Are You Leading an Adaptable Sales Force?

This is such a compelling read by Christine Beckwith and hope this resonates with many people.

 Consistent and Measurable Growth is not Out of Mortgage Professionals Control! It's all in their mindset and ability to adapt. 30 years in the Mortgage Industry has taught me one paramount thing, that the market is constantly evolving and changing. That we are selling on a moving platform, that obviously rates fluctuate, markets expand and contract, guidelines become stricter and then relax and essentially we control very little from the sales seats of our mortgage companies when it comes to the winds that are put in our sails.   However, those mortgage professionals who get that we are essentially an extension of Wall Street fluctuations, economic effect and industry reaction to both, will spend less time focused on those metrics, which are better monitored by the experts in their companies and executive teams, and spend more time on their own hours spent in a week prospecting and working on actual sales.     Having been the teacher and motivator for sales forces for nearly two decades and direct mortgage sales for almost 30, I can assure you those top producers who are excelling are those individuals that pay less mind to the things out of their control and more mind to the things they affect, which are how many referral partners they are touching, how many families they are helping, the service level they are providing and ultimately the hours they spend focused on money making tasks rather than distractions that will upend any sales person, like small pipelines that they sit on like they are laying the golden egg or market fluctuation they do not control, like interest rates.    Those sales folks who realize that the bulk of their time must go into the advancement of the funnel they create for sales flow in making new lucrative relationships, in serving their clients excellently and do the proper networking tasks that keep sales thriving, growing and referring are the people who will end up on the winning side of the fence.  I have watched good sales people fail in my career, over focus on interest rate, product elimination and essentially distraction of their own jobs, over the noise around them. I have never signed off on the hiring of a sales person who asked me about rate up front, not if it was a game changer for them, even if I had extremely competitive rates, as that told me they were weak sales people. I have always watched for those sales people who spoke of an ever changing marketplace and understood their need for evolution within it. I have coached on this and would tell you it's the number one effect that will prepare your sales force for battle. It's how I have stayed in the mortgage industry for 30 years successfully without a break or falling down.  It has essentially been my marquis in sales leadership.  I have watched over 3 decades both successful and failing sales people. I have lead many under dog teams and companies to sales success, through creating a clear vision to what they control.  To keeping them from sitting like deer in headlights when  difficult changes occurred. By accepting necessary change when the industry demanded it.  The quicker a sales executive team can get their sales force into the mindset of change through powerful training like 'Emotional Intelligence' & 'Change Management', the quicker their sales folks will rise above it.   How do I know this? Because despite my having to close a national company in 2007 and literally be the last person standing in a national retail company, 14 major markets and hundreds of sales folks left scrambling for new places of employment I never lost faith that I would find the high ground. I lead my sales people not to the pond hopping that so many folks have had to do over the last decade but to a safe and growing company that could remain focused on the future of our current market.  Without giving away any of my current company sales strategies it is safe for me to say that the greatest advice I can give any executive or senior level sales leaders is that you keep your sales force pliable, flexible and focused.  Yes, I personally experienced the highs and lows that the industry relentlessly dished out in the past decade but I avoided hitting rock bottom and helped hundreds of others avoid it, by helping them focus on where they controlled their own destinies and left the vision and economic paths and strategies to my CEO and to those subject matter experts.   That said, while I've been in boats that were taking on water, I always kept a bucket in my own hand and when I was yelling "bail" to my sales teams, I was doing so by bailing at the same rate they were being asked.  In the end, sales leadership is about clearing and uncluttering the complex atmosphere of our sales environments.  Helping keep them focused on the tasks they control.  This is proven in my own success in this mortgage career and those that I lead.  Ask anyone who is truly successful or has been in the past decade consistently and you will either find an intentional person who is focused on the daily sales task that expands their funnel of referral partners, prospecting and ultimately delivering a superior service experience to their clients or you will find someone who innately possesses these traits.  If you look around and find a bunch of sales people focused on rate and product and market flux and give you those excuses as why their sales ultimately have drastic reactions to any of those things, you have a sales person who is ultimately riding a wave instead of finding the wave.  That's not my opinion, that is how it is. #mysalestruth

By Christine Beckwith‐