it hit me. A simple way to describe it, in mathematical terms.

Really. Here it is:

A=m/t
"Action is motivation expressed over time."

Think about it.

That's not a figure of speech. I mean it.

Think about it.

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Some people will scowl at the idea of coming up with a formula for something like this. That's okay. It's an odd sort of way to go at it.

Still, math is just a way of expressing relationships in concise terms that operate according to specific rules.

You can determine a person's level of motivation by watching how many actions they take over how long a period of time. If a person stops taking action towards a goal, their motivation will drop.

Conversely, if you get moving, you get motivated. Even random movement will motivate you. You'll get frsutrated at the randomness of your results and focus your efforts toward a more useful goal. ;)

If you increase a person's motivation and decrease the amount of time they have to accomplish what they want, they'll take a lot more actions than they would have otherwise.

So, the math works. (Aside from the minor quibble of assigning proper units of measure, of course...)

How is this helpful?

Stick with me. It'll get clearer soon, I promise.

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Action isn't the desired result. The desired result is. Your purpose.

If your actions aren't focused on a specific end result, or purpose, they're pointless. That is how you see highly motivated people spinning their wheels and getting nowhere.

They aren't focused on RIGHT action. They're not acting on purpose.

More math:

P=gp
"Purpose is the result of the power of your goals multiplied by the clarity of your plan."

The clearer your plans and the more powerful your goals, the more purposefully you'll act. That leads to greater results, which increases motivation, which further increases action.

A virtuous circle.

We like that.

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Now, how do you use this?

It's simple, really. Adjust any part of the formula, and you get changes in all the other parts. It's automatic.

Pick a goal that has more power for you, and you get more motivated. Define a clearer plan and you'll accomplish your purpose more quickly.

The only thing that can break the process is if you either have no real goal, or you are claiming a goal that isn't yours in the first place.

For instance, let's take the classic cliche: Your parents want you to be a doctor. You want to do something else, but you go to medical school anyway.

Your real goal in this case is not to become a doctor, it's to please your parents. Your success will depend on how much you want to achieve that goal. If it's in conflict with a real and personal goal, that can be a big problem.

If there's no conflict, you might increase your motivation by deciding that becoming a doctor will make it easier for you to reach your personal goals.

Starting to see where this is going?

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If you really want to take action, you need to figure out what you want most, and develop a plan to get it as quickly as possible.

If you're chasing a "goal" that's a default, you'll take default actions. If you're chasing a goal that you really don't want, you'll sabotage yourself.

THAT is the real cause of what's often misdiagnosed as "fear of success."

If you really want something badly enough, and you have a clear plan to get it, you won't have any trouble taking action.

Ol' Shakey Bill had the formula nailed when he said, "To thine own self be true."

Go grab that free goals book and get started.

Enjoy!

Paul

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I suggest you download Paul's free goals book and start to use it right away.

Happy Originating!

Your Lenders Are Spying On Your Clients

2007-09-21 10:28:56

As mortgage brokers we are always in jeopardy of losing our customers to the lenders we work with.

We deal with our clients for a short amount of time, but the lender is in constant communication with them for years. And whenever your customers are asked who their mortgage company is, they will usually answer the name of their lender.

Some lenders are better at stealing our clients then others.

As a real estate investor I have had loans with several different lenders. One of my properties had a loan from a lender called JB Nutter. This was a small bank that did a very poor job of marketing itself to its customers. I would hear from them 3 times a year. Once to send me a coupon book for the year, another to tell me how much interest I paid that year for my taxes, and another to tell me about how much money was in my escrow account.

They never once tried to offer me a refinance.

My current mortgage for my residence is with Countrywide. These guys know their stuff. They mail me a statement every month. And in every statement is an offer to refinance or get a line of credit, or insurance. They are always politely selling something. And if that weren't enough, they mail me every couple months or so more offers to refinance or tap some equity. But at least they are not as sneaky as World Savings Bank.

One of my investment properties had one of their loans. They now have hooked up with the credit bureaus so that whenever someone with one of their loans gets their credit checked by a mortgage company or lender, they get notified. I like getting my credit checked every 3 months, and with my own mortgage company all it takes is a couple keystrokes of my computer. Imagine my surprise when I got a call at home from a World Savings rep asking me if I was thinking about refinancing. He told me he knew I had my credit checked by a mortgage company and that they were ready to give me a better offer then whatever I was getting,

They have a whole division of telemarketers who do nothing but call their loan holders who are getting their credit checked by other mortgage companies. So even if you get a client a World Savings loan, and that client comes back to you later for a refi, you are now going to have to compete with World Savings for this customer.

Pisses you off doesn't it?

And you can bet that now that one lender is doing this, others will follow suit,.

So what do we as mortgage brokers do about this?

Simple, we form close relationships with our clients, that basically makes them immune to any sales pitch by any other lender or mortgage company. I call it the "silent forcefield". We need to use every tool at our disposal to make sure that once a person becomes a client we never let them go.

I outline the "silent forcefield' completely in our Referrals on Demand product, but I will lay out some guidelines for you here.

1. You must stay in contact with them on a regular basis. Once a month minimum The easiest way to do this is through a monthly newsletter. Outsource this to a newsletter company and they will handle the production, printing, and mailing of the newsletter to your clients every month.

2. WOW your clients as soon as you can. Come up with a creative way to make a great impression on your clients. Here's an example. There is dentist in Australia who was tired of having customers be afraid to see him. So he completely changed his office. Now instead of a regular dentist office, it looks more like someone's living room. There is the aroma of fresh baked cinnamon buns in the air, (sugar free) that can be enjoyed with coffee or tea. There is no receptionist sitting there with the little window that they keep closing on you. This dentist now has a referral only practice, where the only way to work with him, is if you know someone who already works with him, and they give you a referral.

3. Get to know your clients and let them get to know you. Show your personality. Let them know about your family. Keep them informed about how your kids are doing in school. Remember, you do not want to seem like their bank. You want to seem like a family friend that happens to do mortgages. Have customer appreciation parties. Have house warming parties. Have a grand birthday party for yourself every year. Give yourself excuses to call your clients and get to know them socially.

4. Start a blog and write about whatever you want. Invite your clients to visit often and provide feedback.

5. Become a customer of your clients. If one of your clients owns a dry cleaners, get your clothes cleaned there. Reward them for doing business with you by doing business with them.

6. Get your clients to network amongst themselves. Create a referral club. Your dry cleaner client can go to your dentist client when his teeth hurt. And if you make the referral you look even better.

These are just a few ideas to help you keep your customers. People do business with people they like. By forming relationships with your past clients you can make sure they keep coming back to you.

Happy Originating!

Marketing Quiz 1 of 3

2007-09-21 10:30:36

Marketing Quiz #1 of 3

The following is a marketing quiz. It gives you three simple products and asks you to determine which product has the greatest chance of success in the marketplace. All three are real products that have been introduced in the past, but the names have been changed.

This quiz has been taken from the book, Jump Start Your Business Brain by Doug Hall. One of the things about Doug is that he writes using facts. He can back up every statement he makes with raw statistics taken from thousands of products in the marketplace. If you haven't read this book yet, get it.

Round 1

Give yourself about 2 minutes or less to complete this quiz.

Product #1: Redout Rust Stopper

Stops Rust Each Time You Flush

Redout Rust Stopper is a bowl cleaner that prevents rust with every flush. Its unique, time-released formula stops the formation of rust and hard-water stains in your toilet bowl and tank, eliminating waterline ring. Nothing else on the market works like Redout Rust Stopper. It contains no acids, chlorine bleach, caustics, phosphates, or dyes and is safe for plumbing and septic systems.

Product # 2: Grandma Fricker's Organic Meals For Kids

Kids Meals Made From Organic Ingredients

Grandma Frisker's Organic Meals for Kids were developed to introduce children to the advantages of organic foods in a way they'll appreciate their whole lives. The recipes capture the flavor and fun of kids' favorite foods, using premium-quality, certified organic ingredients. Try all the flavors-including Pasta-Os in Tomato Sauce, Pasta-Os in Tomato Cheese Sauce, and Beans and Veggie Franks.

Product #3: StainSane

An Instant Stain and Spot Remover That Won't Harm You or Your Fabrics

StainSane Instant Spot and Stain Remover is safe for you and safe for your fabric. Use StainSane to get rid of a wide range of stains - grass, blood, coffee, perspiration, grease, ink, pet stains, chocolate and more. Its nontoxic formula works on clothing, rugs, upholstery, vinyl, and as a laundry pretreatment. Plus, it's biodegradable and nonflammable.

Now rank the potential for each idea - number 1 having the greatest potential for customer success:

_____ Redout Rust Stopper ______ Grandma Fricker's ______ StainSane

Before reviewing the results, ask yourself how you feel about your answers. Would you feel comfortable investing your entire net worth in your decisions? Can you explain your decision to others? Are your choice guided by instinct or principles?

In this round, Overt Benefit is the main point of difference. The Overt Benefit answers for the consumer "What's in it for me?" Consumers want to know the benefits of your service not the features.

A feature of a loan officer might be "I return all phone calls within 2 hours". But the benefit to the consumer is "I will always be available to talk to you"

You can read more about the Overt Benefit in Doug's book. We also cover this topic from a mortgage point of view in our Jump Start Your Mortgage Career E-Class.

Answers:
#1 Redout Rust Stopper
#2 StainSane
#3 Grandma Friker's

Happy Originating!

Marketing Quiz 2 of 3

2007-09-21 10:32:13

Marketing Quiz #2 of 3

Round 2

Give yourself about 2 minutes or less to complete this quiz.

Product #1: StepSafe Ice and Snow Remover

Melts Ice and Snow on Walkways in Super-Low Temperatures

Use StepSafe Ice and Snow Remover on steps, porches, and walkways to melt ice, snow, sleet and freezing rain. Specially formulated for harsh winter conditions, it works immediately to melt ice in temperatures as low as -50 degrees Fahrenheit to guard against winter slips - and it's safe on concrete, shrubs, and lawns. StepSafe comes in a convenient shaker package that's easy to store in your car, kitchen, hall closet or office.

Product #2: Jack Snack's Milwaukee Beach Snack Mix

A Tropical Party From Milwaukee?

It happened one January winter. The snow was piling and kids were whining. Jack was going a bit stir-crazy. Time for something different. Time to escape the same old same old. OK, OK. It's true there is no Milwaukee beach with palm trees, umbrella drinks and beach cabanas. But we didn't let that get in the way of our imaginations. Jack Snack's new snack mix is a tropical island blend with the tastes of the islands.

Product #3: Microwave Sentry

Monitors Your Microwave to Insure Your Family's Safety

The Microwave Sentry is a reusable indicator that detects radiation leaks from your microwave. These leaks sometimes can be caused by basic wear and tear or food particles that become caught in door seals or hinges. The Microwave Sentry has a laboratory-tested sensor that uses liquid crystal technology to change color to show if your microwave is leaking radiation. Full instructions are on the card along with a toll-free number to cal with questions.

Now rank the potential for each idea - number 1 having the greatest potential for customer success:

_____ StepSafe ______ Jack Snack's ______ Microwave Sentry

In this quiz, Real Reason to Believe was the most dominate factor. Consumers must believe what you advertise. It should be direct and easy to understand. As a mortgage broker saying that you work with hundreds of lenders is not as effective as saying that you work with 348 national lenders.

You can read more about the Overt Benefit in Doug's book. We also cover this topic from a mortgage point of view in our Jump Start Your Mortgage Career E-Class.

Answers:
#1 Microwave Sentry
#2 StepSafe
#3 Jack Snack's

Happy Originating!

Around the Country in 365 Days

2007-09-21 10:34:22

Last November, my wife and I decided to spend some time and take a trip traveling around the country. Thanks to the way I have set up my loan origination and marketing I can take a lot of time off and still generate a fair income.

We are thinking of spending a year traveling. Currently we are in Long Beach California. As of today we have been here two months. After another month we will relocate to San Francisco for a few months, then Hawaii, then New York City. Plans are not set in stone and may change.

As we travel around the country I am going to note all my observations about the mortgage and real estate environments in the areas we visit as well as report all the marketing blunders and triumphs that I witness.

And there will be pictures too, so you can travel along with us.

If we are close to your town shoot me an email and perhaps we can meet up. We are going to need some locals to show us all the hotspots. :)

You can checkout my posts at: http://marketingmortgages.blogspot.com

I have already uploaded pictures from the Grand Canyon, San Diego, and Las Vegas. There is also a post about how loan officers are compared to car salesman that I think you should read.

UPDATE: This issue was written in California. We have since finished our travel and are back in Houston safe and sound. Instead of driving in a circle around the US we actually did a figure 8. From Houston to Arizona to Las Vegas to Los Angeles. We stayed in Long Beach for 3 months. From there to San Francisco where we stayed for 3 months. Then to Portland, Seattle Vancouver, Calgary, Montana, Yellowstone, and Mount Rushmore. In South Dakota we took a detour and headed back to Houston. After about a month we went East all the way to Miami. Then north to Atlanta, The Carolinas, and Smoky Mountains National Park. From Chattanooga to D.C to Manhattan where we stayed for another 3 months. Then to Cleveland, Chicago and back to South Dakota where we took the detour and then straight South back to Houston.

It was am amazing trip and we hope to take many more like it in the future. For pictures and commentary please see the blog mentioned above.

Happy Originating!

Marketing Quiz 3 of 3

2007-09-21 11:22:52

Marketing Quiz #3 of 3

Round 3

Give yourself about 2 minutes or less to complete this quiz.

Product #1: Opti-roma

An Air Freshener That Lets You Choose From Three Fragrances

Opti-roma is the only air freshener that lets you choose between three attractive scents in one. Its innovative container is designed so that while the scent you select fight odors, the other two scents remain freshly sealed. Opti-roma lasts longer, up to sixty days. The three distinct fragrances in the package are Sweet Strawberry, Tropical Exotic, Lemon Fresh Crush. Or you can choose a unit with fragrances of Spiced Lemon, Meadow Mist, and Southern Potpourri.

Product #2: HearthGlow

A Quick-Lighting Fireplace Log of All-Natural Peat

Hearth Glow is a quick-lighting, long-burning fireplace log that's environmentally friendly because it's made of natural organic peat. Made with peat compressed with wax, HearthGlow fireplace logs are soot free, non-toxic, and nonsparking. A compact 5-lb log will burn brightly for more than three hours

Product #3: Ventin' Scents

Turns Your Room Vents Into an Air-Freshening System

Ventin'Scents air freshener is an easy, inexpensive way to use your venting system to circulate a pleasant fragrance throughout your home or office. And it kills germs that can come from ventilation system and make your environment unhealthy. Place the patented Ventin' Scents fragrance cartridge just inside an air intake, and the free-flowing air from your central heat, air conditioner or heat pump gently releases aroma every time your system turns on. Ventin' Scents will keep the fragrance flowing all day long for up to six weeks. Available in French Vanilla, Caribbean Breeze, Sweet Floral, and Gardenia Potpourri fragrances.

