Latest / Mortgage Marketing Radio / How to Pivot and Thrive in the Current Market

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How to Pivot and Thrive in the Current Market · Mortgage Marketing Radio

• 0:00
  In today's highly competitive mortgage industry, building profitable relationships with
• 0:04
  the real estate agents is essential for success.
• 0:06
  However, finding effective ways to secure agent relationships can be a challenge.
• 0:11
  With so many mortgage loan originators vying for the attention of real estate agents, it
• 0:15
  can be difficult to stand out and establish meaningful connections.
• 0:20
  Our new case study featuring loan officer Chris Cogill is a must-read.
• 0:25
  Chris has closed a remarkable 36 million in funded loans from agent referrals.
• 0:31
  And in this case study, he shares his proven strategies for building strong relationships
• 0:34
  with real estate agents and leveraging those relationships to drive more business.
• 0:39
  To get your hands on this resource, head over to LOKestudy.com and download your free copy
• 0:45
  of the case study today.
• 0:47
  You'll find actionable insights and practical tips that Chris used to close 36 million
• 0:52
  in funded loans from agent referrals and how you can, too.
• 0:56
  Don't miss out.
• 0:57
  Go check it out right now.
• 0:58
  Visit LOKestudy.com and download your free copy today.
• 1:03
  Hey, Listers, how are you doing, Jeff Zimfer, host of the Mortgage Marketing Radio
• 1:24
  podcast, bringing good ideas, insights, resources and inspiration to you to help you get through
• 1:31
  the current market.
• 1:33
  Okay, so this episode, I'm coming at you with a quick hit and what I mean by that is instead
• 1:39
  of an interview, it's going to be me sharing with you some quick hits that you can take
• 1:43
  and apply in your business right now and this comes out of some of the conversations I've
• 1:48
  been having with both originators and real estate agents at various locations around the country.
• 1:55
  So let's face it, right?
• 1:56
  The market is the market and I think when it comes to, you know, how do you respond?
• 2:02
  How do you show up when life happens, when things come at you, you know, the old saying
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  I love from Jim Rohn is it's not what happens.
• 2:09
  It's what you do, right?
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  It's how you respond.
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  That makes the difference.
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  So that's first and foremost, check yourself, right?
• 2:14
  As you want to check where your mindset's at because you need to have mindset over emotions.
• 2:24
  It's okay to, right, deal with and process and get through those emotions, but the real
• 2:27
  secret is getting through past and beyond those emotions of whatever has occurred for
• 2:34
  you with the recent market changes, right, of doubt of uncertainty or, you know, lack
• 2:41
  of direction or how to respond and pivot.
• 2:44
  That's what I want this to be about.
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  I want this to be about a quick hit about embracing the shift, how to pivot and thrive
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  in today's changing real estate market.
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  And so I'm going to briefly talk about three things.
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  What can you control, what to say right now and what to do right now?
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  And this, of course, market, here's what challenging markets do in times like these, just like
• 3:05
  they did in 2008 and other challenging times is they weed out the wannabes from the winners
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  from those that are committed to working on their craft, their excellence, right?
• 3:15
  And so for those that are willing to put in the work, that's a four-letter word work.
• 3:20
  And so if that's, if you're willing to embrace the work, if you're willing to take that
• 3:24
  on and be real with yourself and look at the areas of change that need to be applied
• 3:30
  in your business, just like I'm trying to do to myself all the time, then welcome this
• 3:35
  episode for you.
• 3:36
  So the first question is, who are you?
• 3:38
  Are you a realist, optimist or pessimist?
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  Realist optimist or pessimist.
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  And so there was a study down a while back on salespeople and they were looking at the
• 3:49
  most successful salespeople and what they wanted to look at the character traits of what
• 3:54
  type of personality they had.
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  And to simplify this and for a second of time is they had broken them up into these categories
• 4:02
  of realist, optimist, pessimist, right?
• 4:05
  And so an optimist, let's just face it, right?
• 4:08
  It's all happy years, right?
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  An optimist is the person who's doing the sales forecasting and everything's going to
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  close.
• 4:15
  Yeah.
• 4:16
  All right.
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  That realtor went great, had a great conversation, oh yeah, they're going to send us business.
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  Yeah.
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  For sure.
• 4:24
  Oh, that client I talked to, we quoted them that right?
• 4:25
  Yeah.
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  They're going with me.
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  100%.
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  You know what I mean?
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  It's like forever the optimist, happy years, everyone's going to buy.
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  And by the way, I'm not saying a positive attitude isn't great.
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  It is.
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  It's useful.
