Latest / Mortgage Marketing Radio / Ep #78:How to Rise Above "Great Rates and "Great Service" by Telling Digital Stories That Sell

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Ep #78:How to Rise Above "Great Rates and "Great Service" by Telling Digital Stories That Sell · Mortgage Marketing Radio

0:00
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1:17
Hey listeners, Jeff DeSimper, welcome to this episode of mortgage marketing radio.
1:39
So glad you're here.
1:41
And on this episode I am featuring James Robert Lay.
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He is the CEO at Digital Growth Institute and he's on a mission to simplify digital marketing.
1:52
So banks, credit unions, you, a mortgage loan officer can grow.
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So we are talking about the convergence of digital change and disruption and displacement
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and how do we survive and thrive in the coming shifts that are happening in the mortgage
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space, with regards to technology.
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So on this episode, you know, James spends a lot of time working with financial institutions,
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banks and so forth on mapping out their, you know, the process for the customer experience,
2:25
right, both from the point of lead generation to engagement to during the process and then
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post-close transaction.
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And so we just talk about really just have a kind of a great organic conversation.
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And how do you become a modern mortgage professional today, right?
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How do you integrate technology in a way that engages the user and positions you as relevant
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and helpful, right?
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Or as we say in the interview, right, stop selling, start helping.
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And what I love about this is that we talk about on this session about how the consumer
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expectations the benchmarks have changed and who's driving that change today for how
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you engage with a brand online.
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And those are companies like Amazon, Google, right?
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Yes, Rocket Mortgage and others, right?
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When you look about what technology does is enable the ease of use, if you will, there's
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the promise, the ease of engagement and interaction.
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And so how do we then duplicate that and how do we deliver that when it comes to being
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a modern mortgage professional?
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That's what we're going to talk about here on this episode.
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So hope you enjoy the show.
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If you like so, please let us know.
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We're going to leave a review, check out links to James Robert Lay and his company, the
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Digital Growth Institute, and you'll find links to his company in the show notes at digital
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growth.com.
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And with that said, let's get into this week's show.
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Hey, James, welcome to the show.
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Thanks for having me, man.
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It's my pleasure.
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So real quick, let's do a quick backgrounder aside from the formal interview I do.
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Tell us what you do in the mortgage banking space and more importantly, why do you
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do it, man?
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At Digital Growth Institute, we're on a mission to simplify digital marketing.
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We want to help banks, credit unions grow, generate 10 times more loans, 10 times more
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deposits, 10 times more new accounts.
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10 times, that's an aggressive number.
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I like it.
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How do you do that for people?
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We do it through digital marketing strategy and training.
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And then sometimes we help our clients actually implement those strategies and optimize them
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over time.
4:29
Okay.
4:30
All right.
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The topic, on top of mind, as you know, my listening audience is mostly retail, mortgage
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loan originators, some managers and executives listening as well.
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But let's face it, everybody's kind of aware of this influx of technology.
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There's people who are struggling, I think, in some degrees to adopt technology and integrate
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it into the overall process, particularly when you evaluate most of the mortgage originators
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are 50 plus, right?
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So it's not necessarily second skin for us.
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But here's what I think, you know what I talked about this before the other day is let's
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come at it from this angle first.
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What does the retail mortgage originator need to be aware of moving forward if they want
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to stay relevant and be considered as a viable choice in today's world?
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I think the biggest thing is that the world has changed.
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And technology is driving that change to where people have more options now than they
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have ever had before when it comes to, say, applying for a mortgage.
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People are in control of that buying journey and we must be prepared to help guide them
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along that journey because it's a stressful process.
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It's very complicated, it's very confusing.
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And people are just looking for someone that they can trust, for someone that they can
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help guide them to a better, bigger, brighter future.
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So if people are, you said a couple of things that's interesting in there and essentially
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I think what you're talking about there is that the buyer is in control today, right?
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Like in some of the branding classes I do for real estate agents, we talk about the old
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versus new rules of marketing, right?
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The old rules are you went and found a customer.
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Today, people find you, that's what you're saying.
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So people go online, they start this journey, they're consuming content from a variety of
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sources and so forth.
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What are some, if you would, best practices for the mortgage originator today who's listening
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to this who maybe doesn't have a strong presence online, digitally, Facebook, kind of, you
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know, man, not much there.
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People are looking for some direction, right?
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Where do I start?
