Author Archive
Why are You Not Working with Realtors?
Posted by: | CommentsThis post was originally written on Loan Officer Unleashed, so kudos to Chad Weber for these words of wisdom:
I want to talk to you guys about something. Networking. If I had to take a wild guess as to how many loan officers (percentage-wise) actually get a reliable amount of business from realtors (Or any affinity partner for that matter) I’d have to guess that number is less than 20%.
There’s nothing scientific about this number, but I’m basing this off the fact that I speak with thousands of loan officers each year and most of them want to know 1 thing… How do I get more loans closed!? Better than 80% of these loan officers tell me they are not working with realtors.
I cringe at this. I cringe because in a market this tough, why would you want to make your job more difficult than it has to be? If you had to get your house cleaned in the shortest amount of time possible, would you rather do it yourself, or have 3 others helping you?
When the market gets rough, and all your prospects seem to be hiding behind parked vehicles when they see you coming, or crawling under rocks, do you want to continue doing all the “hunting” yourself, or would you like some help?
Both you and your local real estate agents are going after the same prospects. It’s time you put together an assembly line of lead gneerators. If you keep hacking at your prospecting efforts by yourself, you’re going to wear yourself down. (A rule of thumb here, not a reference to all of you)
But take a small group of frustrated, yet motivated professionals who are sick and tired of empty pipelines and are ready to make a change… Well, you can make some great things happen! How do you make this happen?
Keep checking back to see what gems we have in store for you…
Stop Wasting Time!
Posted by: | CommentsIt’s unbelievable how much time is wasted each day on non-revenue generating activities. Every week I talk to at least 3-4 loan officers and (Even in California) who are still managing to close 8 – 10 deals or more per month. But at some point in talking with some VERY stubborn professionals out of the bunch, it never fails to inspire at least 1 or 2 loan officers to speak up and object, claiming it’s impossible to accomplish in this market.
My answer to this? Take a look at how much time was wasted in the middle of the boom time… Compare that to what you are wasting in todays market… About the same right? Humans are creatures of habit. We tend to do things the same, even when we shouldn’t!
In a down market, you need to spend at least 40 – 50% of your day in front of people! I’ll say it again: in a down market you need to spend at least 40 – 50% of your day in front of people! What people? Prospects, realtors, fsbo’s, affinity partners etc… Hold teleseminars to save cash, but leverage your time. Network with realtors, host mastermind round table discussions…
It’s amazing what you can accomplish when you structure your day properly. You know all that time you’re spending responding to low priority emails, and checking each and every voicemail right away? Yep, that time could be spent making you money…
Chris Hallmark
Your Mortgage Marketing Weaponry
Posted by: | CommentsAmidst all the news and debating about what could/should/will happen with a bailout, I wanted to post a quick reminder of what marketing tools you should have in your arsenal to keep your pipeline flowing. I was going to title this as a loan officer marketing post, but in reality, whether you are a loan officer, or a real estate agent, these tools need to be attached firmly to your “toolbelt.”
Call Capture -A call capture hotline is a wonderful thing. Rarely will you find such a versatile marketing tool that allows you to capture leads, track performance, and even distribute information in such a flexible manner. Why it works: Call capture works because of the mindset of the consumer. Any time information is made available 24/7, and (most importantly) without having to talk to a salesperson…
Well, there’s a winning combination! Mistakes that cause failure: Take a quick look around and you’ll find many mistakes that can kill a call capture marketing campaigns right out of the gate. Often I see real estate ads just “giving away the farm” so to speak. Price, address, all the details you could want are right there on the page for the buyer to read.
With all the details there, this person has everything needed to make a decision, and there is no reason for them to call. Marketing is about “dangling the carrot” a bit. Sure, give some useful information, but leave a bit of mystery while you’re at it, or hint at something great they can learn by calling in now. Next, I often see the call capture number posted as just another 800 number…
This is a terrible abuse of the call capture line! The primary motivation to call is the ability to collect recorded information without speaking to a live party right? If you leave out the words: “Free Recorded Information 24/7″ then you’re effectively cutting your calls in half or even worse! Ouch!
Overall, there are plenty of great things you can with a call capture line: – Advertise listings – Market First Time Buyer seminars – Host teleseminars (Great for marketing to FSBO’s) – Market special financing options – Host a 24/7 question hotline See? With a bit of creativity, there’s plenty of lead generating activities you can partake in. I’m sure you can easily double the size of this list. Just imagine what you can do with a blog, your call capture line, and a blank piece of paper… (I’m leaving that one to your imagination) Make it a great one!