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  It's needed.
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  It's helpful.
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  But we've got to look at it from the standpoint of what's real.
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  So a realist, realist is flexible enough to be both pessimistic and optimistic at the
• 4:50
  appropriate times.
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  In other words, seeing things for how they really are.
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  So a pessimist, obviously, we don't need to talk about that pessimist complaints.
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  They're always complaining.
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  They're negative dances.
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  And so those people never succeed in anything.
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  So the balance then between is is optimist versus realist.
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  And I think in today's market, we need to be a realist and look at what's really happening
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  because that will help determine and influence the next steps of this session here today,
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  which is once you're clear on seeing how it really is, the market is the market, right?
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  And try and separate the emotions from the mindset.
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  The mindset is the market.
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  So the market is what it is.
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  It's going to do what it is.
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  And you cannot control the market.
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  So let's take a big takeaway.
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  Number one is, what can you control?
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  There's three things you can control right now.
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  Number one, your mindset, number two, your skills, skills you develop that are appropriate
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  for the current market and then three-year actions, what you do, right?
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  So the market is the market, right?
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  It is what it is.
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  And we need to look at it for the reality of what it is.
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  And so remember in the idea of survival, the fittest, many people think that survival
• 6:03
  of the fittest is about the strongest, like the strongest survives, right?
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  The one who's faster, the one who's stronger.
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  And the truth of the matter is, is that in the struggle for survival, the fittest,
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  survival of the fittest, win because they succeed in keyword adapting.
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  Survival of the fittest is not the strongest or the fastest, it's not the biggest.
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  It's those who can succeed in adapting themselves the best, here's the other key to the environment.
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  So how are you adapting?
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  Have you adapted?
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  Are you expecting that you're going to continue to do what you have always done?
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  Because you've heard that definition of insanity, I'm sure by now, that repeating the same
• 6:50
  things over and over again and expecting a different result, that's insanity, right?
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  And so this market has brought to the surface the three things we need to change.
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  Number one, mindset, number two, your skills and three-year actions.
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  So let's break that down and talk about a little bit more, right?
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  Adaptability just to clarify what that means.
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  Let me give you the definition of adaptability.
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  It is the ability to underline this, adjust your emotions, thoughts, and most importantly,
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  behaviors to changing situations and conditions.
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  Additionally, adaptability means being able to rapidly learn new skills and response to
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  changing circumstances.
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  That's who survives, not everyone will.
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  But you will.
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  That's why you're here.
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  So skill development, let's talk about skill development real quickly.
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  What are the skills that are most important, most impactful in the current market?
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  Scripts and dialogues.
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  What you say, how you say it, when you say it, presentation skills, how you present yourself
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  as a mortgage professional when meeting with referral partners, clients, prospects.
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  The first word's out of your mouth, right?
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  You've got about 15 seconds, 30 seconds max to create some differentiation in using your
• 8:10
  dialogues and scripts.
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  Mine, if I take a moment to explain to you what makes us different, would it be okay if
• 8:16
  I shared with you how I'm different than any of the other mortgage originators you've
• 8:22
  spoken with?
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  Any of the other real estate agents you've spoken with.
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  We need to hone our craft now because 2021, there was no selling, no skill development
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  needed.
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  When you're basically giving away free money, everyone wants it.
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  And the hype of the industry and the hype of the demand, right, created a stampede of
• 8:45
  people who didn't question, didn't ask, just wanted it, housing, financing, etc.
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  Because they felt like they'd be missing out.
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  Well, now, rug's been pulled out completely different market, completely different mindset
• 9:00
  and circumstances.
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  So we need to get better at our value proposition, we need to get better at overcoming objections,
• 9:07
  presenting solutions and options for people and presenting why you're the best choice.
• 9:13
  And if you want more on that, hey, just let me know you can hop on Instagram, DM me on
• 9:18
  Instagram, look me up, Jeff Zimper, Morgan's marketing radio, just DM me, say, hey, more
• 9:24
  skills, right?
• 9:26
  Hop on Instagram and do that for me.
• 9:28
  I'm going to make a book suggestion for you as well.
• 9:30
  One of my favorite books when it comes to scripts and dialogues is exactly what to say by Phil
• 9:36
  Jones, co-authored by Chris Smith and Jimmy Macon from Curator Phil Jones.
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  I had on the podcast a couple years ago and gave some really great transitions and
• 9:45
  phrases to use, you know, overcoming objections or a clarifying issues or differentiating
• 9:51
  yourself.
• 9:52
  And of course, our friend Renee Rodriguez, fantastic at that at setting the framework.
