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Loan Officers often fumble through their origination duties, never fully understanding exactly, precisely what they need to do to

 

be successful.  The Mortgage Business is also loaded with “unconscious competants” who succeed, often brilliantly, but can’t

 

explain how they do it or why they are so much better at it than their fellow salespeople.  Most sales managers are doomed to

 

frustration.  They can’t get superstars to communicate to management the secrets of their success.

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Occasionally a vision appears, a vision so simple, uncomplicated and clear that superfluous details of the sales effort are forced

 

into the background and the pure energies driving the mortgage sales engine stand out in high relief where they can be seen

 

and examined by everyone.

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Did you ever look in the newspaper and see in the classified section the column “BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES?”  What do you

 

find there?  You find ads for lots of "routes" -you know- vending machine routes, bakery routes, delivery routes of all kinds.  Here is

 

how this business works.  Someone goes to work for a vending machine company or a bakery and then must persuade all of the

 

people who have vending machines or grocery stores in their territory to stock their goods.  If the salesman is good, he/she signs

 

up a lot of customers and then collects commissions on everything subsequently delivered to these retail outlets.  When a

 

salesman wants to move on to another job, he can sell his route to another individual who will pay him a lump sum for the

 

privilege of assuming the responsibility of delivering the goods and collecting the commissions on what is delivered.  This is the

 

origin of these business opportunity classified ads.

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One night I sat bolt upright in the middle of the night.  I was struck by a realization that I had concerning every single successful

 

Loan Officer I have ever met.  I realized that what a loan originator essentially does are establish a route. Good Loan Officers have

 

a set, targeted group of customers that they call on consistently.  What success amounts to is, if they wake up in the morning and

 

know exactly, precisely where they want to be that day, and then get out there and deliver their “goods” to exactly the people

 

on their planned route, then they will eventually originate large numbers of loans and make a huge amount of money.

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As Loan Originators add more steady customers, referral sources, to their route, their route becomes more valuable.  The way

 

originators add referral sources is to call on promising prospects in the area of their existing route and attempt to persuade then

 

to make a space in their business to carry the Loan Originator’s product. Then the loan officer calls regularly on the new account

 

as he/she works their route in order to deliver the product and services being sold.

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Loan Officers may become distracted by operational problems with files.  Its like if the bakery delivery man’s truck breaks down.

 

It can happen once or twice, but if it happens every week, customers feel that they are not getting the promised service and begin

 

to look elsewhere for product.  When Loan Officers become preoccupied with problem loan files, they often get stuck in the office

 

and miss opportunities to service their route.  If this happens too frequently, Realtors and other referral sources begin to feel that

 

the programs and service product they were sold is not being delivered regularly and they are vulnerable to appeals by

 

competing Loan Originators.  The larger the number of high-quality referral sources on your route, and more consistently you

 

deliver your service product to them, the less time a salesperson is distracted by problem loans and other operational concerns,

 

the more money they make.

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Bringing in relatively problem free loan applications is a key to a Loan Officers’ ability to develop their route.  By persuading

 

every applicant to bring necessary documentation to application, loan originators and their assistants promote quick approvals,

 

timely and easy closings, in short, the sort of sales climate conducive to building a route.

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By developing clear and specific marketing plans, including approach letters, value added materials, program information

 

sheets,  motivational materials, successful sales scripts and advertising, the loan officers insure that they will have adequate

 

goods to deliver, even if they are calling on their route three or four times per week.

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This is the formula for success.  Build a route, consistently deliver the proper goods and services to the customers on your route. 

 

Avoid problems and distractions that disrupt the delivery of goods and services to the customers on your route.  This is the

 

formula for high earnings and success in the Mortgage Business.

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