Latest / Mortgage Marketing Radio / Ep 156: The Strategy of Preeminence to Gain Trust, Relevancy and Ignite Your Business
Transcript
- 0:00In today's highly competitive mortgage industry, building profitable relationships with
- 0:04real 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
- 0:35with 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.
- 1:18Welcome to Mortgage Marketing Radio.
- 1:19Brought to you by the Mortgage Marketing Institute, your number one source for truth
- 1:24in mortgage marketing.
- 1:25Hey, the stories of what's up.
- 1:28This is Jeff Zinfra.
- 1:29Welcome to another episode of the Mortgage Marketing Radio podcast.
- 1:32So thrilled you tuned in.
- 1:34We got a special one today.
- 1:35I'm going to tell you about that in just a moment before I do.
- 1:37Let me give a quick shout out to one of our podcast listeners who left us a review.
- 1:42And this comes from Rake 11.
- 1:45Rake 11 says, rock and podcast.
- 1:48So I'm new to the lending side of the business.
- 1:50After eight years as a realtor selling over 20 homes per year, I made a change.
- 1:55In many ways, I moved to a whole new state.
- 1:56I'm enjoying the lending side and new challenges.
- 1:59This podcast has been an awesome addition to my morning to get me going, adding ideas
- 2:03perspective and getting me pumped.
- 2:05All right, rock and podcast, Rake 11, thank you so much for leaving that review.
- 2:09We appreciate you.
- 2:10And if you're listening and you haven't left us a review yet, hey, I'd appreciate it.
- 2:13It's always positive feedback to know that we are making a difference for you out there.
- 2:17What do you get when you leave a review?
- 2:18Just like Rake 11, he's going to get himself some podcast swag, a t-shirt, a swag box
- 2:22and stuff.
- 2:23You can get the same for you.
- 2:24By the way, rock and rake 11, please go to my Facebook page, message me, let me know
- 2:30your t-shirt size and size and mailing address and we'll send you off a swag box.
- 2:34And if you want to leave us a review, you can do the same, wherever you're listening
- 2:37to this podcast, iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, go to my Facebook page.
- 2:42We have a podcast page just from podcast listeners that's just search mortgage marketing
- 2:46radio on Facebook, get more resources, access, community in there, all about helping you
- 2:51succeed as an originator in this awesome fun business.
- 2:56Okay, so that being said, I also don't want to overlook that if you are looking to take
- 3:00your business to the next level, you're looking for better, more successful, deeper, more
- 3:04profitable agent referral partnerships, go check out the mortgage marketing.pro membership.
- 3:10That is for originators who want to have more success with agents who want to become a
- 3:15modern originator, originator as well and get access to a bunch of self-paced modules
- 3:19and learnings, Facebook ads, YouTube, Instagram, etc., I put a short video up about that.
- 3:25You can go check it out at mortgagemarketing.pro.
- 3:28Okay, let's get into this week's very special episode and I'm thrilled, honored.
- 3:34You know, there's some time, some moments in one's career, I guess, that stand out as highlights
- 3:39and this is definitely one of them because my special guest today has been a mentor both
- 3:44from afar and directly for some time.
- 3:46There's actually a funny story which I won't go into depth here on this time, this session,
- 3:50but I actually had the privilege of meeting this gentleman in his office roughly 10 years
- 3:57ago or so and just as an incredible human being, but also has achieved some incredible things
- 4:04in his career.
- 4:05Who am I talking about?
- 4:06I'm talking about Mr. Jay Abraham.
- 4:08Jay Abraham is a business expert and icon and let me just read to you a couple of the
- 4:14comments and testimonials.
- 4:15I mean, he's worked with Tony Robbins.
- 4:18He's worked with Damon John.
- 4:20He's worked with FedEx.
- 4:22The New York Times says that Jay is amongst the best entrepreneurial coaches in the country.
- 4:28He has worked with thousands of businesses, hundreds of industries and has a unique perspective
- 4:36on business models, thinking processes, mindsets, strategic approaches to help businesses
- 4:45achieve quantum leaps in their success and income.
- 4:50Jay has generated, I think, the last figures they call Jay the $29 billion man in that
- 4:55through the consulting and work that he's done with organizations over the last several
- 5:00decades that his clients have collectively generated.
- 5:03I think it's about $29 billion in increased revenues collectively by working with Jay.
- 5:10I'm just looking at the list here.
- 5:11One company took from $800 million to $2 billion, so anyway, I think here's the bottom
- 5:17line.
