Latest / Mortgage Marketing Radio / Ep #25: The One Thing Every Successful Business Has in Common
Transcript
- 0:00In today's highly competitive mortgage industry, building profitable relationships with
- 0:04the real estate agents is essential for success.
- 0:06However, finding effective ways to secure agent relationships can be a challenge.
- 0:11With so many mortgage loan originators vying for the attention of real estate agents, it
- 0:15can be difficult to stand out and establish meaningful connections.
- 0:20Our new case study featuring loan officer Chris Cogill is a must-read.
- 0:25Chris has closed a remarkable 36 million in funded loans from agent referrals.
- 0:31And in this case study, he shares his proven strategies for building strong relationships
- 0:34with real estate agents and leveraging those relationships to drive more business.
- 0:39To get your hands on this resource, head over to LOKestudy.com and download your free copy
- 0:45of the case study today.
- 0:47You'll find actionable insights and practical tips that Chris used to close 36 million
- 0:52in funded loans from agent referrals and how you can too.
- 0:56Don't miss out.
- 0:57Go check it out right now, visit LOKestudy.com and download your free copy today.
- 1:17Hey, loyal listeners, Jeff Zimper, welcome to Episode 25 of Mortgage Marketing Radio.
- 1:42Wow, 25 episodes.
- 1:43Hey, if you've been with me for some time, I want to thank you for listening.
- 1:47If you're liking what you're hearing on the podcasts, would you do me a favor?
- 1:51Take a moment and just cruise on over to iTunes and leave us a review, download episodes
- 1:57on Stitcher if you're on an Android.
- 2:00Maybe leave a comment here if you're listening on the blog.
- 2:03But just I'd love to get your feedback on how you're liking these podcasts so far in
- 2:07any upcoming special guests or requests that you might have.
- 2:11So this week, it's a little bit different.
- 2:12It's just you and me.
- 2:14We're getting personal here.
- 2:16And what are we talking about?
- 2:17We're talking about the number one thing that all successful businesses have in place.
- 2:25You want to know what it is?
- 2:27It's this.
- 2:28It's a predictable sales system.
- 2:32That's right.
- 2:33A predictable sales system that provides for you a level of certainty for your business,
- 2:39for your income.
- 2:40A level of peace of mind because you're not stuck on the treadmill.
- 2:48You're not on the roller coaster of loan production and hey, where's my next deal coming
- 2:52from?
- 2:53A predictable system is, if you look at an analyzed businesses and I've done this through
- 2:59a variety of different methods, one of the best is if you haven't read yet, I suggest
- 3:03you check out the series of the e-nith books by Michael Gerber and we'll actually come
- 3:07back to him a little bit later in today's podcast, but every successful business that
- 3:12has sustainability longevity has a predictable sales system.
- 3:19Because unless you have a predictable system, you fall short of your production and income
- 3:23goals.
- 3:24Why?
- 3:25Because if you want to grow your income, and by the way, if you're listening right now,
- 3:27let me ask you that question.
- 3:28Do you want to grow your income?
- 3:31Now if we were in a room and you know, I'd say, hey, how many here want to make more money?
- 3:35Raise your hand.
- 3:36Yeah.
- 3:37Great.
- 3:38A lot of people want to make more money, right?
- 3:40But a lot of people want to lose weight, too.
- 3:43They want to quit smoking, right?
- 3:44They want to be a better spouse, want to be a better parent.
- 3:48But what most people miss and lack in getting to that goal is a predictable system or series
- 3:54of habits of patterns or behaviors that are going to allow them to change the current
- 3:59state to get to the future state.
- 4:01Does this making sense?
- 4:02Great.
- 4:03If you want to grow your income, right, by whatever it is, 10k, 50k, 100k, it doesn't happen
- 4:09by accident, right?
- 4:10And in the mortgage business, basically you grow your loan volume by three ways.
- 4:16That's simple.
- 4:17Three ways to grow your business, right?
- 4:19One, close more new loans, right?
- 4:21These are new clients versus past clients.
- 4:24That'd be number one.
- 4:25Simply close more loans.
- 4:26Number two, close more repeat loans.
- 4:28So past clients, right?
- 4:31And then lastly is increase your average loan amount.
- 4:33So do higher average loan amounts, increase your average size, commission and bonus.
- 4:39Does this make sense?
- 4:40Great.
- 4:41So notice when talking about a system, I'm emphasizing predictable a lot, right?
- 4:47And there's a reason.
- 4:48And that's because to predict the future of your sales, you've got to have some kind
- 4:52of repeatable system in place so you can measure the results.
- 4:56Because if your system for generating businesses completely random and not consistent, well,
- 5:01there's no way you can actually analyze the data, look at the past performance to gauge
- 5:06future results.
- 5:07And this is what we're talking about is achieving predictability in your business.
- 5:11So you can have that level of certainty of monthly production, annual income goals.
- 5:16Are you with me?
- 5:17So let's break this down.
- 5:18Let's take a look at the numbers.
- 5:20If you're able to generate, let's say, just five new loan referrals every single week.
- 5:26So that's in addition to your current quantity of referrals in business.
- 5:31So this is five brand new loan referrals per week.
- 5:34And let's say your closing ratio is 20%.
- 5:36So of five new referrals per week, you're closing 20% of them into actual closed funded loans.
