A Playbook for Turning Loan Officers Into Mortgage Coaches

BRANCH MANAGER TRAINING PLAYBOOK

I passionately believe that loan officers who are data-driven mortgage advisors own the future, and they will continue to gain market share going forward in the mortgage business. So I’m searching to interview the most successful and profitable branch managers in America.?

One of my most powerful interviews last year was with Daniel Sa, division president of NFM Lending Group in Columbus, Ohio. Daniel runs an extremely high-performing division of 40 loan officers who each closed an average of 5+ loans per month last year and my first interview with Daniel on how his team closed more than 350 loans in 2023!

Watch this video to see exactly how Danial Sa closed over 350 loans last year including his top 2 Mortgage Coach strategies that is helping him win with Realtors.

My most recent interview was with Alex Thompson, VP of Sales for the Great Lakes division of NFM Lending. Alex oversees a team of loan officers, and his job is helping them grow and be more effective. He coaches them to get more leads, higher-level conversions, more relationships and to build their personal brands locally. He teaches how to be a mortgage advisor using Mortgage Coach on day one of every new loan officer’s training. It’s interesting to note that NFM loan officers who use Mortgage Coach convert 10% higher than average and are 65 basis points more profitable because they have fewer exceptions.??

Daniel Sa’s group is number one in the Columbus, OH market a head of Rocket Mortgage and Huntington Bank, and his division was 20% higher than average in conversions and another 20 basis points more profitable than all other mortgage coaches at NFM.

This PLAYBOOK is a breakdown of strategies and tactics Alex is using to help create successful loan officers throughout his division and is something other branch managers to win in this market and going forward. I highly recommend you watch this full interview so you can get this advice directly from Alex, but I’ve created this playbook as an educational tool to help all branch managers to create a Mortgage Coach culture of data-driven mortgage advisors.?

I highly recommend you watch this video to see exactly how Alex Thompson is training loan officers and providing ongoing leadership to create a culture of Mortgage Coaches.

ALEX’S COACHING STRATEGIES INCLUDE:

• Teaching key strategies that are driving company-wide success
• Training new loan officers at least two days a week
• Giving them hands-on experience creating Mortgage Coach TCAs (Total Cost Analysis)?
• Focusing on one tactic per meeting
• Emphasizing wins and successes weekly
• Not sugar-coating constructive criticism
• Teaching them how to be a mortgage advisor from day one
• Providing scripts that can be practiced and replicated
• Emphasizing techniques for building/strengthening Realtor relationships
• Providing homework assignments so they build/strengthen techniques on their own
• Track and measure every step and provide continuous feedback and improvement training

TACTICS FOR TRAINING/ONBOARDING NEW LOAN OFFICERS:

Alex’s division typically trains twice weekly but doesn’t mix processes and strategies in one meeting. They focus on one thing at a time.?

DAY ONE: Create the WHY

#1: We start with what’s working for our winners.

Monday is our typical sales meeting day. We talk about wins from the previous week. High performers talk about strategies that they used to win. This is a mandatory meeting. Every loan officer has to be on this call. There's always an aha moment or something that every loan officer gets from it.

Our newer loan officers are required to attend every Monday for six months. It’s not necessarily something that’s new and innovative, and we repeat the same lesson several times a year. We’re just making sure we’re reiterating our best practices so they’re drilled in. When we have a loan officer whose struggling with converting clients or Realtors, or if their numbers are slipping, if they haven’t been on our best practices call, we’ll tell them they need to attend for several months. When they do attend, we see their numbers start to increase.?

#2: We train every loan officer to use Mortgage Coach with every customer in week one. Note: The branch pays for Mortgage Coach, not the loan officer. “When we’re giving them the tools to win, we’re ultimately winning as well,” Alex says.?

During the first seven days, we’re teaching the best practices to execute on the key strategies that drive our success. Out of the first 10 days, 30% of that is dedicated to teaching them how to be an advisor and how to go from “I’m a loan officer” to “I’m a Mortgage Coach.”

On their first day, I show them how I build out TCAs. I then record it and send them that recording to watch afterward as often as they want to. We go through our calls with agents and referral sources. Then a team helps new loan officers with their leads, contracts, etc. When we started using Mortgage Coach in Daniel’s group about eight years ago, we saw our concessions cut in half within about two months. And our conversion rates went through the roof.

• We break down the TCAs into two parts: How we present them; and what we do with them. We teach new LOs that our goal is to educate the consumer on what’s going on in the market and how interest rates work. We don’t shy away from rates. We think it’s best to tackle the elephant in the room right away. It helps remove their need to rate shop.?

• We explain that we do TCAs twice: At pre-approval and at contract. We learned that at pre-approval, the client was focused more on what route or option they wanted to go with. It took their mind off rate shopping and moved them to the next step. Then doing it again at the end, I formalized the numbers and buttoned up what everything was going to look like.?

