Do you have a contingency plan, or are you just making things up as you go?
In the mortgage industry, closing time can be a period of great distress. At the end of the process, when the lender is sitting at the table with the realtor, the buyer, the title company, and whoever else may be involved, a lot can go wrong. You may have spent weeks to months working with the realtor and buyer to get them to the table but, regardless of your investment up to this point, this is where you lay it all on the line. It's at the closing where you go home the hero … or you go home the villain.
What do you do, for example, if you're all sitting down ready to close the deal and then you are notified that the funding isn't there? Chances are, you've found yourself in such a scenario. The buyer becomes exasperated and, as a result, your relationship with the realtor may become strained. It doesn't matter how great they've thought you to be up to this point; if you can't finish, you leave the table as the villain.
Have you ever heard the expression, "prevention is the best medicine?" Well, it works that way in business too. The best way to get out of a bad situation is to plan in such a way that you never end up in the situation at all. In your organization, do you have a contingency plan – or are you just making things up as you go? Planning can mean the difference between going home the hero and going home the villain. Don't wait until your blindsided at the finish line; have a plan for everything that might go wrong.