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I think it starts with mindset and what I mean by that is, is being open to break free
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from legacy thinking, legacy systems and adopting a growth mindset to where that, I can do
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this.
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I can change my behavior and I can position myself as a helpful guy and for someone who
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has experienced in this industry, up to this point, they have viewed themselves as the
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hero in this narrative.
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But today, you cannot have two heroes in any narrative structure.
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The consumer in their own mind, they're the hero and they're just looking for someone
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to help them.
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So, the mortgage originator needs to take on a much more important role in my opinion
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than the hero, which is that of the guy, like an Obi-Wan Kenobi guiding Luke or a Mr.
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Miyagi guiding Danielson.
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Yeah, yeah, I like that.
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I like that because it's funny you mentioned that to me the other day and in full disclosure
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for my listening audience, right?
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Being a former lone originator, I thought, hey, man, that's me, I'm the hero, right?
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But you pointed out so succinctly that, no, no, no, no, no, you're not the hero in the
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sense that your job is the guide, right?
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And to help them navigate and it shouldn't be about you necessarily, it's more about
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them.
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Yeah, and that requires, once again, a new mindset, it's empathy, it's being understanding
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because I think anytime, like, we can be totally cut off guard by the curse of knowledge.
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We know all of this stuff.
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We know how this mortgage process works forwards and backwards.
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We could do this in our sleep.
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But for someone who does this, maybe two, three or four times in their life, it's very
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complicated.
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It's very overwhelming.
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And one of the things to remember from an empathetic point of view is that the only way
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to escape the complexity of the mortgage process is through a journey of simplicity.
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Hmm.
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Okay.
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So what does that look like in the real world of a journey of simplicity is applying for
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getting a mortgage easier than it was before?
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Well, we look at things like rocket mortgage and how they have positioned that, quote, unquote,
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the eight minute mortgage.
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But I think what rocket has really done is just slick branding, marketing positioning.
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They're addressing the specific questions and concerns that a person has.
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And then they're offering a solution to a better future.
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Now, how can we apply this thinking of simplicity for a mortgage originator looking to go down
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on this own journey themselves?
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Start by mapping out what that journey looks like every step of the way.
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From the time that someone say maybe Google's or goes on Facebook, sees an ad, the key to
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consumer journey mapping is this, think these three questions.
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Where do you want me to go?
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What do you want me to do?
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And then how will you help me get there to the next step?
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Hmm.
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And when you start to put this out on a piece of paper or a whiteboard, you can quickly
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identify where gaps are in the journey today and the step that you can take, whether it
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be content, whether it be an ad, whether it be technology to help begin to bridge those
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gaps and move that consumer through the buying journey through awareness, then to consideration
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and then onwards towards purchase.
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And then the journey just doesn't end there because like with rocket mortgage, for example,
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they made it slick.
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They made that process very easy to apply.
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But it's still a 30-day process on average for them to close the loan.
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But what rocket has done is they've been well-versed in the communication where I think I've applied
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now what?
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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So what would be some examples then?
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We're not rocket mortgage, right?
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What would be some ways that you're on the streets, mortgage originator can map out, provide
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milestones, guide posts along the way on that journey, whether that's different types
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of content, etc.
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What do you suggest there?
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Yeah.
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So just kind of talking through this off the top of my head.
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We have Facebook ad.
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Maybe it's a LinkedIn ad.
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We're wanting to work our LinkedIn connections.
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Maybe it's we have contacts with local realtors.
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So we get a lead a prospect in.
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And so they're in the awareness stage.
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They've identified, they raised their hand.
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Now they're moving to the stage of consideration.
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And that's where technology comes into play to really nurture those relationships over
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say a 20, 30, 40, 50 day time period so that we can position ourselves as that guide.
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So during this time period of nurturing, maybe we're singing them helpful articles, resources.
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Maybe it's the video that a mortgage originator might be producing and sharing, say on YouTube
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or on Facebook.
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But it's just something to help differentiate themselves in the sea of noise and the sea
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of sameness.
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And a lot of that comes through not selling and saying, are you ready to close, you're
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ready to apply?
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It's, hey, these are the things that you need to think about.
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These are common questions.
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I think one of the best ways to do that is just to sit down and almost kind of write out
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all the questions that you've ever been asked in the home buying process and then either
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create written content or even now video content like you and I are doing to answer these
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questions and get ahead of what some of these might be for someone.