- 5:18Here's what Tony Robbins says that Jay is almost to take any company and uncover a minimum
- 5:23of $10,000 and a maximum of $1 million in windfall profits that the company has just
- 5:27sitting waiting to be harvested.
- 5:29So I wanted to have Jay on to have this conversation about how do we do just that?
- 5:34How do we gain a powerful advantage?
- 5:37How do we uncover and identify unharvested profits and opportunities sitting right under
- 5:44our nose?
- 5:45And oftentimes what it takes is somebody else to point those out for us, and I hope that
- 5:48this conversation with Jay does this today.
- 5:51Jay has spoken at the Mastermind Summit, Stephen Marshall's event in Las Vegas.
- 5:56He's worked in the real estate space.
- 5:58He's got testimonials from pretty much every respected thought leader and business professional
- 6:03under the sun.
- 6:04I'm scrolling him here on his website, they go on and on and on.
- 6:07And we're going to put links to everything in the show notes.
- 6:09By the way, I suggest you check out his book, which was a very influential book for me.
- 6:13It's called Getting Everything You Can Out Of All You've Got.
- 6:16We'll put a link to that in the show notes.
- 6:18Go to his website, Abraham.com.
- 6:21He's got tons of free resources and downloads for you to check out there.
- 6:25I would say just dive in, invest, put anything Jay, Abraham, does on your to listen to
- 6:32read list and you won't be disappointed.
- 6:36And I'm so thrilled to share this conversation with you.
- 6:39And as always, which you'll hear when listening to this conversation is Jay is really, he's
- 6:43a critical thinker, right?
- 6:46So you're not necessarily going to get the, hey, man, I need one idea to get me alone
- 6:50today, right?
- 6:51It's not the quick instant fix because that's short term and that doesn't really produce
- 6:54real change.
- 6:55So this conversation, Jay and I have is very reflective, very strategic in nature versus
- 7:02overly tactical.
- 7:04But I hope there's some discoveries and opportunities for you and application that you will take
- 7:10away from this conversation and start to implement in your business.
- 7:13And I'd love to know your feedback on this episode, email me, podcast at mortgage marketing
- 7:17radio.
- 7:18Love your feedback.
- 7:19Leave us a review as well.
- 7:20Without further ado, let's get into this week's show.
- 7:24Jay bram, welcome to the show.
- 7:26Thank you, Jeff.
- 7:27Pleasure honored to have you here.
- 7:28You know, it's funny and prepping for this.
- 7:29I didn't show you this before, but I busted this copy out.
- 7:33That's one of my favorites.
- 7:35I like that book.
- 7:36It's very, it's very fun read.
- 7:38It is, it is a fun read.
- 7:39I've got an earmarked and yellowed and all that kind of jazz and, you know, I've been a
- 7:43student of yours for a long time, obvious atoms, right?
- 7:46Back in the day.
- 7:47That's great.
- 7:48And you're right.
- 7:49I mean, all that stuff is still, it's as applicable today has to be translated to
- 7:54you know, more of a technological world, but it really, it's, it's all universally human
- 7:59nature.
- 8:00Yeah.
- 8:01100%.
- 8:02All right.
- 8:03So let's, let's kick it off this way.
- 8:04People heard the formal intro before we got into our talk here.
- 8:06But I saw something and doing some research for this.
- 8:09I think this sums up you quite, quite appropriately.
- 8:13I'll let you kind of unpack what does this mean.
- 8:15You are self described ethical pusher of a drug called strategic thinking.
- 8:20Yeah.
- 8:21Yeah.
- 8:22Yeah.
- 8:23If you wouldn't mind.
- 8:24Well, it means that most people, I mean, critical strategic thinking, consequential thinking
- 8:31is a very powerful, dimensional sort of elevation in your ability to accomplish anything.
- 8:41Most people are very tactical.
- 8:43They do a lot of stuff, but they really don't have an end game other than let's make more
- 8:48money or, you know, pay the bills or, you know, do in your cases more, more, more
- 8:55mortgages or whatever.
- 8:57But when you get into really sophisticated strategy, you look at me, said differently,
- 9:02I spent my life focusing on elements of business performance enhancement that each have the
- 9:11ability to be geometric or exponential in their impact.
- 9:16So not incremental games, but things that will go, and we decided years ago to look at big
- 9:23drivers that were so powerful that even if you screw them up a bit, they'll work and
- 9:30spy you, they're compensating.