I know it’s turbulent out there, but it’s critical that you let the news remain just that… The news, not a significant part of your day. It’s easy to waste hours each day watching and reading, and discussing. But at the end of the day when it’s time to pay the bills, which activities do you want to reap the rewards from?
Chris Hallmark - http://www.loanofficermarketinglab.com/chrish
The Value of a Great Email List!
Posted by: | CommentsAre you a consistent marketer, or do you just try something then give up on it right away? Do you have a good email list to rely upon?
A good Internet marketer knows the value behind having a sound database to contact whenever they need more business. It can’t just be any old database though, it has to be CLEAN and highly TARGETED!
What I mean, is that you will need an “opt-in” subsciber list so you don’t get a reputation as being a spammer. In addition, you wnat the highest possible ROI and return on your time and effort. And the only way to do that is to build a highly targeted, accurate list. Or it may be an offline list of postal mailing addresses, telephone, or fax numbers. Just make sure that you gather any contact information, in an ethical manner 
The first thing you should do is make up a list of….the people you know, who like and trust you. Perhaps all those people you’ve already done business with over the years. How about THEIR family and friends. Think of a hot demographic that you can target. It’s not that complicated.
As long as you KNOW your audience, you should be fine. DO NOT EVER send mass emails to people you are trying to solicit for the first time. That can get you black listed very fast!
Here are five benefits you get from developing a highly targeting email list:
1) It takes a lot of time and effort to build a huge, effective list. Customer acquisition is one of the greatest marketing expenses. Many marketers toss this investment out the window by selling one thing to a customer, one time, and forgetting about them forever. A good list, on the other hand, lets you advertise for virtually no cost whatsoever.
2) Additional sales to previous customers are often easier to make and more profitable than the initial sale. A relationship of trust has been built, provided the customer is satisfied with his/her purchase, and the service received.
3) You gain leverage. When you approach others to arrange joint ventures, for instance, ownership of a sizeable, properly targeted list is a powerful bargaining asset. It’s a great way to find business partners and such.
4) You can share your list with other marketers (for a price) People will pay for solid information these days. Just make sure that it is a clean list and that it has been scrubbed for misinformation.
5) Repeat business is crucial to the success of virtually all businesses. Good lists turn into longtime customers that will keep coming back for more 
Chris Hallmark
Are You Diversifying Your Mortgage Marketing Methods?
Posted by: | CommentsDo you have an online marketing strategy? The web is becoming more and more ingrained in our society as a marketing tool/source of information and recommendation. How have you prepared yourself for this? Yes, I know it can be difficult to motivate yourself to learn all the important “moving parts” of internet marketing – it seems there is so much to learn!
- Seo
- Sem
- Articles
- Blogging
- Video
- Podcasting
- PPC
- Social bookmarking
- Social networking
- Classifieds
- Autoresponders
- Lead capture forms
- Mini-pages/landing pages
It’s mind boggling that this form of marketing has grown up so quickly. If you’re not taking advantage of this form of marketing, then you are missing out on a great source of business. I’m sure you are already familiar with the statistic that stated more than 84% of all individuals who purhased a home in 2009 used the web to help search for that home.
There’s 2 respnses to this information. On one hand, you can think “wow, that’s amazing” and go about your day. Or, the second option is to do something about it. Why let others benefit from all this low hanging fruit? Marketing on the web does not need to be complicated. Just as with any new skill you are learning, start slow, and start small. Celebrate your victories, and move to the next level.
Before long, you will find that you have just 1 more reliable source of business. No matter what career choices you make doown the road, the internet will continue to play a large role in lead generation, customer development and more. In other words, any time you spend on learning how to harvest more business from the web will be time well spent. Of course this doesn’t mean that traditional sources of business should be abandoned.
But there’s a lot to be gained by marrying both online and offline marketing methods. Why not take a closer look at what you can do to improve your online presence?
Chris Hallmark
Ready to Give Up on that Prospect?
Posted by: | CommentsAbout 2 years ago I became fascinated with tracking my sales and conversion metrics. We are all aware of the fact that the truly successful sales professionals track their numbers and watch them closely. It only makes sense right?
If you don’t watch your numbers closely, how can you tell what works, and what is a waste of your time and/or money? Moving on, I started out using a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, and entered not just my sales and prospecting efforts for the day, but I also included notes as to how many calls were first time prospecting efforts compared to follow ups.
