Pre-empt

No existing client of ours is going to refer their friends and family to us unless we can demonstrate that we are referable. Excelling in our job may not be enough. It's certainly a start, but we have to work hard at building our reputation so that clients can trust us.

The 4 P's

Punctual, Polite, Promise, Pre-empt. These are the basics of referability and should be a given for any self respecting mortgage adviser. Be on time for meetings, phone calls and deadlines. Always say please and thank you and check for understanding. If you promise a client that you will do something, then make sure you keep that promise, always.

Pre-empt deserves a paragraph of its own. Consider the various reasons or objections that a client may have in deciding not to use your services, and then pre-empt it. Let me give you an example.

You see a first time buyer and have what is without doubt one of your best appointments. You got on like a house on fire. There were smiles all round and you had both agreed that you would be looking into getting them an agreement in principle before they started viewing.

The following day you reach out and inform them that an agreement has been obtained and your client is now in a great buying position. The next few days go by as you have diarised to give them a call, but when you try and contact them there is no answer. You try and reach them by text and email, but to no avail. This once hot hot hot client seems to have gone off the boil.

Eventually, you do manage to ring them and they pick up the phone. They tell you that they had found a house with an agent, they had an offer accepted, but they actually went ahead and did the mortgage with an adviser that the agent put them in touch with.

So what could you have done to ensure that this situation did not occur?

Pre-empt

Right at the first appointment, maybe towards the end when you have created a fantastic experience for your new client say something like this:

" Just before we finish Bob, I just wanted to share something with you. I have been an adviser for many years and seen a lot of change in the industry, but what I'm about to tell you has never changed. When you get to the point that you are ready to view houses with estate agents and maybe even at the stage when you want to make an offer, please ready yourself for the agent to "suggest" that you talk to their financial advisers. Now, if you want to talk to them, then that's fine, but if you are made to feel that you have to talk to them, then that is simply not ok. Remember who is in control, that's you. Not them. If you come across that scenario, please feel free to give them my details and I'd happily talk to them."

You have just pre-empted a situation that happens all the time. You have sowed a seed into your clients mind and if and when that situation arises, they will only be thinking of you

At every opportunity we need to be building our reputation with our client, earning their trust and making it easy for them to refer us to others.

Switch on my friends, switch on.