I've been assaulted with emails demanding part 2 of the article series "You're Not Closing More Loans Because..." If you require a quick refresher, you can view article #1 at:
www.loanofficermarketinglab.com/blog/2008/02/04/youre-not-closing-more-loans-because/. (If you have not read part 1 of the series, I recommend doing so now before proceeding with part 2)
Since I've made you wait over a week for this article, let's get right to it. Item number two on our list of reasons why loan officers are not closing more loans (Particularly when marketing to real estate agents) is:
2 - You have no credibility
Ouch. Sounds almost like an accusation there doesn't it? Please understand that it is not intended as such. Rather, it is the truth of the situation. When you are unfamiliar to the person you are selling yourself to, you start out as a clean slate. (Unless you've been referred) This person does not know you, or your history.
Credibility has to be earned at this stage. Unfortunately, many loan officers skip this step, and rely on their sales pitch to dazzle their prospects into working with them. That is an uphill battle, and one that is made exceedingly difficult by ignoring the task of credibility building.
Imagine the difference between pushing a car with the brakes on versus that same car shifted into neutral. Which would you rather do? (Wow, that mental image makes me tired just thinking about it)
Now the question must be asked: "How do I build credibility?" There are several ways to do this:
1 - Demonstrate your expertise in a mutually beneficial area (Online marketing, lead generation etc.)
2 - Provide social proof of your work
3 - Put your money where your mouth is
Let's expand on some of these for you. I mentioned demonstrating your expertise in a mutually beneficial area. An example of this would be a campaign I began 4 years ago, and ran for nearly 4 months. I identified a group of real estate agents I really wanted to work with.
I had in my possession a FSBO marketing campaign that was brutally effective. I knew that there had to be dozens of agents within my target group who would have happily mugged me to get their hands on this campaign. (You're smiling because you like that mental image right? Chad Weber mugged by real estate agent!)
I shared a few of the techniques within this campaign via email with just 25 of the agents on my list, and asked them to email me if they wanted to get their hands on the remaining steps of the campaign. Out of the 25 emails sent, I had 11 replies in less than 1 hour.
I built several great relationships from that 1 email, and could directly attribute more than 30 closings that year to 2 of those relationships! Who reading this now would not want an extra 30 closings this year?
Did you watch what just happened there? I had something these agents wanted. When I met with them in person, I also let the cat out of the bag that I personally developed this marketing campaign, and brought written statistics of my results when using it. (Along with the cell phone of another agent I had worked with in a non-competing area that was willing to testify to its effectiveness)
Do you think I might have carried just a tad bit more credibility at this point? This is not to say that everyone will be jumping up and down excited to work with you at this point, but at least your words now carry a bit more weight than just some disembodied voice on the other end of a telephone.
#2 Show social proof. Social proof is simply a term for 3rd party evidence that will collaborate your claims. I had set up an audio testimonial line with my call capture system. When someone was happy with my work, I asked them to call in to my 800# and to "tell the world!" Simple solution that is creative enough to earn you brownie points, and strong enough to show that you take your career seriously!
#3 Put your money where your mouth is... An old saying that still holds true today. All of my customers signed additional documents created by me. Written Satisfaction Guarantees that were backed up with monetary rewards for the client if I slipped up!
I don't like having to discount my work, so you can bet the farm that I worked hard to earn customer satisfaction. The real estate professionals appreciated the fact that my claims were no longer just empty words, as there was a consequence for failure.
Everyone knows that we show up for work to earn money. The person who is willing to give up some of that money in cases where he/she fails to deliver earns a certain amount of credibility that others may not have just yet.
Wouldn't you agree that every leg up over the competition is worth its weight in gold? These may seem to be small tasks by themselves, but the loan officer who consistently puts each of them into practice will enjoy a much higher level of success teaming up with quality real estate professionals.
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