A funny pattern emerged when I sat down at the end of the quarter to review my efforts. Nearly 89% of my sales required 9 or more follow-up calls to close. Now before you throw your hands in the air thinking “That’s it! This guy is the worst salesman on the planet!” let me explain.
Selling to loan officers, real estate agents, or any other business to business call efforts is often an uphill battle. Calling someone at work is naturally a hit or miss operation since the person will likely be busy. Tracking my numbers, I found that out of my 9 call average, 4 of them were listed as “no answer” or “got the voice-mail.”
But, (Now we’re about to get to the good stuff) the remaining 5 calls were littered with notes such as “wants me to call back tomorrow” or “too busy this week, call end of month.” At first glance, many of us would look at these statements as delay tactics, or put offs from a person who is too afraid to say no.
Yet, it’s amazing just how often I have not heard from someone for 3 or 4 weeks, who originally claimed they were itching to buy, then suddenly a phone call lands me on the phone with this prospect who is now telling me “Oh yea! I completely forgot about this! Let me go get my credit card…”
The point here is that I’ve seen so many loan officers and real estate agents get discouraged when someone they thought was a good prospect suddenly blows them off. Hey it’s human nature to be disappointed right?
But please, do yourself a favor and step back to view at the bigger picture. Life is so unpredictable, you can go from having the best week of your life on Monday and Tuesday, to a living nightmare on Wednesday and Thursday…. and back again!
Your prospect may have just received bad news at work, or is smack in the middle of a family emergency.(I once was in the middle of taking an order when my client asked me to hold… He returned to tell me he had to go as he was just informed his son passed away…)
Life is hectic, and despite our thoughts to the contrary, more often than not we are not the first thing our customers think of when they wake up in the morning! As difficult as it often was for me to accept that all these prospects kept “forgetting” about our phone appointment, or that they promised to place an order this morning and didn’t, the bottom line is that they quite likely did get caught up in the rush – rush atmosphere of daily work.
How many times have you and I forgotten an appointment, a phone call, or to run an errand? Since these appointments mean the difference between a paycheck or not for us, it is definitely a level 10 priority for us. For a buyer, he/she will move forward at his own pace.
So what am I getting at with all these examples and analogies? Mainly this… Follow up, follow-up again, and follow-up some more! Of course you want to apply common sense as to who you spend time with, and who is a priority, but if you have built an automated follow-up mechanism for yourself (Auto-responders for example), then you can set your drip marketing campaigns in motion with very little time or effort on your part.
Chris Hallmark – http://www.loanofficermarketinglab.com/chrish
Psychology and Mortgage Marketing
Posted by: | Comments
Have you ever heard someone refer to sales and marketing as both an art and a science? It’s easy to dismiss such a statement without really diving into the true meaning behind the words. With all the smoke and mirrors and disinformation on the market today, it’s easy to view sales as this mystical beast that can never be conquered.
While it’s true that no one can close 100% of the people 100% of the time; if you contemplate the science behind the sales process, you can most definitely tip the odds strongly in your favor.
A great place to start is the brain. (This is going to be fun) The sheer amount of data that must be processed each and every second of your day is staggering. Your mind is assaulted with visual input, audio input, touch, smell and so forth.
How big is this item in front of you - is it a danger? What color is it? What direction is it headed? Is that a baby crying in the distance? Wow I love that song I hear coming from that car as it drives by… It goes on and on.
In addition to the flood of sensory input entering your brain, the average consumer is also hit with thousands of sales messages every day. Thousands… Billboards, radio ads, Gas station signs, television commercials, spam, banner ads, pop-ups, the list is endless. If you had to consciously consider the relevance of each of those advertisements, how much time would you have left in your day?
Not much! So what happens, is your brain has created a rating system, or filter if you will, that helps place a level of importance on specific activities and input. For example, if you received an email right now that contained the subject line: “This is very important!” would you be concerned? If it was from an unknown person, and likely a piece of spam, you would delete it.
Now, if a family member called you up, or even sent you an email with the same line, how important would that email be? You would instantly recognize this email as urgent, and open it right away. Let’s stop here for a moment.
In the above scenario, did you even have to think about what course of action you would take? No, you didn’t ponder the situation, and think to yourself “Hmmmm… I wonder if this is important?” No, you simply took action.
