I just finished listening to the first of five CDs that came highly recommended as a great way to (re)launch my mortgage business. They are recordings of someone who calls himself "The Coach" and brags about his decades of experience training, coaching and motivating thousands nationwide, creating "champions." Aside from being a training/coaching/motivational speaker, (I got to hear him speak at the FAMB convention recently - I probably should have blogged about that experience too... maybe soon...) he's also an author. He claims to really know the mortgage business, but there's no mention of practical experience brokering mortgages. It appears that all his experience is in studying and regurgitating what he's read and/or heard. Oh, and probably learning some of what didn't work for previous coaching clients - i.e. learning from his failures as a coach. His background is as an athlete and sports coach - there's no mention of any real estate, mortgage, or financial background.
No doubt, he's got lots of good (generic) advice. But certain things he said jumped out at me as flat out wrong. As a result, I have a hard time hearing much of the good stuff, which, even though it's pretty generic, is undoubtedly valuable.
Anyway, here in a nutshell is what I heard:
He's working on a new book about selling to "idiots."
First red flag! Yup, "idiot" was HIS word for difficult clients. That came out in the first 45 seconds of the recording. What a way to think about people.
Much better in my view: follow the advice of Todd Duncan or Joe Stumpf who both encourage finding better clients, ones who are right for your business, and not wasting your time with people who would be better served by others. There's no need to insult people by calling them "idiots." And there's no need to devalue your own business by stooping to insults nor selling to those who can't afford (or don't value) your services.
Enthusiasm is the foundation for success.
Isn't that the message from virtually all motivational speakers?
Attitude isn't everything, it's one thing. But it won't compensate for lack of skill or product knowledge. It just creates opportunities.
That's the message from all coaches who go beyond just motivation. And even purely motivational speakers wouldn't deny that - they'd just say that their expertise is in motivation, you (or your company) are responsible for developing skills and product knowledge. So this is kind of a "Duh!" comment by him.
Every 4 minutes in the US there's another millionaire created and 90% of those people make their money in something related to real estate.
I guess that would include him too - since he has created a business talking to mortgage brokers - even though he doesn't deal in mortgages nor real estate, and never has. Interesting factoid however.
The wider the gap between what you want and what you actually have, the more stress you have.
Duh!
Continuous improvement is the what he recommends.
Essentially: Baby steps. He either read about Deming or watched "What About Bob?"
If you increase your results you'll increase your income.
Duh!
You need to motivate your customers. Get them from "Hello" to "Where do I sign?"
Duh! If you can't move people from "Hello" to "Where do I sign?" you will, by definition, not be successful in sales.
There's no hype here.
Ha!
The tools here won't create results - it's what you do with them.
Duh!
Luck is all about showing up. If you want a lot, show up a lot. If you want a little, show up a little.
Sounds like a paraphrase of Samuel Goldwyn's quote, "The harder I work, the luckier I get."
30 minutes is all you can focus on one activity.
Longer than what FlyLady says. But in line with what Todd Duncan says.
Days get consumed by distractions. It takes about 7 minutes to recover from a distraction.
Hold this good thought for a bit... you'll see why soon...
Massive action in critical areas - 30 minutes at a time... will produce better, more prodictable results faster.
Predictable results come from a predictable pipeline.
Duh!
Choose the things to do that match your personality, style, and budget.
Duh! Well, maybe not "Duh!" Perhaps I should be applauding that he's not insisting on people blindly following him, and spending outrageous amounts of money on his products/programs to mold themselves into imitations of him.
How to increase your business right now:
1) Answer your telephone. Make it easier for your customers to talk to you.
He doesn't say it explicity, but what he's saying here is essentially: make it easy for people to interrupt/distract you more often. (Recall my comment to "hold this good thought" above? Here's where he negates it.)
Now, of course it's good to answer your phone. But you will be able to serve your clients better if you're free to ignore the phone for stretches of time.
Recently I was at a Broker's Open. One of the Brokers had a couple of interns with her. One of the Interns' phone rang several times... and the Broker started to get a bit peeved. She finally started asking (in a not-so-nice tone of voice), "Who is that?" The intern said it was just a friend who hadn't found a summer job yet. When I offered the thought that some people find it helpful to keep private numbers private (for family and friends) and client numbers just for clients, the Broker practically jumped on me. She said, "NO! You need to be available at all times for everybody. You never know when a good client will call. And you MUST answer the phone!" But then she pointed out that she screens her calls by checking the caller ID, and only answers those calls she recognizes as important.
Two things wrong with this:
a) If she wants her interns to keep their phone on, and available to everyone always, she is out of line getting upset when their phone rings.
b) With the phone ringing all the time, those you're with can't get (or keep) your full attention, and very well may not believe their needs are truly being heard, much less served.
I would much rather let people know when I'll be available and/or returning calls and have them believe I'm worth waiting for, than to be "available" all the time yet actually be screening calls and disrupting those I'm with. The former respects everyone. The latter disrespects everyone.
Record an outgoing message that says, "Hi, this is ____, it's a GREAT DAY to purchase or refinance!"
Not bad.
Don't follow that with "I'm away from my desk" because that's obvious. Instead say, "I'm with a customer." or "I'm at a closing."
If you're not at a closing, just say it anyway.
Whoa!!! At this point a bomb, not just a red flag, is going off in my head. If you'll lie to people about something as trivial as where you are when there's no real need to nor pressure to, what's to stop you from lying when you've got a really pressing motive to lie? (eg. When a lie will get you more income, but at their expense.) If you're honest in the little things, it's easier to be honest in the big things. It's all about habits. And reputation will follow.
This was not even 15 minutes into the recording and he's already recommending lying to people! And this is supposed to be great coaching for someone in the mortgage industry? This kind of coaching is part of the reason borrowers distrusted lenders. It may have been only a small part. But then again, it might have been a really big part. There's no way to measure that.
2) Make more contacts. Make ten contacts per day, out of which you'll get three appointments, leading to one closed loan. The amount of business is related to the number of appointments you have.
DUH! His theoretical numbers are great - and probably unique to him. (Others have variations in the ratios, but clearly everyone's got their own closing ratio.) But the point is, all sales positions require playing a numbers game - the more people you talk to, the more opportunities you have to close a sale. And the more skilled you are, and knowledgable you are about your product/service, the better your ratio will be. Duh!
3) Hang around better people. You'll need less of them.
Contrast this to the title of his upcoming book - selling to idiots. Sounds like a conflicted message. He encourages people to find better people here, but trains people to sell to "idiots" in his upcoming book.
Even if you're an employee, think like an owner.
Sounds like "Think Inc." or "You Inc."
As I said at the top... there's a lot of good generic information here, stuff that you've probably heard a time or two (if not a hundred times) before. But there are also a couple of bombshells that could destroy your reputation and credibility, not to mention relationships, if followed.
The trick is to identify and throw out the bad coaching, yet take the good and apply it without getting derailed by the bad, or your reaction to the bad.
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