• 9:56
  So if you've not checked out him, amplify, I definitely encourage you to do so.
• 9:59
  So skillsets number one, number two, actions.
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  This is all about what you do.
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  So actions such as you showing up on social media, video content, posting, you hosting
• 10:10
  classes and events, networking, contacting your database leads, fear of influence, and
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  following up on closed transactions.
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  Those are all things you can and should be doing to build your future pipeline.
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  I'll give you a couple of examples of those.
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  Number one action, Tim Smith, who's the number one team in the state of California with
• 10:30
  Cold War banker.
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  Number top five team, let's put it that way in the entire country, personal production
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  over $400 million a year, Tim Smith, Cold War banker.
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  I had the good fortune of talking with Tim on the phone a few years ago by way of Tom
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  Ferry and I asked him, you know, what does he do?
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  What's his daily method of operation?
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  And he said, one of the things he lives by that has helped him build his volume to $400
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  million plus build a big team, a $5542 plan.
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  Stick with me real quick, $5542, here's what it is, five conversations with people.
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  You know, past clients, fear of influence every day.
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  The other five, five conversations with people you don't know.
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  These are new leads, referrals that you're hopefully generating from whatever source.
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  The four is four conversations with lead follow-ups.
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  These are leads you've connected with in the past, who haven't yet done business with
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  you.
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  Think about that.
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  That's buyers who maybe got in the game and bowed out, right, took a time out, too
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  busy, too crazy, multiple offers didn't want to play.
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  Real estate agents who you've been in, you're fear of influence, who've been in your
• 11:35
  on your radar, but you never converted them to an actual partner.
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  So that would fall under the category of the number four in the 554.
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  And then the number two is two videos per week, minimum, you hosting, two videos, pick
• 11:47
  your platform, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, I don't know, pick one, do it.
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  And use housing data right now.
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  It's eat, guys, there's no shortage of examples.
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  You've heard them here on the podcast, okay, success leaves clues.
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  Relevant content, give people context, share the truth about what's going on in the
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  housing market with using housing data, curate content from other sources that you read
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  and trust.
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  Leverage the tools you already have and post good content.
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  That's it.
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  The 5542 plan.
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  That's one action item you can do.
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  Here's another one real quick.
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  Close transactions.
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  Go back to the closed transactions you've closed with on the buyer side.
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  And don't forget on the listing side, that's right, buyer side, easy follow-up.
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  Some of those agents you already work with are your A-Player partners.
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  Some, eh, you don't work with that closely, maybe you didn't pursue the relationship,
• 12:38
  got busy, kind of got away from you, that's a B or a C-level relationship.
• 12:43
  Go back to those closed transactions, follow-up with them, right?
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  Have a conversation that says something like, hi, Bill, this is Jeff with ABC Mortgage.
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  I want to apologize for not staying connected with you following our last transaction.
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  I really feel bad about that, right?
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  I'm calling because I intended to follow up with you and pursue a potential partnership.
• 13:04
  But now I wanted to check in and see how the market shift has affected your business plan
• 13:07
  for the coming year.
• 13:10
  Are there specific areas you're shifting your focus to?
• 13:12
  What's got you most excited perhaps about those new initiatives?
• 13:16
  And are there any specific areas that are more challenging for you, like marketing, social
• 13:19
  media, et cetera?
• 13:22
  Listen to their response.
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  Ask them.
• 13:25
  Would you be open to some helper guidance potentially in those areas?
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  I can help you with some of those areas?
• 13:30
  Well, yeah, sure, awesome.
• 13:33
  Another reason why I called Bill is because part of my plan for the new year is to help
• 13:36
  as many agents as I can achieve their goals.
• 13:39
  In fact, last year, we played a role on my team and I in helping our agent partners earn
• 13:45
  $150,000 in commissions.
• 13:48
  We're also helping our agent partners get better results with their online presence and
• 13:50
  marketing strategy.
• 13:52
  And I'm not sure if this is for you, but would you be open to learning more about how we're
• 13:56
  helping our agents do that?
• 13:58
  Guys, you should get a high conversion ratio on that.
• 14:01
  Now, your question about what do you mean the earn commission things, guys?
• 14:04
  Hey, you've got to give a total shout out to Jeremy for CAA.
• 14:07
  This is where I heard this or Dan Keller can't remember.
• 14:10
  This is, I'm a student, right?
• 14:11
  I'm investing in my learning.
• 14:13
  And the idea here is you play a critical role in helping the agent earn money.
• 14:18
  So you take the amount of transactions you've closed last in the last 12 months, right?
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  Across all.