Now rank the potential for each idea - number 1 having the greatest potential for customer success:

_____ Opti-roma ______ HearthGlow ______ Ventin' Scents

In this quiz we are looking at Dramatic Difference. Without uniqueness you have a commodity and will receive commodity profit margins. You and your products must be unique to be successful. What makes you different from all the other loan officers in your marketplace? If you don't have an answer, or if your answer is not convincing enough to your prospects they will see no real reason to do business with you.

You can read more about the Overt Benefit in Doug's book. We also cover this topic from a mortgage point of view in our Jump Start Your Mortgage Career E-Class.

Answers:
#1 Ventin'Scents
#2 Opti-roma
#3 HearthGlow

Happy Originating!

Keyboard Shortcuts

2007-09-21 11:25:06

We do a ton of typing, (or at least our processors do). So when I came across this list of keyboard shortcuts, I automatically thought it would be a great thing to share with you. These have saved me a ton of time. At first, I hesitated to use them, but I started with one, then another, then another. Enjoy!

General Keyboard Shortcuts

CTRL+C (Copy)

CTRL+X (Cut)

CTRL+V (Paste)

CTRL+Z (Undo)

DELETE (Delete)

SHIFT+DELETE (Delete the selected item permanently without placing the item in the Recycle Bin)

CTRL while dragging an item (Copy the selected item)

CTRL+SHIFT while dragging an item (Create a shortcut to the selected item)

F2 key (Rename the selected item)

CTRL+RIGHT ARROW (Move the insertion point to the beginning of the next word)

CTRL+LEFT ARROW (Move the insertion point to the beginning of the previous word)

CTRL+DOWN ARROW (Move the insertion point to the beginning of the next paragraph)

CTRL+UP ARROW (Move the insertion point to the beginning of the previous paragraph)

CTRL+SHIFT with any of the arrow keys (Highlight a block of text)

SHIFT with any of the arrow keys (Select more than one item in a window or on the desktop, or select text in a document)

CTRL+A (Select all)

F3 key (Search for a file or a folder)

ALT+ENTER (View the properties for the selected item)

ALT+F4 (Close the active item, or quit the active program)

ALT+ENTER (Display the properties of the selected object)

ALT+SPACEBAR (Open the shortcut menu for the active window)

CTRL+F4 (Close the active document in programs that enable you to have multiple documents open simultaneously)

ALT+TAB (Switch between the open items)

ALT+ESC (Cycle through items in the order that they had been opened)

F6 key (Cycle through the screen elements in a window or on the desktop)

F4 key (Display the Address bar list in My Computer or Windows Explorer)

SHIFT+F10 (Display the shortcut menu for the selected item)

ALT+SPACEBAR (Display the System menu for the active window)

CTRL+ESC (Display the Start menu)

ALT+Underlined letter in a menu name (Display the corresponding menu)

Underlined letter in a command name on an open menu (Perform the corresponding command)

F10 key (Activate the menu bar in the active program)

RIGHT ARROW (Open the next menu to the right, or open a submenu)

LEFT ARROW (Open the next menu to the left, or close a submenu)

F5 key (Update the active window)

BACKSPACE (View the folder one level up in My Computer or Windows Explorer)

ESC (Cancel the current task)

SHIFT when you insert a CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive (Prevent the CD-ROM from automatically playing)

Dialog Box Keyboard Shortcuts

CTRL+TAB (Move forward through the tabs)

CTRL+SHIFT+TAB (Move backward through the tabs)

TAB (Move forward through the options)

SHIFT+TAB (Move backward through the options)

ALT+Underlined letter (Perform the corresponding command or select the corresponding option)

ENTER (Perform the command for the active option or button)

SPACEBAR (Select or clear the check box if the active option is a check box)

Arrow keys (Select a button if the active option is a group of option buttons)

F1 key (Display Help)

F4 key (Display the items in the active list)

BACKSPACE (Open a folder one level up if a folder is selected in the Save As or Open dialog box)

Microsoft Natural Keyboard Shortcuts

Windows Logo (Display or hide the Start menu)

Windows Logo+BREAK (Display the System Properties dialog box)

Windows Logo+D (Display the desktop)

Windows Logo+M (Minimize all of the windows)

Windows Logo+SHIFT+M (Restore the minimized windows)

Windows Logo+E (Open My Computer)

Windows Logo+F (Search for a file or a folder)

CTRL+Windows Logo+F (Search for computers)

Windows Logo+F1 (Display Windows Help)

Windows Logo+ L (Lock the keyboard)

Windows Logo+R (Open the Run dialog box)

Windows Logo+U (Open Utility Manager)

Accessibility Keyboard Shortcuts

Right SHIFT for eight seconds (Switch FilterKeys either on or off)

Left ALT+left SHIFT+PRINT SCREEN (Switch High Contrast either on or off)

Left ALT+left SHIFT+NUM LOCK (Switch the MouseKeys either on or off)

SHIFT five times (Switch the StickyKeys either on or off)

NUM LOCK for five seconds (Switch the ToggleKeys either on or off)

Windows Logo +U (Open Utility Manager)

Windows Explorer Keyboard Shortcuts

END (Display the bottom of the active window)

HOME (Display the top of the active window)

NUM LOCK+Asterisk sign (*) (Display all of the subfolders that are under the selected folder)

NUM LOCK+Plus sign (+) (Display the contents of the selected folder)

NUM LOCK+Minus sign (-) (Collapse the selected folder)

LEFT ARROW (Collapse the current selection if it is expanded, or select the parent folder)

RIGHT ARROW (Display the current selection if it is collapsed, or select the first subfolder)

Happy Originating!

How To Retire in 5 Years or Less

2007-09-21 11:26:57

I used to write another subscription based newsletter called The Fortune Maker. The purpose of this newsletter was the help readers to retire in 5 years or less.

According to the rules I laid out, retirement meant:

1. You must be debt free.

2. You must own your own house.

3. You must have enough passive income to pay for your living expenses.

4. You must own your own business.

5. You must have a retirement account.

I planned to write this newsletter long enough to have enough material to put together a book or a course on the subject. And since I had met all five criteria laid out above I thought I was the perfect person to teach others to do so.

But due to other circumstances, like the success of my other books, I never had the time to devote to this newsletter so I stopped writing it.

The other day, I was looking through my files and I found 8 issues of this newsletter. And as I read through them I discovered that they are really, really good. This material is not something that should be lost inside a file drawer in my office.

So I took them out, got them into my computer, and I am going to offer them to you.

Some of the items I covered are:

The secret of getting rich
The science of getting rich
How watching the news can make you money
How Carlton Sheets actually makes his money
And a ton more

If you are in debt and trying to figure out how to get out, believe me, I have been in your shoes, and I know how it feels to have the debt weigh you down as if there is a boulder sitting on your shoulders. It runs your life.

I hope that what you learn in this newsletter can help you like it helped me. I charged $57 for a one year subscription to this newsletter, but I am going to let you have these 8 issues for only $19. At this price, everyone who needs this information can afford it.

So if you want to learn how to get out of debt and retire in 5 years or less, this will help.

Click here to download right now!

Happy Originating!

Referral Generating Tool Number 12

2007-09-21 11:28:06

The following is a tool that is completely discussed in our Referrals On Demand product. It works great for building a client list, as well as generating leads. It is called the endorsed mailing.

Here is how it works. You approach a local business, either a retail shop or a service business that has a database of clients. For example, let's use a local contractor. To simplify things, we will call this contractor the host.

You offer to pay for a mailing to the host's customers to generate more business for the owner. You will pay for the mailing and handle all the details. This includes addressing and printing. The mailing will be done on the host's stationary so that it looks like it came from the host.

The letter will be written by the host and will talk about how great a loan officer you are and that you have a special offer for all of the host's special customers. It then describes your offer and tells the client how to take advantage of the offer.

This offer can be anything like a free appraisal or a free report on home appreciation.

In return, you will send out a mailing to your database about the host and give your database an offer from the host. This can be paid by you or the host.

If done properly, this can result in several prospects for you and several new customers for the host.

You can then do this with as many businesses as you can find.

As a loan officer, you should already have a database. The endorsed mailing helps you to generate more names to put into your database. And if you have a particularly large database, other companies might offer you money to mail to your list. Or, you can mail an offer for them and get a piece of the sale as a commission.

For more information regarding how to build a huge database and take full advantage of it, visit: www.referralsondemand.com

Happy Originating!

They All Do It The Same Way

2007-09-21 11:30:06

Sometimes, as small mortgage companies, we get scared by the larger lenders. They have so much more money than we do. They have more employees, great websites, 800 numbers, celebrity spokespeople, and huge advertising budgets. So they must also have great systems that are so much better than ours, right?

Wrong. These large companies use the same words, the same procedures, and the same applications we do. There is nothing magical or extraordinary about them.

As a test, I called a couple of the big boys recently to see how they handle customers. First I called Quicken. I got their number from their website, and I called asking about refinancing one of my investment properties.

The guy who answered my call was basically an order taker. He asked me some basic questions and tried to crack a couple jokes to get me in a good mood. Then he told me they had the right loan for me and that to proceed, he would have to check my credit. Once he did and my score was good enough, he transferred me to the loan officer.

I went trough the same questions with her. What was my house worth? What was my current balance? What type of loan did I want? How much do I earn? She then calculated my debt ratios using the credit report. I qualified for a full doc loan.

But I had told them ahead of time the kind of loan I wanted, and the loan scenario I created for this test was an interest only, no income verification, 80% LTV refinance - no cash out with fees rolled in. The first fellow I talked to said they could do that - which was the only reason I let him run my credit. The loan officer was saying no. Their stated loans only go to 70% LTV. So I said no and hung up. The whole process took over 30 minutes.

There was nothing wonderful about the process. Nothing that would make me want to call them again. A few months from now, I will have totally forgotten that I ever called Quicken. They have all that money, and they couldn't provide with me any incentive to do business with them again.

It's been almost 2 months, and I never got anything in the mail from them either. Even after they checked my credit, and saw more than one mortgage, and I told them I owned several investment properties.

Then I called Ditech. You know, the company portraying mortgage brokers in their ads as fat, bald, and slow. They advertise loans with closing costs of $395. Well, that's a gimmick. They just raise the rates. Their phone system was even worse than Quicken. The person I talked to asked me some basic questions, had trouble with her computer, and kept putting me on hold. After the third time on hold, I hung up. So much for them being fast.

What have we learned from this?

1. We should keep track of our competition by posing as a customer every once in a while.

2. The big lenders do the same things we do. And many times, they do it worse than we do. By offering Amazing Service and by developing relationships with our clients, we have nothing to be afraid of.

Happy Originating!

How To Battle The Banks On Price

2007-09-21 11:31:27

Do you compete with any "big boy" lenders? Have you had your quotes undercut by a large bank? Or is there someone in your marketplace or niche that lowers rates just to get the loan and keep it away from you?

If so, this article will help. I want to show you a couple ways to take on the Goliaths of the mortgage world. And to do so I am going to get assistance from Mr. Goliath himself, Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart.

Actually Sam passed away a few years ago, but he did write an autobiography in which he tells us exactly how small merchants can battle and compete with Wal-Mart. And that advice is just as good for small mortgage companies to battle with our monsters.

Here is the advice Sam gave to merchants to compete with Wal-Mart, with my translation to mortgage in parenthesis:

"Unless small merchants (small mortgage companies) are already doing a great job, they'll probably have to rethink their merchandising and advertising and promotional programs (mortgage marketing and loan programs) once a discounter (bank) arrives on the scene (lowers rates). They need to avoid coming at us head-on (do not compete on price), and do their own thing better than we do ours (give better service). It doesn't make any sense to try to underprice Wal-Mart (the bank) on something like toothpaste (origination fee). That's not what the customer is looking to a small store (small mortgage company) for anyway. Most independents are better off, I think, doing what I prided myself on doing for so many years as a storekeeper: getting out on the floor and meeting every one of the customers (stay in touch with past clients and prospects). Let them know how much you appreciate them, and ring that cash register yourself (personalized service). That little personal touch is so important for an independent merchant (small mortgage company) because no matter how hard Wal-Mart (the bank) tries to duplicate it - and we try awfully hard - we really can't do it.

I think in the case of variety stores (mortgage companies that do all types of loans for anyone), they have to completely reposition themselves, something like the way Don Soderquist did when he was president of Ben Franklin. He saw that there just wasn't any future in competing with Wal-Mart and Kmart (big banks) so he started converting a lot of their variety stores into craft stores (niche markets). They offered a much bigger assortment of craft merchandise than any Wal-Mart could, and they held classes in things like pottery and flower arranging (seminars for first-time homebuyers and financial planning seminars), services we could never think of providing. It worked. They stayed in business in the small towns and have become quite successful with many of those stores. I don't care how many Wal-Marts come to town, there are always niches that we can't reach- not that we don't try."

Sam's advice was taken from the book Sam Walton Made In America My Story, by Same Walton and John Huey.

I am sure if you interview any bank president they would give us the same advice on how to compete with them. Do not do it on their terms. Niche yourself. Personal Service. Appreciate those that give you business.

Pretty simple when you think about it.

Happy Originating!

How To Sell When You Are Shy

2007-09-21 11:33:12

You have probably heard a thousand times, that the mortgage business is a people business. You have to go out and meet people. You have to know a lot of people. The more you know and talk to, the better.

But what happens if you are shy and you just do not feel comfortable approaching strangers and starting up conversations? Either you find another job or you find a way to get around this hurdle.

Many loan officers that have this problem hide in their offices. They find ways to generate loans without having to do much interaction with customers: websites, direct mail, and call capture systems. And these all work, but they work better when you back them up with people marketing: seminars, personal visits, networking, and database marketing.

I just had a student in my Jump Start Your Mortgage Career E-Class ask me how he can be more comfortable meeting and interacting with new people. Here is what I told him.

When Sam Walton (founder of Wal-Mart) was a small town merchant he got everyone in town to like him. He did this in a very simple way. He said hello to everyone. It didn't matter whether he knew them or not, he just said hello to them. He greeted them before they had a chance to greet him. By doing this, people started liking him. They started asking their friends who he was, and they started going to his store.

You might have noticed that Wal-Mart uses greeters in each of its stores. This is a person that stands by the doors and says hello when you walk in. This was not Sam's idea. In fact, the greeter is there to make sure no one walks out with any merchandise.

Sam did use his technique in Wal-Mart. One year near the holidays he had an idea and broadcast it to all the stores and all the associates via their satellite system. He asked them to do something. He asked them that anytime they came within 10 feet of a customer in a store, they should greet them and ask them if they needed any help.

Such a simple concept, yet it worked. There are no numbers, but once they started doing it, Wal-Mart rose faster to overtake Kmart and Sears in sales and stores.

Can you do the same, even if you are shy? Sure you can.

Just say hello to people that come within a few feet of you. You don't have to yell across the street unless you want to. But if you see someone near you, in an elevator, a doctor's office, a subway station, anywhere, just look them in the eye, and say "Hello".

Do this for a couple months, and it will become a habit that will be hard to break. This is mainly because it is fun. And hopefully profitable as well!

Happy Originating!

7 Tips To Help You Maintain Your Discipline

2007-09-21 11:34:18

The good news about working for yourself is that you don't have a boss breathing down your neck. The bad news about working for yourself is that you don't have a boss breathing down your neck.

