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 By: Dan Kublawi |
For the past year, the mortgage industry has experienced unprecedented change with regard to regulation and underwriting guidelines. Gone are many products that were made available to consumers that created and then finally burst the housing bubble. To be honest, however, did anyone really expect the no-doc mortgage and pay-option ARM to fund their retirement? Now that mortgage lending has again become a profession that requires skill and intelligence (as well as integrity) the majority of the bottom-feeders have left the industry. Those of us that are left, however, are faced with the challenge of the new regulations and the difficulty of integrating them into our business plan while continuing to provide top notch service to our clients. The new HVCC guidelines as well as increased documentation requirements have indeed made it difficult for mortgage lenders to provide the level of service they have been accustomed to providing.
So the question is how to proceed in this new market environment. Do we need to make changes to how we do business? Do we need to be delivering a different message to our clients? Do we need to educate our clients and Realtors with regard to these changes? Indeed you will have to do all three to thrive in the new market environment. While it may seem like a daunting task, the fact of the matter is that there has never been a better time to truly separate yourself from your competition and provide an experience that will set you apart from and allow you to become a trusted advisor to your clients and Realtors. Now more than ever, you need to ask yourself the simple yet powerful question “What do I do that UNIQUELY differentiates me from my competition?” I’m not talking about a unique selling proposition (USP). While a USP is truly an important part of anyone’s business, let’s remove the “selling” for the time being as “salesman” carries such a negative connotation. What’s unique about you? How does it positively differentiate you? If you can’t answer this question, then you are doomed to battling rate-shoppers and high-maintenance Realtors indefinitely. Look beyond the company you work for. Your company, regardless of how great their infrastructure might be, does not make YOU unique. No one company employs the majority of top originators in the country. Look beyond how competitive your rates are. No company is lending money a point less than everyone else in the country. If they were, they wouldn’t need you as they would simply pay order takers minimum wage to answer the phone. Look beyond your resume. Few clients do business with people based on how long they have been in the industry. You could have been in the industry for 30 years and still not be very good at it! I believe the answer lies in one simple word: VALUE.
If you consistently provide a tangible VALUE to your clients, they will not shop you, they will not nickel and dime you, and they will not become the high maintenance client we have all come to dread. What they will do is return to you again and again as well as share their experience with their sphere of influence. In the current market climate, VALUE is what everyone is looking for.
I was recently in Las Vegas at a huge shopping mall with my wife. As we walked through the mall, we passed Dillard’s, Macy’s, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Lord and Taylor. 
At the very end of the mall was Nordstrom. While I could have easily found what I was looking for at any of these stores, I proceeded directly to Nordstrom. Why? VALUE. Despite the fact that their prices may be a little higher, the experience you have shopping at Nordstrom is unrivaled in retail. How do they consistently outperform their competition while often charging a higher price? VALUE. Employees at Nordstrom are trained to provide VALUE rather than simply sell their merchandise. The EXPERIENCE of shopping at Nordstrom is why I come back again and again. That experience has VALUE.
So, the answer to the question “What do I do that UNIQUELY differentiates me from my competition?” lies in the VALUE your clients receive from the EXPERIENCE they have doing business with you.
It is up to you to determine what that value will be and provide an experience that positively differentiates you. With all of the negative news about our industry circulating through the media, a valuable experience will be an unexpected surprise to most clients. Focus your effort on providing that valuable experience and your clients will walk past all the other shops offering the same merchandise.
| About the author: |
Dan Kublawi
Dan Kublawi is the Manager of Mortgage Investors Group in Johnson City, Tennessee. He began his practice in 1996 and has increased his company market share every year since its inception while also being the number one FHA/VA lender for 12 straight years. In addition to producing and managing his team, he also coaches and trains new mortgage professionals and realtors in his market. |
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By: Dan Kublawi |
I believe in the pile theory. The pile theory is simply the idea that whoever achieves the most tangible results in a particular field will usually have the most to teach. With that in mind, if someone has a bigger pile than you, listen. It they have a smaller pile than you, don’t. You wouldn’t take diet advice from an overweight person, would you? Or financial advice from someone who just filed for bankruptcy?
I went to a seminar a short time ago where one of the scheduled speakers was a hugely successful mortgage loan originator. I had heard of him and was looking forward to hearing him speak, as his pile was bigger than mine. About 5 minutes into his presentation, I stopped taking notes. After 10 minutes, I got up and walked out. I was disappointed. While my pile theory held up with regard to the speaker’s results financially, his methods, attitude, and techniques did not. In the mortgage business, success is often measured simply by financial success. Number of loans, closed loan volume, number of leads, etc. While we are all in it to make money, not everyone has the same vision of what success really means. Without this vision, it does not matter how many leads or loans you have, satisfaction and fulfillment will elude you in this business.
I discovered this early in my career. I read the trade magazines and industry publications. I listened to veterans with my company and modeled my business around what appeared to be a sound business plan. It wasn’t long, however, before I discovered what was lacking…ME! My business plan didn’t have “me” in it. It was like I was reading an instruction manual and building something step-by-step; however I wasn’t sure what it would look like when I was finished. That is what a vision is, what it looks like when it is done. As Steven Covey’s first habit states in “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”, you must “begin with the end in mind”. How true. You must know what it looks like when it’s done. This is not to say your vision will not change over time, but you must have one to begin with. The number one reason I have seen people exit this business is lack of vision. While they might blame it on lack of leads, the market, their company, whatever, in the end it is usually the fact that they simply did not have a vision, nor did they have a plan to get there. They simply tried a few things that appeared to work for other people.
