How to Pivot and Thrive in the Current Market

In today's highly competitive mortgage industry, building profitable relationships with the real estate agents is essential for success. However, finding effective ways to secure agent relationships can be a challenge. With so many mortgage loan originators vying for the attention of real estate agents, it can be difficult to stand out and establish meaningful connections. Our new case study featuring loan officer Chris Cogill is a must-read. Chris has closed a remarkable 36 million in funded loans from agent referrals. And in this case study, he shares his proven strategies for building strong relationships with real estate agents and leveraging those relationships to drive more business. To get your hands on this resource, head over to LOKestudy.com and download your free copy of the case study today. You'll find actionable insights and practical tips that Chris used to close 36 million in funded loans from agent referrals and how you can, too. Don't miss out. Go check it out right now. Visit LOKestudy.com and download your free copy today. Hey, Listers, how are you doing, Jeff Zimfer, host of the Mortgage Marketing Radio podcast, bringing good ideas, insights, resources and inspiration to you to help you get through the current market. Okay, so this episode, I'm coming at you with a quick hit and what I mean by that is instead of an interview, it's going to be me sharing with you some quick hits that you can take and apply in your business right now and this comes out of some of the conversations I've been having with both originators and real estate agents at various locations around the country. So let's face it, right? The market is the market and I think when it comes to, you know, how do you respond? How do you show up when life happens, when things come at you, you know, the old saying I love from Jim Rohn is it's not what happens. It's what you do, right? It's how you respond. That makes the difference. So that's first and foremost, check yourself, right? As you want to check where your mindset's at because you need to have mindset over emotions. It's okay to, right, deal with and process and get through those emotions, but the real secret is getting through past and beyond those emotions of whatever has occurred for you with the recent market changes, right, of doubt of uncertainty or, you know, lack of direction or how to respond and pivot. That's what I want this to be about. I want this to be about a quick hit about embracing the shift, how to pivot and thrive in today's changing real estate market. And so I'm going to briefly talk about three things. What can you control, what to say right now and what to do right now? And this, of course, market, here's what challenging markets do in times like these, just like they did in 2008 and other challenging times is they weed out the wannabes from the winners from those that are committed to working on their craft, their excellence, right? And so for those that are willing to put in the work, that's a four-letter word work. And so if that's, if you're willing to embrace the work, if you're willing to take that on and be real with yourself and look at the areas of change that need to be applied in your business, just like I'm trying to do to myself all the time, then welcome this episode for you. So the first question is, who are you? Are you a realist, optimist or pessimist? Realist optimist or pessimist. And so there was a study down a while back on salespeople and they were looking at the most successful salespeople and what they wanted to look at the character traits of what type of personality they had. And to simplify this and for a second of time is they had broken them up into these categories of realist, optimist, pessimist, right? And so an optimist, let's just face it, right? It's all happy years, right? An optimist is the person who's doing the sales forecasting and everything's going to close. Yeah. All right. That realtor went great, had a great conversation, oh yeah, they're going to send us business. Yeah. For sure. Oh, that client I talked to, we quoted them that right? Yeah. They're going with me. 100%. You know what I mean? It's like forever the optimist, happy years, everyone's going to buy. And by the way, I'm not saying a positive attitude isn't great. It is. It's useful. It's needed. It's helpful. But we've got to look at it from the standpoint of what's real. So a realist, realist is flexible enough to be both pessimistic and optimistic at the appropriate times. In other words, seeing things for how they really are. So a pessimist, obviously, we don't need to talk about that pessimist complaints. They're always complaining. They're negative dances. And so those people never succeed in anything. So the balance then between is is optimist versus realist. And I think in today's market, we need to be a realist and look at what's really happening because that will help determine and influence the next steps of this session here today, which is once you're clear on seeing how it really is, the market is the market, right? And try and separate the emotions from the mindset. The mindset is the market. So the market is what it is. It's going to do what it is. And you cannot control the market. So let's take a big takeaway. Number one is, what can you control? There's three things you can control right now. Number one, your mindset, number two, your skills, skills you develop that are appropriate for the current market and then three-year actions, what you