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Dominating Your Local Market With Google Reviews · Mortgage Marketing Radio

0:00
Hey listeners, Jeff Ziffer, mortgage market radio. Thanks for tuning in. Appreciate you making
0:09
time to check out our latest episode and it is a good one before we get to that. This
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episode is brought to you by, you can tell these are live hot mic infos, right? This episode
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is brought to you by the managing classes platform. As you may well know by now and I wanted
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to share with you a couple of quick updates and success stories. I'm reading a post in
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our private Facebook group right now from Glenda White and Glenda is in the Texas area
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and Glenda has been with us for quite a while now as one of our OG VIP members. What's
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up, Glenda? Shout out to you. Glenda decided to do some tracking in terms of sources of
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business for her and I think the last quote I saw from her was a month ago. Roughly she
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had closed about 7 million in loans and fundings if I'm correct exclusively from agent referrals
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that had attended her classes in that month by the way that she closed. And so she posted
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this in our Facebook group broke down. So one of the things Glenda does is partner with
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title reps and so overcoming the challenge of how do you get butts and seats with agent
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classes. One of the ways to do that is team up with affiliates and partners. One of those
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affiliates can be title reps, right? And so Glenda has some stats here and she's reviewing
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how many agents have attended her classes exclusively from title reps. By the way, this
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is not her inviting not her calling doing nothing but hosting a class and teaming up the
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title rep. Well, according to the stats here, she just published 66 agents of the classes
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she has put on this is from February through September 66 agents. She's been in front
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of right for these classes. 17 of the 66 are on the real producers top 500 list
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for 2023. 15 have sent at least one lead. 22% are talking with me right now. Me, me and Glenda,
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she's engaged in conversations and or referring business right trying to close business together
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in right and all the issues with the market of trying to close. But so 15% have said at least one
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lead 15% of those 22% she's engaged in talking within the referring business. Either way,
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the key point she makes is 22% are referring business, meaning they're advocating on Glenda's
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behalf. Their Glenda is their go to lender and Glenda honestly says in her post, it's incredible
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to think that she could be doing more follow up more one on ones right to get better even better
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results. But I ask you, what are your metrics? Do you even know? Do you know your sources of business?
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Do you know which agents? Do you have affiliate partners advocating on your behalf putting you
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in front of quality referral partners? Listen to Glenda's numbers. You might want to duplicate that
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same thing for you. And on that note, one of her other members Kevin Dwyer, what's up Kevin?
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Hosting our chat GPT class just hit max registration 50 agents signed up and the title
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company is picking up the launch tab. Market share, land grab, building your personal brand,
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capturing attention. There's a void in the market. There's space. There's less noise.
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You can go hide like a lot of others or you can enter the market in a bigger way and building
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a bigger platform. One that allows you to rise above the noise, get attention, get engagement,
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and get referrals like Glenda and like heaven. So what do you do now? Well that's up to you.
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But if you want to see if this is a fit for you, I'm happy to chat. You can go to mortgage marketing.pro,
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schedule a call on my calendar. I'll make time available. We'll get acquainted.
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And we'll see if it's a fit. mortgagemarketing.pro. Okay, this week my special guest,
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I'm really thrilled to be able to talk to this individual who I recently met at the aim
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fuse event in Las Vegas. And Wade Betts is just a rock star long time veteran in the business.
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He's approaching a billion dollars in total loans funded over his career. And Wade was at the
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aim fuse event talking about Google business profile and the importance of having a optimized
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Google business profile. And what it can mean to the impact to your business. Wade has at this
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moment, 194 Google reviews, 195 star Google reviews. I should point out and Wade and I kind of unpack
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a lot of different things on this conversation. Part of it is we unpack his strategy for getting
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Google reviews, how he does it, what his script is, what his process is, all of that. And then,
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of course, we're punching in and out of different topics like, you know, percentage of business,
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he gets from his past client database. What does he do there? Wade is one of the most structured
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intentional mortgage professionals I've spoken to. And you'll hear that in today's conversation.
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When he unpacks his daily method of operations, his calendar blocking and all the metrics that he's
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measuring. Remember, what gets measured improves. What gets measured and reported improves
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exponentially. So if you're not measuring your activities, if you're not measuring the results,
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then how do you know what's really working? And how do you know where you can be effective? How do
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you know what to add your attention to? How do you know what to perhaps reduce or eliminate
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altogether? So it's great conversation. We talk a lot about classes. Wade is, of course,
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an advocate of agent classes as a source of agent business and so forth. And so also social media
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Instagram. Really, really great. Just all around, you know, unpacking and looking at somebody who's
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a phenomenal individual, but also a phenomenal producer. And somebody that I definitely respect in this
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business. So I hope you enjoyed this episode. If you do, please share it with somebody. Leave us a
6:02
review without further ado. Let's get into this week's show. Wade, welcome to the show.
6:08
Thank you so much, Jeff. I appreciate you having me here. Yeah. Really good to, we just ran
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into each other at fuse. Is that correct? That's right. Yeah. We've been connected for years now
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and finally got to see each other in person. Right. Fantastic. And you had a, well, before I get
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into that, why don't you for those who are familiar with Wade Betts? How long in the biz? You know,
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what do you want to share about your, your career, your, you know, lifetime to date? Right.
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18 years in, basically, 14 of which were spent in retail, had a wonderful retail experience.