I believe the key to finding that vision starts with where you are coming from. What I mean by this is, when you are conducting business, are you coming from the right place? Your vision must start here. If you are prospecting for new leads, what outcome are you hoping for other than getting them to sign on the dotted line? Are you trying to establish a long-term relationship with the client? Do you want them to refer you business in the future? Are you interested in their success? Have you calculated what their lifetime value might be? The speaker at the seminar I referred to had hugely impressive numbers; however his methods for obtaining those numbers did not fit in with my vision. This is not to say he was not a good mortgage professional, he simply had a different vision. Despite my desire to achieve his results financially, his methods were not compatible with my vision.
When conducting business, I believe coming from the right place is key to long term success. If you truly look out for your clients, they will look out for you. If you provide exceptional service, they will tell others about you. If you stay in touch with them, and continue to provide value for them, they will return to you again and again. While this may sound simple, even rather obvious, why do so few actually do it? Because they are not coming from the right place. They are coming from the desire to make money, achieve recognition, compete with their co-workers, squeeze maximum profits from each transaction, etc.
When constructing your vision, keep the pile theory in mind. Every contact you have with a client should be compatible with your vision- every phone call, email, text message, fax, advertising piece, mailer, etc. By coming from the right place, your career satisfaction will improve and you will notice that you no longer have a lack of leads, market fluctuations will have less impact on you, and there’s probably nothing wrong with the company you work for.
| About the author: |
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Dan Kublawi
Dan Kublawi is the Manager of Mortgage Investors Group in Johnson City, Tennessee. He began his practice in 1996 and has increased his company market share every year since its inception while also being the number one FHA/VA lender for 12 straight years. In addition to producing and managing his team, he also coaches and trains new mortgage professionals and realtors in his market. |
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By: Dan Kublawi |
Of the numerous seminars I have given on managing a database and database marketing, I am still amazed at how few mortgage professionals truly profit from it. I think it is partially because database marketing is misunderstood, but mainly I think it is because few people ever truly establish a database that amounts to much more than an outlook contact folder. To many, managing a database seems like a separate full time job and they do not see the ROI. To others, they may think their past clients do not want to hear from them again (which may be true in some cases) while others consider it an intrusion to constantly mail to the same group of people. The fact is, managing and marketing to your database can have a tremendous impact on your longevity in the mortgage industry.
I live off my database. I cherish every person in there. My kids eat because of my database. My database bought my house, cars, virtually everything I own. While many of my own staff are out chasing new business, I am talking on the phone with old friends. When I meet with them, we rarely talk about rates and fees. When I ask them for referrals, they can’t wait to send them. Last week one of my past clients came in to refinance his loan. By the end of the day I had also helped his son and daughter in law.
There has never been a better time to be considered a trusted advisor in this business. People are full of anxiety and the last thing they want to do is talk to someone they don’t know. The true professionals in this business (those of us who didn’t make our living putting unqualified borrowers into pay option ARM’s) should thrive during this economic downturn. The bottom-feeders have left the business and people are looking for guidance and expertise. Your past clients and sphere of influence need to hear from you. Here are a few strategies that will help you build and maintain a working database that will yield consistent results:
1. Make sure you’ll use it. I am often asked what the best database software is. The answer? Whichever one you will use consistently. I have toyed with many programs and have found that the more complicated they are, the less likely I will use it. Some experts argue that you should gather your client’s entire life story and enter it into your database. I disagree. Keep it simple.
2. Regular Contact. You must contact your database regularly. Monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly, it doesn’t matter as long as they are getting it regularly. All you want them to do is think of you when they think mortgage.
3. Provide Value. Newsletters get thrown away. So do fliers with those round stickers you have to rip open to read the insid
e. Recipes get thrown away too, along with business cards. You must provide value. Fridge magnets, calendars, sports schedules, grocery lists, and bottle openers will have a use in your client’s home- just remember to put your contact info on it.
4. Fire your bad clients. It may sound crazy, but there are some people I have worked with that I would not care to work with again. They don’t go in the database. While I will lose the potential income of working with them in the future, I stand to lose far more from having to deal with a client who does not appreciate and respect what I do for them. While these clients may potentially send me referrals, they are likely to be just like them! Birds of a feather…
5. Keep it up to date. The last thing you want to do is send out something to 500 people and have 200 returned. Update your database regularly and you will save big money on postage.
6. Don’t overdo it! I have come across some people who mail to their database so often that they are receiving calls asking to be dropped from their mailing list. Think about how much mail you get. Unless it requires action (such as a bill) most items become less interesting the more often we see them. Keep in touch, but don’t harass.
7. Track your leads. This is the most important step and biggest reason people stop mailing to their database. Since response to a mailer can often take a bit of time, people often fail to realize what generated the lead in the first place. You should track every lead and know exactly how it was acquired. This is how to measure your success in each area of your business. If you don’t know your numbers, you will forever be an amateur. Ask anyone in your office who plays on their church softball team what their batting average is and they won’t be able to tell you. They’ll probably give you a rough estimate (which will also be totally wrong). But ask a professional baseball player his batting average, and he will know it down to 1/1000th of a percent. Why? Because he’s a professional.
| About the author: |
|
Dan Kublawi
Dan Kublawi is the Manager of Mortgage Investors Group in Johnson City, Tennessee. He began his practice in 1996 and has increased his company market share every year since its inception while also being the number one FHA/VA lender for 12 straight years. In addition to producing and managing his team, he also coaches and trains new mortgage professionals and realtors in his market. |
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