Mortgage Loan Officers Business Development Planning

While it’s important to recruit new talent, it is just as important to focus on re-recruiting your existing employees.

Employee Retention Strategy - Re-recruiting your team

Top Talent is in high demand! Whether your organization is experiencing new growth or even seeing a decrease in headcount, your most critical asset is still your existing team. The New Year is right around the corner, implementing a Re-recruitment strategy to retain talent is paramount. This is an excellent opportunity to evaluate your team's previous year, provide direction and create a Business Plan to jump-start their year ahead.

Historically, the fourth quarter is a time when Loan Officers, at all levels, start to look around at their career options. Their loan volume is usually down, and it is reflected in their pipelines'. These once "Happy where I am" prospects are now active candidates, looking at opportunities that can take their production to a new level in the year ahead.

Growing your organization and recruiting becomes easier, when you are not losing talent to your competition.

As a sales leader, you must walk the proverbial walk and have your own business development plan in place. But don’t stop there!

To ensure you hit your numbers, you must ensure your team members are hitting their numbers. To do this effectively, you should assist everyone on the team to create their own New Business Development Plan for the year ahead.

There is still time in the fourth quarter to keep your Loan Officers engaged, get their business on track and formulate a Business Development Plan for 2016.

With the slow down in refinance application in 2015, many Loan Officers fell short of their Sales Goals and maybe searching for a new home (employer) to ensure they meet their goals for next year.

In general, Loan Officers spend their time meeting clients, solving problems and putting deals together. These activities are necessary characteristics to be successful, but the thought of sitting behind a desk and planning their business is the last thing on their mind.

Far too often, Loan Officers go about their business directed with the "Ready, Shoot... then Aim" credo. This approach is very ineffective. Loan Officers must be focused and thoughtful about every activity that drives business. Activity without foresight and planning is a waste of valuable time and energy.

New Business Planning

One of the major reasons' Loan Officers struggle at hitting their targets is that they lack organization and the discipline to stick to a system for business development.

Rather than a hit-or-miss strategy, what is really required is the self-discipline to create a Business Development Plan for the year ahead and to stay focused on the key activities that drives new business.

These self-induced disciplines may be hard for Loan Officers to develop on their own. But, if they are committed to achieving their targets, all they really need to concentrate on, is a thoughtful and disciplined strategy to develop new business activity in their marketplace. This will require a little assistance from “You” their “Sales Managerer".

The same concept from your own "Recruiting Plan" applies to new Business Development Plan for your team. Looking at the year ahead is an opportunity to evaluate your team’s previous year and devise a successful Business Development Plan that meets their targets.

"Where many Sales Leaders and Loan Officers fall short is in planning and then executing the plan."

Most successful sales professional work off of a calendar and have time blocked for activities such as Realtor calls, new client meetings, loan closing, professional development training, etc. The problem for under-performers and average producers is that most of their schedules are usually empty. The intention is that at some point in the day or week they will prospect for new referral partners, send out mailers or call a past prospective borrower to fill in the empty space in their calendar. However, somehow the hours and days for prospecting never happened. The reason is simply, lack of planning.

The chances of salespeople penetrating new markets without a plan go back to the “Ready, Shoot, Aim” credo and are bound to result in frustration and ultimately failure in meeting their goals and looking around at your competition.

"Sales-Forecasting is evaluate their existing business development activities and isolating where their holes are."

Before creating a plan for each member of your team, factor in any new products or economic trends. First look at the Loan Officer’s sales performance from the past year.

Do they have customers who may consider refinancing or move-up buyers in their existing database? They must also factor in the percentage of past customers that may move out of the area.

In the case of referral partners who account for a significant number of sales, you may want to ask the Loan Officers what new territories they are planning on targeting for new purchase production (referral partners) and what are their strategies to attract (recruit) new partners.

Here are the benefits to Creating a Sales-Forecasting or Business Development Plan for each Loan Officer on you team:

• You realize what truly motivates each team member, both personally and professionally.
• A plan defines an agreement between you and the Loan Officer. It provides the foundation for communication throughout the year and prevents any miscommunication or ambiguity.
• Both parties take an ownership stake in achieving the goals within the plan.
• The plan can be used as a compass to help guide and keep them on the right track throughout the year.
• A plan defines performance goals and is easy to manage on a month-to-month basis.
• By accurately forecasting the sales for each Loan Officer and creating their Business Development Plan ensures they drive new business.

A Business Development Plan also ensures you avoid any unforeseen revenue issue throughout the year, assist in managing your loan production, seasonal staffing needs and help you to be more effective in running your business.

Sales-forecasting is an essential strategy for managing both your business and the team. This month-to-month plan forecasts the level of sales you can expect to achieve as a leader, it also tells you how many Loan Officers it will take for you to meet your own Sales Targets. This information will help you identify any potential problems, opportunities and performance on a per salesperson basis.

As the saying goes, "it's always wise to expect the unexpected". A  Loan Officer with a well-constructed Business Development Plan that accurately forecast their sales targets, allows you to spend more time developing your own business rather than reacting to the day-to-day developments in sales production.

New Business Development Strategy

Sales-forecasting for your team enables you to manage their business more effectively. Before you begin, here are a few questions that may help clarify your Loan Officer's Business Plan:

• How many new customers do you gain each year from (Referral Partners, Self-promotion, Lead purchase, Past customer referral's, Personal referrals...)
• How many customers do you lose each year to the servicing company, moving out of the area or to a competitor?
• What is the average number of sales they made to each customer?
• Are there particular months where they acquire or lose more customers than usual?
• What methods work best and what is not working?
• What is the cost (time and dollars) per lead?
• What is their closing percentage (leads-to-loans closed)?
• How much time do they spend in cultivating new referral partners?
• What is their closing percentage with referral partners?