- 5:42So what's the quick math on that, right?
- 5:44Five referrals per week times four weeks equals 20 referrals per month.
- 5:50Twenty referrals per month times 12 months, right, is 240 referrals per year.
- 5:57Like a 20% closed rate or conversion rate on that and that equals 48 additional loans
- 6:01per year or four additional loans per month.
- 6:04So all this breaks out to those five extra referrals per week nets you for additional
- 6:11closed loans per month.
- 6:13So if you close just an additional four loans per month, what would that mean to you in
- 6:16additional monthly income?
- 6:18I mean, if we average the commission you're going to make on those four loans, let's say
- 6:22it's $4,000.
- 6:24So an extra $4,000 off those four loans per month, that's an extra $48,000 per year.
- 6:30Now you're probably making more than $1,000 per loan.
- 6:32So $1,000 per loan is quite conservative, I think.
- 6:36So let's play with the numbers a little bit and this gets pretty exciting.
- 6:39So if you're averaging let's say $1,500 per loan, that's an extra six grand each month
- 6:44or an additional $72,000 a year in your income.
- 6:48Now if you're listening right now and I offered you a raise of $72,000 per year, would
- 6:53you want it?
- 6:54Would you take it?
- 6:55Yeah, that's a pretty good jump, right, to your income.
- 6:58Not many places you can go and get an immediate bump in your salary from which you're currently
- 7:04making to an extra $72,000 per year, right?
- 7:08Now you're closing ratio, remember, you were using a 20% close ratio on those extra four
- 7:14loans per month.
- 7:15So but you're closing ratios, I'm guessing probably better than that.
- 7:18So let's extrapolate this out a little bit further.
- 7:21Let's really get excited about this.
- 7:23Let's double the closing ratio, remember we haven't changed the amount of loans, right?
- 7:27It's still 20 referrals per week and so now let's double the closing ratio from 20% to
- 7:3440%.
- 7:36So 240 referrals per year times a 40% close rate, that equals 96 additional loans per year
- 7:43or 8 additional loans per month.
- 7:46If you're making 1500 per loan times 8 additional loans, that's $12,000 or $144,000 extra
- 7:58per year.
- 8:00So you can see how the math adds up real quick, right?
- 8:02And this is again, right, just taking some, I think are pretty conservative conversion
- 8:06numbers in closing referrals.
- 8:09So we looked at 20%, we looked at 40%.
- 8:11So at 1500 per loan to grow your income by 72,000, all you need to do is close an additional
- 8:18four loans per month with just a 20% conversion ratio.
- 8:24Does that seem doable to you?
- 8:26So knowing your numbers, here's where the numbers become really important.
- 8:30This is why it's very important to know what your numbers are, meaning how many loans
- 8:35earn your pipeline every month, what's the source of those, what your closing conversion
- 8:38ratios on those, because once you know your numbers, you can predict the future.
- 8:44And you can identify the areas of your sales process, your sales system, right, of making
- 8:49slight adjustments to that, you can then begin to see what the future looks like for you
- 8:55in terms of production and income.
- 8:58But the problem is most of the loan officers who contact me do so because they do not have
- 9:03a predictable sales system in place.
- 9:07And what's the main bottleneck for them?
- 9:09They don't know how to get qualified referrals on a consistent basis.
- 9:14They make phone calls, they fire off random emails, they go on meetings with agents who
- 9:18never convert and they travel around trying to get into offices, get agent meetings, attend
- 9:22networking events, they're frustrated and they're tired.
- 9:25Can you relate?
- 9:26Yeah.
- 9:27Ultimately they can't get the meetings and appointments and referrals that they need.
- 9:33Here's the thing, in talking about getting referrals, normally we think about real estate
- 9:37agents and that's definitely still a prime source of business.
- 9:40It's what I refer to in my book, instant referrals from mortgage professionals.
- 9:44It's what I call an oil well.
- 9:46An oil well is something that once discovered and tapped, it continues to produce an ongoing
- 9:51source of business and referrals for you.
- 9:53That's what a real estate agent is if done correctly.
- 9:56So the problem that is not that getting referrals from agents doesn't work, it works.
- 10:02We know it works, it's worked for decades.
- 10:06The problem is when a loan officer has a random or unpredictable process for attracting,
- 10:13capturing, converting real estate agents to referral partners, when it's completely
- 10:17random, there's no consistency.
- 10:21So naturally you can't achieve any predictability in your income if your actions are completely
- 10:25random.
- 10:26Does this make sense?
- 10:29So Michael Gerber, have you read the series of books called The Emeth Why Most Small
- 10:33Businesses Fail and what to do about it?
- 10:37If you haven't, I suggest you check it out, especially the book in particular The Emeth
- 10:41Revisited.
- 10:42So if you haven't read that, check it out, download it, Kindle it, whatever you need to do,
- 10:46get the audio book, some phenomenal lessons in there from Michael Gerber.
- 10:50And Michael Gerber, by the way, has studied tens of thousands of businesses.
- 10:55I actually did a little bit of Michael Gerber work with Michael back in the day in the
- 10:59seminar business and got a chance to have lunch with him a number of times and pick his
- 11:03brain a little bit.
- 11:04And it's interesting, Michael, if you read the book or get a chance to attend any of his
- 11:09events, watch some of his stuff on YouTube or whatnot, Michael says that a business has
- 11:14three core functions.