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Last three to four have been in wholesale. And that's gone quite well as, as well. And the topic
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that I spoke on at fuse was about a Google business profile. And frankly, the, the, the journey
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that I had from retail to wholesale makes that topic even more important because our brand
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is more important is bigger than the company that you work for. 100%. I'm a big believer that a healthy
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business is a portable business. And so I need to make sure that my reputation can follow me wherever
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I go. Not that you want to go and jump ship and, and change environments often. But the reality is,
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if you, if you have all your eggs and a corporate provided basket. And I'll just, like, just be
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super transparent here. The first go around that I had with collecting reviews. It was an
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internal system that the outside world couldn't see. Right. And, and frankly, I was worried that if
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I were to leave at some point, I would lose hundreds of reviews. And so very early on, I pivoted
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from those types of captive platforms to a Google business profile, which I controlled.
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And I, my only regret was that I didn't do it sooner, frankly, because I've held thousands of
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families over my career. And, you know, even though I've got 200-ish reviews, just think of what
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could have been, you know what I'm saying? So yeah, we're all guilty of that at some level, right?
8:30
Oh my God. So true. So that's kind of the, the journey that I've, that I've gone on. It's really
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important that you control your own destiny with your own reputation. And yes, your company should
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facilitate that, but you're the brand. Right. All right. We're going to, we're going to put a pin
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in that for second and come back to that. It's going to be a theme of what we talk about. I also want
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to make it clear, like you're no slouch in this business, right? I mean, I'm looking at your
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LinkedIn profile. Are you going to, you're approaching a billion dollars in funding career soon?
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Getting there. If years like this wouldn't happen, I'd be very faster.
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Yeah, man. So you are definitely a major player in terms of, right, how we measure it, so to speak,
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right, in the industry, units and volume. While I'm on that for a second, so here we are October,
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2023. What would, how are you adjusting and pivoting to the current shift? What,
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was there anything that you've done and like, you know, fourth quarter changed the play kind of
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stuff? Anything you want to share on that? I would just say that you've got to work harder than
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you ever have before. So, you know, fat cats that have been in the industry for a long time.
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Honestly, I feel like we're at a disadvantage over a lot of the newer talent that has come in
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the industry, because we remember how good it used to be. And they don't know any different.
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We're romantic about that, right? Yeah. Oh, back when we reached with this. Well, no one cares.
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Like work now, you know, like the sign over my shoulder that working until you don't have to
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introduce yourself, I'm still working on that. And that actually takes me to what I have done
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over the last three or four quarters is really take my social presence much, much more seriously.
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So, don't get me wrong. You have to make the phone calls and see the people and have all the
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analog pieces to your business. But the digital presence is key. So, my coach and mentor,
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he encourages me to post video content multiple times per week to essentially attract people
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to my brand, because my brand is winning with Wade. So, I will make sure you either win with me
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or because of me, but you'll win because we're together. So, that's the, I even got my own
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merch and everything. Oh, you did. Cool, man. Nice. Yeah. I'm on your Instagram right here.
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We're going to link up all your stuff by the way, your Google, your Instagram in the show now
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is for people listening, but it is winning with Wade on Instagram. All right. So, I got to ask this
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question I usually ask is what is or has been your number one source of business.
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So, I'm very heavy pass client database actually more than 50% of my closings every single year
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come from my pass client. So, for those of us that have been in the industry, if you're neglecting
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your database, you're making a massive mistake. Those people already hopefully no like can trust you.
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So, just pick up the phone. It's only weird if you make it weird. Like, right now, every day,
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I call people that are having their birthdays the following day. So, every Monday, I'm calling
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everyone that has a birthday on that Monday and then Tuesday. Tuesday, I'm calling people that
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have birthdays on Wednesday. Wednesday, I'm calling people that have birthdays on Thursday. Thursday,
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Friday, Friday, I'm calling Saturday and Sunday every single day. So, I track it because my coach
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makes me report back to him. Sounds like you got a good coach. Yeah. Monday, I've made 10
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birthday calls, Tuesday, eight, Wednesday, 10. Today, I've made seven. Is that really that simple, Wade?
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Yeah. And it's just, it's really simple. Hey, just wanted to reach out and wish your happy
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birthday. I'm going to be talking meetings tomorrow and not able to call them, but I just wanted to
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give you some well wishes. Hopefully you have a great day full of friends and family. If any of
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those friends and family need a mortgage, let me know. But seriously, happy birthday and call
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me, if you need me, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And the same message. Other live dials, you're not
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doing ringless voicemail drops. No, no, I'm manually typing the number on every single one of those.
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How many of them go to voicemail roughly? I track that. I get about a 22% talk rate. Wow. It's
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cool. So and then it helps because I also send a handwritten birthday card leading up to that.
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And I'll put a, and I actually have it right here, a $1 scratch off ticket in there. And I'll put
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a post script that says, shoot me an email at and I'll put my email address and let me know if you
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win. Well, about half the people do it. And when they do, they usually reply back with their
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best and most accurate email address. And then you also reference that with your CRM to make sure that
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your database is updated. So it's a really helpful tactic. The only downside is the guy at 711
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thinks I have a gambling addiction because of a lot of tickets that I buy.
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What's the, I'm just now you get really curious. What's the biggest number you can recall?
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Does anybody let you know like 50 bucks, 100, 500 or anything? Or is it? Yeah, it's, it's a dollar
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ticket. So yeah. Yeah, it's a dollar scratch on. So you're not going to retire on it. But
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I'm just hoping that it brings some joy. That's pretty cool. All right. So that is awesome.