do, right? So the market is the market, right? It is what it is. And we need to look at it for the reality of what it is. And so remember in the idea of survival, the fittest, many people think that survival of the fittest is about the strongest, like the strongest survives, right? The one who's faster, the one who's stronger. And the truth of the matter is, is that in the struggle for survival, the fittest, survival of the fittest, win because they succeed in keyword adapting. Survival of the fittest is not the strongest or the fastest, it's not the biggest. It's those who can succeed in adapting themselves the best, here's the other key to the environment. So how are you adapting? Have you adapted? Are you expecting that you're going to continue to do what you have always done? Because you've heard that definition of insanity, I'm sure by now, that repeating the same things over and over again and expecting a different result, that's insanity, right? And so this market has brought to the surface the three things we need to change. Number one, mindset, number two, your skills and three-year actions. So let's break that down and talk about a little bit more, right? Adaptability just to clarify what that means. Let me give you the definition of adaptability. It is the ability to underline this, adjust your emotions, thoughts, and most importantly, behaviors to changing situations and conditions. Additionally, adaptability means being able to rapidly learn new skills and response to changing circumstances. That's who survives, not everyone will. But you will. That's why you're here. So skill development, let's talk about skill development real quickly. What are the skills that are most important, most impactful in the current market? Scripts and dialogues. What you say, how you say it, when you say it, presentation skills, how you present yourself as a mortgage professional when meeting with referral partners, clients, prospects. The first word's out of your mouth, right? You've got about 15 seconds, 30 seconds max to create some differentiation in using your dialogues and scripts. Mine, if I take a moment to explain to you what makes us different, would it be okay if I shared with you how I'm different than any of the other mortgage originators you've spoken with? Any of the other real estate agents you've spoken with. We need to hone our craft now because 2021, there was no selling, no skill development needed. When you're basically giving away free money, everyone wants it. And the hype of the industry and the hype of the demand, right, created a stampede of people who didn't question, didn't ask, just wanted it, housing, financing, etc. Because they felt like they'd be missing out. Well, now, rug's been pulled out completely different market, completely different mindset and circumstances. So we need to get better at our value proposition, we need to get better at overcoming objections, presenting solutions and options for people and presenting why you're the best choice. And if you want more on that, hey, just let me know you can hop on Instagram, DM me on Instagram, look me up, Jeff Zimper, Morgan's marketing radio, just DM me, say, hey, more skills, right? Hop on Instagram and do that for me. I'm going to make a book suggestion for you as well. One of my favorite books when it comes to scripts and dialogues is exactly what to say by Phil Jones, co-authored by Chris Smith and Jimmy Macon from Curator Phil Jones. I had on the podcast a couple years ago and gave some really great transitions and phrases to use, you know, overcoming objections or a clarifying issues or differentiating yourself. And of course, our friend Renee Rodriguez, fantastic at that at setting the framework. So if you've not checked out him, amplify, I definitely encourage you to do so. So skillsets number one, number two, actions. This is all about what you do. So actions such as you showing up on social media, video content, posting, you hosting classes and events, networking, contacting your database leads, fear of influence, and following up on closed transactions. Those are all things you can and should be doing to build your future pipeline. I'll give you a couple of examples of those. Number one action, Tim Smith, who's the number one team in the state of California with Cold War banker. Number top five team, let's put it that way in the entire country, personal production over $400 million a year, Tim Smith, Cold War banker. I had the good fortune of talking with Tim on the phone a few years ago by way of Tom Ferry and I asked him, you know, what does he do? What's his daily method of operation? And he said, one of the things he lives by that has helped him build his volume to $400 million plus build a big team, a $5542 plan. Stick with me real quick, $5542, here's what it is, five conversations with people. You know, past clients, fear of influence every day. The other five, five conversations with people you don't know. These are new leads, referrals that you're hopefully generating from whatever source. The four is four conversations with lead follow-ups. These are leads you've connected with in the past, who haven't yet done business with you. Think about that. That's buyers who maybe got in the game and bowed out, right, took a time out, too busy, too crazy, multiple offers didn't want to play. Real estate agents who you've been in, you're fear of influence, who've been in your on your radar, but you never converted them to an actual partner. So that would fall under the category of the number