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And it's interesting when I hear you say that and we're talking about technology.
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Of course, the audience is so diverse because some people have these awesome CRM, some
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people don't.
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Obviously, you and I get the power and recognize the value of a CRM because I can automate
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a lot of that.
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So it takes you out of the loop.
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But what I'm thinking is for my listeners is to your point about the video, there are
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various, like you said, what do you want me to do?
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Where do you want me to go?
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Was that the first two?
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Exactly.
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And how do you help me get there?
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How do you help me get there?
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Yeah.
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Next to that, and how can you map out different milestone points along the way?
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Video, it could be as simple as, you tell me if this makes sense, very simple example.
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But you've got a series of emails set up and is a link to a YouTube video that has that
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milestone.
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That's exactly right.
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And I would actually kind of, and I'm not trying to get too technical with this, but YouTube
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is a great starting point.
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Instead of YouTube, one of the technology platforms that can tie into a CRM-like platform
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say like a HubSpot or a Salesforce, is a platform called Wistia.
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And the reason Wistia is that you could actually then affirm whether or not someone watched
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that video, how much that video did they wish.
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And then based upon that viewing behavior, then the next follow-up would be A or B.
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Right, right.
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Yeah, I like that.
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So Wistia, I'll put a link to that in the show notes.
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It's a video hosting platform, but of course, it gives you some analytics to give you some
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insights into that.
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And another tool that's popular in our industry, I think you've heard of it as a bomb bomb
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video.
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Exactly.
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Yeah.
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I think video today, it's, I mean, even just within the last three, four, five years,
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it has become much easier to set up and to shoot a video.
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And we're not talking tens of thousands of dollars.
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Yeah.
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Well, this production is not tens of thousands of dollars.
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Exactly.
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And to your point, whenever we're first getting started, it's about the content.
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Right, right.
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Exactly.
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It's about the help.
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That's the key point.
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How do you answer the question?
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Because I'm sure you deal with people like, oh, I don't want to be on video.
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I don't like how I look on video.
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How do you over help them overcome that?
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I think it's just getting used to this new way of communicating because there's three
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ways to communicate.
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There's the written word.
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And there's audio.
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But video brings a whole new level of communication because it's, you can see, you can look at the
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body language, the personality, the emotion, the, exactly the humanity of this.
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And that's like one of the key principles that we believe with digital marketing, it's
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not about the technology.
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It's about using the mediums of technology to bring people together because people buy
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from people they trust.
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That's the old cell's motto.
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It's been around forever.
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Yeah.
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It's just how we build that trust today is through the digital means, the technology.
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Yeah.
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Well, it's like I say, videos and the next best thing to be in there, right?
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Exactly.
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The AT&T line, when it was phone, was the next best thing to be in there no longer.
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It's a video.
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And you raise a point there about video because of all the modalities you can see, feel,
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you can get a sense of, you can actually build trust on video, which is impossible to do
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otherwise, right?
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To the degree you can with video.
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Yeah.
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Like I said, I mean, it's written word, audio, then video, and the video is like the highest
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premium.
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I mean, I've seen even like some mortgage originators with the class that we're working
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with, like it say, maybe banks or credit unions.
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As part of their follow up nurturing process, they shoot like with bomb on, they shoot these
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short little clips that are almost kind of like on the fly and then they just embed that
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or link that embed within an email and just bring that to a whole new level.
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Like, hey, I tried to call you, I got your voicemail.
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This is what I wanted to talk to you about.
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So it's almost like a video voicemail.
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Yeah.
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And the other thing I think about video as well is really, you said this earlier, I'm
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just looking at my notes down here.
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You said we are benchmarking against rocket mortgage as far as the level of, if you will,
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user experience.
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Yeah.
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Is that accurate?
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Yeah.
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And it's not just rocket mortgage, it's Amazon.
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It's any digital retailer, it's the public experience.
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The consumer, the customer, and there's really type of, I would call define as three
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different experiences.
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You have the customer experience, so that's one that's, you know, the Ozardi customer's
16:40
virus, we're kind of nurturing or onboarding them in that process.
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Then we have the user experience, which is kind of the digital experience of, you know,
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the entire way, but then we have the experience, the LX, the lead experience.
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And these different types of experiences, those expectations are being set outside of
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a world that we can control.
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It was a Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple, yeah, really big four right there.
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Right.