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And then where do you, what's next after that? Is it real estate agents or who? For sure. A big
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piece of what I do is real estate agents as well. Primarily, that was generated from the contracts
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that that I work. And then classes, you know, I know that's a passion project of yours. I love
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teaching. I did a significant amount of that during COVID. But, you know, leading up to that.
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And I'm talking the years leading up to that, you know, when you first start teaching classes,
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you just decide one day to do it. And you could be the only one that shows up that month.
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That's okay. Or there could be one person or 10. But I did that for years before I got an introduction
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to a title company who asked, Hey, you, you teach, you've got all the content. We've got the CE
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platform. We need instructors that know what they're doing. Can you come in and teach? And that,
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that has led to, I'm not exaggerating. I think I even told you that views. I think during the
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two years of of COVID, I taught 66 different classes and got in front of 891 different real estate
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agents. All virtual cards, right? And all that was virtual. And even now that you're obviously
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able to get back in front of people, 80% of it's still virtual. So I'll do 20% where it's live in
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person. But, but most of it's virtual. And I'll tell you, the smaller brokerages out there, the ones
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that aren't the color Williams of the world where they have all the built out incredible training,
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they need people to provide educational content as a value add to their agents. So you can set up
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and I have about three brokerages that have become in every month and teach classes for them as a
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continuing ed type event. I even went so far as to open a CE school in Texas so that I can offer
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this as CE credits going forward myself. So I've not had to rely on other companies to facilitate
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that for me. That's very smart, very smart. Like no joke, I've got all of the applications right
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here to for 27 new CE classes that I'm submitting this week. Yeah, and I understand Texas,
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it's relatively easy for CE approval. Yes, it took some paperwork, but it wasn't it wasn't that
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common. Well, what I mean by that is so quick sidebar here for those listening, but like I know
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of other people in other states who's like California, I think is one where like they get you
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got to jump through all these hoops and you got to like edit your slides and like all this stuff
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and it's really just such a wall. And so that's why my usual default, you know, answer to people
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when they ask about CE is, you know, quote unquote, you don't need it because like my answer is always
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when people ask me, Hey, what's the number one secret to getting agents butts and seas at a class?
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I always say it's the title. It's just like a book. It's like the cover of a book that has to be a
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compelling, you know, headline. I don't know. Would you agree with that? I completely agree. So
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I I worried when I was teaching CE classes, well, why are they here? Are they here for the content
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or they hear for the CE credit because they have to be right? So if if the class you're offering
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is not CE approved, you know, they're there for the content. And I'll also just throw this in there.
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I always taught my classes in person at 10 or two. So 10 o'clock was too late for breakfast and
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too early for lunch. Right. And two was after lunch. So I didn't I'm not there to feed you really.
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I'm you're here for the content. If you want to grow your business, you're in my tribe. I will
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help you. But if you're here to be fed, go someplace else. All right. So out of those classes,
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you've taught in your career, you built a database of roughly 800. That was just during COVID.
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And this is a very hard question, but I got to ask it because it makes me really curious.
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Like, can you dotted line then in terms of, you know, the challenge most LLs have in
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getting in front of agents, right? The usual stuff that the the cold calls into this and that
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and everything that people do. Obviously sound self-serving, but I'm of course preaching. Let's
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like leapfrog that and go right to classes. How would you score that or or rank your results
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for getting real to referrals leading with classes? So that's worked very well for me.
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I will tell you most of the top producing agents. It wasn't my experience that they would show up
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to an in-person class like that. However, I will tell you you will get far far far better results.
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If after class, you have some, even if it's an automated content drip that reinforces whatever
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the topic is, you will engage and capture more of those agents in your in your net. Then if you
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just taught the class, said thank you and didn't follow up. So obviously the the money's in the
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follow-up and the more thought out that can be, the better results you'll have. And that was before I
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had a tech stack with Bonzo in it. So I was having to manually do a lot of a lot of that follow-up
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and it's hard. So I've got great systems. However, it's always able to be improved. So I'm doing this
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over again. Every single one of those classes has probably a four week drip that reinforces the
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topic because now we're to the next month's class. And then when they when they roll off that four
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week drip, they go into my long term nurture campaign just to stay in front of them indefinitely.
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So that's how if I was doing it over again, that's how I would do it.
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Yeah, and then when you think about piecing all the pieces of the puzzle together,
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social the follow-up calls, like it's really like this puzzle that all comes together when
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and of course you're probably capturing content for your classes, especially if it's in person,
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you get to repost those videos and pictures and all that stuff. So back to what we're going to
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now put it back to is personal brand is you're building your personal brand and a way and a lot of
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people talk about personal brand consumer direction all that, but few talk about personal brand
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with real estate agents or referral partners. And like that's equally important because there's
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this brand perception of elbows as a whole. And then if you know you're trying to pursue agents,
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like if I don't see Wade no Wade, it's a it's a cold outreach. But if you're engaging with agents
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on Facebook or they're seeing your stuff and there's you know, oh look at he's doing a class over
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here today or he's at the board, like all that stuff bubbles up to be like, yeah, I've heard of Wade,
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who are you? I'll take your call. Yeah, I agree. It helps. I've like, and it feels good,
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but I've been at it for about a year now being intentional with my my social content with the
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digital side of the business essentially. But it feels good. So like literally the face to face that
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I had last week, that agent was talking to one of the title companies that I that I teach for.