Working for yourself can be great, but it can also be frustrating, especially if you don't feel that your self-discipline is in good working order. Self-employment gives you more flexibility to decide when you will go to work, what your priorities are, and when you need to take a break. But running your own business generally requires more self-discipline than you would need if you worked as an employee.

Thing is, self-discipline is critical. It is easy to get distracted or procrastinate. Family interruptions and our own resistance-especially when it comes to tasks that we don't like doing but that still need doing-can get in the way of making steady progress. Without a boss and coworkers around to help keep you focused, it will be easy to spend too much time eating, sleeping, watching television, golfing, or even working. You must be disciplined.

Here are some initial suggestions to help you increase your work discipline:

1. Treat the business as a business. Simply having this attitude can easily eliminate many problems. When you treat yourself like a real business, others will too.

2. Keep office hours. A realistic daily schedule fosters discipline. For many loan officers, discipline means getting to the office by 9 a.m. and putting in a full day of work. Decide what your standard office hours will be and stick to them. Break an hour or so for lunch as you normally would, but treat it like work.

3. Make a daily task plan. Plan what you are going to do in the course of the day, and when you will accomplish each task. Consider making a rule that when you are done with the tasks on that day's schedule, you are done for the day. This will help avoid workaholism or burnout.

4. Know your rhythm. Some of us are morning people, some are best in the afternoon, while others thrive at 3 AM. It is important to use your most productive time wisely. Determine your best times of day, and arrange your schedule according to those times as well as to the demands of your work-if you rock and roll at 3 AM, for example, there will be some tasks you can do then, and others (like calling a client) that won't be practical.

5. Set rules for yourself. Decide the circumstances under which you will take time off to play, read or watch television, what interruptions you are willing to allow, and when you will do household chores.

6. Dress for work, even at home. Similarly, some folks find that it helps to dress nice. No suit required, but the casual Friday look, for example, might be appropriate.

7. Create "company policies." In addition to setting rules for yourself, it is equally important to set policies so that family, friends, and business associates know what to expect from you and how to behave. For instance, you may find that your spouse or a neighbor expects you to do chores while they are at work. You may want to do this, or you may not. Either way, having policies that include this kind of thing makes such decisions easier.

Happy Originating!

Proof that Brokers Are Better For Consumers

2007-09-26 10:48:35

Here is a press release from the National Association of Mortgage Brokers highlighting the results of a study done by George Washington and Oklahoma State Universities. The link for the study results is listed in the press release.

What you should do, if you are a mortgage broker, is print this press release, write one similar to it and submit it to all your local media. Include it in your sales presentation. Bring it out whenever a client says they can get a better deal at their bank. Post it on your website, and hang it on your wall for all to see.

Study Reveals Brokers Are Less Costly Option For Sub-Prime Borrowers
New Study Finds Factual Evidence That Consumers Pay Less With a Broker

Washington, DC. – October 18, 2006 – Brokers are a more cost-effective option for consumers in the subprime home loan market, according to a joint study released by economists at George Washington and Oklahoma State universities.

The study compared sub-prime loans originated by brokers and traditional lenders such as banks between 1995 and 2003. Its findings reveal that the reason brokers originate more than 50 percent of all residential loans is because they are a more efficient and cost-effective option for consumers.

“Brokers are small business men and women who have to be competitive to remain in business,” said NAMB President Harry Dinham. “The hard data in this report is a clear sign that this competition is benefiting consumers in the sub-prime market.”

Dinham said that it is unfortunate that some groups have tried to use anecdotal evidence to accuse brokers of encouraging consumers to choose loans that are more profitable for the originator. This is commonly called steering.

The study notes that, “The evidence does not support the hypothesis that customers of brokers generally pay higher prices than customers of lenders because of steering… One can conclude only that in the sub prime market brokers’ customers generally paid less than lenders customers.”

“Unlike many of the largest lending institutions, most brokers are members of their community who help originate loans for the same people we spend time with at Kiwanis Club meetings and Little League games,” said Dinham. “Our reputation is the heart of our business and it only makes sense that we would do everything in our power to make sure our customers are treated fairly.”

The report used data from ten large sub-prime mortgage lenders and was conducted by the George Washington University School of Business and its Financial Services Research Program Click here to read the entire paper.

Here is the site for the press release:

http://www.namb.org/namb/NewsBot.asp?MODE=VIEW&ID=149&SnID=1807988655

###

Happy Originating!

The Do Not Do List

2007-09-26 10:52:44

Everyone has a to-do list. Most people have more than one.

Write a new sales letter
Pick up the kids from gym
Get the dry-cleaning
Go to the bank
And on and on

We're so busy doing stuff that we don't take out time to decide what we should be doing and what we should not be doing. That's what the Do Not Do List is.

It is the opposite of the To-do list. The Do Not Do gives you the freedom of time. It lays some boundaries in your life and your business. This list is essential to having a sane life.

Some of the things on my Do Not Do list are:

I will not wake up before 7 am.
I will not work weekends
I will not wear a tie to the office

Not having a Do Not Do List can lead you down the wrong path in life. For example, 2003 was a great year, the refinance boom was in full swing and loans were stacked up all over the office. The money was just flowing in. But I did not have a Do Not Do about investments. In fact, I had never even thought about what I would do with the money.

So when a fellow approached me about a housing development he suckered me hook, line, and sinker. The development would've worked if the guy had more experience and I had more time to give it. But in the end I lost over $125,000.

Well, now I have an item on my Do Not Do list that reads:

I will not invest my money in a venture I do not understand and which I have not studied for at least 30 days.

If I had done my homework, I would have noticed that it was going to take a lot more money to start the development than he was seeking as an investment. It was doomed from the start. Oh well. Live and learn. But you can learn from my mistake.

Take a few minutes as soon as you can, and define the things you will not do in your business. I was reading the book "Pour Your Heart Into It" by the CEO of Starbucks, and he said from day one, they had the vision of saying that they would not do anything that would dilute the quality of their coffee.

What standards can you set for your company?

I will not grovel for business
I will not lower my fees to get a loan from someone I don't really like
I will not buy the new car until I have enough monthly income to pay for it comfortably
Etc.

In the book "From Good to Great" the author talks about the same concept. He says that all the companies that they classified as 'great' companies, all had a center of focus in their business, and they would not go into any venture or product that was outside their focus.

You have probably seen, as I have, people whose business cards read like the yellow pages:

Bob Jones

Insurance

Mortgages

Real Estate

Financial Planner

Notary

Garbage Man

If this fellow cannot be successful at one thing, why should I do business with him?

Let's get back to the topic.

Think about some of the things you are unhappy about in you life and your business. Make a list of things you will no longer do. Then don't do them. Only you have the power to control yourself. Only you can make you do the things you do. Decide to live a better life. Decide to live a happier life.

Make your Do Not Do list today.

Happy Originating!

Proactive vs. Passive Marketing

2007-09-26 10:54:34

"Loan Officers and Originators: Knowing The Difference Between Proactive and Passive Marketing Techniques Can Save Your Business!"

by Joe Pahl of LoanMakerGold.com

Recently I met with a childhood friend of mine that works for a large mortgage company in the Midwest. As with many loan officers in this market, he was struggling to close a decent amount of business. Being that I work as a marketing consultant
for loan officers, I offered to review his business and see if I could see any areas that he could improve in order to generate more business.

After a few minutes of reviewing is marketing strategies, I saw right away what his problem was. He was relying too heavily on passive marketing, and it was draining his business.

Do you know what the difference between "proactive" and "passive" marketing?

Let's briefly see how Merriam-Webster's Dictionary defines the two words:

Proactive: acting in anticipation of future problems, needs, or changes
Passive: existing or occurring without being active, open, or direct

It basically boils down to the amount of control you have in the situation. Proactive marketing strategies force you to find the prospects that you are looking for.

Passive marketing strategies causes you to sit back and wait for the prospects to come to you.

From my personal experience, it seems that far too many loan officers and originators are relying on passive methods for generating business. And they are struggling.

Examples of passive marketing campaigns:

-putting a vanity classified ad in the newspaper
-your company provided website
-sending a mailing campaign to your database without asking for a call to action
-buying a Yellow Pages ad

Now there is nothing wrong with these methods. You will get a trickle of business from people who need your services right now. But these methods should be the first step and not the last one. By being proactive, you squeeze many more prospects
from the same amount of marketing dollars.

If you are on a tight budget, you MUST be using proactive marketing strategies. Yes, they are a little more complicated to set up, but you get much more bang for your marketing buck.

Here is an example to crystallize my point:

You are in desperate need of some new business. So you follow your manager's advice and place an ad in the real estate section of the newspaper. It costs you $100 of your marketing budget and it results in one new loan. Sounds great, right? With the
commissions you earned on this transaction you probably made five to ten times your investment back. Great, right?

Now let's see what a mortgage professional using proactive marketing strategies handles the same situation.

This loan officer also places a classified ad in the paper and also invests the $100. But here is where the proactive and passive strategies differ. In his ad, he lets readers know that if they are interested in purchasing their own home in the next three years, they can go to his website to download a free report on the best ways to make it happen.

The loan officers also gets one new loan from someone that is looking to purchase a home this month, but he also got 50 people to download the free report. Here is why this is important.

Those fifty prospects are automatically placed in his email follow-up system. Without him lifting a single finger, he is going to send those prospects emails a few days later, two weeks later, a month later and so forth. He is going to build rapport with them and provide them with the information they need. And by doing so, this next year he will turn 5 of those prospects into new clients.

So which is the better way? Turning $100 of your marketing dollars into one closing, or turning that same $100 into six new loans this year plus placing fifty people into your marketing pipeline who may do business with you in the future or who may recommend you to their friends, family and co-workers.

And consider this: what if the second loan officer ran that add every week? What if he also placed identical ads in the smaller newspapers in his area? What about advertising in the Home For Sale magazines? You get the picture.

Yes, proactive marketing strategies are a bit more complicated and do take more time to set up. But look at the results!

So if you are like many mortgage professionals and are in need of increasing your commission checks without increasing your marketing budget, then you need to be looking at proactive marketing methods to make it happen.

Happy Originating!

Mortgage Referral Marketing

2007-09-26 13:20:15

I ran across this article online and wanted to share it with you. I also wanted to use it to emphasis the importance of referrals in our business. I know I hark on it a lot. And that is mainly because my business is all referrals. Believe me, referral marketing cannot be beat. But I also wanted to show you that I am not the only one who knows how important referral marketing is.

If you are not doing at least 50% of your business by referral, then you need to take a look at Referrals On Demand. This website will show you how to not only improve your business, but do it so easily, with less work, and while working fewer hours than you do now. There is no way I could have taken a year to travel the country if I was not working by referral.

In addition, an article like this, written by yourself, would be a great tool to distribute to Realtors.

Referral Marketing in the Real Estate Business: A Must
By: Tabitha Naylor

Referral marking is one of the best ways to let others know about your real estate services. Perhaps the best thing about it is that you don't have to pay any money for it. There is not much work involved with marketing to past clients; in fact, the majority of that work is done by your clients themselves.

People like to spread the word when they receive a good service. This word of mouth is known as referral marketing. When your clients have a positive experience with you, they naturally want to tell others about it. The more people who are informed about your excellent services, the more clients you will have. The more clients you have, the more money you will make. So, when marketing to past clients, you make money off of making money.

The largest part of your business's referral strategy should come from the way you operate your business. The other part is developing an awareness of your marketing tactics. Your clients must know that you want them to refer your services to others. Otherwise, you can't rely on them to do so. If you have already been informing your clients that you would like them to refer you to others, then you can relax, the brunt of your marketing strategy has been completed. On the other hand, if you made the assumption that your clients will naturally refer others to your business, you have some work to do.

Assuming you haven't informed any clients that you would appreciate them spreading good words about your business, you will need to determine how to integrate this into your overall business practices. Each customer you deal with from now on should know, in some form or another, that you would like for him/her to refer another client to you. You might consider offering some kind of discount for each referral. Many real estate businesses offer such incentives.

More than anything, you need to commit to always operate in a manner that will give clients a reason to refer others to you. If a client does not have a positive experience with you, chances are that the client will tell someone of his/her bad experience. This will counter your marketing efforts. All it takes is 'one bad apple'. Be aware of your actions at all times.

If there are several facets to your business, make sure each client knows of these services as well. There may be times when a client only receives one of the services you provide. This same client might know someone who is in need of another service that you provide, but does know to refer the person to you. When this happens, your marketing has failed. Your strategy must include informing clients of all the services you provide. By doing this, you are maximizing your efforts.

Developing a referral marketing strategy is not difficult to do. The two major aspects include letting clients know to refer you to others, and giving them a reason to refer you. Once you have done both of these things, your marketing efforts will begin to bring in new clients for your services, increasing your profit.

Tabitha Naylor is an experienced mortgage broker/consultant with Apex Financial Mortgage. For more information, or additional resources on home loans, visit Apex Financial Mortgage

For more information on increasing your business inclusing how to get more referrals, and how to automate your business visit: www.referralsondemand.com

Happy Originating!

Could You Refinance This House?

2007-09-26 13:22:41

Could You Refinance This House?

Hopefully this house in Poland brought a smile to your face!

Happy Originating!

Is The Customer Always Right?

2007-09-26 13:29:52

As a loan officer, you are in business for yourself, and one of the "rules" of business that we all have been told is that the customer is always right. The customer is king. No wait, cash is king, but without the customer, there is no cash.

So I ask you, what do you think? Is the customer always right no matter what?

My answer is an emphatic, HECK NO!

The reason we are in business is to earn a living. I don't know about you, but I want to do this in as easy a manner as possible. This means not taking on unnecessary stress. The #1 cause of stress in our business is the customer. It's that way in all businesses.

Does this mean we totally ignore the customer and treat them badly? No way. They are, after all, the reason we are still in business. But it does mean we can place limits on what we will tolerate and what we will not.

I have been known to throw people out of my office for mentioning that they could get better rates at another mortgage company. Now, I have never grabbed anyone by the collar and physically thrown them out. What I do is stand up, stick out my hand for a handshake, and say, "In that case, I thank you for coming by, but I suggest you go to the other place. Now let me walk you to the door." It usually takes them a full 30 seconds to understand that I am throwing them out. Most people apologize and never mention rates again. Some of them leave, which is fine.

After you have been in this business for a while, you get a feeling. A sixth sense can tell you when someone is going to be a pain throughout the process. You can almost tell by the way they act in the first interview.

But many times the problem lies in different expectations. We expect to offer one service, and the customer expects something else. We might not expect a customer to call at 7pm Sunday night. But to him, it might be normal.

The best way to handle this is to create a list of expectations ahead of time. Tell the customer verbally and in writing what you will provide, and what he can do to contact you. Also, make sure your systems are set up to send out regular updates to him. This greatly minimizes phone calls.

If you get only one thing from this issue, get this: You do not have to work with everyone, nor should you. Create a target customer profile. Then target only those customers that fit your profile. Do not try to appease everyone. They will still get mad, and you will lose out in the end. This goes for customers, Realtors, title reps, lenders, and every other vendor in your life. If the relationship is not pleasant, find a way to fix it quick or end it. Life is too short and blood pressure rises too easily to deal with unpleasant people.