This happens because your brain has assigned family as important, and will instantly give priority to anything of concern relating to family.
So why is this important to a loan officer or real estate agent? Because somewhere buried within each of your prospects is a list of buttons that are also labeled as “important.” Each one of his has specific topics that will cause us to sit up and take notice. Have you ever seen a formerly dull or quiet individual open up and blossom when speaking about something he/she is passionate about?
The key is to stop marketing or selling your services the same way your competitors are. Instead, take a look at a list of core values that your ideal client is likely to have, and build your script, marketing campaign, and follow up messages around these core values.
Chris Hallmark – http://www.loanofficermarketinglab.com/chrish
Your Two Options for Success…
Posted by: | CommentsIn a difficult market, the smart loan officer (And reale state agent) will take a step back to review his/her options. No matter how difficult things become, the fact remains that millions of loans close each and every year. You have two options available:
1 – Improve your conversion ratio and make more out of the database and leads you already have
2 – Find a reliable way to generate more leads
It’s that simple. You either make more money with what you have through improved sales skills and follow-up, or you find more sources of quality leads. Regardless of how simple this concept is, no one said it would be easy. There’s a reason it’s called work.
With this in mind, let’s take a quick snapshot of 3 skills that every loan officer should be working to improve to accomplish at least 1 of the goals listed above.
1 – Writing: The fine art of writing is one that is neglected by most in the sales field. I’ve always been stumped by this because there are many instances where a customer will move forward, or go elsewhere based on what he/she reads. You website, your emails, blogs, follow-up letters, advertisements and more all demand a well thought out message.
On the web, with thousands of other options only one mouse click away, the potential borrower will form an opinion in mere seconds based on what is read. A large majority of originators seem to rely on canned text from website service providers.
Sure, much of that text sounds glossy and professional right? In my own personal opinion, within this industry, “glossy and professional” might as well be “large and faceless.” Most people want to do business with a human, not a large and untouchable organization that conjures images of endless voicemail navigation just to reach someone.
Why not add a personal touch and let your personality shine through? Show your prospects that there is a person behind the ads, websites and emails. This doesn’t mean you have to become a professional writer. Rather, spend a few hours refining your writing skills. Even a minor improvement can equal a much higher conversion ratio. Sounds good to me!
2 – Sales: Yes, I do realize that I’m playing Mr. Obvious here. Sales skills are certainly needed in todays market. The sad truth is that the average sales professionals in the U.S. spends more time planning their vacations each year than they do on improving their one major professional asset!
As a top loan officer, I ask nearly every originator I meet how they rate themselves on a scale of 1 – 10 when it comes to sales ability. It’s rare to hear anything less than an 8 or a 9! So are we all just that good, or are we just afraid to admit that there is room for improvement?
No one ever said that we all need to be ‘super closers,’ but if you choose a career where your primary function is to sell, then how can you go wrong by giving this area some much needed attention? It’s time to stop assuming that people buy the logical choice, because it is simply not true.
Emotion, timing, calls to action all play a major role in who goes home happy with an extra loan in their pipeline, and who just goes home. If you improved your closing rate by 10%, what would that do for your paycheck?
3 – Follow-up: I consider this category a bit of a hybrid. It involes sales, writing, technology and more. I couldn’t leave it out of this list though, as there is a gaping hole in most lenders business plans that tends to treat follow-up as an after-thought.
Sure, it’s easy to knod your head and agree that follow-up is important, but let’s be honest with ourselves. Most loan officer’s follow-up ends as soon as they find out the prospect is no longer a prospect for an immediate closing.
Anywhere from 10 – 15% of your standard database will need the services of a loan officer each year. Refi, purchase, debt consolidation. There’s a lot of need out there, and unfortunately, most loan officer’s are not there at the right time simply because they failed to follow-up at regular intervals. A drip email campaign, occasional notices, a phone call placed at strategic time periods all would drastically improve the average loan officer’s closings per year.
Who wouldn’t want that? Give a little extra attention to these critical skill-sets, and you will find that great things can happen even in a “down market.”
Chris Hallmark – http://www.loanofficermarketinglab.com/chrish
A Word about Free Advertising and the Internet
Posted by: | CommentsBusiness owners and entrepreneurs know that success breeds success. When you surround yourself by successful people and do what they do, you increase your chances of being successful. You become almost successful by association yourself. And what do these business owners have in common? They all use the Internet! There is a saying that goes: “If you’re not online, you’re out of business”. This couldn’t be more true, especially today. I remember back in the early 1990′s ( I was like 8 years old haha) people were considered “special” if they had a website. Now, if you don’t have one, customers will look at you like you’re from the stone age.
