Loan Officer Consultant

<!–[if !supportLists]–>1.      <!–[endif]–>Think like a winner. The first and foremost thing you can do is to get and stay motivated in 2011. The economy, the war, the bad news on TV…all these things get you down, but it’s more important to think about the things that keep you afloat. Focus on your past successes and future goals. Take a deep breath and go to work with the attitude that you are going to make things happen. Confidence is your main weapon in the battle against desperation, so don’t let yourself get down.<!–[if !supportLists]–>2.      <!–[endif]–>Focus on products that sell. There are a hundred or so niche markets out there right now that are absolutely flowing with cash for some people and dry as a bone for others. Sell what you sell best and don’t waste time on things you can’t move out the door. Expand your market for these products and watch your business grow.<!–[if !supportLists]–>3.      <!–[endif]–>Subsidize your cash flow with government spending. Obama has allocated a trillions dollars in funds to help bail our nation out. If you target the recipients of this money,  you have a great chance at getting your hands on a chunk of that change without filling out all the paperwork.<!–[if !supportLists]–>4.      <!–[endif]–>Keep track of your results. Measure response rates, evaluate your campaigns effectiveness and adjust accordingly. If you are careful about how much you spend and how you approach your marketing, you can save and make money in ways you never imagined. Eliminate non-performing campaigns and redouble your performing ones.<!–[if !supportLists]–>5.      <!–[endif]–>Connect with your customers. Employ a CRM or Customer Relationship Management package. This will keep track of your customers personal information, order history and other valuable details. Having this information on hand can help you build rapport and strengthen your relationship by showing that you know your customer. Face to face meetings show your interest, but a good phone call once in a while won’t hurt either. Keep a personal note or two about your client as well. If you are on the phone, and they say they are having a baby, jot it down in the notes section of your CRM. It might land you a sale later if you ask how the baby is doing.<!–[if !supportLists]–>6.      <!–[endif]–>Expand your market with new leads. There are a ton of great leads out there that haven’t been sold yet and they are waiting for YOU! Remember to use your leads wisely, also. If you buy a telemarketing list with address information, hit the same leads with a mailer. It will cost you a little more in the long run, but you’ll get an extra half to one percent return, which is well worth the added expense.

If you are looking for solutions to the challenges described above, be sure to visit our homepage http://www.bestratereferrals.com. We offer many direct marketing products and services including leads, lists, mailers, telemarketing training, live transfers and more. FQ2BS5VX9AKB

Off the topic of Direct Marketing I have been thinking of alternate ways for LOs to make money while you grind this thing out. You don’t even have to change much about what you do EXCEPT WORK A LITTLE HARDER for your potential borrowers and TURN DOWNS!!!

Think about this for a second……We are all taking more applications now than we have in the last couple years but for most it’s the qualifying the prospects that is the issue. I talk to so many Loan Officers and Brokers a like that just throw that stuff away…….WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT? Your trash is another man’s treasure and actually its a treasure to you but most just don’t know it yet.

Here is what I would be doing if I was a full time LO….

Do which ever marketing I like best and then really really WORK THE LEADS! Work the potential Refi to the bone until there is absolutely no deal there. On all the turn down leads we have all got to start helping these people. There are other ways that may require any Loan Officer to get out and network to help the homeowners in other financial ways….

I would try building relationships with other professionals in other lines of finacial services….

First- credit repair companies–I know most of them pay you a commission for the repair job and then they send you the borrower back for the loan after things are fixed. You not only go the extra mile for your client but you also make a little money on the side form the CR company.  This helps you help a client that needs it and that gives you the chance to put them in your client base for later as well as earn referrals through them.

Another example would be to learn loan modification. 9 out of 10 applications taken DO NOT qualify for a loan, so in my mind you should try and modify their loan with their current lender and make a small commission for HELPING your client. Again this was a turn down before and it could be turned into revenue and maybe even a future deal and more than likely a referral or two for another modification. (you would not believe how much home owners talk about not being able to refinance with each other) If you go the extra mile on either of these two ways or even debt settlement or something like that you will be helping home owners the same way, FINANCIALLY, and still be making money as well as building your client base for future.  Some of these companies are set up differently so finding the right one for you can be difficult.  I have done extensive research on this and if you would like information you can email me off the board for the names of the companies I would suggest using.

