The 7 Lies Of Mortgage Marketing

(Stop wasting time on this lie - You'll do better without it)

Lie #3 - Tell The Real Estate Agent about your company, time as a loan officer, etc. to build rapport

This number is completely “off the top of my head” but consider it an educated guess. I’ve probably listened to more than 2,000 sales pitches to real estate agents at this point. As an owner, as a manager, as a coach, and as a trainer, I’ve listened to more loan officers nervously stumble through their introductions or presentations to real estate agents than I can count.

These are brave loan officers – They’re doing something that 80% of their co-workers or competition would never do. They deserve a pat on the back for sure! But let’s see if we can pinpoint where things start going wrong.

About 12 seconds into the presentation is when things take a turn for the worst, because this is about the time when most loan officers start talking about their company. Now please don’t misread me. There’s nothing wrong with talking about your company. But to think that the origin of the company you work for is important to these agents would be a mistake.

Sure, there may be the occasional agent who finds this important, but an overwhelming majority of agents could care less how the company got started, how many lenders they’re signed up with etc. etc. etc…

In a tough market such as this, agents are listening to WIIFM (What’s In It For Me) louder than ever before.  They're looking at you as the product, as it is you they would be working with. This means that it is you who must demonstrate value, credibility, and trust-worthiness - Not the company you work for.  I’ve yet to have an agent call me on the phone and claim he wanted me to be his next loan officer because of who I work for.

You are the product and you are the reason an agent will, or will not move forward into a referral relationship. Once you lose sight of this and begin pitching things the agent doesn’t care about is when that spark of interest begins to fade. Think of it this way.

What if you were on a mission to find the best pizza in your home town. You’ve spent months visiting all the different restaurants, and you happen to be very hungry at the moment. You arrive with your mouth watering waiting to sink your teeth into this pizza that you’re hoping is going to be “the one.”

Your waiter arrives, and you ask him for his recommendation on the best tasting pizza on the menu. His answer? He ignores your question and instead decides to tell you the origin of the company. He rambles on, and on, and on. Are you happy with your waiter at this moment? Do you really care how this company got its start when all you want is a delicious pizza? Transpose that level of annoyance to the agents who sit back and listen to mini-dissertations on the companies they work for.

Focus on the hot buttons instead and you will see a huge improvement in how these agents perceive you. You need to know what it is they care about, and in today’s link I’ll show you how to do just that…