THE 2020 PERFECT LOAN PROCESS PLAYBOOK FOR LOCAL LENDERS
The competition LOCAL referral-based lenders and loan officers are up against today is fierce, and it is only going to get more so. But even though companies like Quicken Loans and other tech lenders may be bigger, and have more resources than you, there is no reason LOCAL referral-based loan officers can’t compete and win.
The truth is, you have resources they don’t and never will. As a LOCAL lender and loan officer, you have a secret weapon: high-tech combined with an extremely personalized high-touch advice-centric experience. And with a Perfect Loan Process, you can implement your secret weapon in a way that builds clients for life, and only to lose those customers who aren’t a good fit.
What is a Perfect Loan Process?
A Perfect Loan Process (PLP) is a set of principles, strategies and scripts that are optimized for your company, your market and your customers. With a honed PLP, you can maximize the number of clients you convert, the number of referrals you receive, and each customer relationship so that it, ideally, lasts a lifetime and continues to generate new business for you for many years to come.
This has never been more important than it is right now as you prepare for 2020. Use this 2020 Perfect Loan Process Playbook to customize and kick-start your own PLP.
PRINCIPLES
- #1 Your Perfect Loan Process (PLP) is your unique value proposition and your biggest competitive advantage.
- #2 Consistency matters and you can’t have a PLP without consistent execution. You can’t have a PERFECT LOAN PROCESS without “consistency”, you can have a GOOD one, but you can’t have a GREAT one. Helpful quote: “If good is the biggest enemy of great, then consistency is the best friend to great.”
- #3 The Purchase Experience is the cornerstone to the 2020 Perfect Loan Process because purchases are essential to the future for LOCAL loan officers. To be exceptional, you need to deliver a radically personal experience to home buyers.
- #4 It’s critical that your Perfect Loan Process is built for an extended pre-approval funnel period and that improving the homebuyer’s chances of getting their offer accepted must be an obvious advantage to working with you.
- #5 It is your responsibility to help homebuyers go from confusion to clarity fast. With more first-time buyers entering the market, your PLP must create clarity and confidence from the very first conversation. This is just one of the reasons the Total Cost Analysis is 10X more important in 2020 and beyond.
- #6 Technology isn’t going to replace loan officers, but loan officers who master technology will replace loan officers who don’t. THIS MEANS it’s never been more critical that you master your CRM, your POS app and deliver a Mortgage Coach Total Cost Analysis to every borrower.
- #7 Your personal connection and presence is a key advantage. To make yourself Amazon mortgage proof, double down on your humanity. Boost your empathy, your interpersonal communications and your service and advice experience. THIS MEANS you need to be that which Amazon and other low-cost lenders cannot be. You need to master the combination of high-tech and high-touch advice and service.
- #8 The lender and loan officer with the most "digital friends" wins the biggest today, in 2020 and beyond. THIS MEANS you need to make self-generated leads from your database a top priority. It also means you need to know the channel of communication your clients prefer so you can communicate with them in all the channels they use in life—text, email, Facebook and Facebook messenger; and you absolutely must make sure they download your Mortgage Coach mobile app so you can deliver best-in-class advice and service levels.
- #9 Leveraging technology has never been more important to the 2020 Perfect Loan Process. Use your CRM daily and keep your data up-to-date. Use a modern POS platform to facilitate omni-channel relationships. Send every borrower a TCA from Mortgage Coach so you are automating advice, not just price. You also can do this through many CRMs today. In particular, leverage video so you’re emotionally connecting with the homebuyer and they are emotionally invested in what you can offer them. As a LOCAL lender, you should take advantage of every opportunity to connect face-to-face (F2F).
CORE STRATEGIES
- Commit to having a system, and use it every time. Make sure everyone on your team is a master with the technologies and processes that power your 2020 Perfect Loan Process.
- Update your CRM and Mortgage Coach system after every initial client phone call. It takes less than 5 minutes and this habit will define your future. “You pick your habits and you’re habit pick your success levels and financial success.”