17:09
And so let's face it, pretty much everybody on the planet integrates with those companies
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at one time or another and assuming it's a good experience, that is kind of the new
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benchmark in terms of what that user experience is like across, think about the success of
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like Amazon Prime and how easy it is to order.
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So that's why this whole digital drive towards, right, better user experience, et cetera.
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And think about what an experience is, an experience is nothing more than a process that
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has been well defined, first and foremost, but then refined and optimized over time.
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Yeah.
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That's why one of my recommendations is you go back and you review this process that you
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have at a minimum once a year, but I would say twice a year, and if you have the time
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every 90 days just to look for these areas of improvement to just kind of stare step
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this and take this up to the next level.
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What do you suggest people do in terms of serving their audience, getting real feedback
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and things like that?
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Critical.
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And that's the beauty of digital is we can make changes almost on the fly in real time.
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I wouldn't recommend that, particularly if you're just first getting started.
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But think about like net promoter score, that question.
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How likely are you to refer me, refer us to a friend or a family member based upon the
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experience that you've had?
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That's a vanity question.
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And because people will give you an 8, 9, 10 or lower depending on that, well, we can
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take that and apply that.
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But my recommendation is you take that to the next level, turn that insight into action.
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And what I mean by that is if they give you say a 9 or a 10, the next step in that
18:52
journey is to actually ask them to refer someone that they might know.
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I mean, this would be huge for realtors, referring business into the mortgage originator.
19:04
The second would be leave a rating, leave a review, maybe on Yelp or Google places.
19:10
Facebook.
19:11
Do you have any, I'm just curious because you obviously see the whole world of digital
19:14
products and things like that.
19:15
And I've been talking about online reviews a lot more and any recommendations in terms
19:21
of that best practice or a software tool out there because there's a bunch of them.
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And again, this is just totally organic conversation.
19:26
So I'm just curious what you see.
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I think the best practices reviews are really critical in the buying journey.
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Regardless of if someone actually is reading every single review ever written about you,
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Google yourself, Google your name, Google your company's name and see what reviews pop
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up when in a Google search and what are those stars looking like?
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Because we're today making inferences to a potential brand experience.
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Basically, is it three stars, is it four stars, is it five stars.
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And so I think the idea of asking for reviews has to be part of that kind of bottom of the
20:04
funnel post conversion.
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So if we've onboarded them, then that gets into the advocacy piece of that.
20:13
So people have heard that for quite a while now, right, online reviews.
20:17
But I'm wondering how critical people need to take that because, you know, I post that
20:23
question, well, here's the question, it's like, what's the brand perception of you, right?
20:27
And nowadays, as you said, people are going to get online and look you up and all that
20:30
stuff.
20:31
And they're going to make some assumptions based on that quick glance of how many stars,
20:35
how many reviews in total, right?
20:37
So maybe just briefly talk about how, you know, I call that the social, the currency of
20:42
trust online today.
20:44
So elaborate a little bit more about why that's so important that you got to build your online
20:48
presence of reviews.
20:49
Well, I mean, it comes back to just the way that we shop and buy has changed.
20:54
I mean, in the old days, Google actually did a study called the zero moment of truth about
20:59
this a couple of years ago.
21:00
And they looked at a lot of different verticals.
21:02
They looked at automotive, they looked at health care, they looked at retail, they looked
21:07
at financial services.
21:08
And what they found is that in the old days pre-internet, there's really three points on
21:13
this buying journey.
21:15
There was some type of stimulus to where it was, maybe it was a postcard, maybe it was
21:21
a newspaper ad that drove some type of action to make a purchase, and then once that purchase
21:28
was done, say it was the mortgage it was funded, life goes on.
21:31
That's it.
21:32
Done.
21:33
Well, today, what Google found is they have the stimulus, which is the same as before,
21:39
but the way that we create that stimulus has changed.
21:42
But before they get to that point of purchase, now we have what's called Google is coined
21:46
the zero moment of truth.
21:48
That's what we would consider the consideration stage of the buying journey.
21:53
So you can take this idea of ratings, reviews, stars, and see how that applies is just
21:59
to remove yourself out of the mortgage originator role, and just into the hearts, into the minds
22:05
of the consumer, think about how you shop and buy, and maybe it's on Amazon, maybe it's
22:09
on Open Table, you're looking for a restaurant, maybe it's TripAdvisor, I think reviews have
22:14
kind of gotten a bad rap because there's been a lot of fake reviews, fake news, but it's
22:19
still important.