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And they they said, Hey, like I'm having this problem. And that title company said you should
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follow Wade bets. And so she had been I didn't know. And she she reached out to me after weeks
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apparently and said, Hey, I've been following you for a while. I like what you're about. Can we
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meet for coffee? So and so says you're amazing. It's like, yes, yes, we can do that. And we met
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last week. So that's starting to happen with more frequency. And the key, other than consistency
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with it is to engage with people. So you can't hope to have people engage with you if you're not
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engaging with them. So I'm I'm in my Instagram DMs often. I have a time block. So eight to eight
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30 every single day because I have my little calendar here every day. 20 likes 20 post comments,
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20 story comments eight to eight 30. And then I have tried to keep my engagement rate on Instagram
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specifically around 10%. So it's been as low as five and it's highest 30, which is massive for
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essentially a business account, which is normally one to three percent. So explain what you mean by
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engagement rate. So essentially how many people that are engaging with your content messaging.
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And it's in being intentional with the right people. So like Jeff, I've got friends that have
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just massive followings. And so I'm I'm constantly like chirping up my social teams here's like,
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Hey, let's get like what do we need to do to get the the the follower account out and they keep
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reminding me it's the right followers that matter. So if you look at my Instagram, you'll see my
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help statement of who I serve. So I'm we're being very intentional about going after those specific
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people. I help build wealth and memories through real estate. Yes. With I wanted to ask you quick
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about the engagement rate, just to be clear for those. That's a you can look at that in your profile
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analytics, right? You can't so I post using Lumly. You don't have to use a software to do that.
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But I'm I'm filming a significant amount of content. So I'm I'm very time blocked. So once a
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week, I've got a two hour block of time to plan the content. So what am I going to say?
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Create the scripts, you know, get with chat GPT, map it all out. Like what am I going to film?
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And then I have a separate time block to actually film the content. I never I never do both at
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the same time because the planning frankly takes out a lot of energy and you just end up look like
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a like a whip puppy by the time you're done with it and you're not fresh for the actual filming.
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Yeah. So it's two different types of energy for sure. So you mentioned Lumly, you're managing your
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social platforms on, which is like a third party, like a hoot suite or a buffer or something like that.
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There's tons of them. Absolutely. So if you can natively post them on all the platforms, do it.
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You'll get better results is what I understand. But I don't have that bandwidth. So I use software.
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The only platform that I'm personally posting on is my personal Facebook feed for the Reels.
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But it's the same exact video that's going on Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn. That's the same thing
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that's going on my personal Facebook Reels. All right, down. I'm not currently posting any of
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that short form content on my YouTube channel. I specifically have YouTube set aside for long form
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content. Okay. And what types of long form content will you be doing there? So we mentioned off camera.
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I partner with Scott Shang with the Find My Way Home project. So essentially a lot of the content
24:33
that we're creating, it's not sexy. I mean, it's about, you know, 80 use and how to house hack and
24:41
you know, Fannie Mae just announced that they are going to allow two to four units with 5%
24:48
down now, like just kind of getting into some of the boring mortgage content. Yes.
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That it's not, it's not exciting. Oh, I know. Just ridder at that. You know, it's truly boring. So
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the short form content on all the other platforms, that's kind of
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holding them in. But no one's really going to YouTube to take a deep dive into mortgages unless
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they are absolutely in the weeds with that at that exact moment. So it's just different bait,
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essentially. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. And we can have a whole another conversation about YouTube.
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But let's bring it back to the conversation in our presentation. You gave at Fuse.
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You mentioned a moment ago, I said I put a pin in that personal brand. But what you made me
25:33
curious was you were talking about how you couldn't control the reviews with that back in the day
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and you wanted to better control that. So obviously we're talking about Google business profile.
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Most people listening should be aware of what that is. But why don't you, maybe we can start here.
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What is your process for asking and getting reviews on Google specifically?
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Yeah. And let me before I answer that just when I ask the question to the audience,
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raise your hand if you have a Google business profile, only about a third of the audience
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raise their hand. All right. Well, it's your bigger issue question about like corporate and
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there's all those limitations around corporate too, right? That's exactly right. So if you have
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the ability to have your own Google business profile start there. Have it optimized,
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have it in a tie to an email address that you control. And make sure you're posting regularly.
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And then make sure you're asking for reviews, which Jeff is what you just asked me about. So
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essentially if you're going to get reviews, you have to earn the right to get reviews.
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So you have to care, create a referable experience. And once you've created that referable
26:53
experience, then you can ask for referrals. So at the end of the process, the way I handled it,
27:01
because I'm not attending most of my closings, I always do a post-closing honor call.
27:07
You know, for one, they're getting thrown like a huge stack of documents. So I always want to
27:12
make sure, hey, how did closing go? Do you have any questions about the phone book size stack of
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documents that you were asked to sign? Did you did your hand cramp up? I'll make a look.
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And the reality is most of the time they'll say no, but if they do have questions, I'll answer them.
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And then I'll just say, give them honor. You know, Jeff, it was it was really appreciate you
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trusting my team and I that helped with this. It means the world to us. Can I ask a favor?
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And ask away. Say, I'm looking to add as many five-star Google reviews to my businesses I could.
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If I shot you a link over, would you mind putting some kind words together for me? It would really
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mean a lot to me and my family. So here when I how I phrased it, I'm looking at our five-star reviews.
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So if you didn't think I did five-star, is please say nothing. You know, like you might say,
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if you don't have anything nice to say, say nothing at all. And then I essentially said,
28:03
it would mean a lot to me and my family because they're helping put food on my family's table.