four in the 554. And then the number two is two videos per week, minimum, you hosting, two videos, pick your platform, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, I don't know, pick one, do it. And use housing data right now. It's eat, guys, there's no shortage of examples. You've heard them here on the podcast, okay, success leaves clues. Relevant content, give people context, share the truth about what's going on in the housing market with using housing data, curate content from other sources that you read and trust. Leverage the tools you already have and post good content. That's it. The 5542 plan. That's one action item you can do. Here's another one real quick. Close transactions. Go back to the closed transactions you've closed with on the buyer side. And don't forget on the listing side, that's right, buyer side, easy follow-up. Some of those agents you already work with are your A-Player partners. Some, eh, you don't work with that closely, maybe you didn't pursue the relationship, got busy, kind of got away from you, that's a B or a C-level relationship. Go back to those closed transactions, follow-up with them, right? Have a conversation that says something like, hi, Bill, this is Jeff with ABC Mortgage. I want to apologize for not staying connected with you following our last transaction. I really feel bad about that, right? I'm calling because I intended to follow up with you and pursue a potential partnership. But now I wanted to check in and see how the market shift has affected your business plan for the coming year. Are there specific areas you're shifting your focus to? What's got you most excited perhaps about those new initiatives? And are there any specific areas that are more challenging for you, like marketing, social media, et cetera? Listen to their response. Ask them. Would you be open to some helper guidance potentially in those areas? I can help you with some of those areas? Well, yeah, sure, awesome. Another reason why I called Bill is because part of my plan for the new year is to help as many agents as I can achieve their goals. In fact, last year, we played a role on my team and I in helping our agent partners earn $150,000 in commissions. We're also helping our agent partners get better results with their online presence and marketing strategy. And I'm not sure if this is for you, but would you be open to learning more about how we're helping our agents do that? Guys, you should get a high conversion ratio on that. Now, your question about what do you mean the earn commission things, guys? Hey, you've got to give a total shout out to Jeremy for CAA. This is where I heard this or Dan Keller can't remember. This is, I'm a student, right? I'm investing in my learning. And the idea here is you play a critical role in helping the agent earn money. So you take the amount of transactions you've closed last in the last 12 months, right? Across all. Well, I mean, there's a bunch of different ways to look at this, but here's the formula. If you take all the transactions, you close in the last 12 months, you take the purchase price times 3%, right, or divided by 3%. Those are the total earn commissions of loans, clothes that you worked with realtors on. And let me tell you, many, many people say, oh, you know, closing loans, that's your job, that's the table stakes, yes, but it still has tremendous value because you, you, you tell me, if you ever heard of a loan officer not closing a deal, they drop the ball, they screwed up, last a minute, gotchas, well, that's where your value is, right? So start to have that type of dialogue, that type of script with agents. And then, you know, obviously help them with the additional stuff I talked about, like the social media marketing, et cetera, you're going to get the ideas from them, where do you get the out of those ideas, hey, hold on, I'll tell you more about that in a minute. Action number three, hey, go back to your past clients. You've closed in the last 12 months, reconnect, hey, Mary Sue, what's up? Hope things are well, et cetera, small talk. Hey, by the way, I know it's been a while since we talked, I just, the housing markets clearly kind of bananas right now, interest rates are all over the place. And I was just connecting with some of my past clients and wanted to just check, check in number one and number two, see if you've got any questions I can help clarify about what's really happening in housing and with rates. Guys, perfect opportunity to be of service and just check in with no agenda other than to serve. Sorry, there is an agenda before you wrap up the call, if you haven't gotten a review from them yet. Oh, by the way, Mary, one last thing before I forget. Would you be open to if I made it really easy for you, just texted you a link right now? Would you be able to take about two minutes and just share your experience of what it's like working with the ABC Smith team? Now you're asking for a Google review where you didn't get a Google review, okay? That's where I would focus my reviews right now is Google. Just like these ideas so far, all there's a lot more coming for you. These are the kind of things we talk about in our small group with our mortgage marketing throw membership. All right, let me just fast forward to action number five. The last thing is, and I'm hearing this more now from quote top producers that maybe put this on the back shelf last year because they were too busy. Action number five, teaching classes, agent events. Why do you teach classes? Why do you do agent