Making the best of it: staying productive during COVID-19

As the COVID-19 pandemic rages on – more than 174,000 cases were confirmed in the US at time of writing – originators and their clients are staring down the barrel of at least another two weeks of strict social distancing.

Waking up each day to a cocktail of rising death tolls and sinking stock prices can leave even the most dedicated mortgage professional struggling to stay focused and productive. Chris Leader, president of Leader’s Edge Training, says one way of getting ahead of the daily malaise is to be productive before even waking up.

Leader’s “High Five” program encourages both real estate agents and originators to primarily leverage automated messaging technology to reach out to their databases.

“It’s polite, it’s respectful and it’s proactive, with the upside of generating business going forward,” Leader says. “It’s a bit on the passive side, but it’s really productive.”

Leader’s “High Five” activities include:

1. Sending five texts – something positive and relatable – to five different people. This is a great strategy for keeping the lines of communication flowing and normalized.
2. Sending five emails, again to five unique receivers. Email may not be the chosen form of communication for all mortgage clients, but it’s still an effective way of reaching out to people who aren’t fused to their phones.
3. Writing five social media posts. There’s no better way of staying relevant and plugged in. Leader says leaving comments on others’ posts is another way of engaging, but that’s hard to automate – unless you also run a troll farm in Uzbekistan.
4. Writing five handwritten cards/notes. While this particular strategy can’t be automated, it provides a calm, thoughtful start to the day and offers your recipients a pleasant surprise when your note arrives.
5. Leaving five voicemails. Leader recommends a service like SlideDial, where originators can leave voicemails without ringing the recipient’s phone. can go in, even as early as 8 o’clock in the morning and leave somebody a voicemail without ringing their phone.

“If you put out 25 of those contact points every day, that’s basically 125 a week, 500 a month, 6,000 a year,” Leader says. “If you’re looking at even a 5% conversion rate on some of that business, you’d be looking at 30 transactions from nothing more than staying connected to your sphere and using technology to do it.”

Leader, who trained Canadian loan officers at TD Bank, RBC and Dominion Lending Centres before transitioning to coaching realtors across North America, says staying in regular contact with your client base is an important component of not only maintaining business, but of maintaining everyone’s emotional stability during an unprecedentedly confusing time.

“It’s about reaching out, staying connected and letting the community know that you’re here,” Leader says.