• 14:23
  Well, I mean, there's a bunch of different ways to look at this, but here's the formula.
• 14:28
  If you take all the transactions, you close in the last 12 months, you take the purchase
• 14:32
  price times 3%, right, or divided by 3%.
• 14:36
  Those are the total earn commissions of loans, clothes that you worked with realtors on.
• 14:41
  And let me tell you, many, many people say, oh, you know, closing loans, that's your job,
• 14:45
  that's the table stakes, yes, but it still has tremendous value because you, you, you tell
• 14:52
  me, if you ever heard of a loan officer not closing a deal, they drop the ball, they
• 14:57
  screwed up, last a minute, gotchas, well, that's where your value is, right?
• 15:04
  So start to have that type of dialogue, that type of script with agents.
• 15:09
  And then, you know, obviously help them with the additional stuff I talked about, like
• 15:12
  the social media marketing, et cetera, you're going to get the ideas from them, where
• 15:15
  do you get the out of those ideas, hey, hold on, I'll tell you more about that in a minute.
• 15:19
  Action number three, hey, go back to your past clients.
• 15:21
  You've closed in the last 12 months, reconnect, hey, Mary Sue, what's up?
• 15:26
  Hope things are well, et cetera, small talk.
• 15:28
  Hey, by the way, I know it's been a while since we talked, I just, the housing markets
• 15:32
  clearly kind of bananas right now, interest rates are all over the place.
• 15:35
  And I was just connecting with some of my past clients and wanted to just check, check
• 15:39
  in number one and number two, see if you've got any questions I can help clarify about
• 15:44
  what's really happening in housing and with rates.
• 15:47
  Guys, perfect opportunity to be of service and just check in with no agenda other than
• 15:51
  to serve.
• 15:52
  Sorry, there is an agenda before you wrap up the call, if you haven't gotten a review
• 15:56
  from them yet.
• 15:57
  Oh, by the way, Mary, one last thing before I forget.
• 16:00
  Would you be open to if I made it really easy for you, just texted you a link right now?
• 16:05
  Would you be able to take about two minutes and just share your experience of what it's
• 16:08
  like working with the ABC Smith team?
• 16:12
  Now you're asking for a Google review where you didn't get a Google review, okay?
• 16:15
  That's where I would focus my reviews right now is Google.
• 16:20
  Just like these ideas so far, all there's a lot more coming for you.
• 16:23
  These are the kind of things we talk about in our small group with our mortgage marketing
• 16:26
  throw membership.
• 16:27
  All right, let me just fast forward to action number five.
• 16:30
  The last thing is, and I'm hearing this more now from quote top producers that maybe put
• 16:36
  this on the back shelf last year because they were too busy.
• 16:39
  Action number five, teaching classes, agent events.
• 16:42
  Why do you teach classes?
• 16:43
  Why do you do agent events?
• 16:45
  Real quick.
• 16:46
  Scale your reach.
• 16:47
  You reverse the prospecting.
• 16:48
  You have a stronger value proposition, greater impact.
• 16:51
  You drive the online offline.
• 16:53
  You accelerate trust.
• 16:54
  And when you accelerate trust, resistance comes down.
• 16:57
  The relationship moves forward and you get referrals.
• 17:01
  And if that's not enough, the other reason why you do agent classes is because success
• 17:04
  leaves clues.
• 17:05
  It's what top producers do, okay?
• 17:08
  Eight out of ten of the 250 top producing originators I've interviewed have had agent
• 17:13
  classes and events as part of their overall strategy.
• 17:17
  And with that, I'd like to tell you about my agent classes where we generate agent referrals
• 17:22
  on demand.
• 17:23
  What is it?
• 17:24
  It's a done for you content platform preloaded with high impact real estate agent centric
• 17:29
  educational classes and marketing content.
• 17:31
  Just a sample of the done for your agent classes we have include things like embracing
• 17:35
  the shift, how to pivot and thrive in the current market.
• 17:38
  You are the brand, right?
• 17:39
  The five step blueprint to get more clients make more money and stand out from the crowd.
• 17:43
  We've got database marketing.
• 17:45
  We've got a business planning class brand new for 2023.
• 17:48
  We've got how to get more listings, secrets agents used to convert more leads, right?
• 17:53
  We've got Instagram, Reels, YouTube, video marketing, first time home buyer class.
• 17:57
  We've got the library.
• 17:59
  We've got it all so you can simply log in, watch the video tutorials, download the PowerPoint
• 18:04
  speaker notes, get coached by me and the other members in the group.
