Product Knowledge Training
The third area of training necessary for a successful strategy is product knowledge training. Regardless of what product or service is being sold, product knowledge is essential for a successful salesperson.

A good way to tell if you have sufficient product knowledge is to look at the rate sheet, matrix and underwriting guidelines for a loan inyour pipeline. If you cannot explain every word, number, abbreviation and symbol on each of those documents, your product knowledge is insufficient, and the chances are good that you will eventually make a mistake when selling that product.

Another way of testing your product knowledge is by comparing your Good Faith Estimates with your final settlement statements. Other than prepaids, impounds/escrows, payoffs and recording fees, virtually everything else on the Good Faith Estimate should be able to be calculated within a few dollars. If your title charges, lender fees, mortgage insurance premiums, etc., are consistently incorrect, realize that you are losing referral sales because of this lack of product knowledge. You must learn how to calculate the fees correctly.

If all of this seems overwhelming, remember that as a mortgage sales professional, your borrowers will reasonably expect you to be trained as a professional. By dividing your strategy into sales training, process training and product knowledge training, it is easy to gauge your own progress. As you develop and enhance these skills, you will notice the intangible benefit of increased confidence in your ability to succeed, combined with the tangible results of increased sales and profit.

Chris Thomas has a MBA and MS in Business Management and has advised Fortune 1000 companies on business process and technical improvement initiatives. As owner of Mortgage Training Resources, Chris leads a team that offers sales, product knowledge and process training to individual loan officers, brokerages and lenders of all sizes. For more information, contact Chris by phone at: 303-345-3683 or by e-mail at: CThomas@MortgageTrainingResources.com; visit his company’s Web site at: www.MortgageTrainingResources.com.

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