I'll give you another example from Kamrock. Recently we had a fellow get mad at us because we would not sell him any more of our products. We track every customer and know what they have ordered and when. That's just good business. This fellow seemed to order things one by one, and then return them one by one.

I can understand if you order one item, and if it is not for you, you send it back. I can even understand that you order twice and send it back, but that does put you on the watch list. But not three or more times. If you order from us three times and send it back each time, there is something fishy going on here. After the first couple of times, you already know what we are about, and have decided if our stuff fits with you or not.

This is my personal feeling and I may be wrong, but I wouldn't bet on it.

This guy got mad that we refused to send out his order and refunded his money. He wrote us a nasty email about how we don't know what customer service is and "the customer is always right". That got me thinking. We lose money on every return, so on this fellow, we have only lost money. If I let him "be right" and keep doing whatever he wanted, I would keep losing money, and that is not something I enjoy.

I wanted to see if this applied to the mortgage business as well. So I started going through my past loan files. On the people who were the most difficult to work with, I earned the lowest amount per hour. I spent more time on their files, on average, for less money. The time that I spent with them could have been spent on my better clients who should have gotten the time, or with my family, or doing something I enjoy.

So by working with nasty people,

a. we lose money

b. we steal time from our better clients, our families, and ourselves

c. we get upset, and in a few cases, get sick.

So let me ask you again. Is the customer always right? Let's say it together:

NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Originating!

ROIC: Return On Investment Capital

2007-09-26 13:31:57

In this issue, you get a two for one offer: an investing lesson and a marketing lesson.

It all starts with my Dad. You see, he is thinking of retiring from the mortgage business and is looking for something to do in retirement, besides sitting around at home. (He doesn't play golf.) So he has been going to some of the stock investment seminars advertised on TV. At one such seminar, the presenter mentioned a book called Rule #1 by Phil Town. Dad bought it and I picked it up from his library.

The book is basically an explanation of Warren Buffet's investment philosophy with some financial tools thrown in, to create an investment formula.

The philosophy is simple. The author says that any stock you consider buying has to pass the test of the 4 M's. They are:

Meaning: You must understand what the company does, and must like what the company stands for. You must be willing to invest in this company as if your family's livelihood depends on it.

Moat: The company must have some competitive advantage over its competition.

Management: The company must have management that cares about the company more than about their salaries and quick profits.

Margin of Safety: You must be able to buy the stock at a price at least 50% lower than the book value of the company.

For more clarification on these principles, either pick up the book or any other book about Warren Buffet's investment style.

Now we get to ROIC. ROIC stands for Return On Investment Capital. In other words, it is the percentage of return you have made on your investment. The higher the ROIC, the better. According to the author, we should only consider investing in companies that have a ROIC growth rate of at least 10% a year.

Having a good ROIC growth rate, over 10% a year, also tells us that the company has a good Moat. If the Moat starts to get smaller or competitors cross the Moat and attack the company, the ROIC will suffer and we, as investors, will be alerted that there is a problem with the company.

That is the investment lesson.

Here is the marketing lesson.

Notice how the ROIC tells us if the company has a Moat (competitive advantage), and the better the advantage, the more money the company makes for its owners.

You as a loan officer or mortgage broker are also a company. You need to determine your ROIC. What percentage return do you receive on the money invested into your business?

If you want to increase your ROIC, and thus make more money, you need to improve your Moat.

In our world, the word Moat is another name for USP (Unique Selling Proposition). Not only do I say it, but Warren Buffet is indirectly backing me up when I say that you need to have a USP to make more money.

I go over in detail, how to create your own USP in my Jump Start Your Mortgage Career E-Class, and if you need help creating your USP, I suggest you check it out. The sooner you do, the sooner you can start earning a larger paycheck.

Here's an example: To take advantage of the recent boom in foreclosures, I have decided to go after this market. My USP is, "I help homeowners avoid foreclosure." It's simple and it tells what I do. We actually provide 4 alternatives to homeowners, not just refinancing. If all I did was refinance I would use, "I help homeowners in foreclosure refinance their loan to avoid losing their homes."

USPs seem simple to create, but they are anything but. In fact, the lesson on USPs in my course is the most difficult, but I believe the most important. If you don't have one, there is no reason for prospects to judge you on anything other than price. And fighting over price is no way to run a business.

Happy Originating!

How Many People Would Answer If You Called At 2 a.m.?

2007-09-26 13:34:16

I was reading the book called Dig Your Well Before You're Thirsty by Harvey Mackay, when the author asked a question that really got me thinking.

In one chapter Harvey tells the story of how after a round of golf, his friend tells the foursome that he got a call the night before at 2 a.m. from a guy he used to know years before. This friend was in serious trouble and needed $20,000 to cover some payroll checks he wrote for his business and without the money he would probably
be sent to jail.

The caller was asking Harvey's friend for the $20k. He didn't get it.

Then the foursome started talking about how many people they knew that would come through for them in the clutch if called at 2 a.m. And that got me thinking to how many people I could call if I was in trouble.

How about you? How many people could you call at 2 a.m. if you needed help? With either money, the name of a good doctor, to get bailed out of jail, or a shoulder to cry on. The more names you come up with, the stronger your network is. And the stronger your network/database is, the better you will do in the mortgage business and life in general.

The best way to have people you can depend on, is to be someone they can depend on first. This comes with words and actions. It's funny, I have always thought of myself as someone who my friends could depend on, but when I meditated on it, I realized that I never made sure that they knew that they could depend on me.

Sure, I tell my clients that if they ever need anything to give me a call, but they don't. Unless it is mortgage related. So this is something I need to change. And to do so I wrote a special letter to most of my clients from me, as a person, not as their loan officer. No company stationary. None of that 'From the desk of' stuff.

Just a simple letter from a friend. I thanked them for their friendship, told them about the story above, and told them that if they ever needed anything they could call me at any time. And then I gave them my home phone number, which is a huge deal for me because I value my privacy very much.

Since I work only by referral, I like most of my clients. They are easy to work with and we become friends by the end of the loan process. If your lead generation causes you to deal with people you would rather not spend time with, you shouldn't be sending a letter like this to anyone you would not sincerely want to help. It is of no use to tell someone to call you and turn your back on them when they do.

And if money is short, that should not stand in your way. People need more than money. The author of the book reported that he has called at least 50 people for help and none of the calls were for money.

So far, no one has called me. I guess that is good news. But four people took the time to approach me to tell me how much they appreciated the gesture and that if I ever needed anything to let them know as well.

So how many people do you know that would help out at 2 a.m.?

Happy Originating!

Publicity Case Study: Cashing in on Controversy

2007-09-26 13:36:14

Cashing in on Controversy
By Kristin Edelhauser

Jon Basso has thrown traditional forms of advertising by the wayside and is serving up big helpings of controversy instead with his Heart Attack Grill.

Aside from maintaining a website, Jon Basso hasn't spent one dollar on advertising. And yet his restaurant has garnered international attention thanks to the controversy he's created. "We purposely try to generate controversy, there's no question about that," Basso says. After all, with menu items like the Quadruple Bypass Burger and Flatliner Fries, who needs marketing?

Yet even Basso, owner of Heart Attack Grill in Tempe, Arizona, agrees with his health-inclined critics on one point: Because of his 8,000-calorie burgers and french fries cooked in lard, the 40-stool burger joint isn't a place customers should frequent daily. "I tell everybody, 'Don't come here every day of the week; it'll kill you,'" he says.

For Basso, who also goes by "Dr. Jon, chief surgeon," what began as a marketing thesis has turned into a diner with a world-wide reputation. Though he started out operating a chain of personal fitness training studios, Basso heard so much talk from clients about what they did on their "diet cheat days" he decided the Heart Attack Grill he wrote about in his thesis could be the ultimate place to go for a dose of gluttony.
The controversial grill, which claims on its website to offer "taste worth dying for," officially opened its doors in January 2006--and it didn't take long for public debate to begin.

Basso figured people would speak out against the ingredients in his burgers or the items on his menu--including filter-free cigarettes and beer--but was surprised when the biggest source of contention became the way his waitresses, or "nurses" as he calls them, dressed. The grill drew criticism from the Arizona Board of Nursing and the Center for Nursing Advocacy for putting the female-only "nurses"--the males are called doctors--in naughty nurse uniforms, saying they degraded the profession and that the restaurant shouldn't be allowed to use the title "nurse."

Basso fired back by saying it was a matter of free speech and turned the controversy into a public debate on his website. He gained the support of his internet audience and received plenty of media attention, and shortly after posting letters and communications he received from Arizona's attorney general on his website, the suit was dropped.
Basso, however, doesn't take the issue lightly. He recognizes there's a very serious nursing shortage going on and believes his restaurant is helping publicize the problem. "The Heart Attack Grill is actually glorifying the job for a younger workforce," says Basso.

From the scantily clad nurses to the fat-filled, take-it-or-leave-it menu, it's easy to see this restaurateur doesn't care if his restaurant is politically correct. The grill instead embraces everything considered "bad," from male chauvinism to fatty foods to cigarettes. In today's health-conscious society, it's surprising that the grill has done so well. But to Basso, it all makes sense. "People don't want the salad bars; they want to have fun," he says.

This entrepreneur refuses to give in to the diet wars. In fact, he won't even allow lettuce on the grill's burgers. And if you ask for a Diet Coke, you won't get it. Basso says the grill only sells full-sugared soda from Mexico. Why? "Because if you're going to party, enjoy yourself. That's really the message."

Basso adds that today's consumer demands entertainment as well, something he's tied into the theme of his theatrical restaurant. At the Heart Attack Grill, waitresses don't take an order, they "write prescriptions." They don't have customers, they have "patients." And while on duty, the waitstaff gets into character while interacting with customers. They even go so far as to wheel out "patients" who are able to down a Quadruple Bypass Burger--featuring two pounds of beef, four layers of cheese and 12 slices of bacon--to their car in a wheelchair.

Basso also has drawn in customers by creating theme days at the Heart Attack Grill, including his "Valentine's Day Massacre," during which he offers free food and beverages--excluding alcohol--all day long. This year, he estimates the restaurant gave away approximately 900 free burgers in a 10-hour day. But according to Basso, it's all part of his anti-marketing plan. "Sure, I give away thousands of dollars worth of food, but it does much more advertising and word-of-mouth than anything else could."

His advice for wannabe entrepreneurs? "I'd tell people to create controversy," suggests Basso, who refers to himself as the Patch Adams of the restaurant industry. Though he won't release any financial information, Basso insists that word-of-mouth marketing has given the grill plenty of business. "What I've got, in marketing terms, is the purple cow," he says. "We've designed something that people talk about naturally. We've never spent one penny, and never will spend one penny on advertisements. We simply have a website, and that's it."

The grill's location is low-key as well. Basso says it's located behind a gas station, with no real exterior signage. And yet, the tourist dollar has been good to them. "Tourists come in and say they're here to see the Grand Canyon, check; the Fiesta Bowl, check; the Heart Attack Grill, check," he says.

Mention the obvious competitor, Hooters, and Basso says they're on a different playing field. "I believe wholeheartedly that Hooters has overextended," says Basso. "There're about 500 Hooters in the world, and I don't think it's special or unique for the clientele that enjoys that type of service because there are so many of them."

As for future plans, Basso says he has no intention of franchising the Heart Attack Grill. His overall goal is to make his restaurant into what he says the Hard Rock Café used to be before the chain widely expanded. "Now, there are over 100 Hard Rock Café locations, and they lost the ability to be special. We're not going to make that mistake," he says. Instead, Basso plans to have 10 locations built over the next 20 years. So far, he's looking at real estate in Amsterdam and other cities that he says have "mystique," like New Orleans, Hollywood, Honolulu and Rio de Janeiro.

For now, he is in the process of purchasing another building in Arizona, this time in Phoenix, where he'll create one of the first drive-thrus to offer commuters the full package--a burger, fries, case of beer and pack of cigarettes. And his plans don't stop there. Basso says the restaurant will be involved in filming its own "American Chopper"-type reality show beginning in March. The show will be produced by IVNET.TV, an international online broadband network. "But the difference between 'American Chopper' and us is we have sex and they don't," he says. "We have commercial endorsement possibilities, they don't."

*****************************

With such a strong vision of where he wants to take the Heart Attack Grill, the possibilities--and controversy--could be endless for Basso. But criticism is what he has so cleverly turned into marketing opportunities that have helped make his restaurant such a hot spot. Not sure you have the guts to plunge into controversy as deeply as Basso? That's OK. The message here is that it's all right to be different and try something new, even if you raise a few eyebrows in the process.

Happy Originating!

Your Own Title

2007-09-26 13:37:44

Would it help your business if you had a title?

Probably.

So what is keeping you from getting a title?

Most people think that someone has to give them a title in order for them to use it. In most cases, this is not true.

I am sure you have heard of a Realtor in your area calling himself the "Condo King". You and I both know that there is no condo association around that gives out the title of "King". This fellow obviously gave himself the title, but so what? It helps in his marketing. It's memorable. This is an article about mortgage marketing and he is getting mentioned and free publicity from it.

What is the Better Business Bureau? It's a business that is out to make money. It gets other businesses to pay it money in return for giving out positive reports about them. It made itself an authority on good business. To become a member, all you need to do is be in business for a year, file an application, and pay them several hundred dollars a year. They have no strict membership policy, nor do they keep many businesses out. They decided to call themselves the Better Business Bureau. No one appointed them. They are not a government office. The people who work there don't know what it's like to run a business. Yet they are the authority on what businesses are good and which ones are not. It's all marketing.

Ever hear of the "The Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval"? Manufacturers compete aggressively for this award. Because they know if they win, they can advertise the fact and sell more units. And this is because the general public does not know the facts about this award. This is an award created by and given by Good Housekeeping Magazine. But to get the award, you have to advertise in the magazine. Great idea isn't it?

What is keeping you from becoming "The Greatest Loan Officer in the World"?

All you have to do is put it on your cards and marketing. Of course, no one will believe you, but they might believe something less audacious, like "Hartford's #1 Authority on Mortgage Reduction Strategies".

Make up your own specialty and promote it. You do not need anyone to anoint you. If you want to be an expert, then just declare yourself an expert. Stop waiting for someone else to do it. This is not an election or a popularity contest.

If you still feel that someone else should qualify you as an expert, then fine. "I hereby appoint you an expert in the field of mortgage brokerage by all the power given to me by the Great Board of Loan Officer Experts which I just created"

Happy Originating!

Relentless Promotion

2007-09-26 13:39:47

Let me get right to the point.

You must engage in constant, relentless promotion in order to keep a business or career moving forward. It never stops. You must continue on as long as the business is to grow. This might be a bummer, but that is just the way the business world works.

When you do marketing, especially if you do niche marketing, you cannot think of your target market as stagnant or unchanging. Many loan officers run a marketing campaign that generates results and they still decide to change it. They rationalize by saying that the people who see the ad over and over must be bored with it. That might be true, and a new ad might bring in more prospects, but it is not because readers are bored with it.

