Taking It Personal

Dealing with rejection is tough. You have to be, too.

Insider

Contributing Writer

There is no doubt that being inside a real estate office will put a loan officer in touch with a plethora of opportunities. However, these opportunities come with many costs. One of the most significant costs is the personalization of rejection.

A salesperson’s ability to recover from rejection is one of the most salient traits of success. There are many ways an originator might experience rejection — including unreturned phone calls, refusal of meeting requests, and, of course, losing a loan because of myriad reasons. When a million-dollar refinance walks two days before settlement, the typical loan officer suffers from an awful feeling in the pit of their stomach.

When you are a “street” loan officer, rejection from real estate agents is not unusual. Many already have relationships and they will use just about any statement to ward off inquiries. My personal favorite is: “I am a listing agent, so you don’t need to call on me.”

What is laughable about this statement is that listing agents tend to be top producers. Which means that they transact more sales than the average agent. When they sell a listing for someone who is going to purchase another house, do you think they tell them to go find another agent? They might assign that task to a member of their team, but it is still their client.

However, it is an easy way to get rid of most loan officers. And the loan officer’s research should have told them that they were a listing agent before they ever approached the agent. This is why I advise loan officers to reply to this question with this statement: “That is why I am interested in working with you. I specialize in helping listing agents find more listings, sell them more quickly and turn them into lead machines.”

A Slap In The Face

Now back to serving a real estate office from the inside. What is so different about rejection in this situation? It is more up close and personal. Imagine working in the office and a top agent arrives with a sales contract in hand and their favorite loan officer is financing the deal. What’s more, the deal is closing in two days and thus the loan officer can’t even offer a second opinion.

A salesperson’s ability to recover from rejection is one of the most salient traits of success.

Obviously, the loan officer never heard about the sale until now. One hour later, they are in an office lunch or sales meeting with that agent — exchanging pleasantries. Sure, the loan officer would like to stand up and say something like, “What’s the deal?” (that is the clean version).

But they can’t. Taking an antagonistic approach is not going to help them develop a relationship with the agent and a confrontation in front of the office would be devastating. But you can see how more “up-front and personal” this rejection is than what might be experienced by a street, remote, or bank loan officer.

Instead, they must suck it up and congratulate the agent. Going a step further, they should also offer their help if any is needed, and they should not forget to ask if the agent has any other prospects they are working with. Asking for a referral when the agent is feeling a bit guilty is not a bad approach.

The bottom line is that the more opportunities an officer presents, the greater the opportunity for rejection. Any loan officer who does not ask for the business does not witness as much rejection. But in the case of being inside the glass house, you can’t have a glass ego.