I want to start off by clarifying something. I’ve never been a “top producer” on a national level for a mortgage company, and I don’t want to represent myself as if I have.
The traits I’m highlighting here are the traits that brought me from a 0 self-sourced mortgage business to closing 7-8 loans a month in less than a year. They also allowed me to get pulled off the auto dealership sales floor and promoted to internet sales manager within 6 months at the age of 19.
These same traits allowed me to decide that I was going to pursue the passion I had developed for digital marketing and automation to start two companies simultaneously. I replaced my mortgage income within a couple of months.
If you need the reassurance that someone has done exactly what you’re trying to do in order to recognize good advice, it’s probably best you stop reading now. But if you, like myself, recognize success is a skill that is not limited to one segment or industry, then read on.
After reflecting on this topic, I can trace my success and the success of others to just two traits:
Trait #1: Consistency
You’ve heard the analogy of the dripping water and stone, right? Try to force a hole through the middle of a stone with almost any hand tool and you won’t have much success before breaking the stone. But if you place that stone under a tap with dripping water and leave it there long enough, eventually the stone will hollow out.
The mortgage industry is like that stone.
Most markets are saturated with loan officers and real estate agents who do not commit the time or energy to be a credit to their profession. The result is a lot of skepticism from agents, friends, and family when we first start marketing ourselves and owning our role 100%.
It creates an initial resistance that makes the results of your efforts delayed. The initial resistance in the market is the hardest to get past, and most people won’t see their efforts through long enough to reap the rewards. I addition, the sales cycle for a mortgage is kind of a long one… You’ve got to put in the work to initiate and nurture a referral relationship, then wait for a good enough referral to do something with, and finally, wait for them to find a home before waiting another 30 days for that home to close.
When you evaluate all of this, it’s pretty easy to see why consistency is such a defining trait. The fact is, most people don’t have the patience to see their efforts through all the way to the point where they’d be fruitful. As a result, you’ve got a lot of loan officers who don’t understand why they can’t break that 3-5 loan a month threshold.
What does consistency look like if you’re a mortgage loan officer trying to reach that next level?
It’s simple. There are a hundred different marketing strategies you can use to get more clients for your business. Some are more black and white and easier to understand than others (like internet lead generation), while some may be less easy to predict.
Here are some examples of what I’m talking about:
- Referral Relationships (CPA, Realtor, Attorney)
- Social media (community groups, sphere, etc)
- Networking Groups
- Volunteer organizations
- Local blogs/editorials
And so many more that would be difficult for me to come up with considering I picked my approach and was consistent with it long before I had the chance to try them all. The fact is though, that there are top producing loan officers out there that make a killing using each of these strategies individually. The difference between them and the 90% of other loan officers who try the strategies and don’t ever reach the level they’re at? You got it, consistency.
Their ability to maintain focus on what their goals are, and put in the concentrated effort every single day like clockwork is what separates them from the rest. So no matter what you decide is your lead gen strategy, or if you decide you’re going to use multiple, if you want to be a top producer you’re going to need to get consistent with your efforts.
Trait #2: Resolve
I worry that after seeing that the two traits I’m referring to here are consistency and resolve, you’ll dismiss this as being cliché. But hear me out!
Most of us who fight vigorously to achieve our goals have one or the other when it comes to these two traits. We may be consistent with an activity for a long time, but then we realize that it wasn’t the way we wanted to build our business in the first place or the results weren’t what we expected, so we give up and go back to being consistent with what we know and are comfortable with.
On the flipside of this, you could have all of the resolve in the world, and be willing to do WHATEVER it takes to achieve what you want to achieve, but never remain consistent enough with an activity to see the results through to the end.
This was me for a long time. I’d read a book, get excited about what the book outlined as a good strategy to achieve my goals, and set out with absolute determination that I was going to make it happen. But then, a “better” plan came along, and I’d pick my head up from what I was doing and realize that this plan was what I needed to succeed, and continue with the same level of excitement onto my new idea.
The perfect balance exists when you’re able to identify a 10x goal, research options on achieving it, set a plan, and then execute it every day, consistently. Your resolve should be inspired by your 10x goal. If you’re aiming for 10x more than you thought was possible, and you come up short by 50%, you’re still going to crush your original goal. If this doesn’t motivate you, I don’t know what will. But at this point, you’re consistently executing a 10x plan, with resolve towards a 10x goal. That’s a recipe for success.
What does this look like for a mortgage loan officer?
Well, let’s take me for an example. When I first read The 10x Rule by Grant Cardone, I couldn’t wrap my mind around the idea of chasing $1,000,000 a year. So instead, I 3x’d my goal and made it $300,000 in annual income. At the time I was an LO for a large bank.
What were the steps again?
- Identify your 10x goal. (Remember, I was skeptical and elected 3x instead)
- Research options on how to achieve that goal. (I started researching with an open mind and rediscovered the idea of internet lead generation.)
- Set a plan. (The bank I was at wasn’t going to let me explore lead gen or give me a chance to make $300k. Plan: get my license, jump ship to a retail non-bank lender, hire a coach, and set a goal of 8-10 loans a month consistently.)
- Execute it every day. (I missed my mark of 300k but exceeded my goal of 100k.)
So where did the resolve and consistency play in exactly?
Well, 70% of my income that year came in the last 6 months, and my first 3 months I didn’t make anything. So that should highlight my resolve. I was all in on the idea of figuring out internet lead gen, so despite being discouraged at every turn and getting deeper into debt, I continued to press on.
That’s resolve.
Consistency came in the form of calling and working leads every day, attending weekly coaching sessions, and executing regularly on an agent outreach plan.
I admit, I’m not the best example. I stopped before reaching the top to pursue the passion that got me there in the first place. But you get the point. I could’ve taken that plan and strategy as far as I wanted to, and so can you. Just put a plan together and execute it with consistency and resolve.
If you’re not sure how to reach your new and improved, astronomical goals, I can help. At Empower Funnels we build fully automated lead generation and follow up systems. We use Google Search Network ads instead of Facebook Ads, making them the best value, most effective, and most efficient systems on the market. Our systems are used by LOs ranging from $1m – $5m per month producers that are looking to scale their businesses to levels they didn’t think were possible.
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Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you at the top!
Michael McAllister