When you get up to go to work
Here's what I'm willing to bet you. Most of you, the greater majority to be exact, well maybe even more than that, will feel a combination of a sense of panic, worry, wonder, envy, fear and caring.
Don't you want to be a professional? Don't you want to eliminate from your life the quiet desperation that the philosophers say most of us live with every day? Don't you want to be in control of your life, your income, your future, your family, your existence?
You can you know. But all of those things can only be yours if you change and do it quickly. I wrote recently about the perfect storm that has come upon the mortgage industry over the past few months. I wrote of just a couple of ways that can help you navigate out of the storm. But there is something bigger, something so immense that most of us can't even comprehend it.
I've been doing training for over 20 years now. But it is time to take off the gloves and let my hair down.
I read all the wonderful things that most of my peers write. I see all the websites with all the information that is available to help you all make a life for yourself filled with riches beyond belief. So why don't you have those riches, why oh why are you so desperate every day to figure out where your next deal is coming from? I'll tell you again. You won't change. You won't take control. You just want to roll with what's going on in your life because change and taking control is too hard.
Well I guarantee you this, if you don't take control, don't set up a plan, don't take your life by the horns, you're going to continue to be miserable.
So about 40 years ago, I was working as a new loan officer. I worked in an urban setting where sales prices were about $15,000. Per unit. If I did a deal over $25,000, it was a home run. There was this guy, a real estate salesman who worked in an office that I called on. He was most unremarkable, in appearance, dress, brainpower and sociability. But one day, when I went to visit the real estate office that he worked at he told me he was going to open his own office, be his own boss. Little did I know what had gone on behind the scenes. He had been studying. He had decided to change; he had decided to make something of himself and he knew that he had to change the way he acted in order to be able to achieve the dreams he had.
Here is what I believe. You are doing what you do because you like it. You're comfortable; you feel that if you take yourself out of your comfort zone, you might not be able to get to where you want to be. You're afraid, because someone in your life told you that you should not rock the boat, not try too hard, not put yourself out. Well thank God for those that don’t listen to that crap.
So what about you? What about your
Your dreams can only be realized if you take some steps in a different direction that you've been walking. Well, maybe you've been crawling. You need to get organized, establish a set of goals, and put together a plan, and then actually work on the plan, creatively as if you mean it; as if you were putting together a group to go out this coming Friday.
And right here is the first solid step for you.
What are your goals? How much business do you want to do in the next 12 months? How much money do you want to make in the next 12 months. And what are you going to do with the money. What the heck are you working for? What dreams can you actually make happen if you had the money?
Write down on one piece of paper exactly what I'm about to tell you to do. Do it just like I'm telling you, and if you put it off, you really don't want to change. Do it NOW!
Make a list of the next 12 months, one under the other; next to each month, write how many loan applications you will take that month; next to that write down how many closings you will have.
Next to that make an average of how much you make per deal and multiply it by the number of closings you will have, total the final column and see if it adds up to the amount of money you say you want to make.
If the numbers don't add up, you need to adjust the number of loans you will write or the number of closings or the amount of commission you will earn.
I hope you have noticed that I have not once written any of the following words, anywhere; expect to, hope to, want to, might, maybe. The goals you write down must be real they must be attainable, they must be a bit beyond reasonable. But more than anything they must be written down.
Next you need to come up with a minimum of four different marketing initiatives that will get you the number of loan applications you will write, close, and get paid on! Here are some samples:
1- Apartment complex marketing.
2- Data base marketing. Call every person in your database every quarter.
3- Real estate agent partnering.
4- Affinity marketing.
5- A weekly email to every person you know.
6- Calling on bank and credit union mortgage officers to ask them to give you the loans they can't do.
7- Develop relationships with builders.
8- Develop relationships with financial planners, CPAs, insurance brokers.
9- Teaching at real estate schools.
Ok, I'm about done. What you need to do now is actually write out a detailed plan of how you are going to actually put into play the minimum of four marketing initiatives that you've chosen. A detailed plan. Got it? Detailed. How many, specifically how often, specifically who, specifically when? Specifically why? Who are they? Detailed. Specifically what are you going to say when you write, call or email them. Any good marketing plan has as a basis the idea that you will do it over and over and over until you die! If you get lost in the details ask someone who knows how to do this sort of thing to help you. Details. A plan. Got it?
Statistics show that 44% of all salespeople quit after the first call (mailing); 22% after the second; 14% after the third; 12% after the fourth; and just 8% persist to the fifth call back.
Further statistics show that 60% of all buyers say "no" five times before they buy. So it is imperative that you become part of the 8% that persevere.
Most salespeople fail because they give up too soon.
I'm betting that this is falling on deaf ears. I'm betting that you don't really want to change. Want to bet me?
I'm betting that
Ralph LoVuolo Sr., the Mortgage Motivator, is an innovative, experienced, entertaining coach who shares more than 50 years of experience in the mortgage industry. He is a founding father of the New York Association of Mortgage Brokers and served as president of that organization for two consecutive terms. Ralph can be reached at 561-509-8425. His email is