- 11:16And these core functions are this, lead generation, lead conversion, and client fulfillment.
- 11:23So whether the business is McDonald's or Starbucks or FedEx or the brand called you,
- 11:29by the way, the brand called you, you are a business within a business as a loan officer.
- 11:36So the three systems that are critical to the success of any company is client attraction,
- 11:43client conversion, and client fulfillment, three key things.
- 11:47And so what he's talking about there is the system is the solution.
- 11:50So you think about any successful company that's had longevity and great successes, they
- 11:56have a system.
- 11:57System McDonald's, they've got a system for attracting you, for getting you in the restaurant
- 12:02for upselling your Starbucks, the same FedEx, the same, they all have a system.
- 12:07How many of you know this to be true, say yes, great.
- 12:11So the system can be the difference between success and failure in your business.
- 12:16The system can be the difference between having fun and enjoying your business or struggling,
- 12:22barely eating out of living and just getting completely frustrated, worn out, tired, and questioning
- 12:28your decision.
- 12:30And I know this to be very true for myself because when I started as a loan officer at
- 12:35country ride back in 2003, I actually had spent some time at a small brokerage shop that
- 12:40bought leads, internet leads, it was a sub-prime shop, and that was a whole different experience.
- 12:45So bottom line is I switched out of there and went over to country ride in 2003.
- 12:50So my story was, hey, I started a country ride, I got my business cards and I was excited
- 12:55to get started.
- 12:56I was like, yeah, I finally had a big company, big name, I can stand behind and I'm just
- 13:00going to set the world on fire, right?
- 13:02I was ignorance on fire as a matter of fact.
- 13:05And my training program, maybe you can relate to this, my training program consisted of, hey,
- 13:09here's your business cards, good luck, hit the bricks pal, go originate some loans.
- 13:15And you relate, was that similar to your training program?
- 13:18Yeah, I had no system, very had no system.
- 13:22So what did I do?
- 13:23I tried to be everywhere, right, chasing down agents, chasing deals, having zero predictability
- 13:29in my production and income, having zero process, right, it didn't go well.
- 13:34I was brand new, I had virtually no agent relationships and after a year I had little
- 13:38success to show for it.
- 13:41And so if you can picture this, right, here I am and maybe you've been here at one time
- 13:44or another in your life, all the pressure is on me for the income for making the money.
- 13:48My wife said home with our newborn son, we had expenses piling up, you know, a mortgage,
- 13:54brand new baby, car payments, food, you know, the usual deal, right?
- 13:58And so we had to take out a HELOC on our house to cover our expenses and real quickly became
- 14:04very stressful.
- 14:06And you know, one day I just woke up and I realized that I've got to make a change.
- 14:10I mean, I had to change something fast.
- 14:13My current process, if you could call it one, which was basically playing whack a mole,
- 14:19trying to hammer down everything that popped up on my radar, I had to change my process.
- 14:23And I realized I just said to myself, literally one day I said, I, if I'm going to get referrals
- 14:28from real estate agents, because that is definitely a core pillar of my business.
- 14:32If I've got to get referrals from real estate agents, I have to get in front of as many
- 14:37agents as possible as quickly as I can to build my referral base of real estate agents.
- 14:43So I decided to try something I hadn't tried yet.
- 14:46I decided to host a class for real estate agents.
- 14:49Now mind you, I had a lot of experience in doing seminars, workshops, teaching classes.
- 14:55As you may or may not know, right?
- 14:57I started my career basically in sales 25 years ago, working for Tony Robbins, doing 90
- 15:04minute workshops across the country in front of all kinds of different salespeople flying
- 15:08into a city and living in that city for two months at a time.
- 15:12And I would every single day go out and present right two or three times a day through offices
- 15:18of real estate, auto dealers, insurance, financial planners, network marketing, you know, you
- 15:24name it.
- 15:25And so one of the things I discovered was there's a certain, there's what's called the
- 15:30law of large numbers where if you're looking to, quote, fill a room, if you're looking
- 15:34to get in front of the mass, the, the maximum amount of people in minimum time, well, can
- 15:40you get there more quickly by doing it in group versus one on one?
- 15:45Answer obvious?
- 15:46Yes.
- 15:47So I decided to host a class for agents.
- 15:49Now, some of you listening may say, hey, hosting classes for agents isn't that groundbreaking
- 15:54Jeff?
- 15:55And I agree it's not.
- 15:56And no one in my office or my area was teaching agent classes for me to learn from.
- 16:00And so remember, I started as a loan officer with no experience, no training program,
- 16:04no nothing.
- 16:05So what am I trying to do?
- 16:06I'm trying to look around and see, hey, what are other successful loan officers doing?
- 16:10And by and large, they were pretty much were doing the same thing.
- 16:13Of course, you know, some loan officers, you know, had a specialty in the teachers loans
- 16:17back then.
- 16:18And then others had special niche programs that they were working back when we had niche
- 16:21programs, right?
- 16:23And so they were kind of doing their own unique things or they'd already been in the business
- 16:2615, 20 years and they had a great database that they were working or it already spent
- 16:3010 years building up their agent relationships.
- 16:32Well, I didn't have 10 years.
- 16:34I had a baby in a home equity line of credit at home.
- 16:37I needed to make it, make sure it happened fast, you know?
