HALFTIME

Today marks the final day of the first half of the year of our Lord Two Thousand and Six. Isn't it amazing how time flies?

It's as if we are in a time warp sometimes. My friends, there is a very good reason for that... we are!

Many studies have shown that the way humans perceive time is that it goes faster and faster as we grow older. For a toddler, an hour can seem like an eternity while for an adult, those hours speed by faster each day. Time, our most precious of treasures, has a way of teasing us by disappearing a little more quickly every moment.

So please enjoy your time to the fullest because every sixty seconds you spend upset is a minute of happiness you will never get back.

Have a sage and cheerful 4th of July weekend!

THE TEACHER (PART 2)

The second great lesson within the Jethro Tull song "The Teacher" is found in the lines...

"No man's an island and his castle isn't home, the nest is for nothing when the bird has flown."

This lesson gets back to the old expression that "home is where the heart is". Better yet "home is wherever you are" because that is where your heart is. We all have homes and hopefully loved ones who reside there, but our addresses are all temporary.

Just like your money, when you leave this world you can't take your home with you, but you will take your heart for that is the real "home".

So treat your "home" right. Be is a giver not a taker, a helper not a hinderer and an angel not a devil. Always choose the high road and your heart and home will be safe and sound. 

ENJOYING THE SCARY PART

Making sales calls involves emotional risk because of the fear of rejection which is exactly why salespeople are compensated so well. We must leave our comfort zones and subject ourselves to negative responses on regular basis, but the rewards for overcoming fear of rejection are enormous.

That fear, also known as call reluctance, is the runaway number one reason that salespeople fail. It rears its ugly head when we avoid seeing the people, making the phone calls and asking the questions that we know we should. So we procrastinate, make excuses to ourselves and find other things to do. All at the tremendous expense of our careers, income and future security.

Once you get over your call reluctance, you will notice your success ratio go way up (along with your income) as you get more at ease an you will appreciate the failures and rejections for the opportunities that they really are, Better yet, once you get a slightly "thicker skin" and accept a certain amount rejection, you will find great enjoyment in what you once used to dread.

To get over your call reluctance, try giving yourself a reward of some kind for making the calls that you know you should. For example, if you visit ten referral sources this week, then buy yourself a new pair of shoes.

Like so many things, the tough part is simply getting started. Because once you make those calls and get some momentum from your new discipline, you will find that calling on others is one of the most fun things about being a Loan Officer and you can buy all the shoes you want!

GET THEM BACK

Referral sources will leave you from time to time. Sometimes they move, quit or even die. Sometimes their best friend, brother-in-law or even they themselves get into the mortgage business. However, they usually just leave you for another lender.

Then, as so often happens, the greener pastures they sought aren't so green after all.

The problem is that they left you, and because of the nature of those relationships, they will never come back unless you invite them to. And the number one reason is pride. They are simply too embarrassed. 

Most referral sources that have left you just don't have it in them to call you and say, "I'm so sorry that I left you for Lender X because they gave me more attention than you, took me to lunch and promised great service. But then they didn't return their phone calls, make their dates and my buyers didn't like them. I now realize what a huge mistake it was to leave the comfort of your services and I hope and pray that you will take me back!"

That would be nice but it won't happen.

What will happen though is that if you call your referral sources that have "moved on" you may be amazed at how easily they will come back if you just make the first move and give them the invitation. 

THERE YOU ARE!

“Wherever I go, there I am.”

— Aristotle

Aristotle got first credit for that quote and millions have uttered it since. And while the charm of the sentence is found in its clever simplicity, the meaning is all too often internalized with the wrong results.

Remember the questions of the last LO Insights article about whether you brighten or darken a room or whether people smile at you or not?

If you want others to smile and be truly excited to see you, your smile and positive attitude will go a long way. However, what really makes others putty in your hands is not having the attitude of "here I am" but rather the outlook of "there you are". It makes us feel important and all of you loyal readers of LO Insights know the importance of making others feel important. 

It works with your friends, loved ones, colleagues and customers. It will work at the dry cleaners, restaurant and grocery store too. In fact it works everywhere in all walks of life.

So next time you enter the room don't say "here I am". Everyone knows that much already. "There you are" is what they want so why not give it to them?

WHEREVER YOU GO...

When you walk into a room do you make it darker or brighter? If you said "brighter" skip the next sentence and move onto question #2.

