Jane Floyd believes in accountability, the art of the follow up, and the importance of being interested, not interesting
Jand Floyd moves at 100 miles an hour. She’s a producing branch manager for NFM Lending based in Tampa, Florida, and her team closes an average of more than 30 loans a month.
“It's all about conversions. With the team that I have in place right now. I feel like I could close 40 loans a month,” Floyd said. “What’s important to me, though, is just to continue the wow/raving fan service that that we give to our clients.”
Marketing for Floyd is pretty simple: “Loving on my agents, loving on my past clients.” She’s always been a big believer in accountability, and she’s an active coach and student of a coach herself. Her focus on learning spills over to her partner events, which also include training and coaching for realtors.
A lot of originators are shifting their focus to work directly with clients and bypassing realtor business. There’s a lot of value to that, Floyd agrees, but she still leans heavily on realtor partners because for her, it’s all about leverage.
“If you think about it, [originators are] spending a lot of money with whatever automated systems to get direct to the client. Say you spend $500 a lead, and get that client. Once you've closed that client, you’re done. If I can get a realtor and build a relationship that I can close four, eight, 10 deals a year with, to me, I'm all about leveraging myself. So, for me, that's just how that makes more sense,” Floyd said.
Building relationships is about likability, sure, but it’s also about having the track record to back you up. As a coach, Floyd is seeing a lot of originators get stuck because they will say anything to gain a competitive advantage over other loan originators, but then fall short of the finish line. That, she says, is a long-lasting mistake.
“People can love me all day long, and I can be as smart as I can be as far as knowing my guidelines and knowing how to put a loan together. But if it gets in and then it falls out because ops isn't behind you, then you've lost that relationship,” she said. “Loan officers will get deals in but then they don't have the backing . . . they can get out there because we're all good salespeople, but then they can't deliver.”
The other big thing that keeps people from upping their origination game is lacking an urgency in the follow up. It can take years of continuous conversations to develop a rapport and gain trust. Most of the time a partner will give an originator a chance because of circumstance, Floyd said, and you have to earn their trust in order to get that chance for the business. When originators don’t follow up, they stand to lose before they’ve even gotten their foot in the door.
On the flip side, Floyd has also seen originators lose potential clients and partners because they’re a little too enthusiastic. They’re quick to tout their stats, services, and prices, but all of that is irrelevant at first.
“Nobody cares until they get to know you,” Floyd said. “Listen to the client's needs, listen to them. Be interested—not be interesting—and I think that's so hard for salespeople.”
Floyd has been originating mortgages for nearly 30 years. She got bored with law school and was doing PR for a title company, taking donuts around to various offices and getting contracts. A friend suggested that she look into the mortgage industry, which she thought sounded interesting, and because she already knew a lot of agents in the Tampa area she had a head start. For Floyd, it was love at first loan and she never looked back.
Although she’s forward-thinking with a growth mindset, she has learned over the course of her career to move slow in some ways. Topday, for example, she's slow to hire, making sure that right people are in place to carry the ball that much further. Over the past several years in particular, she’s learned to pour herself into her team more, and listen to their needs. She’s worked hard to become a good leader, and that’s paying off.
Floyd closed nearly $90 million last year and is on track for 2019 to be her best year ever. That’s not to say that she hasn’t faced adversity—her husband was diagnosed with cancer, which has really forced her to compartmentalize her work and set firm boundaries with people. She’s present when she’s working, she’s home when she’s home, and that forces a new level of productivity.
“Everything we do is about your mindset,” Floyd said. “If you lose a loan, life is life, but most people will let that derail them and they’re done for the day. I am quick to apologize if we make a mistake. You can win over people where you admit it, you fix it. But if you don't have the right mindset and let that distract you from what you're supposed to be doing, that’s the problem.”