- Deliver a radically personalized experience. Go above and beyond “Good Service”. You must deliver a Wow experience if you want clients for life.
- Set expectations for Annual Mortgage Reviews in the first meeting, and pre-sell the next transaction. CLICK to watch the Tim Braheem CLIENT FOR LIFE script—this script will reduce rate shopping and improve your conversion.
- Deliver a Total Cost Analysis to every borrower and make sure they download all your mobile apps. CLICK to watch how Jeremy Forcier is winning with rate shoppers with the Total Cost Analysis.
- Give milestone gifts as a way to stay connected emotionally and make the experience with you amazing and better than your competition.
- Combine a deep connection with speed and efficiency. And don’t be afraid to go old school with things like personal handwritten notes. They’re really powerful today because people don’t get them anymore. CLICK to watch this interview with Tim Braheem on how to turn your personal connections into your competitive advantage
- Integrate video into your 2020 Perfect Loan Process as a major component for deepening the relationship at every step. CLICK to hear how Kelly Zitlow updates the Total Cost Analysis video throughout the loan process
- Make staff adoption of video non-negotiable and train them on how to use video to be amazing and exceptional. CLICK to hear Tim Braheem’s advice and scripting for how to present this to your team.
Why the 2020 Perfect Loan Process is critical:
“Your competition is going to be the Lending Trees, Rocket Mortgages and Amazons of the world. They are going to have a perfect loan process – a system for facilitating the maximum number of loans technologically…but they will be missing the dynamic human component and the connection piece, and that’s where your 2020 Perfect Loan Process is going to win.”
10 SCRIPTS TO HELP YOU DEVELOP YOUR 20202 PERFECT LOAN PROCESS
#1 Tim’s script for when he sends out his introductory video:
You need to be consistently connecting with people through video as a part of your loan process. I do it as soon as I get done talking with the client. I hang up the call, I turn my phone around, I hit the “record video button” and I say:
“Hey Dave. It's Tim Braheem. We just got off the phone with each other. I thought it would be helpful for you to associate a face with the voice. I want to say thank you for taking the time to talk with me. I really enjoyed our conversation. Thanks for some of the personal things you shared with me that are important to you. I took very concise notes on that. My team and I are really looking forward to working with you. I'm going to go ahead and do that research. You'll be getting something from me in an email tomorrow by 5 o’clock, and I look forward to jumping on the call with you at that time.”
Now, if this individual gets off the phone with me and starts to surf on the Internet or starts to talk to somebody else, I'm more insulated from the competition because I've made a connection with them. But it doesn't just stop there. One video is not going to do it. You need to be consistently using video throughout the loan process. And if you were the customer, you would click on the video because you’re curious.
#2 How leading lender Jim Bakhtiar is succeeding with video:
He has a small dry-erase board, and he writes, “Thank you, Dave.” When the email comes across, the client would see, “Thank you, Dave” in the opening screen of the video. He then delivers a message like the one above. Then, he continues the consultative process. When he gets the person to say yes, he introduces them to his transaction coordinator Kristie Kiley, and sets up the appointment for the paperwork to be handled with her.
The next correspondence the client is going to get is a video from Kristie. It may say something like, “Super happy to meet you, Dave,” as the thumbnail. Then the client clicks on it, and the video script is, “Hey Dave. My name is Kristie Kiley,” and she's just in her office, dressed normally. People get a little freaked out and they think they need a makeup artist to come in and get them all doctored up. But you should just be yourself. Turn your hat on backwards or whatever and just get on video. This is just two people talking:
“Hey Dave. My name is Kristie. It's so nice to meet you. I'm really looking forward to working with you and your family on your loan. I know that Jimbo has told you that I'd be giving you a call. I've got your paperwork here. I'm going to be sending you an email in the next couple of hours with any documentation I need to get from you. Do me a favor. It's really important to me.” This is a key phrase they made up that I really love. “Do me a favor. It's really important to me to know who it is that I'm working with and serving over the next 45 days. If you don't mind, send me a photo of you and your family.”