22:20
Take that to the next level, turn those reviews, turn those into an actual video story
22:24
of how you've helped someone.
22:26
That's where real power can be made, testimonials, video testimonials.
22:31
So I mean, in terms of somebody listening right now who wants to start getting more online
22:34
reviews, I think you would suggest that that needs to be integrated into your overall process.
22:40
You have to ask for them, I literally just got off a call with the client, their financial
22:47
institution in Florida, to where they're now working with, and they do mortgages.
22:51
So they're working with their mortgage officers, they're working with their loan officers,
22:54
and even their frontline staff encouraging people who have had a positive experience to
23:00
go on to Yale, to go on to Facebook, to go into Google Places, and they're actually creating
23:05
some type of inner competition to where those that get the most reviews in, say, a 30,
23:10
60, 90 day period are actually being incentivized, and it comes down to not just the most, but
23:15
the most positive.
23:16
Now, they have some measures in places where they're not gamifying this and getting a lot
23:20
of fake reviews.
23:21
These have from a real person that they've actually been able to help.
23:25
Right, right.
23:26
Can you help for those that are listening or watching here kind of articulate any of
23:31
those kind of milestones in the process that you've worked with your clients for best
23:36
practices?
23:37
You're talking about on the review side?
23:38
No, sorry, switching gears back to kind of front end through the process, all that stuff.
23:43
Okay, so milestones, Facebook add, some type of stimulus, Google add, referral from
23:50
a third party, that then drives traffic, say, to a website landing page.
23:56
Instead of just asking for the direct call to action to apply, we need some type of
24:01
secondary or transitional call to action, because they might not be in that stage of applying.
24:07
So if we offered something of value, maybe it's a home buying or mortgage buying guide,
24:12
maybe it's a checklist, or just something to help get them prepared, where we're exchanging
24:16
something of value for a name and an email address.
24:20
That name and email address, then get put into our marking automation, our CRM system.
24:25
We then have a workflow of emails that are ready to guide them or nurture them over a
24:29
36-day period.
24:30
Based upon their digital behavior, their activity, we could score that with that CRM system.
24:36
And so we know who the real hot prospects are, because there are really three different
24:40
types of leads.
24:41
A marketing qualified lead, a sales qualified prospect, and a sales qualified lead.
24:46
I'm really most interested in the bottom, too.
24:48
Let the marketing automation of the CRM system determine who those people are based upon
24:52
their behavior.
24:53
As we get closer towards purchase, now we can get involved, phone call conversation, help
24:59
get them down to the point of conversion.
25:01
Post conversion, now we need to have workflow set up.
25:04
This is where you're at in the mortgage process, day one, day two, day 15, day 30.
25:09
And once they close, the journey doesn't end there.
25:13
That's where we have to come back, ask for the rating, ask for the review, ask for the
25:16
referral.
25:17
And do you generally find the adoption rate on this whole philosophy and process?
25:23
You know, pretty, pretty, pretty accepting?
25:26
If one approaches it with an open mind, bulldog new tricks thing, it is.
25:33
And I think what it boils down to is setting proper expectations.
25:38
This is a journey, this is a marathon, this is not a sprint.
25:43
And so if you can get wins every step of the way, and to measure your progress by looking
25:49
at where you've come from, not where you're going.
25:53
Because if you look at where you're going and your bench might say against rocket mortgage,
25:57
you're always going to feel overwhelmed, you're always going to feel frustrated, you're
26:01
always going to feel defeated.
26:02
And so if we measure our progress by looking behind at where we've come, those little
26:08
wins add up over time.
26:11
So I like to tell clients, this is a marathon, don't wear yourself out, set proper expectations
26:16
like been running a marathon, and just get wins every step of the way.
26:21
You know, it's funny, every time we reference rocket mortgage, all I can hear in the back
26:25
of my head is those loan officers who would say, wow, the experience sucks overall.
26:32
And that is really just one of the greatest marketing campaigns in the history of the
26:36
world.
26:37
But what they did is they addressed a pain point for consumers.
26:43
And for the promise of the fulfillment on that, we know it's not reality, but perception
26:50
is reality.
26:51
So if they're creating that reality for people, then we have to play within those confines.
26:57
Yeah, yeah.
26:58
I wish I could remember.
