What the hell are you doing?Ralph LoVuolo Sr., CMCsales tips, sales training, motivation,
In most cases, I know, for a fact, you're doing what you've been
doing for the past few yearswaiting for the phone to ring, fooling
yourself, being afraid of everything, sitting on your hands,
staring at the phone and extolling the fact that you will, very
soon, get off your rear-end and get to work.
How do you, in your right mind, expect to get business if you
are just sitting there waiting for business to turn around and come
to you? Do you think there are people who need you? Do you think
there are people who are going to call you because you have so much
to offer? Do you really believe that every one of your past clients
hates you, despises you, thinks you are a devil or wants you dead?
Do you think that every real estate broker, salesperson, attorney,
financial advisor, insurance broker or builder is going to call you
and beg for you to come to their office to take an application and
then promise their undying affection for your lazy ass? Duh!
Oh well, I preach, and I preach, and I preach & but it seems
that most of you just want to keep the insanity definition going on
infinitum. And by most of you, I mean the greater majority by far.
It is difficult, at best, to find a salesperson that thinks and
then acts in a proactive way. Sure, you'll go to a seminar and then
tell your family that you're going to spend your last dime on some
magic, money-making program just to get the spouse off your case.
The sad part is that most of you really believe it.
I have been saying and writing the following for many years. I
will continue to do it until I either die or have a stroke and cant
talk/write anymore. If you want business, go get it. If you want to
be successful, there is business out there to be gotten. Okay,
enough! Enough of the criticism & enough of the hand-wringing
over the past! What you want people like me to do is tell you how
to get out of this mess!
Im a coach and trainer. I help people realize their true
potential. I do it inexpensively. I have clients who listen and
produce numbers that would shock most of you. But I see, every day,
that the overwhelming majority of salespeople have every
opportunity to make real money, and yet they think of ways to not
exercise their brains, legs, mouth and feet. If I could just get
you in the car and get you to visit someone who can refer business
to you & if only.
Here is the method I know for a fact works better than any
software system, Web site, internet initiative, three-ring binder
system, predictable dialer or automatic mailer. I need to clarify
something here. I personally stress, as the first and most
necessary step in your success, that you have goals, a plan and
four marketing initiatives to help you get businessfour marketing
initiatives that are working all simultaneously, four ways to
generate business, both in the now and in the future. This is your
profession, isn't it? You're in this for the long haul, right? I'm
about how to generate leads. I believe I have a way to generate
business. I believe that I have a productive way to get people to
give you business. You need to pay attention hereabsorb it and then
enact it. There are three things every salesperson must do to in
order to be successful:
1. Give away information
Give it away in gobs. Give away everything you've ever learned. Of
course, it should be mostly about your business, but does not
necessarily have to be. What I stress with my clients is that they
should be helpful with the people they seek to receive referrals
from. They should teach, mentor, advise, inform, add value,
instruct and be there! I am often asked: "What are you asking me to
say to my client/referral partners?" What is it that I'm asking you
to do differently than what others do? Such a simple concept
requires such a simple answer. Teach them how to make money! Teach
them what I teach you. Teach them how to put a database together,
put out a weekly e-mails, call the database every quarter,
co-market and how to use free reports to their best advantage.
2. Ask for business
This is tricky, sometimes, but you start out by doing the
following. Pick 25 people to go see. Pick the ones that actually do
business. Put them in your database, in a geographically acceptable
database. When you go in the first time, tell them you're not like
any other loan officer they've ever met. Tell them you're going to
show up at their office every week for four weeks in a row, on the
same day and at approximately the same time. Tell them that after
the fourth week and beginning the fifth week, having then proved
that you are trustworthy, you will ask them to begin to do business
with you (for the complete script, you need to send me a request).
Salespeople fail because they give up too soon.
3. Be persistent
Like I just stated, salespeople give up too soon. More studies show
this than any other informative words I could ever give. But most
of you don't get it. Living in a world of instant gratification is
nice, but it doesn't work with long-term business relationships. It
is most apparent to me that even if you don't give away information
and don't ask for business, but you do show up every week, you'll
eventually get business. But it is getting past the "no" that you
must do. Did your mommy and daddy always say "yes" to you? If they
did, they were wrong, but thats a subject for another article. You
need to get past the "nos" in order to get to "yes," but it won't
happen if you dont go back; it can't happen if you give up.
Okay, I've given away my secretsall of them in one article. But
here is the hard part. You actually need to do these things to be
able to make money. For a very long time, I have been offering a
sip of the wine of knowledge. Most of you have sought something
else ... you've been seeking the chalice that it comes in. You're
looking, as all historians know, in the wrong place. The chalice is
a myth, but the wine has always been produced. Drink the wine I am
offering here. For more of it, you might ask. Cats chase their
tails & don't be a cat. Insanity is, according to Einstein,
doing the same thing again and again, expecting a different result.
Are you insane?
Ralph LoVuolo Sr., CMC is president of Mortgage Motivator, a
mortgage industry training and coaching firm. He is a founder and
past president of the New York Association of Mortgage Brokers, a
teacher accredited by the New York and New Jersey Real Estate
Commission, a former associate professor at Atlantic College and
New York University and a published author. He can be reached at
(609) 652-6901, e-mail
[email protected]
or visit his blog at www.mortgagemotivator.blogspot.com.
