Effective mortgage-origination marketing starts with communication

Brent Duncan, adjunct professor, University of Phoenix School of Business and Management

As published in Scotsman Guide's Residential Edition, December 2005.

Communication is vital to mortgage professionals' survival and success. But few understand what communication is and how it works. This opens a competitive opportunity for mortgage-origination marketers who master this most central process of building lucrative customer relationships.

What is communication?

Organizational psychologists Daniel Katz and Robert L. Kahn define communication as the exchange of information and transmission of meaning. In interpersonal communications, we communicate to exchange information, direct action, share information, build trust and foster acceptance. In mortgage-origination marketing, we also communicate to inform, impress, persuade, generate a response and build relationships that contribute to personal and professional success.

Communication is a cyclical process that involves exchanging messages between senders and receivers. But effective communication requires much more than just talking at someone. To communicate more effectively, mortgage-origination marketers should gain a working knowledge of the communication cycle, build a solid understanding of barriers that prohibit communication and master basic skills required for success.

The communication process includes the encoding stage, the media channel, the decoding stage, noise and feedback.

Encoding

Communication starts with a sender and a receiver. The sender formulates ideas into a message intended to draw out a response from the receiver. In this stage, called encoding, the sender puts the message into a format that the receiver can recognize and understand.

In other words, the sender encodes the message using language, words, pictures, actions, symbols and events that are meaningful to the receiver. In interpersonal communications, the message can be written, verbal and nonverbal. In marketing communications, the encoded message can be brand messages, advertisements, press releases, signage and sales scripts.

At this stage, it is important to understand the degree to which nonverbal communication affects relationships. In Applying Psychology, Andrew DuBrin defines nonverbal communication as "the transmission of messages through means other than words."

Nonverbal communication conveys the feeling behind a message and is seen in a person's posture, facial expressions, appearance, vocal inflections and the distance between the communicators. Even the surrounding environment and cultural differences can play a part in nonverbal communication.

Research consistently shows that at least half of all meaning is transmitted nonverbally. A late-1960s study by Albert Mehrabian and Morton Wiener concluded that 93 percent of all communication is nonverbal. In short, it is not what you say, but how you say it.

Page: 1 2 3 Next