The Internet has EASILY replace costly newspaper advertising. Newspaper ads these days can cost upwards of $200.00 for one 4 or 5-line ad! Ridiculous, being as how less and less people are using them. There are so many FREE mortgage marketing and real estate marketing resources online, who WOULDN”T want to use them?!?! You’ve got articles sites, blogs, forums, the list just goes on.
One reason the internet is such an effective marketing tool is your ad contains a hyperlink to your website. So, when people read your classified ad, they can immediately go to your website to learn more. Newspapers do not have this luxury. The customer cannot instantly click to get more information. They have to physically pick up the telephone and call, or boot up their computer to email you, NOT cool at all! Convenience goes a VERY long way when you are any type of business owner. People enjoy a pain-free experience.
There are many internet classified sites where you can post free classified ads. The idea is to use sites that show up on the first page of Google when people are searching for your product or service. The hottest classified sites today are Craigslist, BackPage, Kijiji (owned by eBay) and Hoobly You can find many more sites just by doing a Google search for “free classifieds.” You will literally get TONS and TONS of search results when you do this. You can even make your own mine websites on Wetpaint and Weebly. Forums are also totally FREE to join, and are great places for mortgage and real estate marketing. Or type in “mortgage lead generation” and see what comes up. TONS of free resources right before your eyes!
Post as many classified ads as the site allows. Change the headings to use different keywords and market areas that you service. Experiment with your working in different ads, and trach which ones pull the best. An easy way to do this is with Google Analytics. You need to track your marketing efforts in order to make any progress, other wise you’re just spinning in circles.
Newspapers and other “traditional” or conventional forms of advertising have all but totally lost their luster. They are just not “sexy” ways to advertise anymore. Albeit, every form of advertising does have its place, but the Internet has pretty much taken over as the preferred method of advertising. The customer wants a better shopping experience. In fact, they downright DEMAND it! Out with the old, and in with the new!
Chris Hallmark – http://www.loanofficermarketinglab.com/chrish
More Mortgage Marketing Website Necessities
Posted by: | CommentsCredit goes to Chad Weber for the following ideas. These were some of the first ideas I implemented on my own website, to make it a lead generating powerhouse!
Hey all, Just a few tips you might want to consider applying to your online marketing efforts. If you’ve followed my posts and newsletter in the past, then you probably already know that tens of thousands, and in many cases, hundreds of thousands of searches are performed every single month in large metropolitan areas for mortgage loans, loan officers, and homes for sale. If you’re serious about generating more business online, here’s what you need to consider:
1 – Contact Info – Do they have to hunt you down? In the past year, I’ve personally reviewed over 800 loan officer websites. An interesting situation I ran into while reviewing these sites is most loan officers darn near hide their contact information! Don’t make your prospects work to find you! It’s not an easter egg hunt. Your main phone number should be placed on the home page above the site belt-line. (No scrolling down to find the site) This simple change can have a significant impact on the number of inbound calls you receive.
2 – Lead Capture – My website has 7 lead forms on it. Every major page on my site has a form, and a spelled out reason to fill it in. How about you? I often here: “Well I have a contact us page, that’s good enough.” No it is not. Don’t just take my word for it, go visit the DMA, Marketing Sherpa, Click Z and any of the other major marketing data resources to see that what I’m telling you is true. Just as in selling someone on doing a loan with you may take several phone calls and repeated asking for the business, the same applies to capturing leads from your site. The visitor must see multiple benefits, sometimes repeatedly before they’ll take action and give up their personal information. WHy make it more difficult by hiding your contact forms?
3 – Traffic – Do you know how many people have visitied your site this month? Do you know where these people came from? If the answer is no, then you’re not taking your online marketing serious enough. You need to be on the front page of Google, optimized for local keywords. The only way you’ll get a steady flow of qualified leads is if you get enough visitors to your site. More and more people are using the search engines to find local businesses, can they find yours? If you’re not on page #1 when they search for your ideal keywords (loan officers, mortgage broker, homes for sale etc. – Local region of course) then you’re missing out on a lot of business. No one wants that! (Other than your competition) So are you ready to get serious about your online marketing efforts? These three points of consideration are a great way to get started!
