Ask 'who' instead of 'do'
Erik Janeczko is the national sales coach for Flanagan State Bank Mortgage, and has coached more than coached more than 7,000 originators in the last 15 years. He has witnessed the most effective strategies of the top 1%, and at the Originators Connect conference, he shared what the top originators are doing that most others are not.
While Janeczko got started with a phone on a desk and a “good luck,” he knew that it didn’t have to be that way for originators. Over time, he sought out the best orginators in the industry and invested a lot of time and energy into training and learning. Eventually he became a coach, and when looking at the originators who did more than 30 loans a month, of which at least 70% were purchase transactions, for more than three years, he noticed a pattern: top originators follow a pretty strict pattern of planning, but they plan differently than a lot of companies approach the idea of strategic planning.
Most companies, and the mortgage industry at large, is reactive, whereas the top originators were proactive. Rather than looking at how they’re going to handle the crap that gets thrown at them in the short-term, they envision what they want their business to look like at least a year or two down the road.
“They focus on unique things that are the minor fine tuning tweaks and adjustments that often catapult tremendously greater success,” Janeczko said.
Janeczko said that the daily job of most originators involves wearing four hats: that of lead generator, salesperson, customer service, and processor. The best originators are able to compartmentalize the different elements of the job and break them down further into layers of growth.
One of those layers is operational systems, which often proves to be a stumbling block. Even if an originator has a great team that provides support, one person can only do so many loans.
“You’re spending one month filling your pipeline and a whole other month emptying it because it becomes a more than full time job just handling the customer service and processing functions,” Janeczko said. “It’s not getting easier with margin compression that our industry is experiencing. So when you start to try to break beyond that six or 10 loan a month mark, you’ve got to start thinking about how to duplicate your process. Because you can’t do it by yourself.”
Originators are often told that they’re selling themselves and their service, and it’s true. The flip side of that, though, is that it can be hard to let go of the loans. The number one challenge people have, Janeczko said, is how to stop working 80-100-hour weeks because it’s difficult to teach and train others to do the job as well as they do. But the problem isn't the people; it's that the system isn’t able to be replicated.
Customer experience and value is a key component of any system, as it ultimately drives the initial phases of the conversation. One way to think of it, Janeczko said, is that value = benefit – cost.
“If that equation is out of balance, I’m not getting that customer. I get that equation back in balance, and I’ll win over my competition. But there’s two ways to rebalance that equation: One, is I can lower my cost and keep that benefit the same, the other is, I can raise my benefit, and often that can bring my cost up with it at the same time.”
How to raise the benefit? One way it to become less transactional and more advisory. Another key component of a system is to engage in transformational growth with a partner, instead of treating them as vendors. Commitment and loyalty go “through the roof” when originators can lift the value and credibility of their partners. Although realtors won’t risk a commission by referring you to a client who’s already been preapproved with someone else, but if an originator gets them extra leads, they can’t afford not to refer you.
Janeczko mentioned active opportunity mining systems, systems that are designed to help find more people with housing needs within each customer’s sphere of influence. A huge part of this, he said, is asking better questions, such as ‘who’ instead of ‘do.’ No one particularly wants a loan; they want the house.
“We’re all pre-programmed from a very early age to respond to very specific questions in very specific ways. So when I go to a customer and say to the customer, ‘Mr. Borrower, at the end of the day, our passion is for helping families get into a better living situation and creating a better future for them and their family. So we want to help enlist you in that mission with us. I’m sure you know some folks that have the need for a different and better home, and we’d love to help them tap into that. So let me ask you a quick question: who do you know that, for example, works hard and pays their bills on time but is renting the same house that they’ve been living in for five plus years?’" Janeczko said. "I’m not asking for a ‘do you know anybody?’ I’m asking for a specific name or a specific person that matches that scenario.”
Teach team members to have that conversation. It’s easy to duplicate in conjunction with the day-to-day process of managing a customer, so implement it and document it. At the end of the day, a system is all about regimenting the process that’s going to save stress, time, energy, and money.
Of the categories of marketing, sales, documentation gathering, and processing, marketing is worth the most as it can make the biggest difference in your income at the end of the day. If you can systemize the rest you can focus your energy on what will make the biggest difference for your business.
“Focus on lead generation, business development the partnerships that create a consistent, residual flow of leads by partnering with front-line realtors, financial planners, CPAs, and insurance agents that will drive consistent lead flow. The more you put your lead flow on autopilot, the more quickly you can grow.”
Systems are key in getting you into that top 1%, closing more loans and having a more consistent workflow.