28:09
So they will say yes, because again, they're a nice person. And then I'll literally text them
28:16
a link. And now Google has this really long link that you can send people. I have a vanity URL
28:23
issue with GoDaddy. I've got like 125 different URLs. So I went and bought one that rolls off the
28:32
tongue and I hide my Google page to it. So literally when leavewaiterreview.com. That's pretty
28:40
obvious. Very subtle. So if I'm talking to you, Jeff, I'm going to say, hey, do you mind if I
28:46
shot you a text and you can put some kind words together for me, you say, no, no problem. Send me
28:50
over the link. So I'll send it and I've got it. It's kind of canned, but I'll customize it a little
28:54
bit. But it's just a script, you know, a can little script. Thanks so much for talking to me,
28:59
Jeff. Here's that link. It really means a lot to me. Thank you so much. But that's not the end of
29:03
it, because people get busy. They just bought a house. They could forget. So my coach makes me do
29:09
a seven day post closing check-in. How's everything going? Any after the fact questions? Thank you
29:16
again for agreeing to leave me that review. I can't wait to see it. Let me know if you need me to
29:20
rescind you the link. And then if I don't see anything there, I have one more follow-up two weeks
29:25
later. So if you're doing them at that three weeks after closing, just wanted to check in one last
29:31
time. Thank you again for being willing to leave me that review. It means the world to me. I'll stay
29:36
in touch as this kind of transitions to a paying loan. Let me know if you need anything in the mean
29:41
time. You know, you just did with that extra call two weeks after closing. If you look behind
29:50
you yet to see all the L.O.s left in your dust, that's like going there. Yeah, that's exactly right.
29:58
And so you start talking about, you know, helping them become a successful loan officer after closing
30:04
with some of the things like just getting it to the closing table. That should be the bare minimum.
30:08
And, you know, a mentor of mine, Ryan Grant, he's got that art of homeownership process,
30:15
which is amazing. I'm a big, big fan of that mission. And so what are you going to do from closing
30:22
beyond? Like that's the bar part, the next 30 years. So you have to make sure that the client knows
30:28
that and getting a review on your Google business page is just part of that because it helps people
30:35
find. So that was phase one. And I've done that with that exact process for years and years and years.
30:42
Now in the beginning, when I was just getting started, I used one of these reputation management
30:47
companies to help kickstart it. But, you know, Jeff, if I'm being honest here, I'm not busy enough
30:53
to where I need to automate that right now. I can personally handle it. And frankly, I get better
30:58
results by being the one actually asking for the review. So it matters that you're getting these
31:07
pretty frequently. And I'm just talking one, two, three a month. It doesn't have to be dozens per
31:11
month. But if if your clients are googling you and they are, and they see nothing but five star
31:17
reviews, but they're all from, you know, six years ago, and they don't know that you're any good
31:22
anymore. Yeah. So they need to see that you're consistent because your consistency is your character
31:28
essentially. Oh, that's good. Your consistency is your character. Not mine. My mentor,
31:34
he came up with that. So I'm just parroting his words. But he tells it to me all the time.
31:38
I like that. Who's this this mentor coach? I got to ask a mere said with growth only.
31:43
Oh, okay. Cool. There you go. Well, a mere now. I appreciate you buddy. Now you owe me a mere.
31:48
There's a blog. I gotta come speak at your conference, a mere. All right. So your newest was a
31:54
week ago for the Google business review. That's pretty fresh. Yeah. So get a couple per month
32:01
is the reality of it. Okay. Can you, and again, I apologize if this is a difficult question,
32:09
but you seem to be a guy who manages and, you know, tracks a lot of things. What can you say?
32:14
So you've got 194 Google reviews, which is amazing. How can you say that's impacted your business?
32:20
Any, any, you know, evidence or indicators? So I can only say the number of calls I get from it.
32:29
So this is, this is the long game. Okay. So this is taking years to get to this point.
32:36
I've talked to friends that have reviews that they don't get any calls. I get calls. And so I call
32:42
this phase one. Phase one is up until literally this point where you're, you're consistently posting.
32:49
You got an optimized profile. You're getting reviews consistency consistently. If you do nothing
32:54
else, you're, you're doing great. Now, if you want to take it a step further with phase two,
33:02
that's where you start worrying about backlinking to your website and doing some of these SEO
33:07
things behind the scenes. So there's absolutely companies that can help with that as well.
33:13
But that's where I'm at now. And, and a year from now, it'll be dramatically different. So
33:21
Lily, you didn't know, I didn't know you're going to ask me that question. Today alone,
33:25
I've gotten one call from my Google page, yet today I had two. They close at about a 17% rate.
33:32
So not quite as strong as a warm referral, but way, way higher than a Facebook lead or some other
33:42
type of lead. Well, and the other thing about that is they, they come to you already at the later
33:47
stage of the bike cycle. Yeah, they have been things often early on that cycle. But the other
33:53
thing too is they've read your reviews. They've probably like, by the way, do you know how you,
33:57
how they're getting to your Google review? Are they doing some like, you know, mortgage broker near
34:02
me type searches or any insights onto that? Yeah. So I, so if you, if you wanted to pull up an incognito
34:09
page right now and type mortgage broker, Dallas, I would show up as number one in the three pack.
34:18
If you search on an easy feed, by the way. Right. That the keyword broker, if you,
34:25
if you change it to Dallas mortgage lender, instead, I'm not in a three pack. So if you expand that,
34:33
I'm number five. So that's, that's pretty good. I'm, I'm very happy with that. And that will get
34:41
better and better and better. The more intentional I am about the content I'm creating. Right.