- 16:41So it just dawned on me one day, I said, well, okay, I've been doing the open houses,
- 16:47the broker previews, the coal colony, the usual stuff.
- 16:50And I said, well, what if I hosted an agent, a class for agents and try and make an impact
- 16:54that way, right?
- 16:55I'm looking to make a big splash in my area because I wanted to become what?
- 16:58Well, known, right?
- 16:59I wanted to become known in my little circle of agents and become the go to lender.
- 17:05And I wanted to do it quickly.
- 17:07So I hosted my first agent class and I had a guest speaker, his name is Walter Stanford.
- 17:11He was a very successful agent in my area in Long Beach, California and he was a successful
- 17:17agent turned coach.
- 17:18So this guy when I see a successful agent, he was a phenomenally successful agent.
- 17:23He sold a house a day every day for almost 16 years straight.
- 17:28And so he became very sought after as a trainer speaker coach.
- 17:31He just happened to live an hour from me, right?
- 17:34So I invited Walter in, we worked out a deal, I hosted my first class.
- 17:38We had about 30 agents at this class.
- 17:40And he wanted to know what's great about teaching agent classes.
- 17:44All of a sudden, there's a reversal of power, right?
- 17:49You are now in the power position.
- 17:52You've positioned yourself as a go-giver versus a go-taker.
- 17:57You're not asking for loans, you're not chasing agents down, right?
- 18:01You're not pandering, you're not talking about rates and things like that and how fast
- 18:07we close and 10 day close and things like that, which is all fine and dandy.
- 18:13There's something magical actually that happens when you're in front of the room and
- 18:18you're hosting and or teaching an agent class.
- 18:20It's what I call reverse prospecting.
- 18:22So first of all, number one, instead of you chasing agents, agents are now coming to you.
- 18:27I mean, think about it, right?
- 18:28You have a captive audience.
- 18:30You've built a rapport with this audience of real estate agents.
- 18:34You're exchanging value.
- 18:36You're setting the stage, actually, that is your platform.
- 18:41You're first meeting with a group of 20, 30 agents.
- 18:45That's your first qualifying meeting.
- 18:47So instead of doing these ones, he twos the agents, hey, let's grab coffee, grab lunch,
- 18:51chasing them down, having them do no shows for the coffee appointments, now you've got a
- 18:55captive audience focused on you, delivering a valuable message, sharing content with
- 19:02them that's making a difference and the positioning that happens with at the exchange of emotion
- 19:08and reciprocation that takes place is something that's powerful and cannot be duplicated from
- 19:14on any other medium, not online through social media, not on video, as great as those things
- 19:20are, nothing will replace the power of in person face to face eye to eye because the elements
- 19:28that go into building rapport, building trust and like ability, the bulk of what makes
- 19:36that happen cannot be achieved without a face to face engagement.
- 19:40That means belly to belly, not online, you know, face to face is where it's at.
- 19:47Is this making sense, right?
- 19:48So you have a captive audience.
- 19:50You build instant rapport, you're exchanging value and you set the stage for converting
- 19:54some of the agents to attend into referral partners right there.
- 19:58Matter of fact, some agents give you by referrals right there on the spot before you're even
- 20:03done with your class.
- 20:05Now that's fun.
- 20:07And when I started to realize that and that started happening for me, I got addicted.
- 20:13I got committed real fast because I was serious about changing my sales process from a bunch
- 20:19of random actions to a predictable and repeatable system.
- 20:23I don't know about you, but I like it when the phone rings and I get referrals from real
- 20:27estate agents every single week.
- 20:30That makes business fun.
- 20:33That removes the uncertainty and the doubt and the fear about where's my next loan coming
- 20:38from.
- 20:39Am I going to meet my monthly income goals, right?
- 20:43So we're talking about moving from random and chaotic and unknown and uncertainty to
- 20:51a proven and predictable system for generating a steady stream of referrals from real estate
- 20:55agents.
- 20:56And that is teaching agent classes.
- 20:59Yep.
- 21:00That's it.
- 21:02Not brand new, not sexy, not shiny, not the latest gizmo whizz bang, no.
- 21:07It's fundamentals, block and tackle teaching agent classes.
- 21:12It works because the income, the impact to your production and income can be 100% predictable.
- 21:20Now why do I say it can be 100% predictable?
- 21:23Because remember earlier, I talked about the numbers, right?
- 21:26Numbers don't lie.
- 21:27And if you've got a system in a process, you can know what your numbers are.
- 21:30You can have predictability about the outcome.
- 21:32If you follow a proven system, it simply becomes a numbers game.
- 21:38And once you understand that, the pressure's off.
- 21:42It becomes fun.
- 21:43It's exciting because you know every time you teach an agent class, you're putting your
- 21:48machine to work.
- 21:50You're putting numbers, the law of large numbers in your favor and you're putting agents
- 21:54in the top of your funnel into your system and process to know that outside at the bottom
- 21:59of that funnel are going to come a certain amount of actual referral partners.
- 22:08Put them in at the top, a certain number come out the bottom.
- 22:10Do it over and over and over again and you've got your machine, you've got your process.
- 22:15It becomes pretty much like manufacturing referral partners, right?
- 22:20It is a system in a process.
- 22:21It's really fun and cool.
- 22:23So you know with certainty, you'll reach your origination goals, right?