Think of your target as a moving parade. You are standing still and the parade is passing you by. Every time you do your marketing, you hit one portion of the parade, but the parade keeps moving. So you need to keep marketing in order to hit more people.

Face it, change can happen really fast. Someone who has no money and no job today could be in the market for a house tomorrow if he hits the lottery. Additionally, the prospect you are meeting with today could be looking for a million dollar home, but tomorrow he might change his mind when he discovers his wife is cheating on him.

Who knows what will happen tomorrow or even in the next minute?

The point is that you must keep marketing. If you do not, the pipeline you have now will get smaller and smaller until there is no one left in the pipeline. No matter how much business you get, you must keep marketing.

An example of this is the refi boom of 2003-2004. Many loan officers were so busy with refi's that they stopped marketing to their Realtor partners. When the boom ended, they tried to go back. Sorry, those Realtors were now working with LO's that still took care of them and marketed to them even during the boom.

Speaking of Realtors, I did a great interview with a Loan Officer who used our Marketing to Agents Toolkit to start working with about 5 loan officers. Click here to listen to the interview or visit MarketingToAgents.com

Happy Originating!

Your Loan Mowing Business

2007-09-26 13:40:43

Being in business for yourself as a loan officer is like having a lawn: It demands your attention whether you like it or not. Over and above doing what got you started in this business in the first place-it requires doing other stuff that you'd rather not do.

Even if you hire people to do the stuff you'd rather not do, you still have to manage those people, which gives rise to a bunch of other stuff you'd rather not do. And even if you are a crackerjack people manager, there are all sorts of things you can't give away-planning, marketing, financial review, strategic decision making, other stuff like that-that not all that many loan officers are into doing. In fact, those last are the kinds of things that many of us put off doing until we must, whether it's because we don't like doing them or simply because we think we don't have time.

Anyway, your business demands your attention....very much like a lawn. When the lawn needs mowing, there isn't a lot of wiggle room in terms of putting it off. No matter how "not in the mood" you are to go out and start up the mower, there comes a point where you have to go take care of it. The damn grass keeps growing, and regardless of whether you like mowing or not, it must be attended to. And it's not just the mowing. There's edging, trimming, weeding, fertilizing, clean up, and a bunch of other tasks that have to be done.

The way I'm thinking of the model, the lawn itself is the everyday state of the business. The edging, trimming, etc. is the stuff I mentioned earlier-strategic decision making, marketing, financial review, planning, and so on. While you have to mow the lawn when it needs it, you can put off the other stuff a bit...but sooner or later you'll have to attend to the edges because things will look so ragged.

Whether we like it or not, the "lawn" of our businesses-the not-so-glamorous part of the landscape that is most noticeable only when it looks bad-has to be attended to regularly. It's not all that much fun, it's hot, sweaty, noisy work, but when we are done with the job, the great results really show. Very satisfying.

We can continue the analogy, I suppose. When you get mold or pests, you call in a specialist (a consultant) to help you. You can hire someone to do the lawn, which would make you an absentee owner, letting your hiree worry about keeping up with operations. Okay, I'll stop.

The point of all this is that all of us who are loan officer and who fill the primary operational role must do things we don't want to do, and if we put them off, our businesses will get ragged, weedy, and overgrown. Better to attend to the tasks and keep the business well-manicured, and then revel in the satisfaction when we get the results produced.

Happy Originating!

Dogs Want Good Customer Service Too!

2007-09-26 13:41:56

My friend shared an experience the other day that has made me think about how too many customer service experiences unfold in the business world today, and about the difference that really good service can make.

She has two dogs. Earlier this week, it was time for them to get their summer haircuts so that they will be able to comfortably cope with the Houston heat.

The newest addition to her house is Jason, a miniature schnauzer who had been the prized pet of an old lady who had to give him up for adoption when she moved to a nursing home. She had chosen to keep him fully furred, not trimmed in the traditional schnauzer cut, so that he had a really nice wire haired coat to go with his bushy eyebrows and stubby tail. The other dog is Lucky, a schnauzer-poodle mix-poodle ears and body, schnauzer muzzle and curly tail-he gets the traditional cut.

So, my friend takes the two little guys to the groomers the other morning. She was the first client of the day, and the salon was nice and quiet. She explained what she wanted to the person who would be doing the job-traditional schnauzer cut on Lucky, but not on Jason. Just a trim for him. This is important, she told her, because she didn't want his coat shaved off-once that wire hair is gone it never grows back. Understand, she asked?

Yes, the groomer answered. But did she want Jason's skirt trimmed?

Skirt? She stared blankly and finally figured out that she was talking about the feathery bits on his chest and belly. Yes, fine, my friend said. Trim that area but just don't shave him. She nodded.

She went back a few hours later to pick up the boys. At that point the salon was buzzing with dogs, clients, and groomers. The fur was literally flying. First came Lucky, looking very dapper and neat. A few seconds later, out came Jason, and her mouth dropped open.

He had been completely shaved!!! The groomer had given him a standard schnauzer cut-and that lovely wire coat was gone forever.

She couldn't believe it. She was angry and sad at the same time. What had happened? How could the conversation they had had in the morning have been so completely lost?

After discussing the situation with the salon owner, she reluctantly refunded my friend's money, which was very small consolation for the snafu. It should be no surprise that she will not be going back to that salon when the boys' fur has grown out.

This whole thing left me thinking about how this kind of customer service happens in other businesses. There were several points about the experience that translate:

1. Are we really listening to our customers? Do we ask the questions we need to ask to make sure that we understand what they want from us? Do we make accurate notes so that we retain instructions and deliver what was asked for? My friend got plenty of nods from the groomer during their talk, but her instructions obviously got lost somewhere between her ears and her shears.

2. Are we communicating clearly back to them, or do we use industry jargon that they may or may not understand? When the groomer asked about trimming Jason's skirt, my friend had to stop and think. It was made my friend's responsibility to figure out what she was talking about. Not a great way to do business.

3. Finally, and very, very important, when mistakes do get made on our side of the transaction, how do we make amends? Even the worst error doesn't have to mean the loss of the customer. Respond to the mistake with restitution that matches its seriousness. In this case, given the extent of the mistake with Jason, and the permanance of the result, the salon owner fell far short in restitution and in terms of keeping my friend's business. She had to struggle to simply get a refund, which was insufficient compared to the permanent impact this error has. She won't be back to that salon.

These three points--listening to the customer, communicating back in ways that they will easily understand, and making appropriate amends when mistakes get made on our end-are the core of excellent service and the key to keeping loyal and happy customers.

Happy Originating!

Want To Make More Money? Tell Better Stories

2007-09-26 13:43:17

I have a major case of déjà vu. Maybe it's because I've been a marketer for over a decade.. The latest generation of online and offline "success entrepreneurs"-those folks who claim you can be as successful as they are if you listen to them (and pay them money)-has started talking about a technique that the gray hairs among us knew about ages ago. In fact, people have known about and used this technique since the concept of "selling" first appeared.

It is the technique of telling stories.

The only reason why this seems like such a new and novel idea to the newer loan officers among us is that business writing style seems to follow a cyclical pattern. The most recent style has been filled with buzz words, one liners, and exclamation points. There has also been a lot of "you" stuff, as in "We know you were up late last night worrying about [fill in the "pain point"]..." So it's no wonder that the idea of telling stories to convey the value of a product or service seems so new and different. But anyone who has been in the business of sales and/or marketing for more than a generation will tell you that storytelling has been around for a long time and will continue to stay around.

One reason why the idea of story telling in marketing seems new might be the Mctimes we live in. Food isn't the only thing that's fast these days. We get our news in snippets on a rolling marquee, we send emails and text messages that contain the fewest words and letters possible, and we go for anything that will get us what we want as quickly as possible-steel abs, a million dollar income, a date. Somewhere in there, the understanding of the power of the story got lost.

Stories work. They always have and they always will. Whether you are trying to teach someone something or sell someone something, stories will get the point made better than any other form of communication at your disposal. They form a connection to you in a very basic way. Stories hook your readers or listeners at an emotional level, give them elements that they can identify and empathize with.

And good stories work best. Good stories have characteristics in common. They follow certain rules-what I call "technology." The technology of good stories is the basic technology of good fiction. The plot consists of a series of increasingly intense conflicts leading to a climax, followed by the resolution. The plot must be believable and interesting, and must advance as the story unfolds.

Your protagonist-the hero of the piece-must face challenges that are overcome to attain victory. Along the way, he or she goes through a range of change, so that they are not the same person at the end of the story as they were at the beginning. And there is a point or message to the story.

The truth is that any story that interests you will have these elements in some form. Even the shortest story-based ad copy will have these elements, if only in an implied form-the most obvious being the ones about weight loss or body building.

So, here's the bottom line: To use good stories in your sales and marketing, you need to have good storytelling-that is, good story writing-talent. If you don't have good story writing talent yourself, you need to hire it.

But here's the rub: Not all copy writers are good story tellers. I highly recommend that you include "good story telling skills" on your list of criteria no matter what kind of copy you seek. Even if you are a technical company looking for someone to write your brochure copy, I promise you that a copy writer who has mastered the technology of good story telling will give you much more compelling material than one who has not. And such a copy writer will be able to provide a much wider range of material for your marketing and sales initiatives-anything from pay-per-click ads to multi-page white papers and ebooks. Why? Because a writer who understands the technology of fiction writing and applies it to business copy will be far more inventive, less likely to use tired, stale words and phrases, and more likely to compose passages that speak to the readers-that is, to your market.

Everything old is new again, at least when it comes to telling stories as a marketing strategy. If you're not already incorporating stories in your copy, I highly recommend you do so. You will see better results right away!

Take my own marketing for example. Most of our salesletters are very long. But since they work we keep them around. The best ones though, tell stories. Personal stories seem to work best in our market. When you write a letter for a direct mail campaign add a story about yourself. If no story fits, write a story about a past client. This will get your piece a higher readership, retention rate, and conversion rate.

People love stories. If you can weave your sales piece in story form you are well on your way to early retirement.

Happy Originating!

Five Direct Marketing Tactics to Get the Business

2007-09-26 13:44:33

Any direct marketing expert will tell you that the second most important factor (after the list) of any direct marketing effort is the offer. The difference between a "workable" offer and a "killer" offer can mean thousands of dollars in revenue.

Here are five tips to help raise your offer to killer status:

1. Figure out who you are making the offer to. Forget the other four tips. Even if you only do this one thing, your campaign will be more successful than most of your competitors. First, decide who you want to attract to your business, then fashion the offer that will appeal to that particular audience.

2. Have a reason for your offer and say what it is. If you make a great offer for no reason, you will trigger the "no such thing as a free lunch" reflex in your readers' minds. All suspicion and no motivation to buy. You need to a have a real reason for your offer-you are new to the neighborhood, it's your business's anniversary, it's customer appreciation week at your company. Be as creative as you want, but be sure to have a reason.

3. Make the value a no-brainer. Your prospects are inundated with all kinds of offers. To stand out from the crowd, yours must be crystal clear so that it is understood instantly. Direct marketing resources have lots of information to help here. For example, one proven rule of thumb: Offering "half off" is easier to understand than 50% off, which in turn is a heck of a lot easier than 35% or even 60% off.

4. Likewise, make the call to action a no-brainer. In the same way that the value of the offer needs to be crystal clear, so does the call to action. Tell your recipient exactly what you want them to do--go to your web site and click on a certain link, come in to your office on a special date, or whatever action will allow them to take advantage of your offer.

5. Make it URGENT. Get your reader to act in the moment, while the idea and desire to buy from you is hot. This could be an expiration date on the offer, an extra bonus for fast response, or some other element that will mobilize your prospect.

Incorporate these tips into your next direct marketing campaign and watch the results. You will definitely see an improvement.

Happy Originating!

Is your marketing program full length or mosaic?

2007-09-26 13:45:46

Outside of large corporations with multi-person departments managed by VPs or Chief Marketing Officers, creating a marketing system that demonstrably contributes to sales can be a real challenge for most loan officers. Of all the overhead functions we handle, (that is, of all the functions that don't contribute a dime to the revenue side of the books), marketing has the highest cost profile. How can you be sure that the energy and expense will lead to the right results?

It doesn't surprise me to learn that marketing is left to chance. Loan officers routinely let others dictate what their marketing should look like, say, and how it should be delivered. And it also doesn't surprise me that in many small to medium brokerages, it is the senior broker or owner who directly oversees marketing. It is crucial to get the messages and positioning right. Marketing presents the face of the company to the outside world, and that face needs to be attractive to target audiences.

Company owners know their customers, they know their competitors, and they know how they want to position their companies in the marketplace. Problem is, these people already have big jobs without the addition or marketing to the mix.

I talk on a weekly basis with owners who have been managing marketing in addition to running their businesses and who have realized that it isn't working. In every case, they are taking a piecemeal approach that costs more money than it should for less than optimal results.

Think of marketing as a mirror that reflects the company. The bigger the mirror, the more (and more accurately) it reflects. Ideally, we want a full-length mirror-one single reflection of the entire entity. This is "integrated marketing," where the entire function is cohesive in appearance and message, from graphic design all the way to multi-faceted events. No matter where or how you encounter a company with integrated marketing, you will get the same reflection.

All the owners who contact me are using itty bitty mirrors for their marketing programs. They use this graphic designer, that copy writer, this advertising agency, that public relations consultant. Online marketing jobs are done by different vendors from those working offline projects. All of these little pieces get cobbled together into a fractured whole, and the resulting reflection is confusing and distracting. The image is broken up, distorted, and the appearance of the entity has to be guessed at instead of seen clearly. This is "mosaic marketing," with key messages seen and heard differently depending on where or how the company is encountered.

With mosaic marketing, activities are often reactive and in the moment: today we need a brochure so we go off and do that, tomorrow we need to change the web site and we go find somebody different to do that. The two activities may have very little (if any) overlap other than the company logo. Mosaic marketers jump on good ideas-let's get company t-shirts, let's do a white paper on that topic, let's have a webinar for this offering-without connecting them into an overarching program.

This isn't rocket science. Using my metaphor, given that the goal is to accurately reflect the company, a full-length mirror beats out a mosaic masterpiece any day. Everything works with everything else to convey a cohesive and consistent image.

So why don't owners marketers go for the full length mirror? I ponder this question every time I come away from a conversation with yet another broker looking for a better solution. The only answers I have come up with are the predictable ones: time and money. With all the demands on their schedules, owners/marketers don't have the bandwidth to proactively integrate marketing activities and ensure consistency across the board. And somehow they think that taking the mosaic approach is more cost-effective-though I am at a loss to understand why they think that hiring different providers for different services and trying to manage all of them successfully is cost-effective.

Just the opportunity cost of having the owners' time taken up with this stuff should be enough to stop the madness. There so many activities that only they can do; what are they giving up by keeping marketing, with all the tasks and activities that need to be managed, on their plate?

This kind of inefficient approach isn't limited to brokers; mosaic marketing is pursued by loan officers too. The same lack of efficiency and integration applies there as well, if not more so. With a one-person service firm, where company success relies entirely on the owner, why would that owner use so much of their time and energy on managing the marketing?