Try smiling next time you enter the room.

When you enter another place of business, do you sometimes feel as if the people there are somewhat unfriendly? If you said "no" then skip the next sentence and move on to question #3.

Try smiling next time you enter another place of business.

When you first see your spouse or significant other after a long day do they smile at you? If you answered "yes" then skip the next sentence.

Try smiling next time you see the one you love.

Regardless of your age or dental history, your smile is your greatest asset in love, friendship and business. The intrinsic value of smiling more often is maybe even more important than the smile itself because of the positive vibes, which help form an upbeat attitude.

Let's face it, we all like people who smile and display a positive attitude more than those who don't.

Which do you want to be?

EARN IT

Thanks to RESPA (And thank God for RESPA) we can't offer money for referrals so what in the name of coffee and donuts can a Loan Officer do to make a referral source money?

First, they must have the right approach. The servant's heart approach.

The approach of someone who seeks to help others first and doesn't expect returns until later, sometimes much later. An approach that places the importance of long term success via delivering customer service excellence above all else. The proper approach, which places the interests of our customers first and ourselves last. If you approach your business in this manner, people will want to do business with you and success will happen habitually. If not, struggles are inevitable.

Deep down your referral sources really just want you to do a good job for their customers and make them look good for referring you. If they are truly a dedicated professional, they will want that more than anything money can buy!

THE FOUR MUSTS

What does it take to add a new referral source to your business? And why will they do business with you instead of somebody else?

The above two questions hold the magical key to our business and while getting new referral sources is easier said than done, it's really not that hard either, as long as you understand the rules...

• Rule #1: They must know you.
• Rule #2: They must like you.
• Rule #3: They must trust you.
• Rule #4: You must help them make money.

Rules 1-3 are self explanatory and the basics for any fruitful relationships in business as in life. Those relationships that skip right to rule #4 are the shaky ones that are often short-lived thanks to the lack of the  "like" and "trust" parts.

Kind of like how most people feel when their car gets wrecked and ends up in a body shop that someone else chose. The likelihood of repeat business is almost nil thanks to the lack of like and trust remaining by the time the car is finished two weeks late.

Rule #4 is where the real fun begins and where the separation between top and average producers happens.

To be continued...

VALUABLE ADVICE

Once upon a time a man named Uncle Frank gave his nephew a card for his high school graduation. In the card was a $20 bill and one sentence in regards to the importance of furthering his own education that was later worth millions to the young man. The card read...

“Don’t grow up to be a mule, work with your head not your back.”

Truer words were never written than Uncle Frank's single sentence back in the 1960's and the nephew is living proof forty years later.

For more proof, let's revisit some earlier LO Insights material about the staggering value of an education...

Using average hourly earnings from different professions from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics and assuming the average student attends class 160 days per year and the average worker has a forty year career, we can put a value on every day of school attended. The results follow...

• High School: $1560 per day for every day in grades 9-12, compared to a High School drop out.
• 2 Year Trade School: $1128 per day compared to a HS graduate.
• Four Year Degree: a whopping $3288 per day compared to a HS graduate.

And an average doctor will make $2788 per day of grad school plus the $3288 per day for their degree and $1560 per day of high school adding up to about $5 million in lifetime earnings over the high school dropout. And these numbers are in today's dollars, not inflation or time adjusted.

That's right. Getting a degree is like paying your kids over $3000 per day on top of their $1560 per day for high school.

Please feel free to share this with the graduates and future graduates in your life!

YOU THE ATHLETE

Did you commit to yesterday's idea?

If you did, then I'll bet you are feeling better about your business today than you did just 24 hours ago. If so, please share your experiences with LO Insights by emailing Mortgage Sales Manager.

If not, did you drive home last night feeling great about your business? Did you feel that enormous sense of accomplishment that goes along with a hyper-productive day? Did you put forth an effort you can be proud of?

Imagine for a minute what it would be like if you and your business were professional athletes. By this I mean having millions of people watch your every move and critique your effort and performance. Would you have wowed those millions or would they be calling for you to be cut from the team because of your lack of effort?

Yesterday's strategy of taking an entire day to do nothing but your highest payoff activity of making contacts was an example of you the athlete being coached. Whether the athlete decides to embrace the coaching is their decision. But please know that every coach in the world will only tell their athletes what is helpful. So if you did not embrace yesterday's plan, please plan to embrace it soon and repeatedly but don't do it for the coach's sake, do it for the athlete!