- 9:32And probably the biggest one, you change your strategy, you change your results.
- 9:36If you look at the majority of businesses, not even individuals, but businesses under,
- 9:42I don't know, $40 million, their tacticals can be, they don't really have a big driving
- 9:48master plan that everything they do integrates through.
- 9:53They just do whatever they're going to do, episodically, you know, they run ads or they
- 9:59do this.
- 10:00There's no congruency.
- 10:01They're not trying to build an integrated strategy that keeps advancing and enhancing
- 10:05a masterful game plan.
- 10:08They don't have a big vision of how this is going to produce something bigger next year
- 10:15in the year after, and they don't use relationships, opportunities anywhere close to optimal.
- 10:23And part of it's not even their fault, Jeff, because they have a very limited scope of
- 10:28reality and experience, excuse me, for moving myself one second, pretty closer.
- 10:34I have an advantage, you know, truth and probably a modesty, I've done over a thousand
- 10:41industries, not companies, and when you look at a thousand different business models,
- 10:47a thousand different strategies, a thousand different ways of selling, marketing, building
- 10:54and enduring ever compounding business, and then you look at how most people have a very
- 11:00limited, very, very insular, and a very, very follow the herd type of a tactical approach.
- 11:10It's not their fault.
- 11:11They haven't had enough experiences, but very candidly, I guess I'd use the word honestly
- 11:18to answer your question, most people are tactical in nature.
- 11:24Strategy is the overriding game plan that everything is driven from.
- 11:28It should only be used if they advance and enhance a big master long-term game plan.
- 11:34If you don't really have a master long-term game plan, other than I got to make enough
- 11:38money to pay my bills or buy them or say these or a bigger house or go on a vacation
- 11:43or set the record so I can get the trip to Tahiti, that's not a strategy.
- 11:52That's really not even a tactic, it's a hope and a prayer, it's just totally different.
- 11:56I don't know if my answer is too abstract or whether that makes a point.
- 12:00Yeah, it does.
- 12:01It makes me think of this saying that I've kind of borrowed.
- 12:03I forget who originated it, but that principles, I wonder if you agree with this.
- 12:08Principles don't change, but tactics do.
- 12:10Yeah, that's true.
- 12:11I mean, the world today is different, but the same.
- 12:16I mean, attention is different, and I think that many people in business, probably a lot
- 12:21of your viewer listeners, have what I call their suffering attention deficit from the
- 12:26market.
- 12:27They don't know why, but if you're not getting the results you want, the response you
- 12:31want, the distinction you want, the financial conversion you want, the referrals you want,
- 12:38then you better figure out why and not just keep doing a lot of the same stuff because
- 12:43I'm going to get you any different results, but even nature, it hasn't changed, but the
- 12:51way it manifests itself as if that makes sense.
- 12:56Let's unpack that a little bit.
- 12:58How would you describe how it manifests itself is different today than it has been in the
- 13:02past?
- 13:03Well, me and you and I both talk.
- 13:04I happen to prefer long form communication.
- 13:07You do too.
- 13:08The majority of people have little...
- 13:10Yeah, some bites, yeah.
- 13:11So you have to grab them beneficially and...
- 13:18You've got to be able to trust rapidly, you've got to be able to connect with them where
- 13:28they are and how they want to be, but people are still motivated by the same drivers.
- 13:34They're just expressed differently and they are more compressive if that makes sense.
- 13:42Yeah, so we bring up a personal relevant points there.
- 13:46You mentioned a certain percentage of my listeners are feeling, there's this word disruption,
- 13:51obviously happening, especially in the real estate space, disruption, tech disruption,
- 13:57things aren't working like they used to, just referencing my notes here.
- 14:02I know you are an expert in these various areas of pre-eminence and relational capital
- 14:08and leveraged marketing, so I want to maybe dive into those different categories.
- 14:12I know you know this space pretty well.
- 14:13You've been, you know, you spoke at the mortgage mastermind summit in Vegas and so you have
- 14:17a good understanding of kind of the mortgage market, the real estate market as a whole.
- 14:22And in the context of we've got a lot of noise happening, we've got all these competing
- 14:26platforms and mediums for attention.
- 14:29Some of the traditional methods aren't working like they used to, such as telephones, etc.
- 14:33And we know the name of the game for our listeners, mortgage professionals,
- 14:38they've got some primary sources of business, right? And there's consumer direct,
- 14:42past client database, and referrals from referral partners, etc.
