Selling mortgages is not rocket science: Increase your sales through a professional marketing planBy Dave Hershmansetting goals, diversified marketing plans
You do not need to be enlightened with the advantages of a
diversified marketing plan if you have spent the past years
feasting on refinances and then experiencing famine while you
attempt to get a grip on the purchase market. To outsiders, we must
have appeared to be lemmings, running from one market to the next.
Recognizing the need for a plan is easy. Developing a solid plan
and implementing it consistently over the long run is the task for
those who desire success in any sales profession. This work will
outline the components of a professional marketing plan and give
examples to get you started.
Identifying your goals
Every successful sales professional has objectives that guide his
actions. For those of you who are not goal-oriented, this aspect of
the plan will come as quite a change in your thought process. To
achieve maximum performance, every action must have a corresponding
achievement. Think about your last visit to a real estate office.
What objective did you achieve? The same line of thinking goes for
each mailing, rate call or sales presentation. You must go in with
a list of possible goals. What are possible goals for a meeting
with a real estate agent? Here are a few:
1. A commitment to future business
2. The phone number of a prospective purchaser
3. Referral to another real estate agent
4. Learning the needs of that agent
5. Invitation to a sales meeting
6. Another meeting with that agent
7. Invitation to sit in on an open house with the agent
Developing actions to reach goals
The problem with the marketing efforts of most sales professionals
is that actions enable us to resemble lemmings. If most originators
spend most of their time visiting real estate offices with rate
sheets, we tend to join in the crowd. A study of the top achievers
will show that mass delivery of rate sheets is not the way to focus
efforts. As a matter of fact, any action repeated too many times
will make us vulnerable to changing market conditions. The key is
to choose several actions that are different from the actions of
others. Go where no one is likely to follow. Spend your time giving
seminars instead of knocking on doors. Write articles. Become a
member of a finance committee. Each action must be specific and
have a goal. For example, visit four open houses each weekend, with
a goal of setting up one interview with a top producer for the
following week.
Since our goal is to interview with top producers, we must first
identify which agent is holding which open house, before we set out
each weekend. A personal referral to the producer will open us up
for a more productive visit. In other words, do not just visit
randomly.
Arming yourself with tools
It is most important to identify your available tools before you
embark upon implementing the marketing plan. Sometimes we feel that
a tool must resemble the Starship Enterprise, which could transport
loans to your doorstep. Yet, the most common tools sit around our
desk, totally ignored or, worse yet, used in such a way that our
marketing efforts are undermined. Take a most common tool the
telephone. We hear that someone is great on the phone. He gets a
call and always winds up with an appointment. Others hear the phone
ring and hide under the desk. It is obvious which of the two sales
professionals has correctly identified and mastered the tool. The
latter may also be forced to favor another instrument, the rate
sheet, a common tool that is usually much less effective than the
telephone. In order to have an effective and efficient marketing
plan, we must recognize all of the tools at our disposal. This
enables us to identify which tools are more effective and will help
us achieve our goals.
Identification of targets
It is the identification of targets that facilitates
diversification of a marketing plan. The most common target in our
industry consists of real estate agents. The most common tool for
reaching that target is the rate sheet. But, what kind of real
estate agent is likely to respond to a rate sheet? Yes, a rate
shopper. If we correctly identify our target as those real estate
agents who want to do business based upon relationships, then we
realize the inefficacy of rate sheets. What are other targets among
real estate agents? You can try new agents, top producers, listing
agents, new home sales agents, relocation specialists, etc. What
are possible targets outside of the real estate industry? Other
loan officers, title companies, financial planners, home
improvement companies, large corporations, for sale by owner
(FSBO), home counseling agencies, etc. The list is endless.
We have seen, in the past, how a concentration on direct
refinances worked against long-term diversification. Concentrating
too much on one type of agent, geographic area or other target is
just as dangerous. True diversity makes us less susceptible to
changing markets. But, do not ignore specificity because the
development of a niche is a very effective targeting mechanism.
Frequency of actions
No marketing plan will work unless we implement all facets of the
plan with consistency. It is important to specifically define the
frequency of our actions. This enables us to set monthly, weekly
and daily goals. For example, if our goal is to set up three
interviews each week, and our telephone conversion rate is 25
percent, then we know that we have to make at least 12 calls each
week. It is in this stage that we define our actions with numerical
objectives. The next stage is to make this plan a part of the
calendar. Most sales professionals schedule meetings, loan
applications and other appointments in our calendars. Very few
schedule marketing time, such as general office visits or telephone
solicitations.
In the end, most of us declare that we spend very little time
marketing and too much time "in the office." Our first step in
breaking this log jam is identifying what must be done. The next
step is to commit to the time in your calendar.
Putting it together with synergism
Stephen Covey's book, "Seven Habits of Effective People," lists
synergy as one of those effective habits. This is because those who
are highly effective arrange their actions so that they build on
top of other actions and upon the actions of others. It is easy to
see why synergy is more effective than a string of haphazard
activities that do not work together or, worse yet, work against
one another. The opportunities for synergy in mortgage banking
sales are endless. What one needs is imagination and innovation to
make the connections. Let's look at a few examples:
1. You have two separate targets: FSBOs and real estate agents.
It is easy to see that you are in a position to recommend your real
estate agents to the sellers, when they are ready to throw in the
towel. There is no better way to garner loyalty from a real estate
agent than by the referral of business.
2. You have a mailing system for refinances. Instead of mailing
solely for refinances, you alter the flyer to include a service for
pre-approvals for those who will not be refinancing, because they
are looking for another home. Of course, now we have another real
estate lead. This means that you will continue mailing,
(consistently and diversely), even after the refinance boom
ends.
3. You are visiting open houses. You develop a professional
follow-up system to assist real estate agents in tracking the
people who visit. This helps them and puts you directly in touch
with a multitude of leads (including other real estate
agents).
4. You are driving in your car two hours each day. You decide to
make three marketing calls each day from your car. This results in
more than 1,000 extra marketing calls each year.
In most of the preceding examples, we connect more than one
action to reach another target group more effectively. It is
important to note that connecting the actions takes very little
extra time. Yet the results may be exponential. We must choose our
four-six marketing actions in such a way that they will relate to
one another.
Evaluation
All the implementation in the world may not bring us closer to our
goals, unless we take some time to stop and smell the roses. Most
of us go through life putting out fire after fire and never
contemplating how a particular day has fit into the overall plan.
Did we accomplish what we expected today? Are we closer to our
goals?
Try this for an exercise: For one week, write down every
business activity and the time it took accomplish that activity.
How much time did you spend implementing the marketing plan? How
much other time did you spend on activities that are either
non-productive or counter-productive, with regard to the plan? What
were the results of your actions?
There are literally thousands of questions to ask, regarding
implementation of a professional marketing plan. Those who truly
want success will question every step of the way, because they do
not desire to spend one extra minute performing an activity that is
not productive. Finally, we have come full circle from goal setting
to implementation to evaluation. If you really are looking to
differentiate yourself from your competition, try a professional
plan of attack.
Dave Hershman is a leading author and top speaker for the
mortgage industry, with six books, including two best sellers for
the Mortgage Bankers Association of
America. His mortgage school is the only comprehensive,
advanced curriculum in the industry. For a schedule of classes,
free marketing samples, speaking information and articles by Dave,
visit www.originationpro.com or
call (800) 581-5678.