events? Real quick. Scale your reach. You reverse the prospecting. You have a stronger value proposition, greater impact. You drive the online offline. You accelerate trust. And when you accelerate trust, resistance comes down. The relationship moves forward and you get referrals. And if that's not enough, the other reason why you do agent classes is because success leaves clues. It's what top producers do, okay? Eight out of ten of the 250 top producing originators I've interviewed have had agent classes and events as part of their overall strategy. And with that, I'd like to tell you about my agent classes where we generate agent referrals on demand. What is it? It's a done for you content platform preloaded with high impact real estate agent centric educational classes and marketing content. Just a sample of the done for your agent classes we have include things like embracing the shift, how to pivot and thrive in the current market. You are the brand, right? The five step blueprint to get more clients make more money and stand out from the crowd. We've got database marketing. We've got a business planning class brand new for 2023. We've got how to get more listings, secrets agents used to convert more leads, right? We've got Instagram, Reels, YouTube, video marketing, first time home buyer class. We've got the library. We've got it all so you can simply log in, watch the video tutorials, download the PowerPoint speaker notes, get coached by me and the other members in the group. Use the assets we provide for you, the social media images to help post on social to drive butts in the seats, use the done for you personally brand to you, landing pages, remove event, right? Remove zoom. We're handling this all for you. You upload your agent contacts, you click a couple of buttons and you blast off a automated series of invites and reminders to whatever class it is that you're going to teach. Oh, by the way, teach it over zoom, cool. Teach it in person. Awesome. Do both. That's the answer. You'll also get the completely custom branded flyers. You'll get the done for you email SMS marketing campaigns, all the analytics. So you can look at what are your results with opens and clicks. And then bottom line, you're going to join our community where we do a weekly call small group where we get better together. We sharpen each other's skills, our mindsets. And so we talk about strategies that are working right now with originators from all across the country. And we share. We don't hold that, hold anything back. The testimonials are on our website. You can go check them out at mortgagemarketing.pro. But my friend Chris Cogill this year, he's closed 102 loans for 20 million all from teaching agent classes. Liz LaFore added 30 agents as referral partners close over 20 loans, all from classes. Collectively, we've helped loan officers across the country deliver over 2,412 classes, drive 4,823 conversations with agents and originate 180 million plus total loans funded from classes since I've been doing this. Guys, it works. Want to learn more? Go to mortgagemarketing.pro. All right. So that's kind of like the quick, you know, hit, as I said, about how to pivot and thrive the current market. I hope you got some of those ideas. I'd love to know what your one big idea is from this podcast episode. So like I said, you can hop on Instagram if that's where you're at DM me over there. We also have a private Facebook group on just for podcast listeners, just go to Facebook and type in mortgage marketing radio and that's where you can find me and I hope you enjoy this episode. I sure as heck has enjoyed bringing it to you. I'll see you on the next one. Thanks for tuning in. Bye for now. Hey guys, what's up real quick? You've heard about the mortgage marketing pro membership before and I just want to quickly remind you of that you're in a place in your business where you simply need more purchased loans. You need to fill your pipeline with purchase business. Let's just face it, agents are still a solid pillar of business and sources of purchase business for you. Well, good news. Our mortgage marketing pro membership helps loan officers like you close more loans without the hassle of chasing agents or cold calling done for you agent classes, expert training videos, a marketing automation platform that automates the entire process for you. Anything you need to build your personal brand in your local market, attracting, conferred agents into referral partners, plus done for you proven marketing materials and plug and play content to make promoting your class, getting agents, butts and seeds, partnering with affiliates, real easy, but that's not all. You'll also get access to our weekly mastermind calls with top elbows, authors, speakers and coaches to learn the best strategies to grow your business right now in today's market. And as an extra bonus for limited time for all new members, you'll get access to a database of 200 agents in your local market that have closed anywhere to from eight to 50 transactions in the last 12 months, and we'll provide that list uploaded into our platform for you. So you can get off to a fast start in reaching actually productive agents. So what are you waiting for? You can check out more at mortgagemarketing.pro, see more of the success stories there. And if you feel compelled to do so, book a call, we'll have a chat. We'll see if it's a fit. Don't miss out on this opportunity to take your mortgage business to the next level right now. Head over to mortgagemarketing.pro.