These are just a few examples, once you sit with each Loan Officer one on one. You will find they usually have no idea of their metrics and will appreciate their Sales Leader’s assistance in creating a fresh Business Development Plan.

New Business Development Opportunities

There is no doubt that technology and social media has impacted the ways that many buyers engage mortgage lenders.

These new resources have caused many Loan Officers to rethink how they develop new business and how they maintain their client relationships.

While they may plan to develop new business, they may also benefit from "tweaking" their approach to certain activities to ensure they survive any economic twists or turns.

Identify New Target Market

Many think about their world of potential clients too broadly, narrow the market to increase your Loan Officer's effectiveness in their business development efforts. The goal is to identify the referral partners or a specific audience of borrowers and strategies to getting to borrower before they get to a Realtor.

Developing new business relationships are usually based on assumptions of market conditions, research and good judgment. Every year will be different, so you must anticipate changes in market circumstances and trends that could significantly affect your team's sales. These factors are assumptions and will form the basis of their forecasting.

Wherever possible, put a figure against the change (as shown in the examples below). The Loan Officer can then get a feel for the impact of how each activity will have on their business.

Here are some examples of assumptions:

Marketplace

• Market share will grow by 2%
• Loan volume will shrink by 40%, due to decrease in refinance applications or a loss in referral partners

New Targets and Resources

• Double your referral partners from six Realtors to twelve Realtors
• Spend ten hours per week marketing to past customers
• Target new clients (first-time home buyers and/or rehab buyers)
• Expand into new geographical radius markets (neighboring counties) from 20 miles to 50 miles
• New products to launch of new product lines (203K or Non-QM) to market to existing client/referral base

Networking for new business

Many people are turned off by a misconception about what networking is not: self promotion. Networking is not about handing out business cards and reciting as much as you can about your practice in the first 30 seconds of meeting someone. Rather, it is about getting to know the other person"s challenges or needs and helping them find solutions.

We have all received a phone call or an e-mail from someone we have not talked to in years who is looking for something from us: business, a referral, introductions or favors. It is the kind of contact you do not want to ignore, yet it is often put at the bottom of the list of urgent items. Earning the top position on someone"s list is easier than you may think – it is a matter of reaping what you have sown.

Networking is about investing in people you know, creating the ability to collect with each other – if and when needed. This means doing such things as connecting people in your network to others who may benefit from knowing them. Look at your network and identify complementary relationships that can benefit from a new relationship. You will begin to connect relationships that are potentially new relationships that require your services. Introductions are a perfect excuse to stay in front of your most important clients and business relationships.

One-On-One Coaching

Goal-Setting Meetings - Make Things Happen Sessions

Even though you and your team create a plan, do not just sit back, expecting they will execute and follow the plan. A good Sales Leader checks in periodically with each team member, in goal-setting meetings. It is best to do on a monthly basis (once they start to meet their goals/targets, then quarterly); in a one-on-one meeting, it’s also a chance to review performance from the previous month targets being met.

Create a plan for the upcoming month and gain a commitment in the game plan. What is important in the meeting is that you keep the Loan Officer accountable for their goals.

Here are just a few examples of the One-On-One sessions:

• Keep the lines of communication open between you and sales people by providing an opportunity for both parties to voice any concerns in a private setting
• Evaluate the previously agreed-upon priorities and make certain the daily/weekly activities are in line with business development objectives
• Provide dedicated time for training on new activities
• Identify the salesperson’s strengths and weaknesses. And commit to assisting in their weak areas
• Allow enough time to motivate and inspire each salesperson individually

Be sure not to set the goals too high or low. The objective is to set attainable “Reach Goals” that motivates the Loan Officer to push a little harder. Goals that are set too low will not allow the Loan Officer the opportunity to reach their full potential, and many Loan Officers will then set their business on “Auto-Pilot”.

Be cautious of this, any negative changes in the market, that can have a drastic effect on their business and attitude.

The best solution is, to mutually agree upon a set of objectives in writing and with a signature from both parties. Goals should be based on past performance that can be measured.

Conclusion

The next twelve months of new business starts now, not at the beginning of a new year!

The most difficult aspect of planning is not just the creation of a plan, but developing disciplines that have a measurable impact on business.

Of course, the only way to make a Business Development Plan worth the effort is through execution. Yet, many of us put marketing at the bottom of the to-do-list. Successful sales professionals realize that a Business Plan is a systematic process, not an event.

Often times, business plans are created at the beginning of the year and not revisited until it is time to create a new plan for the next year. The plan must be a “visible tool” and used to execute and track new activities on a monthly basis.

Make sure that you document all of your activities in your planner and measure the successes (and failures) against the goals of the plan. If you attempt to plan by merely scribbling down a few notes on a piece of paper or in general conversation with your team members, without a call to action, it will be impossible for you to follow-up effectively and hold the Loan Officer or accountable to the plan.

Remember these two phrases: “if it’s not in writing, it doesn’t exist.” And “you cannot manage what you cannot measure."

The information in this article is part of the Loan Officer Recruiting Blueprint e-Learning series. Join the Mortgage Recruiters Forum to learn more about Winning the Elusive Candidate and watch the entire series of recent webinars covering topics from; list building to recruiting, closing and on-boarding talent.