If You’re a Loan Officer Who’s Busy, You’re Doing It Wrong

If You’re a Loan Officer Who’s Busy, You’re Doing It Wrong

So many loan officers are so busy right now that they feel like they’re drinking out of a fire hose. But where did we get the idea that busy equals good? If you find yourself with too much on your plate, it might actually be costing you deals in your mortgage business. If you can’t keep up with your workload, that’s a major problem. Busyness is often the poison to growth.

I’d like to introduce you to a loan officer who is wildly successful without being remotely busy.

A Sure Way to Lose Mortgage Loans

My friend, Jen Conley, is a leader in our Freedom Club, and I’m one of her biggest fans. Jen lives in a small town in Ohio. Her county averages 150-200 real estate transactions a month. Last month she closed 22 loans. That’s over 10% of the market share in her entire county. I don’t know that there’s another loan officer out there with those percentages.

Jen says a lot of loan officers are frazzled right now. They have all these leads and don’t know how to handle them. But Jen’s not frazzled. Why not? Because she has a team, and her team has a system. They work the system every day, and they don’t deviate from it. She focuses on the money-making activities, and her team handles the rest.

If you don’t build a team around you:

• You can’t follow up.
• You can’t get things done on time.
• You’re going to lose leads.
• You’re going to lose money.

The cost of lost opportunities is the number one expense for any business. Hiring a team is the only way to grow your business sustainably.

The Role of Each Team Member

Each member of Jen’s team has a specific job, but there is one thing every team member is required to do. They ask for new referral partners from every single person they work with. When they’re on the phone with a borrower, they say something like: “Hey, is there someone you know who’s thinking about refinancing or looking for a home? We’d love to help them, because we want to work with more people like you.”

“If you have a good system in place,” Jen says, “and people have a good experience with you, then your reputation will get you more clients.” Because Jen has built a great team and a great system, each team member has the time and bandwidth to ask for referrals from every borrower, realtor, whoever. They get more referral partners every day.

If you’re too busy, you won’t even have time for that proactive activity of asking for business.

When Hiring Doesn’t Sound Like Fun

Help doesn’t cost you; the lack of help costs you. So, what is it that holds so many loan officers back from getting that help?

Jen says it’s twofold. First, of course, is the money side. Everybody wants better margins, to make more money on every deal. And they think hiring hinders that. (Hint: it doesn’t.)

The other part is that the whole hiring process can be tedious and overwhelming. Jen told me that, years ago, they had interviewees pretending to be someone they weren’t. So now they tell people upfront: this is who we are. Now tell us who you are. And be who you really are in this interview.

Jen’s team is family. They have a blast in the office and poke fun at each other. It’s important that potential team members know that from the beginning. If they don’t like that kind of environment, it won’t be a good fit.

Jen sits in on interviews, but she doesn’t hire or fire people. That’s Jill’s job. When people get fired, they blame Jill, and Jill is 100% okay with that. She’s good at what she does, and it’s all part of her job responsibility. Jen is “self-aware of what I’m good at and what I’m not. I get too attached, let too many things go, and give too many chances. I don’t want to hurt anybody, so I try to help everyone and fix everything, and I can’t. So Jill takes care of it for me.”

What Happened When Jen Got Loan Officer Coaching

Jen started her company with one other person, and together they did 5-6 loans a month. Then she decided to try loan officer coaching to generate more business. Her coach (yours truly) told her she wouldn’t grow without hiring a team. Multitasking doesn’t work. You’ll either lose clients, money, the experience, or all of the above. You can’t grow when you’re busy.

“You were right,” Jen tells me. “Give up control, let it go, and hire people who are really great at things. It opens you to concentrate on your own zone of genius. There are two or three things I’m really good at, and luckily for me, those are the things that make the phone ring. So, find the things you’re good at that make the phone ring. And that’s all you do.”

If you’re too busy to handle all the loans coming in, think of all the families you’re not helping. If you’re not calling your past database, you’re not helping all those people. They trusted you to close their loan and then to watch after them. How selfish not to help them, just because you’re busy. Act like a business, get the appropriate amount of help, and unbusy yourself. Make the greater good your focus. That’s what Jen did (and does).

It’s All About the Experience

“We’re huge on experience in our office,” Jen says. “That’s what we focus on. People are slacking on the experience aspect right now because they’re so overwhelmed. Everyone thinks that’s par for the course. It’s not for us. I don’t care what my competitors are doing right now. I stay in my lane. I stay focused on what matters to me—giving people a good experience with my company.”

When clients walk into Jen’s office for the first time, it feels like a house. They have all the closings in their office. “It’s a purposeful homey feeling,” she says. “And people don’t forget that. There’s no possible way to provide that level of experience as a one-man show.”

When you and your team create a smooth process and great experience for a borrower, they trust you. They’ll come back. And they’ll send you every single person they know. Jen does the same thing with other businesses. “I always go back to where I was treated best,” she says. And she spreads the word. You can’t put a price tag on that.

Jen has written the book on how to be a successful loan officer. She’s closing tons of loans, making tons of money, and yet she’s so calm and happy. That’s better for her, her employees, and her family. She doesn’t have busyness and stress at work, so she’s not taking it home to her loved ones. Win win win.

If you want to be more like Jen (and who wouldn’t?), I’d love to help you. We can set up a strategy call and map out what you need to do to stop being so busy. We’ll talk about how to close more loans, grow your business, and make more money for your family. Whether you’re closing 5 loans a month or 150, we’ve got solutions for you. Click here to schedule a FREE call TODAY.

To check out the related article How to Be a Successful Loan Officer in Just Four Days a Week click here: https://mortgagemarketinganimals.com/how-to-be-a-successful-loan-officer-in-just-four-days-a-week/#more-88946