Sorry to go off on a rant but i see so many people complain about turn downs and lenders not lending to hardly anyone, but really they should be trying to figure out how to try and help these clients out. There is a lot of money to be made rehabbing or modifying loans as well as credit repair and settlement. START DIVERSIFYING IF YOU WANT TO LIVE AS WELL AS YOU MIGHT HAVE IN YEARS PAST IN THE INDUSTRY!  Especially considering some of the people you all run into can’t even modify because they are too far upside down.  Another GREAT way to build Realtor referrals for short sales.  You simply can’t loose if you build yourself a network of industry professionals to send your turn down and bail out deals to.  Net working has never been easier with over 95% of all home owners in need of some sort of financial service.  You area already taking the time to talk to them to find out about the refi…if you turn over just half your turn downs you not only cover part of your over head but you also build your clients for later.  We know lenders will lend again at some point.  he who has the biggest over all client base will be the one who makes the most money when this happens.

I’m in hopes this message gets at least one person motivated again, all the negativity does get overwhelming after a while and there truly is a ton of money to still me made in financial services. Lets get on it!

Off the topic of Direct Marketing I have been thinking of alternate ways for LOs to make money while you grind this thing out. You don’t even have to change much about what you do EXCEPT WORK A LITTLE HARDER for your potential borrowers and TURN DOWNS!!!

Think about this for a second……We are all taking more applications now than we have in the last couple years but for most it’s the qualifying the prospects that is the issue. I talk to so many Loan Officers and Brokers alike that just throw that stuff away…….WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?

Here is what I would be doing if I was a full time LO….

Do which ever marketing I like best and then really really WORK THE LEADS! Work the potential Refi to the bone until there is absolutely no deal there. On all the turn down leads we have all got to start helping these people. There are other ways that may require any Loan Officer to get out and network to help the homeowners in other financial ways….

I would try building a relationship with a credit repair company….I know most of them pay you a commission for the repair job and then they send you the borrower back for the loan after things are fixed. You not only go the extra mile for your client but you also make a little money on the side form the CR company.

Another example would be to learn loan modification. 4 out of 5 applications taken DO NOT qualify for a loan, so in my mind you should try and modify their loan with their current lender and make a small 1000-1500 commission for HELPING your client. Again this was a turn down before and it could be turned into revenue and maybe even a future deal and more than likely a referral or two for another modification. (you would not believe how much home owners talk about not being able to refinance with each other) If you go the extra mile on either of these two ways or even debt settlement or something like that you will be helping home owners the same way, FINANCIALLY, and still be making money as well as building your client base for future.

Sorry to go off on a rant but i see so many people complain about turn downs but really they should be trying to figure out how to try and help them out. There is a lot of money to be made rehabbing or modifying loans as well as credit repair and settlement. START DIVERSIFYING IF YOU WANT TO LIVE AS WELL AS YOU MIGHT HAVE IN YEARS PAST IN THE INDUSTRY!

I’m in hopes this message gets at least one person motivated again, all the negativity does get overwhelming after a while and there truely is a ton of money to still me made in financial services. Lets get on it!

Once you get your target audience down you have to figure out just exactly what you are going to send them. There are all types of mail pieces from post cards, to personalized handwritten letters, to black and white printed letters for mass mailers, to full color letters that show a high professionalism IMO, to even snap pack letters that print on inside of the envelope with tear off edged. Thats just the content options themselves, then you have packaging. IF you are targeting a very small audience and you are hand writing the letter you are probably going to simply handwrite the envelope and send it. Time your area by sending yourself a piece and make sure it hits on either a Tuesday Wed or Thursday (best from my experiences)

If you don’t want to do it yourself because it takes too much time find yourself a trustworthy mail house. As you search the internet you see many print houses or mail houses advertise all kinds of different color envelopes with sizes and tricky printing, etc…. The thing to most think about when looking for your piece is…

1) what’s my budget? (try to find yourself the best way to reach the MOST targeted audience for your budget)

2) How saturated is your state or the audience you are mailing? (this will make a huge difference in how you hit them) If you are mailing to a small town state like WI or AL you may want to use a nice color piece letter with a picture. Color envelope is helpful but really a standard #10 black and white will do since these folks are hit as ofter and they will open almost every mail piece. This will give them that sense of comfort they are used to.

You can do the same thing in bigger cities but since they get hit harder I like to use unique packaging and cheaper print (black and white) so that you can reach a few more people with you budget. If they open it they will read it usually. The bigger cities are hit more often nationally by many industries so keep that in mind when picking out your envelope. It has to either look very official or be a difference size or color than most mail, (my favorite is official looking ones as in these times people want security in any financial move they do.