34:48
Backlinking it to my website. So when I mentioned earlier that I partnered with Scott Shang with
34:52
their Find My Way home, every video that I film as part of his platform that goes on his website,
34:59
will also go on my website that my team behind the scenes will backlink to to increase eyeballs
35:06
on my content. So that's what I'm saying. A year from now, it'll be dramatically different. But
35:11
even just in the last 24 hours, I've gotten three calls. Yeah. You know, I'll, I'll take it.
35:19
No, I mean, like you said, that's phase one. And you know, there's only so much you can do,
35:24
you know, at once when you still have to originate loans. So if any take away your listening to
35:29
this right now, when you know your Google business profile is, you know, it's got some skinny
35:33
legs, let's say, and you need to bulk those legs up. The first thing is to get a process around
35:38
asking for reviews. I'd be here and curious to hear your, I've often, you know, suggested to
35:44
realtors and or loan officers to go back to their past clients database and ask for the missed
35:51
review they didn't get. Oh my god. Yes. Any coaching from that? What does that sound like for you?
35:56
So again, I will say that most salespeople have a fear of calling their past client database,
36:02
but in your own head, people think of us way less than we think that they do. Okay. So they haven't
36:09
thought of us since the last time we reached out, which could have been years. And it's only weird
36:13
if you make it. So Jeff, if I hadn't talked to you in years, that phone call to you would be,
36:18
hey, Jeff, wait, that's over in my financial and be like, wait. Yeah, I know. I feel so bad. I
36:25
can't even remember the last time I reached out to you, but I wanted to check in, see everything
36:29
was going with the home, make sure you and the family are doing okay. And then do you mind? Could
36:33
I ask you a favor? You know, say, sure, what's up? It's like, I feel terrible. I didn't ask this,
36:39
you know, when we closed you, but I really enjoyed working with you. You want
36:45
one of my favorite clients. If I could hit the universe reset button and only work with clients
36:48
like you, I totally would, I would love it. If you would leave me a five star review for my
36:53
Google business page, it would just mean the world to me. If I sent you a link, would you mind
36:58
putting those kind words together for me? And you would say yes, because you're a nice human being.
37:03
And I would say, okay, here you go. But then you have to follow up boom, boom, boom. So it's only
37:08
weird if you make it weird. And it doesn't have to be that wordy. Obviously, naturalize it to
37:15
your word, not mine. But it's important to do it via phone call, not an email or text.
37:22
I've done both. You will get results if you just do a automated sequence of email.
37:29
Closed automated sequence. Yeah. Yeah, you'll get, no, I'm talking about like if you
37:33
even passed, yeah. Yeah, you know, 500 past clients, you're going to get reviews.
37:39
You're also could piss some people off that maybe didn't have a five star experience.
37:44
Yeah, you want to identify those maybe. Let's be real though. All of us should be talking to our
37:49
past client database. So don't automate it. You have enough time on your hands right now.
37:54
And you can pick up the phone and have a little three minute conversation about it and move on.
38:01
Even if that was even a voicemail, I would say something very similar. And I would say,
38:05
hey, just shoot me a text message back if it's okay to send you that link. I just don't want to
38:09
impose. Hope you're doing amazing. Yeah, I mean, we could really, you know, double tap on this
38:16
obvious activity. But it's kind of like getting yourself to the gym in some ways where you're like,
38:23
I know I should, right? But then you're like, shit, I got to pack my bag. I got to drive.
38:26
Like all the BS we come up with in our head, yet with the challenge today of activity and
38:33
business and we're having a difficult time finding the business, even though business is still
38:38
happening, I'll be at a much reduced rate. But I love the saying whoever came up with that I
38:43
totally swiped it, which is conversations equals contracts. And it like, how else are you going to
38:49
have conversations? You can have them on social, but what better place to have them with the past
38:52
clients? Of course, the people that already know you like you. And yeah, I just, I don't know,
38:58
I'm just hanging out going like, why wouldn't anybody call five past clients a day?
39:03
Easily, at least have a birthday call, do an annual financial review, not an annual mortgage
39:11
review, because no one needs an annual mortgage review, because they got a 3% rate already.
39:15
The financial review, because what if they don't have their estate plan put together, what if
39:21
their insurance skyrocketed and they need a recommendation to an insurance professional?
39:26
What if they need to get life insurance because they're worried that if they pass away,
39:30
they won't be able to pay off their mortgage? So annual financial reviews are more about
39:35
giving referrals out to your partners than generating it for yourself. But make no mistakes,
39:40
they'll tell you, hey, we're thinking about buying a lake property in two years. Great.
39:46
Oh, by the way, if you're running to anybody else looking to buy salary finance,
39:49
I'd love to be able to count on you to pass my name along.
39:52
Again, another unfair question, but can you speak to, because you seem to be very consistent with
40:00
your calls to your past client database, can you speak to a business that you're able to,
40:04
right, generate from that? Just back because you're doing the calls.
40:10
Yes, because I've got a system that I've worked for a long time with it. A lot of times,
40:17
they call me before I can call them. So a lot of times I'm interacting with them
40:26
because they've reached out to me. So the top of mind with them, so that's why they're thinking of you.