A CHANGE IN YOUR PLANS

Calling all Loan Officers!!!

How would you like to kick start your week? What if you could drive home tonight feeling awesome? What if the reward for just this one day is more volume for the next ten or twenty years?

Are you up for it? If so, change your plans for today. Yes today because it is never too early to start doing what's best!

What? "I can't do that." you say. "My day is already planned with activity and business."

But is what you are going to do today really business as its finest or is it just "busy-ness"?

Make no mistake, the highest payoff task you can do as a Loan Officer is to make contacts that will, therefore, make loans. So take all of the other "busy-ness" you planned on doing today and let it go until tomorrow because it can wait. Use your newfound time (which should be most of the day) to make and reestablish contacts and this will be a banner day for you.

To do this is easy. You commit to it by simply ignoring everything that is not essential today and do what is lucrative, but far too often procrastinated.

So start smiling to get ready for that drive home tonight because when you make contacts with a smile on, you will be more successful 99.9% of the time and your smile as you drive home tonight will be even bigger!

THE GAS STATION STORY

Value is one of the thousands of words in the dictionary with many different, yet similar meanings.

The first definition of value found in Webster's is that value is an amount expressed in money or another medium of exchange that is though to be a fair exchange for something. As it applies to us, that definition of value applies only if we are fully commoditized.

Consider the example of any commodity other than gasoline that can be purchased at a gas station. The gas station can charge more and compete less on price because they add value by providing convenience. However, there is no convenience in their gasoline so they must charge a competitive price for it, otherwise they would have little or no business at all and no one to buy their marked up Gatorade or Twinkies. 

But whenever the customer does not have the need for convenience, they will typically buy the same items at the local grocery store or Wal-Mart because the price is far less since there is no added surcharge for convenience.

Would gas stations sell all of the beverages, gum and tobacco they do without their value proposition of convenience? Of course not. They add a simple value proposition to the commodities they sell, which is exactly why they can get away with charging $2.00 for a small bottle of water.

The question you must ask yourself is this... Do I want to sell my water like Wal-Mart by charging a lower price than everyone else or do I want to sell at a more favorable price by providing the commodity along with something of significant added value?

More tomorrow...

GET ON YOUR FEET

Get up and make it happen.

The old expression about "thinking on your feet" is one that is so colloquial we never give it much thought but consider the abstract though that the expression is not "thinking on your butt" because we can all think and speak better on our feet rather than in a chair.

Getting on your feet will help you make it happen because on your feet your mind and voice simply function better. (As long as you aren't trying to do three other things at the same time.)

Standing up during important phone calls is one of the time testes strategies employed by successful people in all walks of life. For you, it starts with your voicemail greeting. Always stand while creating your greeting. Your voice will sound better and you will sound more confident. And the same goes for any conversation where you have to be your best. Stand and deliver.

THE TEACHER

“My name’s the teacher, that is what I call myself. And I have a lesson that I must impart to you. It’s an old expression but I must insist it’s true.”

While the "teacher" here is the subject of an old Jethro Tull Song. This song has one of life and business's greatest lessons amidst the guitars drums and flutes. But alas, like many classic rock songs the guitar riffs are what sticks in people's minds rather than the words which are so often hard to understand and absorbed by music.

The great lesson is the next line of the song...

“Jump up, look around, find yourself some fun. No sense siting there hating everyone.”

And you probably thought the word "hating" was actually "healing". (Just a slight difference which changes the entire message from the teacher.) Healing everyone sounds so much better than hating everyone, but when you hear the word "healing" you lost the true meaning of the lesson. Which is this...

Excitement (fun and success) rarely happens without our efforts to seek it. Those who seek it will find excitement and those who sit will watch the world go by with an ever increasing amount of jadedness which morphs into hate for many.

So jump up, look around and find yourself some fun. And while you are at it, try jumping up next time and every time that you need to be at one hundred percent.

To be continued...

LIFE'S LUBRICATION MECHANISM

Tolerance is defined as....

• (1) The acceptance of different views.
• (2) The act of putting up with something or someone irritating or otherwise unpleasant
• (3) The ability to endure harsh or difficult conditions.

How high is your level of tolerance?

The higher your tolerance, the more content you will be with life and with your inner self. Plus, with an elevated level of tolerance you will cause those around you to be more content and far more tolerant of you.

