Traditionally, our goals include achievement of production and monetary goals. And while these are important, of more importance is addressing the activities that will help you achieve your production success. All goals are achieved one step at a time. You must start with the activities that will help you to achieve your monetary goals.
“Thank You”
The most important close to use with your prospects and clients is the use of the words “Thank You.”
Here is your task—next year you need to resolve to increase your use of this phrase, and even more importantly, you need to think of a way to say “Thank You” that differentiates yourself from your competition. You need to figure out how to say “Thank You” in a way that exceeds your clients’ expectations. There is nothing more important that you can do for next year—period!
Sphere of influence
Resolve to capture your existing sphere on a database. If your database is 300 people, go through a thorough analysis to bring this number up to 3,000. Your sphere should include everyone with whom you have something in common with, as well as your current and previous relationships. And do not stop there. Put a plan in place to increase that sphere each day. For example, if you are not a “joiner,” become not only a “joiner,” but a leader of organizations.
Deliver value
It is not enough to finally identify your sphere. You must set a marketing plan in place that focuses on the delivery of value to your sphere. This value must be tailored to the segments of your sphere—prospects, previous customers, those you have worked with, etc. Any resources you spend marketing outside of your sphere will result in severely wasting your precious resources.
Develop a marketing plan
You must do more than identify your sphere and value. You must implement certain activities designed to deliver that value on a regular basis. A marketing plan should identify actions that will deliver value to specific targets from within your sphere. These activities must be limited so that you can execute them regularly. The key to marketing is consistency and that is achieved by not undertaking too many activities. Go deeper, not wider.
A key within the plan should be the identification of one or two synergy marketing partners. From my book on Maximum Synergy Marketing, it is imperative that you are not marketing alone but are part of a team. When you market by yourself, you are wasting synergy. Imagine next year having a businessperson, or better yet, a company, marketing on your behalf.
Use a mirror
There are plenty of ways each of us need to improve. But we cannot do that unless we specifically identify the needs. So, it is time to use a mirror so that you can see where you will need help to achieve your goals. If you need to work harder—make the adjustments to do that. If you need to be able to change—then do it. If you need help reading the mirror—ask your customers, spouse, boss or your peers. They know what you need.
Become a student
You cannot improve without a plan. You must make the necessary investment of time, money and energy in your career. Read books, attend classes, and benchmark with others. It is time for you to go back to school and learn what you need to learn in order to achieve your goals.
When was the last time you read a book solely designed to help you develop your business or hone a particular skill? When was the last time you spent a day in a class learning something that would help you succeed, rather than obtaining continuing education credits mandated by your state government? Don’t know where to look for classes? Try industry associations, mortgage insurance companies and commercial sites, such as
OriginationPro.com.
Here is the point
You can identify all of your monetary and production goals, but the exercise will not have any meaning. It is the actions you take to achieve these goals that is of primary importance. Next year is a new year. Time is not a renewable resource. Every year you waste, you will not get back. It is time you start changing the foundation if you want to change the results. The time to start planning is now.
Senior vice president of sales for Weichert Financial Services, Dave Hershman is a top author in this industry, with seven books published, as well as establishing the OriginationPro Marketing System and the OriginationPro Mortgage School–the online choice for mortgage learning and marketing content. His site is OriginationPro.com and Dave can be reached by e-mail at [email protected].
This article originally appeared in the December 2019 print edition of National Mortgage Professional Magazine.