COACHING SCRIPT FOR MOVING THE CLIENT PAST THE PRE-APPROVAL CALL:

“So hey, we’re going to quickly gather some basic information to make sure everything's safe and secure for you at that time to purchase. But we also want to go over some different options to help you win and to help you feel informed when you go to make an offer. Our pre-approval consultation typically takes 30 minutes, and we’re going to want to schedule that after this phone call where we gather some of that basic information. Do you have later today at 3:00 PM or tomorrow at 2:00 PM available?”

Explain to your LOs that this is really helpful because, when you’re gathering that information, when you’re going to see if they even qualify, you should do an information grab on one call. You shouldn’t combine everything and then schedule that pre-approval consultation afterward. This gets them excited and tells them how it’s going to help them win and what it’s going to do for them. That way, you have time to prepare for it and you can make it very informative. You’re not doing it on the fly.

• We work on getting immediate buy-in. Alex gives them homework assignments that require them to both watch Total Cost Analyses being built and build their own.

On day one, Alex builds TCAs to train them on:

1. Low payment. This helps get clients off the subject of rate. This is probably the most common TCA everyone in our division uses.?
2. Don’t wait, buy now. Here, we show them that if they wait until rates come down, it’s actually going to cost them more based on the data we see and what we know.
3. Refi. I typically use an old refinance I’ve done to show them that TCAs and Mortgage Coach should be used at every sale for every client. It’s not just for rate shoppers.

HOMEWORK: At the end of that session, Alex assigns homework, including:

• Reviewing the Mortgage Coach 10X strategy
• Reviewing the Mortgage Coach YouTube Channel (Alex explains the difference between the getting started, intermediate and advanced sections)
• Join and be active in the TrustEngine Facebook group?

Then he tells them, “Watch those and give me five takeaways before our meeting tomorrow.” That gets them used to utilizing resources and coming up with ideas on how to use TCAs beyond the three that he showed them.?

He’ll let them know that there are a lot of great YouTube videos out there and other people, including top producers, who are creating and sharing different types of TCAs they can learn from and that they should explore them. Then he’ll require them to create two Total Cost Analyses under their own brand. It’s usually a conventional (for a heavy shopper) and an FHA option.?

#3: We track and teach with data. We use a CRM to track leads, conversion rates, which referral sources they are performing well with and which referral sources they are underperforming with, and we put all that data in front of them to give them the tools to win.

#4: We coach on how to go about getting a meeting with a referral agent. Once they have the meeting, we discuss the process and steps of what that meeting should look like. We’re coaching on what to do during in-person meetings, phone calls, the process of how they track, and which referral sources they’re calling to try to get meetings with.?

• We’re really big on scripting. I think scripting is really important because what you say is really important, but how you say it is even more important. Also, I think it gets the mindset right on our floor out there in the bullpen, which is so much fun to walk out there and hear them talk. But typically every morning they are practicing scripting and it gets their mind in the right place.

• The goal with Realtors is to always meet in person. That’s the number-one thing we push in training. The second is Zoom. But most of the meetings we try to have in our office. If you can get someone on your turf, your conversion rate is much higher.

We show them how Mortgage Coach helps Realtors help their clients. Realtors are missing out on a lot of clients because they don’t realize the resources and opportunities they have with Mortgage Coach. I present a TCA that we will show them how it works and they're seeing how the client receives it, and it gets them really excited.

TIP: A lot of times with new Realtors, LOs invite them to the pre-approval meeting. That helps deepen the relationship so they can see how much value we’re adding with Mortgage Coach. So one big takeaway is, tell your lenders not to be afraid to invite the Realtor to some of those meetings so they can see what it is you’re covering.?

DAY TWO: Interactive Session

They present their five takeaways and their TCAs, and Alex critiques them. “I’m hard on them because I want them to learn quickly,” he says. Things he looks for:

• Having the right column label, such as a buydown
• How they’re presenting
• That they’re not over-presenting or explaining too much (this can really confuse a client or Realtor)
• Making sure they’re hitting all the important points
• Letting them know what they did right
• Correcting any mistakes

We usually spend a couple hours on that; then I’ll give them homework for day three.?

DAY THREE: Reinforcement of Day #2’s Training

The homework assignment on day two is to create 3 TCAs:

1. Lower payment (for heavy shoppers)
2. Buy now; don’t wait conventional
3. Buy now, don’t wait FHA

We also work on how to present the buy now, don’t wait TCA to Realtors.?

In day three, they hone their skills and perfect their scripts. Also, having them make TCAs provides a level of accountability.?

It is critical that you watch this interview with Alex to hear example how he's turning loan officers into Mortgage Coaches at scale

Here are samples of Alex Thompson's Total Cost Analysis mentioned in his interview:

Lower Payment Option

• Conventional – https://mcedge.tv/z2cjxv
• FHA - https://mcedge.tv/givup

Buy Now Option

• https://mcedge.tv/hwbfs7

Refi Use

• https://mcedge.tv/acdm0y

Rent vs Own

• https://mcedge.tv/zsxjav