How Putting OTHERSFIRST? Can Make a Transformative Difference

People are living with two fears right now; one is emotional—health and safety—the other is economic—What’s going to happen with my job? Can I afford to make my mortgage payments? And what's going to happen to my property values?

In addition, the current world situation has accelerated the adoption of technology. Now, like it or not, people who weren’t comfortable with tech have found themselves needing to learn all kinds of new ways to connect and communicate.

It doesn’t help that they’re being bombarded with low rate offers that have no advice or support behind them. There’s no one there to answer the tough questions or clear the smoke from the mirrors. What customers need right now is someone who puts the relationship first. Someone they can trust who will help them through the learning curve. But if you take a strictly technological approach without tying that to the relationship, you miss the whole point of the connection—the human element.

WATCH the full interview with Dale Vermillion to hear him explain how OTHERSFIRST? leads to loan officer success 

“There’s a tremendous opportunity to calm people’s fears and help them through the low rates that are out there today,” explains Dale Vermillion, Founder & CEO of Mortgage Champions. “Through the products and programs you have like the Mortgage Coach Total Cost Analysis, you can put people in a much better financial position through either a refinance or through a purchase transaction to make sure they get in a home they can afford comfortably,” adds Vermillion.

The key to success, according to Vermillion, is to always put others first. If you focus on making money, you’ll fail. If you focus on putting others first, you’ll succeed. In fact, everything Dale does and teaches comes from a point of being grateful and blessed. He uses the hashtag #OthersFIRST to convey his message.

“Human innovation is what created technology, but it’s human intervention and interaction that makes it work.”—Dale Vermillion

What does putting OTHERSFIRST? entail?

OTHERSFIRST? is Vermillion’s entire business philosophy and what he bases all of his training around. It is based on his life verse, Philippians 2:3-4 which says, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in all things, with humility, value others above yourself, looking out for their interest and not your own.”    

OTHERSFIRST? means taking the time to learn things about that person that you wouldn’t in a 15-minute questionnaire. “Customers are telling you much more than they want a low rate,” Vermillion says. “If you take the time to ask, they’ll tell you, ‘I need to figure out how to save money. I need to figure out how to get a payment I can afford. I need help with cash.’”

If you can surpass someone’s expectations, you’re going to win. If they come to you wanting one thing—a mortgage—and you blew them away with insight, leaving them saying “wow,” then you’ve succeeded in putting others first. 

Vermillion sums it up like this: “You want to build a conversation, not an interrogation.” To know them, you have to spend time with them. That breaks down walls and builds loyalty, trust, and understanding. Once you have a deeper understanding, you can make better decisions, provide better options, and do all the things a mortgage coach can capitalize on.

We should never be loan officers, we should always be advocates, counselors, and advisors for our customers. And part of that is making sure that we're really working with them to get them in a home they can afford. If you do that, you're creating stability for them that they won't get outside of the housing. 

That mindset today is so powerful! And when you combine high-value relationships with technologies like Mortgage Coach, you separate yourself from other loan officers. 

With those two things combined, we can have a major impact on people's lives today and we can literally be first-line responders financially in today's marketplace to make a massive difference for our world, our community, and the U.S.

TIP: Print off and sign the OthersFIRST Pledge and keep it on your desk where you can see it all day. At the end of the day ask yourself, did you put others first today? If you didn’t, then you know you have to self-correct for your next day. When you put others first you get an adrenaline rush that makes you more confident and happy.

Get to know them as a human being, understand their concerns and needs and really dig in to say, “How can I create a loan that makes really good sense for you that changes your life in a powerful way?” When you do that, you establish relationships that create that ‘wow’ factor and you provide much better solutions.

Ask open-ended questions that allow you to:

• Know the family’s short-term goals (the right home, the right payment, cash reserves)
• Know their long-term goals (college, retirement, freedom point)

These three questions will help you understand your borrower’s short-term goals:

1. What do you want to accomplish over the next three to five years?
2. How old do you want to be when your home's paid off?
3. When do you want to be debt-free?

Then give every borrower a Total Cost Analysis that shows you heard them and shows them out to build wealth with real estate faster.

Relationships drive loyalty. Loyalty is where they’re willing to pay an eighth or a quarter of a point more to get you because you care about them and their situation and you’re trying to help them and their family achieve their goals. When you move from a transactional mindset to a relational mindset, you’re going to find that not only are your customers going to buy from you, but they’re going to refer you to all their friends or relatives and they're going to come back to you for their next loan. 

“Focus on your commissions and you won’t make any money. Focus on your customers and you’ll make a ton of money.”—Dale Vermillion

OthersFIRST: A strategy for branch and regional managers

Your salespeople aren't going to be OthersFIRST until you are OthersFIRST. Lead by example. For instance, are you communicating to your team that you’re committed to their success?

“In this current market situation, there are a lot of people working from home who didn't work from home before, so it’s a different way to manage. In these times, as a leader, you've got to over-communicate with your people. Instead of emailing or texting, call them.” says Vermillion. Why? “Because they’re struggling with the same emotional and economic concerns consumers are. You want their head in the game. You want their attitude positive. And you reflect that through your positive attitude.”

To have a stronger connection with your team, have a daily Zoom meeting to get everyone inspired and on the positive track:

• Tell a funny story.
• Give an inspirational message.
• Ensure they have their goal for the day.
• Focus on how many people you’re going to help, not how much money you’re going to make.

Leading your team is about asking “What is our why? What is our purpose? What drives us every day to be the best we can possibly be?” As Vermillion encourages, “If you can define that with your team and you can model that as a leader, your people will work intuitively in the way you've taught them.”

TIP: Encourage your team to make sales calls from 9 to 11 AM and to not open any emails or check any messages until they’ve achieved this goal. All they need is one sale in this time frame to win 15 sales a month. That dedication to winning in their first two hours of the day will set them up for success the rest of the day. 

And then finally, as a leader, Vermillion says you have to “replicate yourself.” Create 10 of you, or 20 of you, or 30 of you by truly coaching, leading and educating your people. 

The bottom line: “Presence equals performance.” Dale Vermilion 

For 25 years, Dale Vermillion and his team have helped companies and individuals grow their bottom lines by putting others first. Learn how they can help you do the same by starting a conversation at dalevermillion.com.