- 22:26So remember the four extra loans per month example I talked about right, five referrals
- 22:30a week, that's 20 loans a month, times a 20% close ratio, that's four extra loans per
- 22:37month, right?
- 22:38Well, I can tell you from experience that getting an extra four loans per month happens
- 22:43a lot faster when you're in front of 20 or 30 agents every single month.
- 22:49It's a lot faster simply because the law of large numbers get in front of more people,
- 22:54put them into a process for capturing, converting, building, and nurturing trust.
- 22:58You're going to get through your goals that much faster than one Z, two Z, right?
- 23:02So here's the other thing, you already know the teaching agent classes is a staple of
- 23:06most top producing originators.
- 23:07You're going to have thought yourself there's a good reason why that is, right?
- 23:12What's the reason why a lot of top producers you read the interviews and listen to them
- 23:16talk?
- 23:1780% of them at some point or another make teaching classes a part of their business.
- 23:23Why?
- 23:25Because it works, it works, right?
- 23:31And if it works for them, it can work for you if you understand the process and the system.
- 23:39So without a predictable system, any success I had is a loan officer.
- 23:43So before teaching agent classes, think about it.
- 23:45If I had success, if I stumbled across a realtor and they fogged a mirror, hey, you're
- 23:50good enough for me, you qualify, and I got a referral from them, any success I had was
- 23:55from sheer will and dumb luck.
- 23:57It wasn't because I was being intelligent or applying a proven predictable system, right?
- 24:02And here's the thing, sheer will, effort, that may work in the short term, right?
- 24:07Just get out there and put in the hours and make it happen and be everywhere, man.
- 24:11Well, that may get some results in the short term, but in the long term, it's not going
- 24:16to work, okay?
- 24:18It wasn't until I started teaching agent classes that I quickly achieved predictability
- 24:21in my production volume.
- 24:23The decision I made to teach agent classes made a dramatic impact on how many referrals
- 24:28I would be getting from agents every single month.
- 24:30In fact, so much so that I went from zero to 37 million enclosed loans in my second year,
- 24:40starting from ground zero, okay?
- 24:42Now, I know 37 million may not seem like a lot to some of you, but hey, 37 million in
- 24:47production in terms of income starting from zero, that became pretty exciting for me.
- 24:53And especially, besides the added money, right, the thing I treasured most was the amount
- 24:57of free time, less stress, and certainty that I had in my loan origination process.
- 25:04Instead of constantly scrambling to get deals and hoping that the one loan wouldn't fall
- 25:10out, I had dozens of deals in my pipeline.
- 25:12I had multiple agents lined up for me, meetings with them, that is, every single month, without
- 25:19having to do call calls, right, and without chasing agents, I was now in the power position,
- 25:24and I could be very selective in choosing the agents that I want to work with.
- 25:30How does that sound to you, right?
- 25:32How many of you want that?
- 25:33Wherever you're listening right now, give me a big shout out, say yes, I want that, right?
- 25:38So when I started with agent classes, initially, yeah, I had a guest speaker, but soon after,
- 25:44I started teaching topics myself, because that only strengthened my position as a unique
- 25:49and as being a thought leader.
- 25:51And that becomes really powerful when you can begin to do that, because now, again, remember,
- 25:55it's the brand called you, you're building the likability and the trust factor, you're
- 26:00positioning yourself as a thought leader in your local community.
- 26:03So if you're listening to this right now, you may be thinking to yourself that teaching
- 26:07agent classes isn't new or sexy, and you know what, you're right, maybe you're more interested,
- 26:12here's the thing, I'm more interested in what works than what the masses are doing, aren't
- 26:17you?
- 26:18I'm more interested in what's going to give me predictability in my business, is it going
- 26:22to be getting in front of as many agents as possible and adding value and having a process
- 26:26for converting them?
- 26:27That's going to be my road to success, or is it going to be some bright, shiny object
- 26:31because it's social media, is it what not?
- 26:33Not as I said earlier, right?
- 26:34All those different things are tools and tactics and they have their place, okay?
- 26:39But here's the bottom line, teaching agent classes works very well.
- 26:43Why does it work so well?
- 26:44Because the bottom line, the building agent relationships is, it cannot be done online.
- 26:48At some point, you've got to get face to face.
- 26:51Hey, listen, you didn't marry your spouse without meeting him first and you're not going
- 26:55to build a predictable stream of agent referrals if you never get off the bench and into the
- 26:59game in your local market, right?
- 27:02So most loan officers agree that teaching agent classes produces results, yeah, whether
- 27:06you're teaching CE classes or not, that's not the real question.
- 27:10The real question is, do you have a predictable system for attracting, capturing and converting
- 27:14agents to referral partners?
- 27:16See having 10 or 20 agents attend your class is what we call putting agents in the top
- 27:21of the funnel in marketing, right?
- 27:23Well, agents are showing up to your class because they want to hear what you have to say.
- 27:29They're already tenderized and warmed up and ready and more willing to be working with
- 27:35you.
- 27:36A hundred percent of the agents will show up now.
- 27:39But if you, every class you held, if you had 20 agents in that class and if at the end
- 27:43of that class, you were able to convert, let's just say, 20% of those agents to referral
- 27:47partners for agents every time you did a class became referral partners.
- 27:52And let's say every week, four of those agents sent you one loan referral per week.