And people are sending Jim emails back saying, “That video you sent me was so cool. It was so nice to be able to associate a face with voice. I'm really looking forward to working with you. Here's a photo of me and my family that we just took a couple of weeks ago on our summer vacation.”
The point is this: Connections are being forged. People are starting to feel like they're working with other human beings that care about them, which is a key component. After it goes from Kristie to the processor, Joanna, same thing:
“Hi. My name is Joanna. I'm reviewing your file. Really looking forward to working with you. Kristie forwarded to me the photo of you and your family. Your children are so beautiful. If you need anything over the course of the next two weeks, know that I'm here. I'm going to be sending an email with my contact information.”
Throughout the process, everybody is connecting with video with the customer. But there's another benefit that's happening here. The benefit is that it's a lot harder to be an ass and to blow off somebody you've never met. If everybody in the process is connecting via video with the borrower, with the listing agent, if something goes down that's not quite kosher on the file and maybe you have a delay of a day on loan approval or whatever, you're going to be treated a lot more respectfully as somebody who has connected with them and they can associate face and voice as a real human being, versus somebody who is hidden behind email the whole time.
Sometimes Jim has one of his dogs on his lap in his office. It's real, it's personable, it feels like they're talking to another person just like them, and that's the point of the whole thing.
#3 How to use video to reach other people involved in the deal (such as family):
Remember, everybody involved in the transaction wasn't at your office. There are other stakeholders, like the real estate expert who is going to be pitching his lender, and the father-in-law who wants them to work with his lender. You’ve got to win them all over. Videos go a long way there, especially the TCA video. Especially if there is a gap between the first TCA video and the close, you can email them with a video that says, for example, “Hey, I updated your Total Cost Analysis for you, and I also provided some perspectives on the market.” So look for opportunities to create new videos.
#4 How to get to know the buyer and make a deep connection:
When you're talking to a client for the first time, here’s one of the things you should be sharing with them: “Mr. Johnson, in today's competitive environment, we're seeing more and more buyers who are having to make offers on numerous properties before they get accepted. Bidding wars are happening. They're having to pay more for properties than they would like to pay. Sometimes they're even just getting priced out of the market.”
Now, what I'm acutely aware of is that there's a human being on the other end of every transaction, and that's the seller. One of the grave mistakes loan originators make is they don't humanize their buyer. They don't create a scenario where the buyer and the seller can form and have a connection.
“What I want to do is ask you some questions about you and your family. I want to friend request you on Facebook so I can check out some of your photos and have an opportunity to see what your hobbies are, how many children you have, how old they are.
Tell me a little bit about what neighborhood you want to buy in and why you want to buy in them. What's important to you? Is it important that the house backs up to open space because you love nature and hiking? Is it important that it's in a certain scholastic neighborhood because you want your kids to go to a certain school?
I need to know as much information about you as possible, because what I'm going to do is after we've gotten your loan fully approved, I'm not going to be just like any other lender that provides just a one page pre-approval letter. I want to accompany that with a short video from me about you. I want to tell a story about you. I want to create separation and humanize you so when your offer is presented by your agent to the listing agent and the seller, they feel an emotional connection to you. There are things that they have in common with you.”
The video to the Realtor might sound like this:
“Hi, my name is Tim Braheem with First Rate Financial and if you're watching this video, it's because we're making an offer on behalf of Mr. and Mrs. Savage. I want to tell you a little bit about them. First of all, they're completely approved for a loan. You have the pre-approval letter. They've gone through the underwriting process in total. The only thing that we're waiting for is a viable property that appraises accordingly. I can assure you that they're a cash buyer at this point, and we can close in 20 days.
There are some important things I think you need to know about the Savages that I think would have an impact on your decision-making process. They have two young children ages 5 and 7. They really want their children to be in the school district that yours is in. Perhaps when you bought your home, you had children their age, and that's why you chose your home.