- 14:47The biggest challenge with that I think of the people that I talk to is how do I show up
- 14:52differently? How do I not sound and look like everyone else? You know what I mean? How do I become
- 14:57pre-eminent in my space? Well, it starts first of all by understanding what pre-eminent really
- 15:06means and looks like and most known. They don't want to be pre-eminent. They just want to be
- 15:11pre-emptive. And there's a difference. We interrupt this normal programming to bring you my
- 15:17message. Yeah. So I mean, I don't think they understand. Pre-eminent is a really cool
- 15:23concept. I mean, it starts with really understanding at a depth of communication and verbalization,
- 15:32exactly what your target audience wants, what they don't want, being able to express it.
- 15:39It starts with understanding what trust is predicated and built on and being able to
- 15:46authentically convey it. It starts by being genuinely interested in them as more of a holistic
- 15:55being. So you grasp what their hope streams for other things more than just getting the loan.
- 16:01It starts with caring enough about them that you are focused on their best interest to your
- 16:10subordinated interest. It starts by really being able to be a great listener. It starts by
- 16:21understanding. I mean, there's all these soft skills, fascination,
- 16:25trust, curiosity, communication, inflection. And again, listening, I can go on and on and on.
- 16:33The pre-eminent is an integration of a lot of things. And it all stems from authenticity.
- 16:39And I think that authenticity, I mean, I did a work a few years ago on the concept of
- 16:46greatness, Jeff. And it was pretty interesting because I don't believe any human being comes into
- 16:53this world unless they have a, you know, some kind of a mental defect, not wanting to be great
- 16:59at all they do. Great in business. There's a leader, a salesperson, a owner, entrepreneur,
- 17:07team member, employee. Great as a husband, wife, father, mother, friend, lover, parent, great,
- 17:16you know, all forms. And yet almost 98% of us are mediocre. And I wanted to know why.
- 17:23And I'm going to tell you that because it might take you a little off your path here,
- 17:28but I think it'll have relevance. And relevance is something I've done a lot of work on too.
- 17:32And the concept of the rules for relevance gets real complex because people don't think about
- 17:38relevancy either, but back to greatness. Most people don't have any clue what greatness is supposed to
- 17:47feel like, be like internally in your brain, in your heart, your soul, in your mind, express
- 17:55like, be received like, be validated like. And there's, you know, seven or eight gradients of
- 18:02greatness, greatness and business, greatness is human being greatness and this and that. And most
- 18:08people don't, first of all, know what it's supposed to be like in all those gradients of interaction.
- 18:13Second, if they don't know, they can't even, they don't have a framework for figuring out
- 18:21what kind of a reference model they're trying to get to. And mostly I can get you some help on that.
- 18:28Second, if they get that far, they don't have any clue on how to go from wherever the gaps are
- 18:33in their various segments of, let's call it deficit between great, if they want to be in one
- 18:40category and let's say mediocrity, they might be at. Third, is if they end up even figuring out how
- 18:48to get there and what path and mechanism to take the first time they try to do it, it's so foreign
- 18:54and awkward that they default back to status quo, just like a little kid who's learning to walk talk
- 19:01and unless they have somebody like yourself to support them and nourish them to a higher level,
- 19:07they go right back to where they were. It's a different tangent than you asked me, but it's sort of
- 19:13a form for me expressing a lot of thoughts I think are relevant to your listeners or viewers.
- 19:19Yeah. So what did you learn about how to identify what does greatness look like?