The way for an owner (or loan officer) to go from mosaic to full-length for their marketing mirror is simple: Create a vision of the business. Then systemize the marketing based on your goals and target market. If you are still in over your heads, then hire a consulting firm like ours to help you put the pieces together.

Happy Originating!

Mortgage Sales vs. Mortgage Marketing

2007-09-26 13:47:45

It seems to me that there is a lot of confusion between "marketing" and "sales" in our business. And I notice that there is a lot of stuff being written on this lately. Harvard Business Review had a feature article written by Phil Kotler, a business theory biggie. I admit that I have only scanned the article at this point...not surprisingly, it is targeted to large companies that have separate sales and marketing departments, not small businesses where both functions often reside in one person--that one person often also the broker or loan officer.

Judging from the consulting and coaching applications that come my way, along with the feedback and homework of my Jump Start Your Mortgage Career E-Class students, there is a tendency to lump sales and marketing together, probably because resources are limited.

The difficulty is that what makes a great salesperson rarely makes a great marketer (and vice versa). Sales focuses on doing only those things that will lead to producing revenue, and ignores activities that don't have a direct bearing on getting to a signature on the bottom line. Sales is by necessity short-sighted, looking to the next month, the next quarter, or maybe stretching into the next year, but no further. The name of the game is filling the pipeline and moving prospects through as quickly and effectively as possible. Sales is getting the application. It is essential to earning a living as a loan officer but without people to close you don't eat. That's where marketing comes in.

Marketing is a longer-term activity than sales, and generally is oriented more toward context that content. What I mean is that marketing seeks to enhance your position in your business niche through a variety of means, many of which can be more nuanced than a salesperson can tolerate. A successful marketing manager has a mentality that crosses creativity with good project management skills; put such a person in a sales role, and chances are high they will fail.

To clarify the differences in the two functions, I'll try some metaphors:

Marketing is the bowl, sales is the fruit.
Marketing plows the soil and lays down the fertilizer, sales sows the seeds and tends the plants.
Marketing is the coach, sales is the star athlete.

In all three cases, the qualities that make one role work are very different from the qualities that comprise the other. Trying to get both sets of qualities in one person or contracting firm is likely to result in hybrid that doesn't perform either function well. Chances are you do one or the other well, but not both.

Here is my suggestion: If you decide that you need to get some "sales and marketing" assistance, stop and think for a moment. What specifically do you want to achieve? Answer this question, and then seek EITHER sales OR marketing assistance, not both in the same breath.

To get you started, here are some possible answers to the question:

You want to convert more prospects into loans as soon as possible. (Sales)
You want to increase recognition of your company and its offerings in the marketplace. (Marketing)
You want someone to staff your trade show booth who can talk to attendees and collect qualified leads. (Sales)
You want someone to manage your trade show booth and make sure everything goes smoothly. (Marketing)

I could go on, but I have hopefully made the distinction clear enough. And given you food for thought that will help you get the most out of both your sales AND your marketing resources!!

Happy Originating!

Says Who Mortgage Marketing

2007-09-26 13:49:14

Subvert the Dominant Paradigm.

This intentionally fancy pants statement is a way of reminding me to rock the boat, challenge the status quo, and, to practice what I call "says who" marketing.

People are rule makers and rule followers by nature. We tend to like our environments organized and reliable, and if things around us are messy and confusing, we get very uncomfortable and will go looking for ways to put things in order. Marketing is an area that can get messy and confusing real fast. A mixture of art and science, marketing is often highly ambiguous and uncertain. It is also a high-profile expense bucket that may or may not produce the right results. With all the unknowns, it's no wonder that we look for rules to follow when planning our marketing programs.

And there are rules aplenty out there. There are piles and piles of web sites, magazines, seminars, printed books, training courses, and other resources that will tell you how to market in as much detail as your heart desires. And there are loads of companies and consultants offering systems and methodologies that you can follow like cook books to whip up marketing results.

There is nothing wrong with all this-it's great to have such an extensive resource to draw from when considering your best way forward. But beware! If you adopt marketing practices and methods without first thinking them through for yourself, you may end up with the wrong results at the end of the day.

I suggest practicing "says who" marketing. For example:

Everyone knows that every loan officer needs a personal brochure....says who? There might be other materials that will give you a better return on investment than a brochure.

To gain recognition in your market, you need to have your picture on your business cards...says who? They might be way more productive for a lot less money with a great USP instead.

To succeed today, you need to blog or podcast...says who? Both of these communication vehicles are specialized and require a steady commitment of time and money to work well.

Sure, there might be uses for one or both of these in your business, but you might also be able to succeed mightily without ever starting a blog or recording a podcast.

Here's one that might sound odd. If you have a business, you must have a web site...says who?

Okay, I admit that I think that there are very few businesses that won't get big benefits from having an online presence. It's the word "must" that rings alarm bells for me...why MUST you have a web site?

The list of rules and good advice goes on from there, but hopefully you get the picture.

Always ask "why?" Are there other ways we can do it? Who says we need to do this? And continue to ask questions, even for programs and initiatives that have been around for a while.

Test alternatives, consider new approaches, color outside the lines.

Remember, there aren't really any rules in marketing. Just made up stuff that gets disguised as rules. By all means, subscribe to the newsletters, read the books, and invite the consultants to pitch to you. While you do this, though, keep an open mind, don't assume that what worked for someone else will necessarily work for you, and practice says who marketing any time you find yourself thinking automatically about how things should look.

Happy Originating!

The Basics of Creating Trust

2007-09-26 13:50:59

How do your prospects decide to buy from you? What criteria do they consider when shopping for services like yours?

Buying decision lists include things like:

Experience
Track record
Testimonials/references from customers
Unique Selling Proposition
Expected return on investment

Along with those and other considerations, the fundamental criterion, and one that a prospect might not even think about consciously is trust. You could score a 10 in all the items listed above, and if the prospect doesn't trust you, you aren't likely to make the sale. Or, if you do, the new customer will micromanage everything or require a lot of attention--and if you slip up once, they will be gone.

Trust is the critical success factor in any business, but it is especially important for a mortgage business. A product-based company certainly needs to be trustworthy; unlike a mortgage company, though, it has tangible products that the prospect can see, touch, taste, test drive. In many cases, the prospect focuses on the thing they will buy and gauge trust in terms of its usefulness, craftsmanship, and esthetics.

A mortgage business doesn't have a thing to put in front of a prospect. It must convey trustworthiness through words and actions. And the place to start conveying trustworthiness is right up front, in your marketing:

Respond to queries quickly, completely, and positively. When you are contacted by a prospective customer, respond right away. Answer any questions they have posed, provide materials that will give them more information without any hard sells, and invite them to make an appointment to talk further with you.

Be on time for meetings. A prospect (who became a client) once told me that he sets up phone meetings with possible providers to test their reliability. He was impressed that I had called him when I said I would!

Reassure your clients. Make guarantees for your services. I offer a "no questions asked" full refund to any client who feels they have not gotten what we promised

Do what you say you will do. This should be a no-brainer, but the truth is that if you follow through on your commitments, you will be way out in front of your competition. And you will cement the relationship with your client, which will encourage their loyalty and advocacy (that is, they will tell their friends and associates about you!).

Another difference between a mortgage company and its product-oriented counterpart is that the trustworthiness door swings both ways. We talk a lot about being trustworthy to win business, but you also need to be discerning in terms of the prospects you take on. Clients who are not trustworthy are a drain on a company's resources and will undermine your growth in many ways. The way a prospect interacts with you during the sales process will be a good indicator of how they will work with you once they buy. It will serve you well to have criteria with which to gauge prospects, and to pursue only those that meet your standards.

Happy Originating!

Digital Dexterity

2007-09-26 13:52:48

The steady progress of technology over recent years has opened some really interesting marketing doors for small businesses. Besides providing a whole new potential sales channel in the form of the Internet, technology has spawned a whole range of new products and services at costs that are easily accessible to small and medium businesses.

First, there's digital printing. The cost of high quality, full color marketing collaterals has decreased in proportion to technological sophistication. Not only can national chains such as FedEx Kinko's and FastSigns turn out amazing stuff, now you can shop across the country to get the best services at the best price. Upload your artwork through the Internet, and the finished product can be on your doorstep within the week.

You don't even have to go outside the office to print high quality pieces. Color printers are available that can produce high-resolution materials worthy of being seen by customers and prospects. Going in-house for some or all of your marketing printing gives you unprecedented control over cost and quality--the money you spend on buying or leasing the equipment will come back to you in savings on third party services.

Another advantage of today's digital dexterity is the ability to personalize your pieces. Mail merge has gone beyond simply first name, last name, and zip code. You can now print a 4-color brochure with whole paragraphs personalized to each recipient - along with customized pictures and graphics. Imagine receiving a full color flyer from your auto mechanic offering specials specifically tailored to you, with a picture of your car! Would that get your attention??

Digital dexterity combines electronic and hard copy printed matter in a number of forms. One of the coolest is the "business card CD-ROM," literally a business-card-sized disc that runs on a computer CD-ROM drive. Your business card (or other information) can be printed on the face of the CD, and you can have as much as 100 megabytes of information burned onto the disk.

The files can be self-launching, and, among other things, you can:

Include an offline version of your website.
Link to your online website.
Provide PDF versions of useful documents, catalogs, and marketing collaterals.
Include questionnaires, subscription forms, or registrations and can be filled out and submitted to you online.
Provide animation or video sequences for promoting your company's products and services that can be accompanied by music, sound tracks, and/or voiceover commentary.

Then there is the whole "on demand" arena. Gone are the days when you had to order a whole box of coffee cups or t-shirts in order to get branded merchandise. There are now online services that allow you to upload your artwork and order whatever type and quantity of branded product you want from their catalog of items. These services will also print and bind one copy (or hundreds, if you want) of a book for you, or create as many audio CDs (from your digitally recorded files) as you want--branded with your company name and logo.

These are a few examples of the breakthrough marketing opportunities that digital dexterity is offering companies today. There are a lot more. Technology has allowed firms to really ramp up their creativity in terms of how they interact with their markets.

Happy Originating!

The Mortgage Marketing Plan

2007-09-26 13:54:20

If you are now or ever have been part of a large company or corporation, you are familiar with planning exercises-business planning, financial planning, marketing planning, all sorts of planning. Some of it is done in groups, while some of it is done by individuals. And if it's done "right," there will be some kind of document at the end of process, which will either be used as a reference throughout the period the planning covered, or will get put away and never looked at again.

I have a theory that in large enterprises the more "intangible" the plan, the more fanfare goes with it, and the less useful the outcome is. For example:

1. A financial plan-with lots of numbers and forecasts-is tangible and trackable; it can be checked and compared with actuals at pretty much any point along the line. This type of plan is invariably prepared by only a handful of people with very little muss or fuss, and is used regularly to track business profit and loss status.

2. A business plan tends to be less tangible and trackable. Though there is certainly a financial component, there are also more ephemeral bits-things like goals, say-that are more difficult to check on. This type of plan is usually done by a group of "key" managers in one or more formal (sometimes facilitated) sessions, and may be referred to periodically to take the business pulse.

3. A marketing plan is about as intangible as one can get, and it requires creativity, discipline, and commitment to craft trackable elements for it. This type of plan is often accompanied by the blare of trumpets and lots of meetings, and the resulting document is likely to be full color with lots of charts and graphics--and is never used.

Though I've oversimplified and generalized these three types of plans, the bottom line is that, in my experience, the marketing planning process in large corporations tends to be a wastefully resource-intensive exercise that doesn't provide much value to the actual pursuit of the marketing function. There are a lot of flourishing gestures and intense facial expressions, and not a lot of really useful work gets accomplished. No wonder that smaller businesses rarely proactively engage in marketing planning. They don't see the point.

But hold on.

Isn't that-pardon the cliché-throwing the baby out with the bath water? Just because marketing planning is ineffective in many cases, does that mean it shouldn't be done at all?

I say no. In fact, I say that smaller businesses must plan their marketing programs-map out what they need to accomplish and how they will do it-preferably prior to the start of their business year. They need to step back and think creatively about how to use marketing most cost-effectively to meet business objectives, and how marketing can help them gain or retain competitive advantage.

Smaller enterprises cannot afford to waste their resources-either human or fiscal. They cannot afford to pursue ad hoc initiatives that may or may not produce results. And they definitely cannot afford to implement marketing tactics whose results can't be measured in some way.

A marketing plan does not need a lot of fanfare, facilitated meetings, or fancy graphics to be effective-quite the reverse, in fact. It needs to be a useful reference document that spells out what programs will be pursued and why, and how those programs relate to each other. It also needs to specify how the effectiveness of the programs will be measured and how often.

Here is an overview of the steps to take to arrive at a useful marketing plan for your business:

1. Clearly state where you are today. What was your marketing expense for the last year (assuming you work on a calendar year basis)? What percent of revenue does this represent?

What specific programs did you implement? What results did they produce? What does the competitive landscape look like today? How about your market? Have there been changes over the past year that could affect you?

2. Define your marketing goals. Based on your objectives for the next year, what specific marketing goals are appropriate? Clearly state these goals in active terms (e.g., "Participate in five industry trade shows with at least a 20% qualified lead rate," "Realize at least fifteen media mentions in local and trade press.").

3. Identify appropriate marketing tactics. Considering your goals individually and as a whole, what marketing activities are most likely to be successful? Think about how the activities can interrelate to give you the most bang for the buck (e.g., a newsletter that is put on your web site, emailed to your contacts, and printed in hard copy format maximizes your preparation/publication expense). Also, identify activities or tasks that will require third party assistance.

4. Determine how and how often you will measure the effectiveness of your activities. Marketing results can be intangible-how do you know whether your web site leads to sales or whether your trade show exhibit was as effective as it could have been?-but they still need to be measure somehow. Come up with proxy measurements that you have confidence in-the number of hits on a certain web page, for instance, or the number of visitors to your exhibit who stay for more than five minutes-and that you can use to measure the degree to which your activities are hitting the mark in terms of achieving your goals.

That's basically it. A marketing plan in four pages (more or less). A fifth page might be a marketing budget that encompasses all the activities you have planned; this can serve as another metric to gauge marketing effectiveness.

Now that you have a marketing plan for the year, here's what to do with it:

1. Communicate marketing goals and activities to your staff and be sure to illustrate how they relate to overall business objectives.

2. Create and implement a project schedule that spells out at least high level timelines and milestones for your marketing activities. A lot of marketing tasks are long term, putting a schedule into play will keep things from falling through the cracks.

3. Refer to the plan periodically (once a month? once a quarter?) to see if you are on track relative to the status of the business as a whole. Are your goals still appropriate? Are your activities on track?

4. Also periodically, gather and review the metrics you've identified for your marketing activities. What do they indicate? Are you getting what you need from your programs, or are changes called for? Tracking marketing metrics gives you the opportunity to modify your activities "midstream" if they aren't producing results, rather than waiting till the end of the year and realizing you've wasted resources on the wrong things.

Everyone needs a marketing plan. But your plan does not need to be accompanied by a herald blowing a trumpet, and does not need to be a huge document with loads of graphics and tables.

Create a plan that is concise, actionable, and measurable-and you will have an invaluable tool that will help you grow your business the way you want to.

