Just like there are lots of homebuyers needing a mortgage at any given time, there are always countless mortgage loan officers vying for their business. And you don’t want to lose potential or current clients to your competition, especially when it can be prevented with the right mortgage sales techniques.
If you want to stand out in this competitive industry, generate mortgage leads, and learn how to close more mortgage loans, you need to make the loan process more personal. You have to make relationships the core of your business practices.
Moreover, you also need to provide an exceptional experience that sets you apart from other loan officers so more clients and referral partners will want to work with you. Here are some tips to get you on the right track:
1. Without Salesmanship, Your Deals are Lacking
Many people have a low opinion of salesmanship. But without learning how to better your loan officer sales pitch, you’ll be missing out on better clients.
When interacting with potential clients, especially for the first time, your sole goal should be to establish trust. Your clients need to trust you to go into business with you. Tell your prospects what you have to offer them and why they would benefit from working with you.
Start building relationships on the right foot — build rapport and offer them the best mortgage options for their situations.
A great way to do this is with video. More often than not, the first communication you’ll have with prospective customers will be via email or phone. But sending a video is a more personal option, and by seeing your face, people will be more inclined to trust you with taking care of their mortgage needs.
See how Chris Brown of Certified Mortgage Planners does this upon receiving a mortgage lending inquiry from a lead…
2. Yes, Honesty Is Still the Best Policy
As you work on your loan officer sales pitch, remember to always be 100% honest with potential borrowers. Be transparent with them.
Go out of your way to make the facts clear to them. You’ll soon find that the truth is one of the most powerful tools at your disposal for building trust.
3. Establish Yourself as an Industry Expert
Taking out a mortgage is a huge (and stressful) commitment. So, people want the help of someone who knows what they’re talking about. One of the best mortgage marketing ideas you can adopt is establishing yourself as an industry expert that people can count on.
Develop an online presence that showcases your knowledge and expertise in the mortgage sector. Social media is a great tool for this. Use video across your platforms to educate consumers on what’s going on in the market, share mortgage shopping tips, and more.
Jennifer Beeston of Guaranteed Rate Mortgage is one of our top Mortgage Video Influencers in consumer education.
And she’s set herself up as an expert in the mortgage industry with her YouTube channel filled with educational content. With 11.5K subscribers and over 3 million views on her videos, it’s safe to say she’s mastered it. Watch one of her videos below…
4. Speed Wins the Day
Put yourself in a homebuyer’s shoes for a moment. They’ve finally found the house of their dreams. The only thing standing between them and the home they’ve always imagined is the loan needed to secure it.
So part of discovering how to close more mortgage loans is realizing that it requires speed. Obviously, you need to do your due diligence, but you also want to offer short approval times and quick responses.
But there’s only so much time in the day, and you have other clients needing your attention, too. This is another time video can help.
By using video as one of your top sales automation tools, you’ll be able to pre-record video messages addressing timely FAQs and instructions that are sent automatically to clients throughout the loan process – keeping them at ease and saving you time.
5. You Don’t Get What You Don’t Ask For
One of the oldest pieces of sales advice still applies: you have to ask for the sale.
Yet, many mortgage officers don’t follow it. They think that simply producing a term sheet will result in the prospect pounding down their door to make it happen.
When you have a prospect, at some point, you must ask them to take the loan you offer. If they say they’re not ready for a mortgage loan or refinancing, that’s fine. Just make sure to ask them to call you first when that changes.
6. Understand Your Clients’ Schedules
Of course, none of these mortgage sales techniques will be of much use if you can’t actually get in front of your prospective borrowers. The best way to do this, once again, is by putting yourself in their shoes.
Sure, you may work 9-to-5, but when are they most likely to be around? You’ll probably find that the best time for phone calls and meetings is outside of normal business hours.
A simple solution to this is to send video messages that your potential and current clients can watch on their own time. So, they’re able to listen to what you have to say at their convenience, and they can replay the videos as needed to respond accordingly.
Make yourself available by thinking about their schedules. This will make the appointment-setting process a lot easier, and you’ll earn their business in no time.
7. Expect Multiple Touchpoints
Don’t expect the vast majority of your market to feel comfortable accepting a mortgage the first time you meet. Instead, anticipate that it will be a prolonged process and you’ll be better prepared for how to close more mortgage loans in the future.
When you try closing them too early, you run the risk of missing your mark and losing their business forever.
8. Know What Comes Next
Along the same lines, always do your best to think several steps ahead. What’s going to come next in your mortgage sales process?
