Welcome to 2010

Hello there! Chad Weber here to welcome you to 2010! All I can say is “WOW!” I distinctly remember sitting at this very same desk early in the morning as I typed out this post here: http://loanofficermarketinglab.com/blog/how-to-get-mortgage-leads-in-2009

It was still a few days before 2009, but I was scrambling looking for a great image to place on that post with “2009″ on it. I finally found the image using the photo Stock Xchange. Free images, and a great resource for anyone who blogs. Anyhow, I really am finding it difficult to wrap my head around the fact that 2009 is done and gone.

The holidays are over and it’s time for me to get to work on making 2010 better than 2009. Throughout 2009 I heard a lot of loan officers ask me if I”timed” my entry into the training industry because I knew things were going to get rough in the mortgage industry. That’s a thoughtful question, but there is one major point that is being missed: I’m still in the mortgage industry. That’s right,my entry into the training industry full time had absolutely nothing to do with me gazing into a crystal ball, and everything to do with me identifying my strengths and my passion.

See, if I were looking at the crystal ball with anything other than shades on, I’d have seen that logically speaking, jumping from originating to training originators would not be the wisest of career choices if I were trying to avoid being impacted by the changes in the market – seeing as how my primary clients – Loan Officers shrank dramatically in 2007 and 2008. Just to give you an example of how this impacted my business, I’m going to show you what my archives say I had in my database of loan officer leads at the beginning of 2008:

January 13 2008 – 13,641 loan officers (These are loan officers who had requested information from me, or to be on my newsletter)

December 4 2008 – Out of those 13,641 loan officers, I received 4,907 emails throughout the year telling me to stop sending the newsletter as they were leaving the industry. That’s more than 1/3 of my database just zapped and gone in less than a year do to loan officers leaving. That was not a fun turn of events for me at all. Especially if I viewed this as an ongoing trend. National statistics also showed that mortgage professionals exited the idustry that year at an incredible rate!

My point? That this turn of events allowed us to go back to the drawing board and refocus our marketing efforts. The result is that the Loan Officer Marketing Lab has continued to grow and each year has been better than the last. This isn’t some ego-maniacal horn trumpet blowing here. This is simply a real live example of using your know-how, brushing up on what gives you an edge, and doing a whole lot of ignoring of the media!

In 2009 my most successful marketing effort was the Loan Officer Project. Prior to launching this, I was advised by no less than 5 other trainers to avoid doing this, as “it would never work!” I was told that I was giving away too much, and people would take advantage of that. You’re darn right they took advantage of it! That was the whole point! I rebuilt my email database of loan officers to the largest it’s ever been, and I did not spend a single thin dime on advertising to do it. Worst market ever in recent history? Maybe, maybe not… Sure wouldn’t know it by looking at my email list!

So to all of you reading this, please take a look at yourself and the business you want. Let’s make this year count. Let’s get busy, and let’s get profitable. You can make it happen. There is absolutely no one who can stop you but yourself. I know the market changes, I know certain rules and regulations seem to make things harder than they need to be, and I know that interest rates will likely go up this year based on what we’ve heard so far.

But you know what? There will still be millions of loans closed this year as well. What marketing plan do you have in place to capture your piece of that pie? Let’s make it the best 2010 possible – Before it’s gone like 2009…

PS – Did you miss the free Loan Officer Project Marketing series? We resume this month – January 2010! Register HERE