26:59
Everybody the other day was sharing the stats with me about the purchase percentage rate
27:05
of rocket loans, moving from refighted purchase, and what percentage of their businesses
27:09
now purchase.
27:10
I don't think it's even rocket though.
27:12
I think we also have to kind of keep in mind to say like, like so far, right, for millennials.
27:19
And what some of these more digital oriented companies are doing and how they're really
27:26
changing the game.
27:28
Yeah.
27:29
And I don't look at it as a threat.
27:33
I just look at that as an opportunity for us to up our game from where we've been because
27:37
what got us to the point to where we're at today may or may not get us to where we want
27:41
to go tomorrow.
27:42
What do you mean?
27:43
Oh, in terms of our success level as an originator?
27:47
Exactly.
27:48
Yeah.
27:49
Like what got us to where we're at today may or may not get us to where we want to go
27:53
tomorrow within our own personal success.
27:56
Yeah.
27:56
Well, it's like you and I talked about the other day, you know, the rising tide lifts
28:00
all boats, right?
28:01
And now the tide's going out and some people are going to be stuck naked.
28:05
Yeah.
28:06
There's a there's a phenomenon called digital Darwinism.
28:10
Maybe you've heard of it.
28:11
And basically what it is, it's where society and technology evolve faster than an organization
28:16
or even a person can adapt.
28:19
And we're I think we're moving into the fourth industrial revolution.
28:24
And so just like any big change of transformation, it can really, there's three fears that we
28:30
have to overcome and that's fear of the unknown because we, where we're going, it seems kind
28:37
of scary, particularly one who has built their career around the legacy process, it's fear
28:42
of change and then it's fear of failure.
28:44
And when I talk about fear of failure, what if we don't do anything?
28:49
What happens?
28:51
Hmm, a couple of thoughts.
28:53
What about that loan officer who's thinking like, you know what, only got about five years
28:57
left.
28:58
I'm just hanging on, man.
28:59
I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing.
29:01
Oh my gosh.
29:02
It's not only that.
29:03
I'm seeing that at the, the exact level of you in financial institutions, I feel that
29:07
pain.
29:08
Yeah.
29:09
And I'm really a very empathetic to, to that.
29:13
And it's, try.
29:17
We don't know what's, what's the worst that could happen?
29:21
I mean, I love this exercise.
29:22
It's like, get a sheet of paper, say, put a, put a column right down the middle and on
29:28
one side, what's the worst that could happen if you at least experiment and try with
29:34
this?
29:36
You get all those fears out on paper on the other side of the paper.
29:41
What's the best that can happen?
29:43
And try to visually see where those fears are rooted in.
29:48
And are there more opportunities that you've identified with taking an approach like this?
29:53
And then that might help just them come to their own answer of what, what path they should
29:59
take forward.
30:00
Yeah.
30:01
That's, that's actually good.
30:02
That's good exercise.
30:03
Yeah.
30:04
One would think that the, the more compelling answers would be on the plus side of taking
30:08
some action.
30:10
And I guess what that said, maybe the one of the last thoughts I have is, how do you respond
30:16
to the, you know, the question that gets tossed around whether it's real estate or mortgage
30:20
is technology going to have this place, the real estate agent, the mortgage loan originator?
30:26
You know, we're seeing this massive rise of things like AI, right?
30:32
And that could potentially disrupt that mortgage originator, that real estate agent.
30:40
My thinking is, is yes, we're going to lose thousands of jobs over the next five, ten,
30:47
fifteen years.
30:50
That's the fear that you always hear in the news, right?
30:55
What no one ever talks about is what are the opportunities that are going to be created
31:01
from this displacement of jobs and because of technology, because of things like AI.
31:07
So I'm not going to say their job is going to be displaced, but maybe their job or maybe
31:13
the opportunities that they have, we can't even imagine what those look like today.
31:18
Yeah.
31:19
That's what's important to be aware of.
31:21
We like to think we can.
31:22
And often the answer to that is, well, you know, if, you know, the loan officer role
31:27
will be perhaps further, you know, mitigated or lessened and people will be more kind of
31:33
salary driven than, you know, compensation based on volume and production and that may
31:37
come as I mean, who knows, right?
31:39
Yeah, exactly.
31:40
I still think though that we will have a loan officer mortgage originator or even a real
31:45
estate agent.