40:33
Correct. If you're in the average L.O., who doesn't send a newsletter or email, who doesn't do
40:38
the post-close follow-up system that you do, who doesn't go to social engage, like that's why you
40:43
see the stat of 25% or whoever reuse the same L.O., well, that's why, right? But you're already
40:49
top of mind. That's right. And so it really helps. So literally, I've had years
40:56
where I've had 80% of my closings come from past clients. I'm down to 15 because my coach is nudging me
41:04
to get closer to a 50-50 balance with agents and past clients. But the past clients already
41:11
no light can trust you. Just call them. You can do the letter of the alphabet sequence where you
41:17
call one letter of the alphabet a week. I struggle with that just to be candid. I'm very pleased with
41:23
myself that I'm able to do the birthday calls because each week is 50 plus calls. It's going to
41:29
have so many past clients. So many are there. By the way, if I can ask you're roughly, I'm getting
41:34
close to 3,000 total clients that I've closed. So it is a lot. So if it's roughly
41:42
50-ish a week, you know, 2,500 in my database. Do you have a, well, before I go there,
41:50
do you send them a newsletter of any kind? So they get, it depends how they're leveled in
41:56
my database. So they're right. So everyone gets the electronic communication. So that's going to be,
42:06
I like famous quotes. So I actually will even do quote reaction videos for some of my reels.
42:12
Like one of my favorite ones was Rome wasn't built in a day. Well, all of us have heard that. But what
42:18
most people don't know is the second part of that phrase is, but they laid bricks every day.
42:23
Yeah. So I had a video where I just said the quote and then talked about what it meant to me.
42:28
And so I do probably two of those a month for my social. So the emails that I send out each month
42:35
are our famous quotes. So then I turn those email. That's just an image.
42:41
Proder is it a text? No, it's an image. I had one guy reach out last week because the one
42:49
that he got, he's like, you don't know this about me, but my parents actually named me after that
42:53
person. Wow, really? Like, wow, that's amazing. Thank you for sharing. So they get that. I'll do
43:02
weird holidays like National Avocado Day. I got this one right here. So I keep it handy. So
43:12
just National Avocado Day. I'll do for for the holidays. I'll do a little holiday ornament.
43:21
Okay. They're they're handmade by a former coworker of mine. She is her side business.
43:25
So you send out three thousand of those? Well, only for people that close this ring. That's right.
43:31
Everyone that closed this calendar year gets one of these. Do the Thanksgiving cards to everybody?
43:38
No, I don't I don't do Thanksgiving. I do random holidays and I do the holiday card.
43:44
It's like Groundhog Day, like stuff like that. So, but not everyone gets a physical printed card.
43:51
Because it is a lot of money for people that might not be ranked in A.
43:56
So how do you rank them in A? What's the criteria?
44:00
So if they're a repeat client, absolutely, they're in A. If they've given me a referral,
44:06
they're in A. If they're a veteran, because I specialize in helping veterans, you know,
44:11
my wife is right over my shoulder. Yes, sir. So about two. Yeah, exactly.
44:18
They they're in A. If they're a high net worth individual or their job is a connector. They're
44:25
like an HR director or I know it sounds weird, but like hairstylist, because they talk to
44:31
everybody. Personal trainers can be great, great referral sources. Yeah, stuff like that.
44:39
So, let me ask you the opposite of that. That's not to interrupt you, but what makes somebody a C?
44:44
Difficult. They didn't they didn't follow my process. Ungrateful argumentative.
44:50
So they don't get gagged. They get them they get everyone gets something unless they're truly on
44:56
do not contact and they get the they get the fruitcake, right?
45:03
If you make a big enough omelet, you're going to crack some eggs. So so there are people that are on
45:08
the do not contact again under any circumstances. Wow. And are there any realtors on that list too?
45:16
Not really. No, not really. I have a high-eyed dis profile. So I get along with a lot of people.
45:23
So you have to really do something bad to have me not want to engage with you anymore.
45:32
Okay, so now I'm going to bounce around a little bit. Roughly how many realtors do you work with
45:37
and do you have a ranking for them also? Yes. Yes, I do. So I keep three main lists. I keep a focus
45:49
40 which they've referred me and we've closed a deal together in the last 90 days.
45:58
So the name of the list is focus 40. I don't have 40 agents on that list because if you're
46:04
doing the math there, that's four closings per year per person on that list. That'd be 160
46:10
closings from that list alone. So I've got usually single digit agents on that list.
46:17
Maybe low, low double digits at any given time. So they've referred me in the last 90 days
46:23
and we've closed a transaction together. Then I have the next 40 which is they've referred me
46:31
but we haven't closed in the last 90 days. So maybe we closed it in the past but it just hasn't
46:37
been in the last 90 days. So they're on that list. I think I had 37 people on that list.