- 27:59Look at the math.
- 28:00We're almost at the exact same numbers we talked about earlier, four extra loan referrals
- 28:06per week, right, times four weeks, that's 16 extra referrals per week, right?
- 28:10Do the math.
- 28:12Now all of a sudden, you can see that quantum leap in your income that we talked about
- 28:16earlier, right?
- 28:17Adding an extra 50, 75, 120 K to your income per year.
- 28:22It's simple math.
- 28:23It comes down to simply how many agents are you going to get in front of and how fast?
- 28:27Is this making sense?
- 28:29Okay.
- 28:30So I have a question for you.
- 28:33If you knew capturing and converting agents is a numbers game, would you rather sift and
- 28:36sort agents onesy-tuzzy or in small group?
- 28:40See another reason teaching agent classes make sense is because, as I've said earlier,
- 28:44the law of large numbers, I've noted it in my book, instant referrals for mortgage professionals,
- 28:48you may have to kiss a lot of toads to find your prints, right?
- 28:51We all know this.
- 28:52You may have to go through quantity of agents to find the quality agents, right?
- 28:57And again, in other words, it takes time to build profitable agent relationships.
- 29:01You can speed up your results by teaching agent classes because you're multiplying the
- 29:05return on your efforts when you're meeting with 20 agents at a time versus just one.
- 29:10Does this make sense?
- 29:12So another great example of this story I can share with you is Shishank Shikar, who's
- 29:16a podcast interview I did.
- 29:19If you haven't listened to it, go back to the podcast page at Morgan & Marketing Institute
- 29:22and look for Shishank Shikar, right?
- 29:25So Shishank tells his story about how he came over from India with no relationships barely
- 29:30spoke the language, had very little money in his pocket, then he had to figure out a way
- 29:34just like me to get started fast.
- 29:37And he was trying to go out and meet agents at broker-previews and networking parties and
- 29:40all that kind of stuff.
- 29:41You know, he's just one day asked himself, these agents are going to give me a referral.
- 29:45They don't even know me.
- 29:47So he did the exact same thing that I did.
- 29:50And I didn't even know this until I actually interviewed Shishank for the podcast.
- 29:54He actually got a local top producing real estate agent who was willing to host a series of
- 29:59classes on how to be a successful agent and share her secrets and what she has done
- 30:03in her business.
- 30:04And she was a well-known agent and had already, you know, kind of maybe written a book
- 30:08or something like that, but the bottom line is he started teaching agent classes.
- 30:12And he got started, of course, with the guest speaker and then he eventually started
- 30:15doing his own and he became the teacher.
- 30:16But I can tell you if you listen to that podcast, what Shishank tells us is that that one
- 30:21thing teaching agent classes was the biggest catalyst to changing his business.
- 30:27And today, Shishank has listed in the top 200 originators in the country on the Scotsman
- 30:31Sky and it produces over a hundred million in annual loan production volume.
- 30:37And still does classes, agent classes to this day.
- 30:41And again, like I said earlier, why do top producers do it?
- 30:44Because it works.
- 30:47Makes sense?
- 30:48Okay.
- 30:49I get excited about this.
- 30:50Whatever I talk about agent classes because I believe in it so much, I've experienced
- 30:54it firsthand and so many other loan officers have as well.
- 30:57So hopefully by now you're realizing the benefits of teaching agent classes, right?
- 31:01That's pretty obvious.
- 31:03So do you know the number one reason that most mortgage originators don't get started in
- 31:08teaching agent classes?
- 31:11They don't know what to present other than mortgage market updates and mortgage related
- 31:17info.
- 31:18By the way, mortgage content is okay, right?
- 31:22It's maybe a place to start.
- 31:24But if you really want to position yourself as unique and as a thought leader, the mortgage
- 31:27info won't cut it alone.
- 31:30Why?
- 31:31Because they can get that info from any other loan officer in town.
- 31:36I mean, with teaching agent classes, you can cover a wide range of topics that are important
- 31:40to agents.
- 31:41Yes, some E-C-E classes, but don't get whole hung up on C-E classes.
- 31:47Depending on where you're at in the state, there's a lot of hoops to jump through on C-E classes,
- 31:50right?
- 31:51It's very rigid and formatted in how you're going to structure and give the classes and
- 31:54you've got to, right?
- 31:55Like to take role and who's going to handle payments and make sure people check in so they
- 32:01get approved for their credits.
- 32:03There's certain value to doing C-E.
- 32:05It's definitely a part of what you may want to consider.
- 32:07But again, it's not enough because the content, usually for C-E classes, is quite narrow
- 32:13and limited on mortgage financing, for example, right?
- 32:16So topics like business planning, goal setting, social media, digital marketing, credit restoration,
- 32:22global apps, video marketing is so much more, you've got a whole world of possibilities.
- 32:28I'm content that you can be teaching and sharing with real estate agents.
- 32:33So here's an idea.
- 32:34Think about this.
- 32:35Imagine for a moment you became more than just another loan officer for your local agents.
- 32:40What if you positioned yourself as a thought leader by educating agents on topics that they're
- 32:45already hungry to learn about?
- 32:48You see, what happens is now you're building your local platform.
- 32:51You're rising above the sea of sameness.
- 32:54You're no longer seen as just a loan officer.