31:46
I think we will have those roles, but the processes that are on the back end of, say, fulfillment,
31:51
for example, those might be continued to be streamlined and simplified where you might
31:57
not need the day to day that we are doing right now, but people still look to people for
32:04
help, for hope and for guidance.
32:07
And even in digital, it all has to come back to humanity.
32:10
I'm seeing research today, all of these neo banks, all of these digital banks are actually
32:16
trying to get people in touch with the human being.
32:19
So there's this little bit of a paradigm shift of, oh, it was all digital.
32:23
And I was kind of making this prediction five years ago, no, we need to use digitally
32:28
get people in touch with people.
32:29
So I think we'll still have mortgage originators and loan officers and real estate agents.
32:34
It's just the capacity and the way that they operate might look a little bit different
32:39
than it is today.
32:40
Yeah.
32:41
And I guess, you know, to the point about the Millennial discussion is, you know, they're
32:44
one that's a classic example of, you know, being more technology centric and they want,
32:50
they still want that human being involvement, but only on their terms and when they're ready
32:53
to in that process.
32:55
Exactly.
32:56
And what has happened, go back to the buying journey and where is this consideration?
33:00
Maybe 80% of that was done digitally.
33:03
When they're at the point where they feel like they need to reach out, that's where that
33:07
humanity, that's where that mortgage originator, that's where that loan officer comes back
33:11
and play is to help get them the last, say, 20 yards of the field, which goes to the
33:16
other point, of course, about why it's important to, as a modern mortgage originator, to have
33:21
a content strategy for online because we know that's how they're going to be engaging
33:25
on that buyer journey and how they're evaluating us is by, you know, are we, are we, like
33:31
you said earlier, the other day, you're like, stop selling and start helping.
33:35
Help first.
33:36
Sell second.
33:37
Yeah, it should be just a natural outcome, right?
33:39
You should be attracted to want to work with you because you've been educated me so much.
33:43
That's exactly right.
33:44
And that is the new world of selling that we're really talking about here.
33:47
It really is.
33:48
And we kind of lost to antidotes is one of my very first jobs was working at Old Navy.
33:55
This was back in the late 90s and Old Navy had just come to Houston.
33:59
I was hired on the second round of hires and went through sales training with them.
34:04
And what I learned back in the late 90s still stands today.
34:09
They said when someone walks through that door, you go up, you greet them, you tell them
34:15
hello, and then you offer to guide them around the store and literally stand by them as
34:20
they shop.
34:21
And I think the same is true today, even digitally, and that's where we have to take a proactive
34:28
stance in these people's lives and their journeys versus being reactionary.
34:36
And so it is that content.
34:39
It is that help first sell second.
34:41
And when we make that our mantra, I think that is where the biggest opportunities for growth
34:46
can be gained over the next five, 10, 10 years or so.
34:49
That's funny.
34:50
The consumer has wanted to be in control for a long time.
34:54
Now, they've been equipped to do so with technology and so forth.
34:58
That's really, you know, it's funny, that retail example, you made me think of the old
35:01
adage of, you know, can I help you know, just browsing, right?
35:03
And that's what people are doing online and they're browsing and I'm going to buy
35:08
it home.
35:09
They're going to then decide to engage with you and they're ready.
35:10
That's cool.
35:11
Good stuff.
35:12
All right.
35:13
So how can people reach out to you for more info?
35:16
Where should they go to learn more about digital growth institute?
35:19
digitalgrowth.com or just Google me, James Robert Lay and connect with me on LinkedIn or
35:26
Twitter.
35:27
Yeah.
35:28
You got a lot of good info on your website and stuff.
35:29
So I'll put the links in the show notes, obviously, and people can dive in there and hopefully
35:33
there's some folks who want to carry on the conversation and, you know, perhaps pair
35:38
up and do some work together.
35:39
You're doing good work out there, man, for sure.
35:41
Great.
35:42
Thanks so much.
35:43
Thanks so much for having me.
35:44
Thanks for letting me just kind of share and help your audience out.
35:45
That's what I love to do.
35:46
That's what it's all about, man.
35:47
Bringing truth and mortgage marketing.
35:48
So if you're listeners, thanks for tuning in once again, and I appreciate you leaving
35:52
a review and we'll see you on the next one, bye for now.
35:55
Thanks for listening to Mortgage Marketing Radio.
35:59
One more truth in mortgage marketing, get more free training and resources at mortgagemarketinginstitute.com.
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