- 19:23Greatness looks different to different people. The first thing you have to do is start with these
- 19:29number of gradients in your life. Greatness as a leader, a salesperson, advisor,
- 19:34greatness as a human being, parent friend, because all that interrelates and if you're
- 19:40really lacking in one, it can really unintentionally sabotage and toxify the rest, but the way
- 19:47that you do it is you start by thinking about people in your life or that you observe,
- 19:55that you genuinely admire, you genuinely trust, you genuinely enjoy, you genuinely feel
- 20:03positive and better about when you're either in there or when you're observing them and then
- 20:12you try to isolate clinically what it is, how they communicate, how they listen, how they acknowledge,
- 20:21whatever it is, and then you start thinking about whether or not those elements and attributes
- 20:27are achievable by you with authenticity, some of them aren't, but you start by saying,
- 20:34okay, I would like to have this person's this and this person's that, this person's this,
- 20:40and then you say, okay, but I can't be that person that way. How can I adapt, adopt,
- 20:46extrapolate, modify, and if so, can I do it authentically, and you start layering slowly different
- 20:56elements, and over time, if you understand bulletproof jackets, that they're crisscross layers of
- 21:02Kevlar, you know what that is? Yeah. You build a bulletproof, it's not a single plate, it's the
- 21:08crisscross layer, it's a constant, you know, interwoven, yeah. I don't know if that's too,
- 21:16again, I can get a little less, so, Terry, I don't know if that's clear or not. That's okay,
- 21:19it's my job to bring it back. I think it's good to kind of set that up conceptually, and what I take
- 21:24away from that is that's why we have models and mentors and people we can observe in the wild,
- 21:29so to speak, right, in their daily method of operation, we can extrapolate. I don't think most people
- 21:34know how to model. I don't think, and I think you need to learn, okay, if you're going to model
- 21:42somebody, I mean, we try sometimes, you have to pull vault in our intent on transforming ourselves,
- 21:52and that's very hard to do. Modeling needs, it's like everything else, it needs stages and steps,
- 21:57if you try to do it too abruptly, more often than not, you basically implode.
- 22:04So you were saying it's small incremental improvements over time?
- 22:07Well, yeah, I mean, it's funny, even though you're looking for exponential, you can't,
- 22:13you got to do it in stages so that you are, that you become comfortable with your new self,
- 22:20if that makes sense. Sure, sure. It's like learning a new skill, right? I mean, it takes a while to
- 22:26adapt to that. And you build up, I mean, weightlifting, tennis, golf, running, cycling, whatever.
- 22:33By the way, I got to ask you, do you in your office, you still have the office over there in
- 22:37as a Pell's Verties? My office is right outside, it's in Torrance, but it's right adjacent.
- 22:43Do you still have the, you mentioned building muscle? It was curious. Do you still have the pull-up bar
- 22:48in your office? I used to, I do not anymore, and for a reason, when I was younger and thinner,
- 22:55I was stupidly able to do, believe it or not, 800 pull-ups at a time. They weren't great pull-ups.
- 23:03And I had quite a physique, and I also was able to do 400 dips, and I had quite a physique.
- 23:10And now at an older age, I have nine inches of titanium in my neck, and I have
- 23:16a rotator cups, and I got no shoulders, so I don't do as much enough anymore because
- 23:24I realized to my chagrin that your body wasn't built to do that. Now, you know, I try to stretch
- 23:31and do things that are a little more compassionate to my body. Long jeopardy instead of the power,
- 23:38right? Yeah, but when you're young, you have more vanity than you do, let's say, logic.
- 23:46Yeah, for sure. Okay, cool. So let's bring this back to some tactical stuff, because as you know,
- 23:52that's what people want, and I understand we've got to first have the strategy in place first,
- 23:56being very, very intentional and thoughtful, I think, about, for me, it's like, who do you want to
- 24:02be? How do you want to show up in the world? We can borrow some best practices for other people.
- 24:08But back to knowing the space that we're in, where it's highly competitive, there's the threat of this,
- 24:14there's just this threat of, well, not for everybody, because people who are confident are confident
- 24:19in their system and their process, right? But how do I, if I can answer the one question,
- 24:26how do we today, in the modern world that we're in, where we've got kind of modern tools of
- 24:32communication, anything you're seeing best practices or strategically that you're working with
- 24:40on clients that helps individual practitioners, whether it be mortgage real estate, insurance,
- 24:45finance, right? Great connection, get chosen, be pretty eminent.
- 24:52Well, I mean, the first thing is, whenever I work with anybody, we try to default first of all to
- 25:01a couple of activities or methodologies. First thing is, who can you secure in your market
- 25:13to be your, whether it's your endorser, your benefactor, your champion, your advocate,
- 25:22and it's beyond general referral, it's that you basically become the recommended provider and
- 25:29that person or entity is very aggressively and continually committed to helping you. And in order to
- 25:36achieve that, I mean, there's different ways to do it. If it's ethical and legal, you can certainly
- 25:43share compensation, but there's other ways to do it. The easiest way is to help them benefit.
- 25:51And we've done a lot of work where I've helped people create in the course of a year,
- 25:59as many as a thousand influential referral and endorsement sources that built businesses,
- 26:08did gargantuan scale and rather than teasing you, I'll tell you how we did it, okay?