3) If you choose to do post cards there are two things to think about….
Pros and Cons

Pros.
-They see your face and read your message right away
-they are much cheaper than direct printed mail
-great for converting renters to buyers
-since they are cheaper you can hit almost 40-50% more people in one drop or you can drop multiple times to the same list to get name recognition

Cons.
-they look cheaper to some consumers that frown on them
-They are not as personal
-they get much lower response on refi drops (they do good on purchase campaigns though)
-its hard to get a good point across to them with such a small amount of room to print on

IN CONCLUSION: If you are going to mail you get your list and then find an affordable way of mailing to them. Think about the homeowner and what they would open first of all and then make the content something readable. It can’t be boring, make it pop. If you have never mailed before try to find an honest mail house that can print and mail for you. They normally get the best rates in the biz and the good ones don’t mark up the postage on you which saves you money as well. Not many of them include the data source with your mailing but you can can find one that does then you may want to go with them. If the mail piece drops and fails you only have one company to call and blame not a mail house and then a data vendor. Just do good research on finding one and you should be good.

There is a lot to think about when looking into doing a direct mail campaign.

The first thing I would do is to think of a target audience or a niche that you want to be doing such as FHA, reverse, ARMs, purchase, bailout, etc….

The next thing you need to do is figure out how to get the best list of home owners that fit that target audience criteria.

For example if you are targeting for loan products that require high ficos you want a list of home owners that have decent credit and the only way to get that is to get credit data either from a list broker or directly form the credit bureau.

Another example would be if you were looking for ARM recast data to do a mail piece to the ARMs coming due. Most list brokers now have access to this. You can also target the purchase market by pulling a list of renters within a certain area in which they make a good income and or they have good credit.

The demographics of these lists can be targeted by a number of measures….city, county, state, zip codes, radius of a location, etc.

The main thing to worry about when looking to drop a mail piece is your list. This is the most important component of any mail drop. There are a few other factors such as the print, the envelope, the day of the drop, etc. and I will touch on all those as well as the Direct Mail portion continues.

If you have any questions about direct mail please shoot me an email.

Thanks!

The first thing we must all do when looking to tele-market for more business is compliance. You must stay compliant with the national and state DNC (do not call) laws. To do this you must get a SAN (subscription account number) from the do not call registry. This SAN registers you so you can call into certain area codes. They give you 5 area codes for free for one year. If you want to call into more area codes then you can buy them. The registry sells them per area code and last time I checked they ran $65 each. Stick to the 5 free that you can start with and when you make money. Then buy some other area codes if you need to venture outside your call zone.

List- Now once you have your San number you want to start looking for a list. The main thing to think about is no matter what list vendor or Title Company you use, no matter what database they pull from, always make sure you ask them if they are scrubbing for DNC. You would be suprised what some people are doing out there. Oh wait this is a mortgage forum what am I saying, nothing can suprise you guys. Just make sure your lists are scrubbed for DNC by your SAN #. There are many types of databases that you can pull from which is another post for another day soon….

Phone line- you want to make sure that your caller ID states the name of your company and has a call back number that is reachable with an opt out message. There are some fine lines that people cross all the time but I would not suggest doing it. It’s easy to set up with what ever provider you use. They will all let you put what ever you want to show on their caller id, etc. No matter if you go VOIP or not that is a discussion for another day.

Scripts-think of a niche you want to call on and develop yourself a good script. You can find them all over the place on line. In a lot of places for free. Find some of those and get some ideas for your own. Think about if what market you want to target, sub-prime, arms, reverse, etc… Then write your script to target that market. This also becomes important when compiling your list. The main thing I always tell everyone is to keep the initial part of the script short and grab their attention. There are many ways to do this. Ill help with this later on in this thread as well.

Dialers-when starting out don’t worry about dialing systems. Get a real analog phone line or a VOIP one if you have to. Then start pounding away using your pre written script. Once you have your pitch down and you feel comfortable then we can start worrying about dialers. For those of you that are experienced in this and are ready for or have used dialers, I will talk about that soon so stay tuned. There are so many systems out there that you want to have all the knowledge about each type. I’ll share this with you in the next post or two.

Review, get set up for SAN, make sure phone line is right, get a list provider, and hang on for the ride. For those of you who are already dialing definatly stay tuned, I can teach you guys a few really great tricks as well to increase your production. Trust me I have 24 Tele marketers myself.   I’ll be teaching you all that I have learned over the years in the next few posts.

Hi Everyone,

Glad you found my site. This blog was created to help you increase your business through proven direct marketing methods.  I plan to share with you the concepts and proven marekting methods that my most successful clients are still using in this struggling industry!  I welcome any questions along the way.  Thank you again for visiting loconsultant.com