Every meeting you have with a prospect is only going to have one of a few different outcomes, so plan them out ahead of time. This will give you the advantage of speed we mentioned earlier.
As much as possible, prepare them, too. Something as simple as a customized timeline that shows them the path forward will help you maintain your mindshare. See how Ruby Grynberg of Salmon Bay Lending, does this via video email in the clip below…
9. Always Follow Up in Writing (Or Video)
The classic follow-up sales email is utilized in just about every form of business. And if you want to stay top-of-mind, follow-ups are the perfect method.
Of course, you only want to use follow-ups when appropriate, but there are plenty of opportunities to do so – like thanking leads for their inquiry or following up after a meeting.
After any meeting you have, send your prospect an email that summarizes what you talked about and provides them with whatever resources they may need to move forward. Or better yet, send a follow-up video email like the one Chris sent below…
As long as these messages are actually helpful, you’ll find that this simple tip can pay off in a big way.
10. Be Proactive, Not Reactive
To plan ahead and send out follow-ups, you must be proactive. Make room in your schedule to send out these emails, consider where your prospect is in the buyer’s journey, and otherwise ensure that you’re not constantly trying to keep pace with a potential borrower.
Anytime you have a touchpoint with a prospect, you should give yourself ample time to prepare. For example, the best salespeople give themselves 15 minutes before every sales call to get ready to make the most of it.
11. Know Your Market
Mortgages may be an extremely specific financial product to sell, but, as you probably know, the market is far more diverse.
This is why you need to understand your market in order to figure out how to close more mortgage loans.
Confidence is important, but you can only have confidence when you’re sure of your customers.
When someone comes to you because they’re interested in a mortgage, you want to understand what type they’re looking for, what kind of timeframe they’re thinking about, and, in the case of couples, who makes the decisions.
12. Qualify Your Clients
This kind of high-level understanding will also help you better qualify clients. This means uncovering if they’re an ideal prospect to invest your time in.
Learning how to qualify clients is absolutely vital to sell more loans. If you don’t, you won’t know who is worth your time and who is going to cause you needless overhead.
To do this you have to ask the right questions, like “Why are you looking for a mortgage right now?” or “What are you looking for in a mortgage loan?”
By qualifying your leads, you’re identifying if they’re really serious about getting a mortgage in the first place. After all, there’s nothing worse than spending a lot of time and energy on a prospective client, only to hear that they’re not interested in buying a house anymore.
13. Treat Referrals as a Top Priority
All of these mortgage loan officer tips will help you attract prospects and close them, but there’s no point in doing all the work on your own.
Instead, build a referral network that includes real estate professionals and other business people in your community whom you can compensate for bringing you new leads. This will save you time and improve your ROI.
Video is a great way to do this. See how Eric Peltier of Guaranteed Rate Affinity networks with potential and current referral partners in the following clip…
14. Relationships Build Revenues
Whether it’s a prospect, past client, or someone in your referral network, get good at building relationships. This is another one of those loan officer secrets that can help you build a passive form of lead generation.
This means getting to know about their families, jobs, hobbies, personal interests, and anything else that will help you build a relationship with them.
Birthdays and special occasions are also the perfect opportunities to reach out, show you care, and build that relationship. Make your message more meaningful with a video, like the ones Ruby sends to her customers on their birthdays…
15. Add Value
Finally, always look for ways to add value to the borrowing process as you learn how to close more mortgage loans. This will become easier to do over time as you get to know your market and its needs.
You’ll also get better at building the aforementioned network of professionals, which means you’ll have great inspectors, appraisers, and real estate professionals you can recommend.
Perfect Your Mortgage Sales Process By Learning From the Best
Now that you’ve read through all the basics, you’ll notice a common denominator across these techniques — video.
Mortgage professionals are incorporating the tips above while making video a key element of their mortgage sales process. And guess what? They’re thriving.
Want to learn their strategies so you can do the same? Get instant access to our Mortgage Video Influencers Guide below to garner video ideas and best practices from the best of the best. You’ll discover how to close more mortgage loans with video in no time.
- Inaugural Mortgage Video Influencers Guide (learn from 25 people)
- Follow-Up Mortgage + Real Estate Video Influencers Guide (learn from 60+ people)
- The Mortgage Action Plan (more ideas and examples)
- 7 Specific Video Ideas to Rehumanize the Digital Mortgage Experience
- 8 Tips to Increase Mortgage Referral Business
- 9 Mortgage Markeing Ideas for Loan Officers to Generate More Business