- 26:15We basically realize that in any marketplace, there are lots of, quote, influencers that aren't
- 26:22necessarily the biggest, they are the ones that deal with people repetitively and in very,
- 26:30very long, discussionary periods, anything from restaurant tours, hair salons, things like that.
- 26:39And those are businesses. There are men and women in business who have hopes and dreams that
- 26:45are working very hard and have committed a lot of their opportunity costs and their hopes
- 26:52economically to this enterprise and in what this enterprise to provide livelihood, support,
- 26:59security, retirement, all these things fulfillment. And we've gotten people to help them grow.
- 27:06You're talking to me about growing your audience's success and mortgage people, but if mortgage
- 27:14people want to help other entrepreneurs grow their businesses and in reciprocity, ask them
- 27:22at such time is that help produces results to reciprocate when the opportunity arises.
- 27:29And if every week you try to identify five or 10 entrepreneurs who have influenced that you
- 27:34can start contributing to business growth, knowledge, ideas, expertise, methodology over the course
- 27:42of a year, you might have a thousand and if you keep doing that, you could have the whole community
- 27:49ethically in your debt because you're helping them be better and grow and they are only to impress
- 27:55appreciative and they reciprocate. We've done that with great success.
- 28:00So that's under, that's kind of your concept of relational capital. How do we have access?
- 28:04We have 43 ways to do it. Then if you're going to do referral generation,
- 28:10rather than do it reactively, you do it very, very methodically and strategically
- 28:15bringing strategy back. My brain isn't in real granular and specific mode right now,
- 28:26but we have something like 150 referral generating strategies that people can use.
- 28:32And I do this exercise all the time, Jeff. We'll ask somebody, does 10% to 100% of your business
- 28:40emanate from referrals or word of mouth? Most will say yes. And we'll say, okay, how many formalized
- 28:47systematized referral generating processes do you have in place right now that you adhere to
- 28:54continuously or your team does for you? And most people don't have one. A few that have one
- 29:01don't have two. We have 150 and we say, well, if you do anything else to generate business,
- 29:08cold call, advertise online, there's a big gap in your logic. And this goes back to critical
- 29:16thinking, strategic thinking, consequential thinking. And advertising or cold call sales generated
- 29:24prospect is on the outer periphery of trust building. You have to migrate them quite a bit to
- 29:29get them to closure. And even a closure, they're still a little bit suspect. You've got them
- 29:34there, but they're not sure you didn't get the best of them. They're not sure that you didn't
- 29:39sell them something more than they wanted or they paid more of whatever, depending on the application.
- 29:44Whereas a referral generated client, they know all about you. They trust you. They're ready to do
- 29:49business. They're more enjoyable. They cost you nothing. They deal with you longer. They're usually
- 29:55more profitable in size of the transaction. They're definitely more profitable in what it cost
- 30:01you to acquire them. They refer more people. And yet most people don't even look at it
- 30:06strategically. They just get them episodically, intermittently. Imagine if you get
- 30:1250% of your business, 100% of your business from referrals and you don't even have
- 30:17one referral generating systematic strategy. If you just put one in place and you increased
- 30:23at 40%, what would that do to your bottom line? If you had two and it increased at 70%,
- 30:28if you had three and doubled it, what would that mean compound it over time? It's pretty
- 30:33profound, Jeff. All right. So this is I think relevant in the concept of where do people focus
- 30:39to to to try and drum up business? And in my industry, what I see a lot of people, and you
- 30:43probably see it too, is they're focused on the sexy, right? The bright shiny objects and social
- 30:46media. That's right. Yeah. Let's run ads, right? And I'm a big component of the referral
- 30:51as far as the source of business. So here's this study. Got it up on my second screen over here.
- 30:55It's from Alexa about 40,000 different websites they surveyed. What's the the number one source
- 30:59of traffic to your website? Here's the categories. Number one source of traffic to the website. Let's
- 31:05guess and see what it is. Was it search, Google, all that direct meaning, right? There was a direct
- 31:09request, go check out our website, whatever. There was a referral, right? Hey, you should go check
- 31:14out this person's website. Or it was social. That was like a call to action to go to the website.
- 31:19So we got four categories, different results in terms of, right, largest and least source.
