Being a mortgage originator means becoming intimate with the sales process. Whether you’re new to the mortgage industry or sales, looking to pick up new tricks or have resisted sales with a burning passion, building confidence with these skills can happen faster than you think.
The trick is to dive in and get started, even though it may be uncomfortable. Remember, things are only uncomfortable for as long as they’re new. Here are some ways for you to quickly build confidence and overcome resistance to selling mortgages.
Talk with clients
Obtaining insights from past clients about why they enjoyed working with you — and how your solution potentially changed their life — is a powerful way to build your confidence. Previous clients may have had bad experiences with other originators that led them to find you in the first place.
When you know that you helped someone achieve their goal of purchasing or refinancing a home, you can walk into your sales conversations armed with the knowledge that you make a difference in the lives of your clients. This will shift your approach to these discussions.
Past clients also are great prospects for new sales. Once you find out what former clients liked about working with you, you can check in and see if they have any new challenges. If there’s a desire for them to purchase a new home, a vacation home or a residential investment property, then extend the invitation to explore these options together.
Getting these clients to say “yes” a second time is usually much easier than the first go-round. Additionally, this opens the opportunity for you to get warm referrals for future sales.
Develop referral partners
Reach out to people who believe in your work. This group can include past clients, family members, friends, colleagues, mentors or anyone else who believes in you and has access to the clients you want.
Ask them if they’d be interested in a referral relationship in which you provide some sort of thank-you gesture for the referrals they send your way. When you see other people clamoring to put their reputations on the line to help you, it will be easier to absorb their confidence and infuse it into your sales process.
Keep in mind, some people will not be able to take a paid commission for referrals that they send to you. But there are other ways you can thank or incentivize your referral partners. For example, you could donate once a month to a charity of their choice, or you could run an annual charity event that is funded by the proceeds that would have served as their commission check.
This allows you to connect with your referral partners in a deeper way than simply bringing them additional income. Instead, you get to band together and make an impact on the world in a way that makes both of you feel good about the work you’re doing together. These types of relationships are not solely based on business transactions.
Offer exclusivity
If you’re nervous about approaching prospects, start small and with someone who has already shown interest. There are a few ways to do this.
If you have people already coming to you who are genuinely interested in buying or refinancing a home, reach out to them first and engage the sales conversation. If you don’t have that just yet, however, start with the people who are your most ardent, loyal followers.
You can create a special offer that is available to a limited number of people. Because the offer is exclusive and you reached out to them first to see if they’re interested in learning more, you can set yourself up for quick sales opportunities that you can spin into more sales down the line.
This might involve something as simple as a mortgage process master class in which you’re teaching your ideal prospects about the proper steps for buying a home, getting their credit in order, or anything else that cuts out the fluff and misinformation they’ll have to sort through online. If you make this master class free or inexpensive, you create an opportunity to build rapport with prospects who can boost your sales figures.
Show enthusiasm
It can be easy to get trapped in your head and spiral negatively into all the reasons someone would decline your offer. But there’s a powerful memory-hacking trick that can end these thoughts right in their tracks.
Think back to a time when you were truly excited to invest in something. Channel the feelings of elation in your body when you were ready to throw your credit card at a salesperson so you could finally have the item or experience you yearned for. Remember the relief you felt at the moment a solution had finally arrived and you realized you’d no longer have to deal with a problem.
Transfer these feelings over to your sales prospects. You get to be that person for them — the solution they are over the moon about. You are able to bring the same level of joy and relief to these prospects if and when they choose to move forward. How cool is that? When you realize your sales conversations are vehicles to drive powerful change in the lives of your prospects, you’ll build confidence in the sales process more quickly. ●