Happy Originating!

Does Your Business Have WOM?

2007-09-26 13:56:25

I am completely at the mercy of car mechanics. I don't know the first thing about car engines, so it would be very easy for a mechanic to charge me for services I don't actually need. In fact, it has happened. After being burned more times than I want to think about, these days I rely on trusted friends who know cars to refer me to someone who will take good and ethical care of my vehicle.

Like my car care, the buyer of any kind of service must take the provider's word that they know what they are doing. Even more nervous-making, the buyer usually must pay for at least part of a service (i.e., a deposit) before it is delivered. Being invisible and intangible, services are only as good as the market's perception of them, and service businesses rely heavily on the endorsements made by satisfied customers to their friends, families, and colleagues.

Word of mouth--WOM--has been the marketing mainstay of service firms since...well, since caveman days, when Ogg did something for Erg and Erg told Yagg about it. WOM and its subset, referrals, differ from other marketing activities because they depend entirely on someone voluntarily endorsing your services to someone else.

Key word: voluntarily. This isn't something that you as a service provider have direct control over. You can ask, invite, encourage--even offer to pay them for referrals--but when it gets right down to it, the only way WOM will make a big impact on a service business's growth is if clients are so excited and thrilled about it that they proactively endorse it to their own networks.

The best strategy to maximize WOM, therefore, is to pursue activities that will create excited and thrilled clients. But not all your clients; that will simply waste resources on little or no return. Focus instead on your key clients--that 20% that Pareto's Principle says represents 80% of your revenues--and thrill them to bits. Doing this will:

Keep you "top of mind" with your best client advocates, which will prompt them to pass your name along.

Motivate them to include you in opportunities, events, or activities that they might otherwise have left you out of.
Provide you with prospects who are similar to your key clients, because people tend to connect to others like themselves.
Make upselling and cross-selling to your key clients much easier.

There are all kinds of ways to thrill your key clients--the only limitation is your imagination.

Here are some general suggestions that can be customized to fit your company's style and the personalities of your clients:

Create a VIP mailing list for key clients and send them offers that no one else is receiving.
Make sure your staff gives key clients priority attention at all times.
Refer key clients to other key clients' businesses.
Spotlight key clients in your newsletter by writing stories about them that relate to your own services.
Conduct a live event (such as an executive breakfast) that brings your key clients together to discuss shared concerns or issues.
Send handwritten notes or cards to key clients (and family members if appropriate) for birthdays, anniversaries, congratulations, or just to say thanks.
Poll your key clients from time to time to solicit their feedback and suggestions, and make sure they know you've heard them and are taking action.

There are many other ways to thrill your most important clients that will motivate them to endorse your company. Weaving several tactics into a formal program that becomes "business as usual" for you will help maximize WOM and drive lots of new prospect to your door.

Happy Originating!

The Pareto Principle

2007-09-26 13:57:34

The Pareto Principle says that for many phenomena, 80% of the consequences stem from 20% of the causes. Also know as the 80-20 rule, it gets cited in all kinds of business media. Interestingly, and in spite of its trendiness, the Pareto Principle really is a useful concept for a mortgage business.

One of the applications of the principle says that 80% of a company's revenues come from 20% of its customers. In other words, all customers do not have the same amount of impact on your bottom line. Some small portion-20% for example-are far more significant to your firm than others.

This insight can drive a large part of your marketing program. The ways in which you care for the few customers who spend the most dollars will vary based on your particular style, but creating a marketing program that targets the top 20% of your list will generate new revenues in all kinds of ways from increased purchases themselves to sending more referrals your way.

But here is an interesting number: In a survey of U.S. corporate marketing managers, slightly more than half of respondents said that they do not segment according to customer value. This implies that around half of American corporations don't recognize that their customers are not all of equal value to them. I'll bet that if we move down into the small-to-medium business sector, that portion increases by a lot.

That's not good. Customer value needs to figure prominently in marketing strategy, especially in smaller companies. Resources are spread wider and thinner in small to medium enterprises, and every single marketing dollar has to produce the right result. Paying more attention to that top 20% of customers will produce far more right results than treating your list as one homogeneous audience.

Some corporations have mastered the art of cultivating their top customer echelon. Airlines are a prime example; their frequent flyer programs reward the people who buy from them the most, and go one step further by motivating these buyers to continue buying by offering attractive incentives for accumulating more miles with them. They also negotiate special rates with large corporations with vast travel budgets to motivate continued patronage.

How can you leverage the minority of customers who account for the bulk of your revenue? Here are a few ideas to spark your thinking:

Offer extra services at no additional charge only to these top customers.
Extend exclusive offers to this segment of your client base.
Be a matchmaker by networking your top clients and referring them to each other.
Extend more favorable fees or payment terms to this group.
Send hand written notes to your top customers on occasion to thank them for doing business with you.
Send them something special on a birthday, anniversary, or other special occasion.
Email or snail mail reports or articles that you come across that you know will interest them.

Do some brainstorming of your own on this question, then implement marketing initiatives targeted at your top 20%. And lest you think that we are talking big bucks here, rest easy. It's amazing what results you can produce with a hand written, snail mailed note or a tin of cookies. Be creative, be communicative, be human in dealing with your most valuable customers, and you will reap bigger rewards.

Happy Originating!

Loan Officer = Teacher

2007-09-26 13:58:44

You offer a service, not tangible products that your potential customer can touch, inspect, or take for a test drive. Your "product" is more or less thin air, and bought largely based on trust.

How do you create at least the beginning of trust with prospective clients? Give them something they can "taste" before they buy your services. Nothing will build your credibility faster than producing and sharing your expertise in ways that educate your prospects and clients in ways that are useful to them. Creating content to offer as "free samples" gives your market a feel for your style, approach, and level of expertise.

Free content can be used in numerous ways, from free downloads on your web site to hard copy handouts at trade shows or speaking gigs. You can assemble pieces in first contact packages along with your brochure or upload articles to portals on the Internet. Use is limited only by your imagination and, possibly, your time.

Here are some suggestions for educational marketing pieces for free distribution to your marketplace:

1. Tip sheets or e-book. Organize your know-how in numbered lists. You can create short one-pagers for downloading from your site and sending out to prospects. Or collect tips until you have "99" or "101" or more and create an e-book for the same use.

2. Articles for others' use. There are numerous article banks on the Internet that serve as repositories of info you can share.

3. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) lists. Over time, your clients will ask you many of the same questions. Write these down and then write out thoughtful answers. You can post these FAQs on your website or they can be separate information products.

4. Other peoples' knowledge. Conduct recorded telephone interviews with experts in your field. Have several prepared questions and talking points that you give to your interviewee in advance. Then after the call has been recorded, you can distribute the CD as an information product.

5. An e-course. You can easily find opportunities to teach classes at local adult education venues or online in the form of an ecourse. Your outline should suffice for the first class, but you will want to create more materials for your students as you go along. Each handout you write, each syllabus, each worksheet and each workbook can all be used as information products to your prospective clients.

Be sure to recycle. Cross pollinate your article bank collection with your blog posts with your newsletter articles with your tips sheets with your .... you get the picture. This gives you a lot more value for the material, whether you wrote it yourself or paid to have it written.

Be sure to keep your content fresh and updated based on your insight into your market and what your clients and prospects feed back to you. And remember: Things that you consider mundane or old hat are likely news to your readers. Mine your own head and share what you consider basic stuff, and you will gain awareness and interest in the population that you want to serve.

Happy Originating!

Your Voice Is Your Brand

2007-09-26 13:59:54

Branding, branding, branding. About every fifth newsletter or article I see online or in business journals has some spin on branding. How important it is. How it is a piece of intellectual property that must be leveraged and protected. How it must be invested in--this assertion (surprise) is from branding consultants who invite you to hire them to "do" you. I am so tired of hearing about how lofty and complex branding is.

This is one of the sacred cows of marketing that needs to be defrocked, at least as far as mortgage companies are concerned. Branding is important, yes. It is essential for a product firm, especially one selling consumer products, where even the way the item is packaged is part of the brand. And it is also important for a loan officer, but in this case it can be greatly simplified.

As a provider of intangibles, you need to pay attention to "proxies," those things that will convey the nature of your company's services to your audiences in lieu of the services themselves.

These proxies comprise your brand. Your company's name, your logo, and your characteristic color palette all serve as proxies, and are all part of your brand. It is important to pay attention to these items and to take care in their creation. Once they are created, however, your activity is purely tactical: Make sure that they get used consistently and accurately in every audience-facing activity you take part in.

By far the most powerful and important proxy for your brand as a mortgage company, and one that must be regularly managed, is your "voice." By this I mean the quality and style of the content of your collaterals--the words in your web site, your brochures, your e-mails, and any other communication that comes from your company.

Review your web site, your brochures, white papers, articles, newsletters, or whatever else you make available to your clients and prospects. Do you have a consistent voice in all of your marketing collaterals? If so, is it the right voice for your company? Does it convey the personality and values of the firm as well as the quality of its offerings?

If your voice really is accurate and represents your firm's personality, here is another key question: Do your audiences hear you correctly? The way you will know the answer to this question is to gauge the response. This might be through inquiries from your site, leads generated at events, or the ease (or difficulty) you experience in moving through the sales cycle. Find ways to measure the effectiveness of your words so that you can see if you are being heard correctly.

If your voice is attracting the right leads and greasing the wheels for your sales, you've got it right. If, however, you are not getting the kind of response you seek from your target market, perhaps you aren't talking right. Review the words that represent your firm, wherever they reside, and consider making some changes to the way you "speak."

Your voice is the most powerful aspect of your service firm's brand. Concentrate on getting it right, and then keeping it right, and your brand will be on the mark.

Happy Originating!

Be Careful Who You Listen To

2007-09-26 14:01:07

The other day, I was listening to an acknowledged business guru talking about his latest take on how to make it big. The results this guy has produced are inarguable: He was a wunderkind who sold millions via the Internet before he turned 30. He has also helped others to business success. So there is no question that the guy has earned respect and credibility when it comes to building breakthrough businesses. (Just so those of you who haven't gotten that far yet and/or are in an older generation don't get dispirited, this particular person grew up in a highly successful entrepreneurial family, so he was well prepared from the cradle.)

But...

There were two assertions that he made in the talk I listened to that made me uncomfortable, and that led me to making this issue more of a cautionary piece. The caution is that no matter how well qualified a mentor, coach, or guru is, don't ever take what they say as gospel.

The first observation the guru made was that the old saying about giving a man a fish is untrue. First, he got the saying discombobulated; the accurate version, a Chinese saying, goes, "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." (And here are some funny improvements on the original!) Second, he used it in the wrong context.

The guru completely discredited this saying, saying that customers want fish--that is, that they want stuff already done for them as much as possible. Frankly, I have never heard this saying applied to sales and marketing; the only context I'm familiar with is the non-profit sector, specifically to do with working with populations in Third World countries. This adage was used to assert that giving "stuff" to those people was far less effective than working with them to become self-sustaining.

The main point the guru was making in his tirade is excellent--generally speaking, it's a "don't make me think" market. Any products or services you offer really do need to make customers' lives easier. I just take issue with calling the saying itself BS (which is what the guru said). It's more accurate to say that this saying doesn't apply to a profit-making enterprise in today's market.

The second--and in my opinion, far more serious--questionable remark was later on, when he was giving his "hot tips" for success. He asserted more than once that being first with an idea, a niche, or a solution was the best way to go. That you can blow away the competition by being first. This is a drastic oversimplification. I guess you can say it's best to be first so that you can get in and make a bunch of money before the competition catches up; that's probably true. But being first is not always best. In fact, it is well known among business and marketing strategists that being first is not necessarily best--sometimes it's better to wait and let someone else deal with the pitfalls and snafus, then step in and take over with goods and services that take advantage of the learnings of the "firsts."

A simple and classic example is the PC computer market. Once dominated by "first to the mark" companies like Kaypro, IBM stepped in and took over with an improved interface and value proposition. Earlier companies had invested in what quickly became outmoded technology, and they couldn't adapt fast enough. There are other examples of "first is not always best" in other market sectors as well...so take this piece of that great guru's advice with a big grain of salt and investigate the workability of this strategy for yourself.

Actually, I suggest that you take anybody's assertions for success with a grain of salt (even mine) until you think them through for yourself. You will produce longer lasting results, revenues, and successes if you stay awake and make sure that you are using the right adages and the right advice for your specific situation.

Happy Originating!

Say No To Cool Marketing

2007-09-26 14:02:28

There are so many marketing choices available to service firms today, more than ever before.

Newsletters, direct mail, seminars, trade shows, brochures, white papers, advertising, all in online and offline forms--those are just some examples of the choices for creating awareness and interest in a company's services.

The bad news is that, in spite of all those choices, we have never had so many marketing activities underperform. The return on marketing investment for many service firms is dismal.

One reason for the low ROI is what I call "This Is Cool Marketing." If you have never seen the old Mickey Rooney-Judy Garland classics on cable TV, the formula goes something like this: Someone needs a whole bunch of money to solve some problem, and the kids are determined to help. After a bit of brainstorming, one of them (Judy or Mickey, I can't remember which) says, "I know! We can put on a play in your father's barn!" Or something close to that.

Just a few scenes later, we are treated to a full on musical extravaganza with costumes, lights, and choreography. No muss, no fuss, the kids make scads of money, and there is inevitably a Broadway scout in the audience who comes backstage with a contract in hand.

This Is Cool Marketing follows a similar pattern. Someone says, "Let's do a webinar!" Or "Let's do an email campaign!" Everyone agrees and the project is put into motion.

Unlike the movies, though, This Is Cool Marketing rarely produces the results everyone is looking for. Why? Because few firms pay sufficient attention to the parts between the initial idea and the departure of the audience after the curtains close.

There are a number of moving parts in any kind of marketing activity. Also, any marketing project has three very distinct phases: the pre-event phase, the event, and post-event phase. The pre and post phases rarely get the attention they need.

Let's use a webinar as an example.

There is the logistical part--registration, phone bridge, web viewer, system to capture attendee information-and the content part--moderator, presenters, presentations, rehearsals, Q&A prep.

Getting all those pieces working right is a feat in and of itself. But it's not enough to produce the best results.

To get the most return from a marketing project, thought and work has to be devoted to the pre and post phases.

Let's stick with our webinar example. How will the event be promoted? What communications will go out about it? To whom? Are there VIPs that merit special attention to ensure their attendance? Will you offer an incentive--like the ubiquitous iPod raffle--to encourage attendance?

On the post-event side, will the webinar be used in other ways after the live event? What kind of follow-on communication campaigns need to be set up? How will captured attendee information be used? What about the people who registered but didn't attend? Will they be contacted? Will some kind of fulfillment document be offered?

I've barely scratched the surface with this example, but I hope it's enough to illustrate the true scope of a successful marketing project.

Marketing projects are more than an idea, a barn, and a Busby Berkeley dance number. Execute on all the details-before, during, and after-and you will see a far better return on your efforts.

Happy Originating!

How To Connect With Your Prospects

2007-09-26 14:03:33

The written word is king of the marketing hill these days. Between the intangible nature of services and the intangible marketing challenge known as the Internet, having content that increases interest and drives sales is a service firm imperative.