Additionally, Mr. Savage is really into sports. He went to the University of Southern California. He's a big Trojans football fan. Mrs. Savage is very much a philanthropist. She volunteers at the local animal shelter. She really loves hiking and nature.
These are just some things about them that I thought you'd like to know. Please let me know if you have any questions. We look forward to hopefully working with you on this transaction, and I'm here to serve in any way I can.”
Now, I’ve presented this to the Realtor at the point-of-sale. Nobody else is going to do this. If he talks to Lending Tree, if he talks to Rocket, if he talks to one of your competitors down the street, they're not going to offer this service. I've justified for him why it's important, because I need to separate him from four other offers that are being presented, all which have the same pre-approval letter that most loan officers send out. So, I've scored points with Dave at the point-of-sale.
I also got Dave, in a very creative way, to agree to accept a Facebook friend request from me, which is something most loan originators can't figure out how to integrate into their initial dialogue at point-of-sale. The first thing I'm going to do when I get off the phone with Dave is I'm going to friend request him. When he responds and accepts my friend request, I'm going to go on and ‘like’ some of his photos, which is going to make him feel like he needs to go check out my Facebook page, because reciprocity kicks in. When you get likes, you tend to turn around and go back and like other people's stuff.
Now, he's going to learn a little bit about me and my family, so I'm starting to become less generic to him as a loan originator and more humanized. He's going to see things about me that he likes and he can connect with. It's all a part of this connection process in using video strategically.
Now, my buyer's agent is going to love it, because I'm going to provide the video to him with the pre-approval letter and it's going to give him something unique to present that hopefully gets more offers accepted.
Lastly, you're marketing yourself in a very unique way to the listing agents, because every time an offer is presented, this video comes with it. If it takes three offers to get accepted, that's three listing agents that got an opportunity to watch your video with you. You start to become more of a household name. You start to become more viral in your community.
Mike Trejo, who’s in Northern California, a highly competitive market, forwarded an email to me about two months ago from a listing agent that was sent to the buyer's agent saying, “Wow, this loan officer just did something really cool. This video that he created is so awesome and they accepted the offer, ended up working with them on the transaction.” That's another creative and unique way to use video to start to create more of a connection with everybody involved in the community.
#5 How video can help you drive new opportunities:
You've got this war chest of pre-approvals that builds up over time. This is where video can be really helpful. Let’s say the fed raises rates or inventory tightens up even more or new home sales statistics come out, create a generic video you can send to everyone in your database, like this:
“Hey, it's Tim Braheem with First Rate Financial. I just wanted to give you an update on something really important. Housing numbers just came out, blah, blah, blah. I just wanted you to know that I'm thinking about you. I'm here for you if you have any questions. Let us know, dah, dah, dah.”
And then you send it out to the 50 people you have who are pre-approved. It's a much more efficient way of staying in touch with people and staying connected. If they can see you, they're reminded of the fact that you're a real human being, somebody who’s working for them, and the loyalty is enhanced, versus if you're just shooting them an email. Again, it's an entirely different kind of connection.
#6 Here’s how to build deeper Realtor relationships:
“Hey, it's Tim Braheem. I just wanted to say hi to you. I just got off of a really incredible conference call where I learned something that made me think of you, that I think you would probably find valuable.” And you share the tip and you send it out to your 20 or 30 Realtors you're working with.
#7 How to set up the client’s expectation for your Annual Mortgage Review:
“Dave, if I'm doing my job correctly, then my job begins when your first loan closes with me, because from there, it's my job to assist you in managing the largest indebtedness that you'll ever take on in your life. People hire somebody to manage their wealth, but never think to hire someone to manage their debt. That's 50 percent of the entire financial equation. Most people that do what I do for a living just provide the debt and then walk away. I'm not willing to make that mistake because I know how important it is. When we close this loan with you, I want you to know that on an ongoing basis I'm going to continually monitor the market in an effort to find cheaper money for you.