- 31:27Sure. I get it. No one that I would say is your social and referral could basically overlap,
- 31:33but I'm sure it's got to be more in one of those two categories, Jeff. So we've, and I send
- 31:38this to you afterwards, we want it. So like 15 different categories. We got arts and entertainment,
- 31:42automotive, food and drink, health and fitness. Anyway, real estate. This is why I'm kind of like the
- 31:48anti-message for some people in my community. 13% of traffic to real, two websites in the real
- 31:55estate space was from social. Now, that's not bad, right? When you think about it, but if you compare
- 32:00that to search, 44% referral, 38%. Yeah. No, no. It's, I mean, today more than ever because,
- 32:10I mean, you've got, the only thing it's a little tragic is that is that all review sites are
- 32:17authentic. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, it's, it is, if you are trusting the reviews or if the
- 32:25reviews are people you know and trust, but I think that anybody who doesn't focus an enormous
- 32:31amount of their sales marketing, strategic action into generating referrals,
- 32:39relational capital leveraging and who just goes into advertising as their source is making a big
- 32:48mistake for two reasons. One, your profit level is going to be much higher to your repeat level and
- 32:55your and your sustainability. And it's going to be much easier to close, so it's going to be more
- 33:02efficient, faster, usually larger transactions. The trust factor is already, I mean, everything about
- 33:10it is more preferable. Yeah. You know, it's funny when, when people hear about you and, you know,
- 33:15see all that you've done and achieved, right? They, they think about you, I think is obviously a
- 33:21marketing expert, right? Marketing guru, whatever the terms are that you want to apply to that.
- 33:25Then what I find interesting is when you get in and unpack some of your philosophies and strategies
- 33:30for growing your business, for winning greater share of customer, for having pre-eminence,
- 33:37I think it's interesting that you actually talk about, for me, it was actually surprising,
- 33:41perhaps, in the beginning, is like empathy and falling in love with your clients.
- 33:46I mean, you can't be great in your service to others if you really don't appreciate
- 33:53and empathize and respect and recognize that everybody has enormous value. I think a lot of people
- 34:04to serve themselves in their careers, their jobs, their businesses, because they really have
- 34:10almost a disdainful attitude to the market they serve. And they're gaming themselves as opposed
- 34:19to gaming the system. Yeah, I love humanity, and I particularly adore and admire entrepreneurs.
- 34:28They're, you know, they have passion, they have purpose, they started out with a vision,
- 34:33they're, you know, they're competing every day against, you know, big business.
- 34:39It's, you know, they're, you know, they're usually authentic. And I love entrepreneurs,
- 34:45if I didn't hurt for them, because I see them accept a fraction of a fraction of the
- 34:53business they could get, the joy they could get, the predictability, they could get the, you know,
- 34:58the viability, the wealth creation, I hurt for them, and I want that hurt to trans
- 35:05send itself into contribution. But I think if you can't appreciate, respect, understand,
- 35:12evaluate, and acknowledge your, your markets relevance, and, and really appreciate and almost
- 35:21fall in love with them. You can't achieve the optimal possible, because you have a disconnect,
- 35:27and that disconnect, this friction and friction is evident, whether you know it or not,
- 35:32it's evident. Yeah. It's evident, you know, and authenticity, it's evident, and, and you not always,
- 35:38you know, communicating is fully as you could. I mean, all kinds of things that are
- 35:43subtleties, but it's evident. And along the lines with that, this concept, concept from your,
- 35:47your book, which I'll put links to everything in the show notes, but one of my favorite books I've
- 35:51ever read is giving everything you can out of all you've got. This in here, I love your, it's a
- 35:58mindset shift. You've got a definition to, to clarifications, your customer, a person who purchases
- 36:04a commodity or service, client, a person who is under the protection of another.
- 36:10It's totally company. We insist anytime I ever work with a client, I insist that they
- 36:18understand that difference. If they want to be preeminent, and preeminent is extolling and
- 36:24elevating yourself above the maddening crowd, but you refer to people you do business with,
- 36:30I'm sorry, I'm home, you're going to hear the phone ring. As a customer, what you're really saying
- 36:36between the lines is, I am no better than a commodity. I am a marginalized generic,
- 36:42non-distinctive provider of something you can get from anybody. Maybe I'm a little bit better,
- 36:48a little bit worse, a little bit more less expensive, a little bit more convenient, but I'm
- 36:53nothing more than a commodity. And then you struggle and say, why do they treat me as a commodity?
- 36:58Well, the first thing is, unknowingly, you acknowledge yourself as a commodity.
- 37:06Right, right. I just love it. I mean, there's just so many learnings. I'm just continuing to read
- 37:09here. I don't want to quote like every page of the book, but another mind chef for people listening.