- 32:58My experience, personally, and interviewing top producing loan officers has proven that
- 33:03the reason most loan originators struggle to capture and convert agents is because they
- 33:08don't have a what, a predictable what?
- 33:11Yeah, a predictable system that generates the number of agents they need to get the quantity
- 33:18of referrals that they need every single month.
- 33:21It's simple math.
- 33:23Get more quality agents equals more quality referrals and loans in your pipeline.
- 33:28The question is, what method are you going to choose to get there?
- 33:32The slow, painful death of cold calls and chasing agents, which puts you in the box of every
- 33:37other loan officer in town, or will you choose reverse prospecting and get agents coming
- 33:43to you in your classes?
- 33:46The first approach gives the power to the agents and puts you at a disadvantage, cold
- 33:52calling, chasing, pandering, hey, just give me a chance, give me your worst loan.
- 33:56The second approach, teaching agent classes, puts you in the power position and gives you
- 34:03the advantage.
- 34:04Does this make sense?
- 34:05Are you with me?
- 34:07Go on.
- 34:08Say yes.
- 34:09I'm listening right now.
- 34:10I can hear you even though we're on a podcast.
- 34:11Yes.
- 34:12Yes.
- 34:13Okay.
- 34:14So, back to the number one reason most loan officers, I speak with a reluctant to get
- 34:18started with the classes or maybe they're not consistent, maybe you've taught an agent
- 34:22class in the past, but you haven't been consistent with it.
- 34:24The biggest reason most don't stick with it is they don't have the content.
- 34:30They don't know what to present, share, teach, they don't have the power points, the notes,
- 34:35the handouts, they don't have the entire system in a box, they don't have time to do the
- 34:40research on the relevant topics and put it together in a very professional way.
- 34:46Most loan officers are too busy to research and prepare a quality presentation for agents,
- 34:50and they're unfamiliar with perhaps how to effectively promote and fill the class.
- 34:54Is that you?
- 34:56Are you in a situation similar to that?
- 34:59Would you want to teach agent classes, but that's potentially one of the biggest roadblocks
- 35:03for you?
- 35:04Well, if so, hang on for a second and come on a journey with me.
- 35:09If you had someone on your team who did the research on the topics most relevant to agents,
- 35:14imagine that person designing a quality professional PowerPoint presentation for you and includes
- 35:20notes.
- 35:21It includes a script and handouts and marketing flyers and you got coached on presenting
- 35:26if that's what you wanted and even help on how to promote your classes and recruit
- 35:31co-sponsors.
- 35:32So essentially all the heavy lifting is done for you.
- 35:35You get to be the hero just by showing up, teaching the class, putting agents through
- 35:40a proven predictable system that gets you loan referrals every time you do a class
- 35:44and long after that class is over.
- 35:48So by teaching agent classes, you truly have a predictable system for generating high
- 35:52quality agentships, relationships, and referrals.
- 35:56So once you implement the system and you understand your numbers, the future looks bright.
- 36:01So bright, you got to wear shades and you're actually having fun.
- 36:04There I say that, working with agents, imagine enjoying, working with agents.
- 36:08Yes, it can be fun when you have predictability and certainty and when you're able to be
- 36:14in control and be selective in which agents you choose to work with or not.
- 36:19Makes sense?
- 36:21So where does that leave us?
- 36:23Well, you may know that for years I've been helping loan officers across the US teach
- 36:27agent classes on a variety of topics.
- 36:30Most of my work up until now has been one-on-one or in very small groups on a limited basis.
- 36:36I've had many students do one class with me and they got such good results.
- 36:40They wanted to continue doing more classes either monthly or every other month, for example.
- 36:45And what I would do is I would do the research on a topic.
- 36:47I'd design the PowerPoint, the handouts, the marketing flyers, the website and the emails,
- 36:51give them a presentation coaching, help them get co-sponsors and more.
- 36:55Sometimes I would even fly in and give the presentation for them.
- 36:59But there's two challenges there.
- 37:00Number one, it's expensive to have me do it all for you.
- 37:03Number two, it doesn't scale well for me.
- 37:06I can only work with a limited number of people in that model.
- 37:12So over the past year, I've been testing out a new platform called My Aging Classes.
- 37:16I've invited just a handful of few select loan officers to participate as beta testers.
- 37:22And essentially, what we created and tested and perfected is a proven process and system
- 37:26to help loan officers teach classes to agents and get predictable results.
- 37:31Meaning, follow the system, you'll get referrals every single time, guaranteed.
- 37:38So it's much like the one-to-one, one-on-one work that I've been doing with loan officers
- 37:42where I do the research on the relevant topics.
- 37:45I design a killer PowerPoint, I give you the notes, the scripts, the handouts, the marketing
- 37:49flyers, and even a video tutorial of the presentation that you can watch and duplicate.
- 37:55And it's all done for you in a box and it's essentially it's a done for you agent class,
- 38:01a complete system.
- 38:02You get everything but me flying out to deliver your presentation.
- 38:06Now, if you still want to hire me to come out and deliver the presentation, let's talk,
- 38:10okay?
- 38:11But, as I said, you need to be in the driver's seat.
- 38:14And this, this My Aging Class, this new platform, this has been in the works for almost
- 38:18this entire year.
- 38:20It's been a true labor of love because if you can't tell by now, I'm passionate about
- 38:24helping you achieve success with agents.