• 18:07
  Use the assets we provide for you, the social media images to help post on social to drive
• 18:12
  butts in the seats, use the done for you personally brand to you, landing pages, remove
• 18:18
  event, right?
• 18:19
  Remove zoom.
• 18:20
  We're handling this all for you.
• 18:21
  You upload your agent contacts, you click a couple of buttons and you blast off a automated
• 18:26
  series of invites and reminders to whatever class it is that you're going to teach.
• 18:29
  Oh, by the way, teach it over zoom, cool.
• 18:32
  Teach it in person.
• 18:33
  Awesome.
• 18:34
  Do both.
• 18:35
  That's the answer.
• 18:36
  You'll also get the completely custom branded flyers.
• 18:38
  You'll get the done for you email SMS marketing campaigns, all the analytics.
• 18:41
  So you can look at what are your results with opens and clicks.
• 18:45
  And then bottom line, you're going to join our community where we do a weekly call small
• 18:48
  group where we get better together.
• 18:51
  We sharpen each other's skills, our mindsets.
• 18:53
  And so we talk about strategies that are working right now with originators from all across
• 18:58
  the country.
• 18:59
  And we share.
• 19:00
  We don't hold that, hold anything back.
• 19:01
  The testimonials are on our website.
• 19:02
  You can go check them out at mortgagemarketing.pro.
• 19:04
  But my friend Chris Cogill this year, he's closed 102 loans for 20 million all from teaching
• 19:10
  agent classes.
• 19:11
  Liz LaFore added 30 agents as referral partners close over 20 loans, all from classes.
• 19:17
  Collectively, we've helped loan officers across the country deliver over 2,412 classes,
• 19:24
  drive 4,823 conversations with agents and originate 180 million plus total loans funded
• 19:31
  from classes since I've been doing this.
• 19:35
  Guys, it works.
• 19:36
  Want to learn more?
• 19:37
  Go to mortgagemarketing.pro.
• 19:39
  All right.
• 19:40
  So that's kind of like the quick, you know, hit, as I said, about how to pivot and thrive
• 19:46
  the current market.
• 19:47
  I hope you got some of those ideas.
• 19:48
  I'd love to know what your one big idea is from this podcast episode.
• 19:52
  So like I said, you can hop on Instagram if that's where you're at DM me over there.
• 19:56
  We also have a private Facebook group on just for podcast listeners, just go to Facebook
• 20:00
  and type in mortgage marketing radio and that's where you can find me and I hope you
• 20:03
  enjoy this episode.
• 20:04
  I sure as heck has enjoyed bringing it to you.
• 20:08
  I'll see you on the next one.
• 20:09
  Thanks for tuning in.
• 20:10
  Bye for now.
• 20:30
  Hey guys, what's up real quick?
• 20:54
  You've heard about the mortgage marketing pro membership before and I just want to quickly
• 20:57
  remind you of that you're in a place in your business where you simply need more purchased
• 21:02
  loans.
• 21:03
  You need to fill your pipeline with purchase business.
• 21:05
  Let's just face it, agents are still a solid pillar of business and sources of purchase
• 21:09
  business for you.
• 21:11
  Well, good news.
• 21:12
  Our mortgage marketing pro membership helps loan officers like you close more loans without
• 21:16
  the hassle of chasing agents or cold calling done for you agent classes, expert training
• 21:22
  videos, a marketing automation platform that automates the entire process for you.
• 21:27
  Anything you need to build your personal brand in your local market, attracting, conferred
• 21:30
  agents into referral partners, plus done for you proven marketing materials and plug and
• 21:36
  play content to make promoting your class, getting agents, butts and seeds, partnering
• 21:41
  with affiliates, real easy, but that's not all.
• 21:44
  You'll also get access to our weekly mastermind calls with top elbows, authors, speakers and
• 21:50
  coaches to learn the best strategies to grow your business right now in today's market.
• 21:56
  And as an extra bonus for limited time for all new members, you'll get access to a database
• 22:02
  of 200 agents in your local market that have closed anywhere to from eight to 50 transactions
• 22:08
  in the last 12 months, and we'll provide that list uploaded into our platform for you.
• 22:13
  So you can get off to a fast start in reaching actually productive agents.
• 22:17
  So what are you waiting for?
• 22:18
  You can check out more at mortgagemarketing.pro, see more of the success stories there.
• 22:23
  And if you feel compelled to do so, book a call, we'll have a chat.
• 22:26
  We'll see if it's a fit.
• 22:28
  Don't miss out on this opportunity to take your mortgage business to the next level right
• 22:31
  now.
• 22:32
  Head over to mortgagemarketing.pro.