As those opportunities come up, you're going to be hearing from me proactively, letting you know it's ‘10 minutes’ time. Oftentimes, depending upon the loan amount now, I'm going to be able to rewrite that loan for you at no cost by utilizing some of the overage money that's paid to me to pay for your non-recurring closing cost with it.”
#8 Here’s how to win future business from a buyer even if you didn’t get this loan sale:
“Gosh, Dave, you know, I'm really sorry that I haven't done a better job of displaying my value to you. I want to apologize to you for that, because really that is my job, is to make sure that you're seeing very clearly why I'd be the person that you'd want to work with. I definitely want to wish you luck going forward, with the person that you're choosing to work with. I hope they do an absolutely fantastic job for you. As my way of saying sorry, what I'd like to offer is this. Just because you're not doing this loan with me, doesn't mean that I'm not still interested in having a long-term relationship with you. I still want to commit to annually contacting you and doing an annual mortgage planning review, just to see if there are opportunities to save you money. What I'll do is, in about two weeks, once your interest rate is locked in and you're further along in the process, I'll give you a call to find out what your final loan terms are, and then I'll monitor your loan for you going forward so if there's an opportunity to rewrite your loan to cheaper debt for free, I'll also honor that commitment, too.”
#9 How to position the Perfect Loan Process with a real estate agent:
The script would be to ask them a pain-based question, such as, “Tell me about a time where you were doing a loan with an originator other than me, when it didn't go well and what you ascertain was the reason it didn't go well.”
They're going to explain the situation about a horrible instance where they weren't getting returned phone calls or they missed the financing contingency deadline and they lost the deal or whatever. Now the pain gets amplified. You want to even crank it up further. “What was the effect of that?”
“I lost the deal.”
“Wow, how much was that transaction worth to you?”
“$15,000 in commissions.”
“Wow, I can see how important it is for you to be working with someone who has a clearly defined system that's replicable and efficiently moves the loan through the process in a proactive way with communication to everybody involved. I would also imagine that when you encounter situations like that, that it makes you look bad to your buyer, correct?”
“Yeah. I'm the one who referred the person to that lender, and then they make me look bad.”
“Which stifles future referrals and repeat customer business for you, right?”
“Yeah, that's exactly right.”
You see how I keep sticking the needle in or the knife in and twisting it and making them feel like all of the consequences of there not being a system in place that generates the favorable result that they're looking for and then it's at that point in time you say, “Can I show you what we do differently to ensure that never happens to you? I want to make sure you understand why we do these things and how you will benefit from having this experience with me and my team.”
Get Your Team on Board with Your 2020 Perfect Loan Process Playbook
When it comes to video adoption, you often may feel like you are all alone, as your team members make every excuse for being “not techy” or just too busy.
Kristie Kiley, Jim Bakhtiar’s transaction coordinator, is a perfect example. She was uncomfortable at first, but she is awesome on camera now, because Jim pushed her to practice. She did it about 20 times and she got comfortable with it, and now she’s an expert at it.
This is absolutely critical to your high-tech, high-value success. When you have staff who aren’t tech savvy and they don’t buy in to using video, you must lead them. Say:
“Look, I want to insulate you from layoffs in the future. I want to insure your job security, and the way that we've got to do it is we've got to connect more with people. We've got to use technology to do that and we've got to be innovative and creative and stay one step ahead of the curve.”
HERE ARE ADDITIONAL TOOLS THAT CAN HELP YOU DEVELOP YOUR 2020 PERFECT LOAN PROCESS.
The Lead Conversion Playbook by Mortgage Coach
Best Selling Author Jack Daly Explains How to Optimize Lead Conversions
Click here to access the Mortgage Coach YouTube Channel
MORE RESOURCES:
CLICK to go to our YouTube Channel
CLICK for a DEMO of Mortgage Coach
CLICK to Watch SCRIPT-a-PALOOZA
CLICK to download transcript of SCRIPT-aPALOOZA