- 38:26And in my humble opinion, there's no better way to attract, capture, and convert agents
- 38:32to referral partners than to consistently teaching agent classes, right?
- 38:37Building an entity, a brand, a platform in your local area.
- 38:41Show me a more effective way for attracting, capturing, and converging, converting real
- 38:45estate agents to referral partners than classes, show me a better way.
- 38:50And I'll do that instead.
- 38:51I challenge you right now.
- 38:52I haven't found one out there.
- 38:54Again, this comes back to knowing that success in sales isn't numbers, right?
- 38:59Once you know your numbers, which is the number of agents you need divided by your conversion
- 39:04rate multiplied by the average number of loan referrals, your production becomes predictable.
- 39:12You'll finally get off the production and income roller coaster, stop chasing agents,
- 39:15agents, and have a real business.
- 39:18Now, if you don't want to work with agents, then clearly this isn't for you.
- 39:22And that's cool, man.
- 39:23There's more than one other way to generate loans, and if agents aren't your deal, then
- 39:28all right, no problem.
- 39:30But if you want consistency in your income, you need a system, no matter what, no matter
- 39:36where you're getting the business from, you need a system.
- 39:39Not a gimmick and not a tactic, but a proven system that fills your funnel, fills your
- 39:44pipeline, generates a stream of loan referrals, loans, right?
- 39:51And in the case of agents, it's got to be, you've got to be in front of agents consistently
- 39:56in front of them, right?
- 39:59People who become referral partners.
- 40:01So if you like what I've shared today and you want to learn more about why teaching
- 40:05agent classes works so well and how you can get started, I'm hosting an informational
- 40:08webinar and you're invited, okay?
- 40:11We've got new content to share with you on this webinar, and we're also opening up enrollment
- 40:15in my agent classes for those who want to get a head start on 2017 and host their first
- 40:20class in January of 2017, if not sooner, and do it with my help.
- 40:26So if you want to learn more, you want to hear more, you want to take it to the next step
- 40:29and understand why teaching agent classes so well, I'm going to be doing an extended training
- 40:34session on this topic.
- 40:36Just click the link below for complete details and RSVP.
- 40:41Just as a thank you, I'll send you my free, ultimate guide to teaching realtor classes.
- 40:47It's basically a short course on how to get started teaching agent classes.
- 40:52If you haven't already got it from the blog, then you need to click the link below, get
- 40:57registered for the webinar, and you get access to it.
- 40:59If you've already downloaded it from my blog, great, awesome, I'd love to hear your comments.
- 41:03So here's the bottom line, RSVP for the webinar training.
- 41:06This will be a training and not just a product pitch, right?
- 41:09It would be an honor for me to share some time together with you because I'm 100% confident
- 41:14that I can help you get more agent referrals faster and easier than you ever have in the
- 41:19past.
- 41:21So RSVP, the link is below.
- 41:24Hope you've enjoyed today's podcast, episode number 25.
- 41:27Please share your comments.
- 41:28If you need to reach out with to me with a personal email, go ahead and send it to info
- 41:33at mortgagemarkinginstitute.com.
- 41:36Otherwise, make sure you're registered for the training.
- 41:38It's limited seating.
- 41:39I'm going to go deeper on agent classes and also talk about a limited enrollment opportunity
- 41:44we have in this new platform called My Aging Classes.
- 41:48So thanks for listening.
- 41:49I enjoy you.
- 41:50I appreciate you and I look forward to seeing you on the upcoming webinar.
- 41:55Take care.
- 41:56Go out and get yourself some business and make it a great day.
- 41:58Bye for now.
- 41:59Thanks for listening to mortgage marketing radio.
- 42:02One more truth in mortgage marketing, get more free training and resources at mortgagemarketinginstitute.com.
- 42:30Let's just face it, agents are still a solid pillar of business and sources of purchase
- 42:34business for you.
- 42:36Well, good news.
- 42:37Our mortgage marketing program membership helps loan officers like you close more loans
- 42:41without the hassle of chasing agents or cold calling.
- 42:44Done for you agent classes, expert training videos, a marketing automation platform that
- 42:49automates the entire process for you, everything you need to build your personal brand in your
- 42:54local market, attract and convert agents into referral partners.
- 42:58Plus, done for you proven marketing materials and plug and play content to make promoting
- 43:03your class, getting agents, butts and seeds, partnering with affiliates, real easy.
- 43:08But that's not all.
- 43:09You'll also get access to our weekly mastermind calls with top L.O.'s authors, speakers and
- 43:15coaches to learn the best strategies to grow your business right now in today's market.
- 43:21And as an extra bonus for limited time, for all new members, you'll get access to a database
- 43:27of 200 agents in your local market that have closed anywhere from eight to 50 transactions
- 43:33in the last 12 months.
- 43:35And we'll provide that list uploaded into our platform for you so you can get off to
- 43:38a fast start in reaching actually productive agents.
- 43:42So what are you waiting for?
- 43:43You can check out more at mortgagemarketing.pro, see more of the success stories there.
- 43:48And if you feel compelled to do so, book a call, we'll have a chat.
- 43:51We'll see if it's a fit.
- 43:53Don't miss out on this opportunity to take your mortgage business to the next level
- 43:56right now.
- 43:57Head over to mortgagemarketing.pro.