When selling loans, content is your "free sample," the equivalent of the people in supermarkets giving out little cups of various kinds of food products for you to try before you buy. OK, well, maybe not exactly like that, but thematically the same. Your content conveys your company's personality (known in more stuffy business circles as your culture) as well as your expertise, which are both part of the criteria applied by prospects when making buying decisions.

So here's the question that constitutes the title of this article: Is your content actually connecting? You can have loads of articles, white papers, web pages, and email messages, but if the words in those pieces aren't making a strong connection to your market, all that content is worthless.

Here are some suggestions for creating connections with content:

Be context specific. A piece of content needs to talk to a specific audience at the right level. If you market to financial advisors, for example, assume that your reader understands the financial planning field at least at an intermediate level if not higher. Don't write "Finance 101" stuff for these folks. If, on the other hand, you are selling your services to small and solo business owners, assume that your reader is knowledge-deficient in the exact areas where you shine.

Write like you talk. Said another way, write like your company talks. The style, voice, and tone of your content will be very different if you have a more informal "shorts and t-shirt" way of doing business than if you are operating out of an urban high-rise and "dress for success" in designer duds. Keep your language and style consistent with how you want to be perceived.

Stay away from the third person. Use first and second person in your content. If the piece is authored by one person, as with an article or a white paper, use first person singular; if the speaker is the company, use we and us. Talk directly to the reader using you and your.

Be inclusive and at the same level. Involve your reader. Instead of saying "if one looks at this situation," say "if we look," or "let's look." And instead of being instructive or positioning yourself as the guru on the mountain, stand next to the reader. "The challenge we face is..." is far more attractive in the reader's mind than "the challenge facing you is..." Avoid potentially condescending or patronizing phrases like, "You need to understand..." or "It should be obvious that..."

Finally, be passionate. We are all passionate about what we offer, and we need to be proud to show it. I, for example, think that good, authentic content will pave the way to quality relationships with great customers..

Happy Originating!

Test Your Mortgage Knowledge

2007-09-26 14:04:44

When was the last time you brushed up on your mortgage training?

Or are you one of those know-it-alls that doesn't need any training?

Well, I would like to put you to the test.

We have a simple quiz we give to people to see if they need our mortgage training or not. Why not take a couple minutes to see how you would do? It's eight questions and will take you less than 5 minutes.

Here's the link:

http://www.mortgagebrokertraining.com/quiz.html

Happy Originating!

Loans for Loan Officers

2007-09-26 14:07:29

I read about a website in an issue of Fast Company magazine that I think you all need to be aware of. Prosper.com is a person to person lending community. It is a website where ordinary people lend money to other ordinary people in small amounts.

Anyone can post a listing asking for a loan up to $25,000 with a three year term. They use a reverse auction system for interest rates. The borrower will list the maximum interest rate they are willing to pay. Based on the information provided by the borrower and some basic credit information provided by the website, lenders make bids based on an amount and a rate they would be willing to lend. The website handles all the money and payments.

This is great for borrowers because it costs less in interest than credit cards, there are no co-signers needed, no collateral is asked for, and the process can take just a few days.

I signed up as a lender a couple weeks ago and have already lent about $3,500. My average rate of return should be a little above 13%. That is, if the borrowers do not default. If they do, there is a collection company that steps in and handles the account.

This site can help you in several ways:
1. If you have borrowers or people in your sphere of influence who need a loan, you can send them here and be a hero.
2. If you have prospects who do not qualify because their ratios are out of whack, a loan to consolidate their debt might do the trick.
3. If you have a couple who does not have enough for the down payment, you can get one of them to borrow some money here, and use the other's credit to qualify for the mortgage.
4. If you have some extra money lying around and would like to make a little interest and help people at the same time, you can. I feel that since we deal with risk assessment every day, we as loan officers, would make better choices about which listings to bid on than the average lender.
5. If you need a little cash to start a marketing campaign or even make ends meet, you can get the money here. I have seen several new realtors get funded and there is no reason you cannot do the same.

I have formed a group on Prosper. The group's name is called Treasure Train, and I would be honored to have you as a group member. Groups are a way to create community on the site as well as verify information. Borrowers who are in groups usually get a cheaper rate than those who are not. They also have a group leader who can help them get funded by giving advice on how to post their listing and what to say in the listing. Group Leaders also can verify the numbers on a listing, such as income and debt. Lenders are much more likely to believe a group leader than a borrower. If you are going to borrow money here, join a group and get the leader to help you by vetting your documents and giving you tips on how to list.

Prosper.com has generated a lot of favorable press recently. Even though the site started in 2006, there has already been several million dollars lent through it. More and more people are joining everyday. As a lender, I am noticing that I could probably get a better rate of return elsewhere with less risk and more liquidity. But here, you get a sense of helping people who are going through some tough times get back on their feet.

Happy Originating!

What's In It For Me?

2007-09-26 14:19:06

For some reason, marketing is a mystery to people who should know better. Granted, if you believe what you read, marketing is something between an art and a science, truly understood by only a select few.

Bunk.

How do you communicate to your customers and prospects so that awareness and interest in your services or products increase?

Simple. Answer the question that is on every single consumer's mind when confronted with a buying opportunity:

WHAT'S IN IT FOR ME?

Tell them what they'll get out of doing business with you. If you don't do that, no amount of fireworks, freebies, or award-winning graphic design will matter.

Whether you prepare your own marketing copy or hire someone else to do it, you need to create the foundation upon which to build good communication. Here's how to do it.

Any time you are planning a marketing communication- for your company as a whole or for a particular product or service that you are selling -sit down and write:

Here is what we do. Make it brief, to the point (50 words or less), and specific to the thing you are marketing.

Here is what is in it for you. Be clear, specific, and honest. Avoid buzzy "market-speak" that sounds good but says nothing, or, worse, says the same thing all your competitors are saying. Stay away from mortgage jargon as well.

Here is why you should buy from us. Tell your reader why they should choose you instead of someone else. If you can't think why you're better, return to "Go" and figure it out. Until you do, you have no business writing a marketing communication.

Now go back and revise what you've written by applying these three principles:

Be personal. Marketing is communication and communication is about people. You are not an institution, and you are not talking to other institutions. Talk like a person, and infuse your message with your company's personality.

Be positive. There is a marketing school of thought that promotes sowing fear, uncertainty, and doubt (the FUD factor) to get people to buy. The idea is to imply how much worse off the consumer will be if they don't buy from you. This kind of negativity may work in Internet advertising and some service industries, but it's not useful if you want to keep your customers.

Reinforce the positive aspects of doing business with you, paint the picture of success to be gained through your partnership, and you are far more likely to have a long term customer than if you scare them into buying.

Be creative. Consider how to communicate in interesting ways, ways that address what you know are the issues, needs, and concerns of your target market. Eliminate clichés, find a way of saying it that's different from the competition.

Answering the WIIFM question forms the basis for creation of good, compelling marketing copy that gets its job done-whether you write it yourself or hire a marketing copy writer to do it for you.

See? That wasn't so mysterious!

Happy Originating!

How To Convert More Leads Into Applications

2007-10-17 11:09:36

I am witnessing an alarming trend.

More and more loan officers are relying on email as their primary and sometimes their only way to communicate with their prospects.

Don't get me wrong. Email is great. I love email. It's free, fast, and you don't have to play phone tag. With a client whose loan is already being processed, email and a few phone calls is enough.

But email is not enough when working with prospects. To me, a prospect is someone you know is interested in a mortgage but has not committed to working with you.

I was going over the follow up plans of one of my coaching clients this morning when I noticed that even though he had 6 steps in his follow up plan with hot prospects, 5 of the 6 were by email.

As loan officers, we use email and the Internet all day, every day. But not all of our prospects do. If you are only following up with clients via email, you are missing the boat. But at least you are following the trend. As more and more loan officers follow up only through email and phone, this gives the smart ones a great opportunity to stand out from the crowd.

If you want to stack the odds in your favor, I suggest you find ways to WOW your prospects. WOW them to a point that you are their only choice for a loan. Is it hard to do? No. But it takes creativity and a little work.

Email is the lazy loan officer way to follow up. The lazy loan officer thinks, "Hey, I'll just write the emails once, load them onto an autoresponder, and whenever I get a lead, I'll add them to the list. The autoresponder will send out the emails for me and I can sit back and relax."

That would be true is email alone was enough. But it is not.

Put yourself in your prospect's shoes. Say you are looking for a financial planner. You can find ads for investment advice and planning everywhere you turn. They offer free seminars and free consultations. They will advise you for free on how to structure your portfolio to see if you are diversified enough. They will send you free information until you beg them to stop. Sounds just like the mortgage biz doesn't it?

So let's say you visit a planner and like what he has to say but can't decide to pull the trigger. After all, you don't want to choose the wrong planner. You might get ripped off for several thousand dollars. So you tell him you will think it over.

As soon as you leave the planner adds your email address to his email list and you start getting emails once every 4-5 days. You read the first couple. They are well written and make good sense but without a compelling reason to hire him right now, you act like most normal people act and you put off making a decision.

The next weekend, your brother-in-law hears you are looking for a planner and says you've got to talk to his guy. "My guy's a financial wizard!" he tells you. And your brother-in-law even goes as far as to give your phone number to his guy, who calls you on Monday. You arrange to meet with him and he says pretty much the same thing the first planner told you. So you decide to go ahead with him. This guy comes recommended, he is about the same as the first guy, and how many more planners are you going to interview anyway?

When you get home you have another email in your inbox from the first planner. You skim it and hit delete. You hope the first planner never calls you because you will feel guilty telling him you went with someone else. And lucky for you, the first guy never calls. All you get are his emails, which after three weeks, don't even get opened anymore.

This same scenario plays out in the mortgage business everyday. Two or more loan officers fighting for the same loan and neither one stands out. Neither one offers a compelling reason to choose one over the other.

If you want to win more battles, if you want to stand out – don't settle for the lazy way. Incorporate other forms of follow up besides email. Here are some examples:

postcards
thank you notes
a singing telegram
a letter
a bobble head of yourself
a huge box delivered by UPS with nothing it but a fake check
a bouquet of flowers or balloons
the list is only limited by your imagination

The more unusual, the more you will be remembered and the more applications you will be processing.

Let's go back to our fantasy scenario. Rewind back to when you leave the office of the first planner. In addition to putting you on his email autoresponder, the planner takes five minutes to write you a thank you note and mails it so you get it the day after meeting with him.

Two days later you get a large envelope from him in the mail with a cd in it. As you drive to work the next day you listen to the cd which is of the planner interviewing several of his clients who are raving about how great he is and how wonderful it is to work with him.

Seven days after meeting with him, you get a FedEx envelope from the planner. You open it to find a letter with a $100 bill stapled to the top. The letter says that it has been a week since you met and that by not using him, you have cost yourself several hundred dollars. But being the nice guy that he is, and knowing how busy you are, he is offering you $100 as payment for another meeting. He then calls you later that night to schedule the meeting.

A couple days later your brother in law tells you about his guy and you go to meet with his guy on Monday. But you can't sign up because you like the first guy and you already accepted $100 to meet with him on Tuesday.

You do meet with him on Tuesday and he convinces you to work with him.

By taking extra steps and being proactive in his follow up, the first planner converted you from prospect into client. It cost him a little: $1 for the thank you note, $2 for the CD, and about $110 for the FedEx Letter, but when the commission is several hundred or thousands of dollars, isn't it worth it?

Happy Originating!

Cashing In On Adjusting ARMS

2007-10-30 13:53:48

A national survey of 500 ARM borrowers found that 73 percent don’t know how much their monthly payment will increase the next time the rates go up. The survey, which was conducted for the AFL-CIO labor union, indicates that borrowers are unprepared for the burden of higher payments. One in five borrowers don’t know their current rate, and 25 percent don’t know when their lender will raise the rate. "Predatory lending practices not only involve sticking consumers with bad loans, but also in failing to provide home owners with the basic information they need to survive in this market," AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said in a statement.

Source: Reuters News.

********

Let's make the numbers easier to understand.

· One in five borrowers don't know their current rate. This was a shocker to me.

· One in four do not know when their rates will go up.

· About 3 of 4 don't know how much the payments will adjust.

This is great news!

Let's say you want to focus on refinancing these ARMs. Now you know the hot buttons. You know what these people are afraid of and you can target these problems.

Here's an example:

Warning to Anyone With An Adjustable Rate Mortgage.

Are your rates going up? Do you know when and by how much?

If no, then you need to start planning now. Contact Joe Smith at XYZ Mortgage for a Fast, Free, Confidential Mortgage Evaluation. Joe is a 15 year veteran of the mortgage markets and can make sense of your Adjustable Rate Mortgage and explain it to you in simple English.

There is no cost for this evaluation and it takes no more than 30 minutes. But Joe's time is limited and he only has 8 spaces left this month.

Even though the FED is lowering rates, your mortgage rates might still go up. Find out how much, when, and how much your new payments will be before it happens.

Call today, and Joe will give you a copy of his new Report titled, No Cost Ways To Fix Your Mortgage.

Here's an example of a press release you can modify and use:

AFL-CIO survey reveals 75% of ARM holders do not know how to interpret their adjustable rate mortgage.

According to the new survey,

· One in five borrowers don't know their current rate.

· One in four do not know when their rates will go up.

· About 3 of 4 don't know how much the payments will adjust.

As a community service, Joe Smith of XYZ Mortgage has created a simple, free Adjustable Rate Workshop for those in the XXXXX area who are confused by their ARM.

The workshop will cover topics such as

- How to understand the interest rates that ARMs are tied to.

- How to determine how much your payment will increase

- How to determine when your payment will increase

Homeowners are encouraged to bring their mortgage paperwork so that all their specific questions can be answered.

The workshop will be held on Tues, XXX at 8pm at XYZ Mortgage. Seating is limited. For more information contact Joe Smith at XXX.

Whenever you see or hear news like this, it is easy to use it in your favor. The common man on the street doesn't know as much as you know about mortgages. And he shouldn't have to. That's our job; to educate our clients and provide them with quality solutions to their problems.

Everyone says that a home is an investment. I am not sure that I agree but that doesn't matter here. Stocks are also an investment. And when you look at a stockbroker, they not only process your trades, but they provide you with research. They provide you with ways to educate yourself. We need to do the same thing. If you want to keep your clients and get their referrals you need to do what the stockbrokers do. They hold seminars on various topics. They release investment research. They provide their own analysis.

You can do the same. But it doesn't have to be so regular. People are not looking for the next hot mortgage product release. But you should be producing material to show your expertise.

Seminars should be part of your arsenal and well as a blog, tele-seminars, interviews, and recordings of all these items.

By staying on top of the news, you can use it to

a. market your services

b. educate your clients so they stick and refer.

Happy Originating!

Mortgage Fun

2008-05-09 13:03:04

I never would have thought it would come down to this. But alas, some loan officers will do anything for business.

Watch this video for laughs, but notice how this loan officer is differentiating himself. By poking fun at himself, he is getting his name out there. What would have been better is he included his name, phone and website in the video so as it gets passed around it would advertise for him.