46:46
The last time I compiled this and then I have the last 40 which is just like everyone
46:53
I'm chasing. So there's like 130 something names on that list. How do you identify who you're
46:59
you know quote chasing? Do you do any production criteria on that or you try to you try to have it be
47:06
people that are qualified but if you if you follow the sequence there you know they ideally stay in
47:15
the focus 40 then they can drop to the next 40 but if they haven't referred me in the last 90 days
47:21
that's when they drop to that larger list. So that list is largely comprised of agents that I've
47:28
received referrals from in the past that I'm hoping to nurture to get them back up the food chain the
47:35
other way. So they went dark or really silent or something or the business is just down. So you
47:40
know your agents that were used to doing you know 10 buy sides a year and now they're doing two or
47:47
three right now it's just different. And do you have any specific strategies around identifying
47:55
specific agents like I know in my area back in the day right Orange County I used to look at
48:00
like you know who the top producers are right because they're out there everywhere you see them
48:05
and so you identify like who do I want to go oh there's this girl in the magazine to use a
48:09
freaking rock star right and all that kind of do you do any of that kind of stuff in terms of like
48:13
you know laser targeting or anything like that or you should it's the top of your agent funnel
48:17
the classes. Yes they'll be some of that sniper rifle stuff but the reality is the the top top
48:25
people have their relationships. So a lot of that is shifting right now because of the
48:31
turmoil. So for everyone listening and watching you know don't think that just because they say
48:37
they have a preferred lender that that relationships dialed in. And don't let them tell you oh I
48:45
know so and so well that's great that you know him that's not like you're in a friendship with him
48:49
not a relationship with him. So don't be in the friends on a lily told an agent a real
48:55
to this sorry a loan officer this morning that I'm that I'm coaching now they're asking how to
49:00
how to end the meeting I was like well you're gonna have to be direct sometimes so like you need to
49:06
essentially the business equivalent of lean in for a kiss right and ask for their ask for the
49:11
business and if they reject you they reject you but at least you know where you're staying you don't
49:15
want to be in the friend zone where always a great meeting and blah blah blah so ask for a tie down
49:21
if you don't get it that's okay but if they do now stay in touch what's your system to follow up
49:28
afterwards to ensure that that relationship blossoms and bears fruit as opposed to just
49:36
withers on the vine because Jeff you know loan officers meet with agents day in and day out and then
49:42
they get happy years got them and then they don't follow up at all right and then they wonder why
49:49
they didn't get referrals yeah I think I've been guilty of that too especially in the early days
49:54
totally totally like we've all been there don't even think that we haven't every single person's been
49:59
there but the more systematic you can be the less likely than it has to happen well let's say you're
50:04
meeting with an agent let's you know let's say they came however they got in front of you right but
50:08
there's some perceived respect already but you haven't transacted yet but there is you have the
50:17
meeting you have a good good conversation about you know first of its rapport and all that kind
50:21
of stuff I'm assuming you're probably I might be wrong maybe let's go there briefly for a minute
50:27
keep an eye on the clock but what is your briefly your you met an agent by way of whatever means
50:34
class or whatever you're in front of them one-on-one via zoomer in person how do you move them or
50:39
attempt to move them forward so towards the end it's and again naturalize it I've really enjoyed
50:47
our time together Jeff I think we really hit it off would you have any reservations about
50:52
sending me your next buyer client so we can see if this goes anywhere together that's the tie down
50:57
that's me leaning in for a kiss and you're either going to accept it or reject it right and we'll
51:02
see where it goes because they could say no I I'm you know I'm committed or whatever excuse and
51:07
now you know where you're staying but what you don't want to do is you want to don't want to leave
51:11
that meeting and and not and think you're in a relationship you've just been friends on it and
51:17
you don't even know it hmm so you've got to ask essentially the tie down question to find out
51:21
where you stand and I will tell you for a high-eye dis profile that is harder for me to do than
51:28
someone that's got a high D because they'll just come right and say it yeah so it you just have
51:34
to overcome your ask reluctance so to I think to to David says he likes big ask yeah big ask
51:44
big ask that's true and reminds me Jeremy for say as well I think he says or would you be open
51:50
to sending me your next two buyers oh yeah you may know his response when they're like well why too
51:55
he's like well because anybody can get lucky once right but I really want a chance to opportunity
52:00
to really demonstrate my right process for you and all that kind of just pretty smart
52:04
I love Jeremy and he's right too because if you ask for one they're going to give you like the 500
52:10
credit score your professional turd polisher at that point so it is it's easier if it's a cleaner file
52:22
so that's last week again I had a meeting with an agent it was a Google referral that the client found
52:30
me and so I had never met the agent before we wowed the agent he referred me to other people
52:36
during the contract because in my area yeah so two CCRs during the during the contract
52:46
the both of them were new construction I run into that a lot in the Dallas-Fort Worth area yeah
52:52
so I've got a whole process built around trying to beat the builders lender and I took a look at it
52:57
one I ended up beating the builder down by a half a percent and saved the veteran $5,500
53:06
and and so but he ended up staying with the builder because we were a little neck and neck
53:10
and he was you know less than three weeks from closing but he gave me a review I didn't even get his
53:16
loan but I got a review he raved about me to his agent and his agent said he'd never had a client
53:23
rave about a lender before much less one they didn't use and then he promised me his interest rate
53:28
reduction refinance when rates cooperate wow so then the other guy the builder was giving them
53:34
such a good deal I couldn't touch it and I told him this much yeah so he wanted to meet he had a
53:40
problem with the file over the weekend with another client high net worth individual and again
53:46
mortgage broker had a product that was non-QM that fit his needs and we locked him in yesterday
53:51
all of that from Google because it wouldn't happen without the the Google tie down
53:57
another compelling reason why to build up your Google presence exactly it's watching
54:01
you know it's the long game and they are watching just because they don't comment or engage they
54:06
are watching over and over and over again 100 percent well look at man we this this hour burned
54:13
by really really fast we could probably go another hour so I'm probably going to have you back
54:17
in the near future but for those who want to connect with you what would be the best place to
54:20
direct the eyeballs so my Instagram handle I put a lot of effort into that at winning with Wade
54:27
and my website is winningwithway.com so hit me up you can find me don't be a secret agent so if
54:33
someone's trying to go with you make sure they can reach you okay yeah absolutely thank you so
54:39
much Wade for making time for your busy schedule man I learned a lot and so once again appreciate
54:44
your being here you're welcome thanks for having me all right listeners you know what to do if you
54:48
like this episode and I'm confident you did please leave us a review or share this with somebody else
54:52
do them the favor of helping educate them as well and we'll see on the next one bye for now
54:57
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