- 37:13I love this is that most people think, what do I have to say to get people to buy? Instead,
- 37:17you should say, what do I have to give? What benefit do I have to render? And mindset?
- 37:24Yeah, Jeff, if you look at it, it's always been this way. Again, the way you deliver it
- 37:30is changed, perhaps, but we are rewarded in this life. And we always have been for the problems
- 37:38you solve and the opportunities you make possible for others. If you do the same thing, everybody
- 37:45else does the same way everyone else does it. And there's no distinction advantage.
- 37:53There's no benefit above and beyond just, hey, call me. I mean, people try to say,
- 38:00it's give me the business you could give to someone else, but there's a big gap. They're forgetting
- 38:07the word because the reason why. Yes. It runs through everything that you do. If you
- 38:16use no reason, why, why would you do it? Right. All right. Listen, I know for a second time,
- 38:21we're almost out of time. I wanted to close out on this last thought of there's so many things
- 38:25I could go, but I had to focus and just pick a few ones that stood out for me. I might sneak
- 38:30one more in. But what do you mean by, um, explain, there's no relationship between being good
- 38:37and getting paid? Yeah. I mean, it's, you mean, very good at what you do. You can be, you know,
- 38:44masterful, but if the market doesn't recognize the value that that goodness or mastery
- 38:52represents distinctively and, and again, preemptively, meaning above and beyond the options available,
- 39:01then it doesn't matter. You mean you can be the best, the best intended, you can be the best educated,
- 39:06you can be the most knowledgeable, but if you can't express that to the market in a powerfully
- 39:13distinctive, preemptive way that they see you offering them a value above and beyond their
- 39:22options, you're not going to get rewarded. You're going to get frustrated, Jim. Exactly.
- 39:28I love that. Okay. Let's end it there for those people listening. I think the homework assignment
- 39:34for you is to, to get some quiet time alone in your business, identify your overall business
- 39:42processes, your customer experience, from the first moment of awareness, right? Am I on the
- 39:46right track here? What's it like for the first conversation, all that stuff, right? Our
- 39:50kids have the ideal process. Yeah. I mean, well, I tell people your first job is to try to examine,
- 39:57evaluate, understand, appreciate, respect, and acknowledge that the other side is having a whole
- 40:05different reality than you. Until, unless you appreciate them, and again, if you can fall in love
- 40:10with them, maybe fall in love with their hopes, their dreams, their drive, they're not you,
- 40:16but you're not there. And the first step, the second is, I mean, too many people try to manipulate
- 40:26the relationship they have with someone doing business with them. That's the big mistake.
- 40:32It should be very fluid. Even what I'll call not selling, but compelling communication,
- 40:42it doesn't have to be prepared. It doesn't have to be you queuing up, trying to get your message in.
- 40:50It's free. It should be very fluid, and it should be very natural because you're so engaged
- 40:55in providing contribution, solution, opportunity to the other side that you're just really in the
- 41:03moment. But it's a whole different dynamic. And you probably, I may be today, I go through moods,
- 41:08Jeff. So I might be a little more cerebral today, regrettably, because I have lots of very
- 41:13finite stuff we do with clients and we've taught people. But I think that without the mindset,
- 41:20I mean, you got to think differently if you want to achieve differently. How about that?
- 41:23I like that. That's really good for sure. And to put a cherry on top of that reminds me of a quote I
- 41:28read by, you know, Dr. Robert Chaldini, when asked, you know, in this world of algorithms and
- 41:36automation and all that kind of stuff, how can somebody, you know, rise above the noise? How can
- 41:41somebody have a greater impact? And he simply said, be more human. Yeah. And be more connected in
- 41:48the real way, not the theoretical online way. But Jeff, thank you. This is not too abstract for
- 41:55your viewer listeners. No, it's awesome. Thank you very much. It's an honor to have you here.
- 42:00And obviously, we're going to put links to all your stuff in the show notes is jabraham.com.
- 42:05Just Abraham.com. It's just Abraham.com. Okay, great. We'll make sure we have that in there. I know
- 42:08you have tons of resources for people to download and check out. So I'll encourage them to do that.
- 42:13And so once again, Jay, thank you so much. And listeners, you know what to do. If you like this
- 42:18episode, please leave us a review and we appreciate you. We'll see you on the next one.
- 42:24Thanks for listening to mortgage marketing radio. One more truth in mortgage marketing. Get
- 42:30more free training and resources at mortgagemarketinginstitute.com.
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