When on the conference circuit, the message to originators is almost always the same: sell more, market better. And on the surface, that makes sense. Everyone wants more business, and we all know that sales and marketing are how you get it. Right?
But here’s the thing: Most loan officers already have a natural talent for sales. Does it really make sense to focus all our effort on turning an A into an A-plus? Or is the real opportunity in bringing a D up to a B?
Most originators excel at selling, but they struggle at process and operations. And no matter how strong a salesperson they are, no matter how that client came to them or how competitive the rate is, if the process and communication are sloppy, that client may close once but will likely never return.
And if the gut reaction is to blame the operations team, stop right there. The loan officer is both the tip of the spear and the rearguard. It begins and ends with them.
Trust the process
Those who have been originating for even a few years will follow a general flow. They get the introduction, move to a consultation or application and take it from there. But here’s the question: Do they ever write their process down?
Most people in this industry weren’t following a lifelong dream of being a mortgage originator. At their sixth grade Career Day, they didn’t carry a briefcase and dress like their favorite originator. They fell into the job … and here they are. Are the successful originators operating like they stumbled in by accident, or like professionals who know their craft?
“The loan officer is both the tip of the spear and the rearguard.”
In 2020, during the biggest boom our business has ever seen, many originators didn’t need more business. They were drinking from a firehose. They needed to close everything in front of them. Winning at that time wasn’t about sales and marketing. It was about efficiency.
At the time, one busy originator, let’s call him “Rendan McBay,” decided to channel the sixth grader in the navy blue power suit and start organizing his processes. He blocked off a few hours, shut off his phone and documented every step from introduction to post-closing.
Then he sat down with his team, reviewed his notes, and found countless inefficiencies and redundancies. That year, after correcting those issues, he closed more than $180 million with a four-person support team. And ever since, he’s lived off that year — because his business is entirely referral-based. No marketing budget. No marketing service agreements. No builder deals. Just referrals, driven by process and communication.
Here’s how to start doing the same.
Templates and automation
Most loan officers send the same emails repeatedly. In fact, they probably send dozens of versions of the same message every year. One of those emails is their best version. The others are not.
Home in on the best one and reuse it. Create templates for everything. Automate messages for new applications, processor handoffs, low appraisal explanations, Fed rate cuts and listing agent preapproval texts.
“This industry rewards efficiency, not chaos disguised as hustle.”
Instead of recreating the wheel with variations of the same message 10 times a year, simply spend 10 minutes crafting the best version, run it through ChatGPT to polish it and never rewrite it again.
Then take it further. Automate everything that doesn’t require customization. Realtors love constant updates — and after spending months with that buyer, they should. Their paycheck is in the hands of the originator.
Video. Video. Video.
Here’s another tip to boost your productivity and save some time. And it’s an easy one.
Loan officers spend an absurd amount of time explaining numbers on the phone. It’s inefficient and ineffective. Mortgages are complex, and they don’t stick in people’s heads with just a voice call.
Instead, record a five-minute video walking through the loan options. Some use Loom, but there are plenty of options.
Videos allow borrowers to watch on their schedule, spouses to review together without coordinating a call and clients to rewatch (and they do). Just five minutes of recording can save 30 to 60 minutes of talking — every single time.
Assembly lines are scalable
The traditional model looks like this:
1. Volume goes up.
2. Hire a processor.
3. Processor get buried.
4. Hire another processor.
But that’s not scaling … that’s firefighting.
Instead, break the process into narrow specialties. For the front end, hire a loan analyst who does nothing but review application materials and issue preapprovals. Then for post-ratification, let an operations manager own the file from contract to close. If they get too busy, break it down further.
Remember Rendan McBay? In 2020, he had one team member who ordered insurance, title docs, payoffs and condo docs — and one team member who prepped every file for the loan analyst. The efficiency paid off.
Your high-level talent should do high-level work. Everything else can be taught quickly and delegated inexpensively.
This might not come naturally to sales-driven people. But this industry rewards efficiency, not chaos disguised as hustle.
Get even slightly better at process and communication, and you’ll see clients take notice. Your referral partners will notice. And you may even get some of your personal life back.
You didn’t dream as a sixth grader of building a career buried in email chaos and 90-minute phone calls. Get structured, get efficient and watch the referrals roll in.