We all conduct ourselves a little differently and we all tolerate those differences at varying levels. Nevertheless, those whose levels of tolerance exceed the norm tend to be happier and more successful in all walks of life. Going through life without tolerance is like an engine running without oil. Eventually the friction causes a meltdown and soon thereafter there is nothing useful left.

Tolerate and you will be tolerated; but lose your tolerance and the little things will become like nails on the chalkboard of life. 

YOUR DAY, YOUR WAY

The final and possibly most important discipline of today's mega producer is that they have their priorities straight. First of all, they have adopted to WIN (What's important Now) attitude in how they handle their daily tasks. By properly prioritizing what matters most and leaving the rest for later, they operate in the most efficient mode possible.

More importantly though, is that they have their priorities straight by working to accommodate their life as opposed to their life being dictated by their work. They work with people they like and who also like them. They play hard and work hard too, but they understand that things like family, health, recreation, friends, faith and community are all far more important in the game of life. 

This may seem counter intuitive but trust me, the best Loan Officers work around their life as opposed to their life being dictated by their work. You only have one life to live, so why not live it up and be a big producer too?

PAINT YOUR CANVAS

Your words can be the canvas for your masterpiece or the old newspapers that catch grease and dirt on the floor of the garage. They can encourage and uplift others or they make them angry quicker than a punch in the nose. So choose your words wisely regardless of your status or your mood that day. Your words are the legacy that people will remember you by.

Ultimately, people will not remember you for your accomplishments, but they will remember your style, your words and how you treated them.

So please remember the next time you are tempted to say something not so nice, that we are all fighting battles of some kind. So please be kind no matter who you are, where you are or what your position may be in your personal or professional life. Just a few kind words can change somebody's world forever, but regrettably, mean words tend to be remembered more often.

And especially while you are in the office, please remember the old adage that "it's nice to be important but more important to be nice."

THE CUSTOMER IS KING

Today's top producers have embraced the concept of data base management and taken it to a whole new level. These days the most effective marketing strategies usually revolve around our past clients and sphere of influence as opposed to Realtors and builders.

While Realtors and builders are fantastic referral sources that should never be ignored, the fact is that today more referrals come from your past clients rather than the Realtor than ever before. Whether right or wrong, study after study have shown that a person is more likely to utilize the services of a lender referred by a friend or family member than by their own Realtor. 

This is not just a trend. In the 1990's it was a trend. Now it is full-on reality. As time marches on, your past clients should be marketed to more than ever before to keep you visible to the point where you are first on their minds whenever they think mortgages.

If you treat your customers right, give them more than they expect and stay visible, your past clients will become "Marketeers" that are far more effective than any TV, radio or billiboard ad could possibly hope for.

Today the referral tree that grows from the roots of happy customer is the healthiest tree in the forest. 

LISTEN UP!

Ever since you were a toddler, did you like being commanded to listen? I know I don't and you probably don't either, despite the fact that we can all listen better at times.

Anyone who utters the word "listen" on a regular basis had better be a person in a position of authority and leadership. Otherwise their "listen ups" will soon fall on deaf ears. Well maybe not quite deaf ears, but ears that hear the words "listen" while they are doing exactly that listening. So eventually the command to listen gets tuned out when not used with discretion. 

Why? Because the brain simply rejects it.

The ears hear the word "listen" and the brain thinks what in the name of the Department of Housing and Urban Development do you think I'm doing?

That said please avoid starting all of your conversations or voicemail messages by saying "listen". It is just a waste of breath and a stealth like agitator in any situation where the other person is already listening. 

CUSTOMERS FOR LIFE

Taking care of your customers before, during and most importantly after their loan closes is what generates referrals and will keep your referral tree growing in a healthy fashion.

Other than providing outstanding service staying in touch after the sale, the best way to grow your tree is to look beyond the future immediately with all of your clients. Your knowledgeable and reassuring words that tell them that mortgages are something they never need to worry about again.

Don't come on too strong though. All of this "creating customers for life" stuff can be a little intimidating to a person who just met you. Besides creating is not a verb that suits the customers wants and needs very well. It suits your needs, not theirs. Plus life is a long time and a little longer a time frame than most people envision themselves to be in the market for a mortgage.

Rather than making a customer feel like they may be obligated or stuck with you forever, let them know you are good, you care and that you will be there for them in the future. Because that is what they really want.