Loan Officer Sales Training 04/09/2024: Utilizing Events as Loan Officers

Welcome to another enlightening episode of "Loan Episodes Sales Training"! In this installment, we're diving deep into the world of event utilization for loan officers. Hosted by Kyle Hiersche, this episode is your ultimate guide to leveraging events as a strategic tool to boost your lending business.

Join us as we uncover the untapped potential of events, from industry conferences to community gatherings. Learn how to navigate networking opportunities, build valuable relationships, and generate high-quality leads that fuel your success.

Our expert guests share their insider tips and proven tactics for planning, promoting, and executing successful events. Discover how to stand out in a crowded market, create memorable experiences for your clients, and elevate your brand as a top-tier loan officer.

Tune in to "Loan Episodes Sales Training" and unlock the power of events to propel your lending career to new heights. Don't miss out on this invaluable resource that will revolutionize your approach and drive unparalleled growth in your business!

For more episodes visit:
https://themortgagecalculator.com/Page/Loan-Officer-Sales-Training-Podcast

About The Mortgage Calculator:

The Mortgage Calculator is a licensed Mortgage Lender (NMLS #2377459) that specializes in using technology to enable borrowers to access Conventional, FHA, VA, and USDA Programs, as well as over 5,000 Non-QM mortgage loan programs using alternative income documentation! 

Using The Mortgage Calculator proprietary technology, borrowers can instantly price and quote thousands of mortgage loan programs in just a few clicks. The Mortgage Calculator technology also enables borrowers to instantly complete a full loan application and upload documents to our AI powered software to get qualified in just minutes!

Our team of over 350 licensed Mortgage Loan Originators can assist our customers with Conventional, FHA, VA and USDA mortgages as well as access thousands of mortgage programs using Alternative Income Documentation such as Bank Statement Mortgages, P&L Mortgages, Asset Based Mortgage Programs, No Ratio CDFI Loan Programs, DSCR Investor Mortgages, Commercial Mortgages, Fix and Flip Mortgages and thousands more!

Our Mortgage Loan Originators are trained to be loan consultants to guide borrowers throughout the entire l

The Mortgage Calculator is a licensed Mortgage Lender (NMLS #2377459) that specializes in using technology to enable borrowers to access Conventional, FHA, VA, and USDA Programs, as well as thousands of Non-QM mortgage loan program variations using alternative income documentation!

Using The Mortgage Calculator proprietary technology, borrowers can instantly price and quote thousands of mortgage loan programs in just a few clicks. The Mortgage Calculator technology also enables borrowers to instantly complete a full loan application and upload documents to our AI powered software to get qualified in just minutes!

Our team of licensed Mortgage Loan Originators can assist our customers with Conventional, FHA, VA and USDA mortgages as well as access thousands of mortgage programs using Alternative Income Documentation such as Bank Statement Mortgages...

Transcript

0:01

So welcome everyone. My name is Kyle Hiersche. I am the COO of the mortgage calculator, and this is our loan officer sales training that we do every weekday at 12 PM Eastern, where we go over the front end and the sales end of the mortgage business today, we're going to be talking about events, so we're really big on events here at the mortgage calculator. Actually, the president of the company and I, you know, come from an event background. That was the company we owned for most of our lives before we got into marketing and advertising. And then before we got into mortgages, right? So events are really big for us, both doing events and going to events, right? We do our year end. You know, big finale event here in Miami every year. This year is December 13th to the 15th. It's called real estate weekend, Miami. It is open to all realtors and loan officers, but it's also, you know, so it's a conference that people bypasses too, because there's, there's panels and networking mixers, and then a VIP yacht cruise with food and drinks and all that kind of fun stuff. Right. So it's a whole big networking weekend. That's December 13th to the 15th. This year, and you can get more info at realestateweekendmiami. com. But the point is that it is an actual event that's open to the public with all kinds of realtors and loan officers from different companies come to, but of course we use it also as our year end retreat for our team so that everybody can come meet each other and learn and party in Miami. Right. So you know, we're, we're really big on not just attending events, but we do that event. Every year. So of course, everybody that's on our team that closes loans, they get their hotel room paid for and free VIP pass to everything. All team members get a free VIP pass to everything, whether they've closed a loan this year or not. Especially for those that haven't closed a loan, you want to make sure to come down and, You know, learn so that you can close more loans and get your hotel room paid for the next year and stuff. So anyway, big on events, do our own events as well as attend all kinds of events. We sponsor events. Lately things have been so crazy and busy, but we used to buy a lot of booths at events. We have a mortgage calculator booth. We set up sometimes. We'll probably start doing that again here soon as the market loosens up a little bit. So anyhow, we are very big on events. So let's talk about that a little bit more in depth here today. Let me change my screen up. Okay, so first of all, first of all, let's talk about the event types that we're, we're really talking about here, right? So obviously conferences. Seminars, whatever you, you know, want to call them, right. Trade shows, I guess I should have put trade shows there, right. It's really conferences slash trade shows, seminars, whatever it may be. Those are the most obvious ones, right. Because they're typically a longer, you know, either a whole day or multiple days or a whole weekend whatever it is, multiple events and networking and panels and stuff like that, you know, like, like ours, right. So a lot of them are that type of format. And so those are the most. Those are the easiest because everybody's there for one exact reason. You know, there's plenty of time and opportunities to network with people and to learn. So conferences and seminars are kind of the no brainers. Those are the ones that are usually promoted the most too, right? Because somebody's investing a lot of money into doing an entire conference. And so those are usually more out there for you to be able to see or, you know, they're, they might be advertising them to you on social media and stuff like that. Networking mixer. So there's a ton of these. If you're in a major market and not even a major market, if you're just in an actual, you know, city, right, there's tons of real estate networking mixers going on, whatever you want to call them happy hours, networking mixers, you know industry mixer, whatever you want to call it, there are tons of them, right? So we'll talk about how to find some of them here on the next slide. But. I can't state enough how these are very prevalent and they can be used. You know, to your advantage in big ways, and they're constantly happening and they're usually free, right? A networking mixer is free. You're just going to wherever that place is, right? You might have to buy yourself some drinks or whatever, but sometimes there may be free drinks and food and stuff like that, like there is at our networking mixers during our conference. But the point here is that. You know, they're usually free. They're usually close by they're in the city. And so you should be taking advantage of those for sure. Also work workshops, first time homebuyer seminars. A lot of the times this would be something where you partner up with a realtor on a lot of realtors do, you know, first time homebuyer seminars or workshops. So those are more. You know, not really a huge public thing. They're, they're more maybe 10 people, 20 people closed you know, just finding out information on how to. You know, purchase a home for the people that haven't you know, a lot of the people, you know, probably have like bad credit and stuff like that. So they're teaching them how to get to the point that they need to be at in order to buy a home. And again, those are usually gonna be in conjunction with realtors, or realtors gonna be doing it. And so you can get with them. And then community events. We talked about this on the training. I believe it was last week. We had the community engagement. There's all kinds of community events. Now, I will say again, we talked about this on the branding training and on the community event training here. I would highly suggest you invest. in a custom tablecloth at the very least with your name and logo and stuff on it and going above and beyond that, I would invest in a six foot pop up banner, which again, a tablecloth, I'm talking about like 60 for a custom tablecloth or something. And then I would also buy a table, right? So now we're talking again, 30 or something for a folding table. Right? And so for less than 100, you can have your nice little set up with a folding table and a chair with a custom tablecloth to go over the table. Talk about 100 here. So think about how much of an impact that 100 investment is going to have wherever you go. And again, Community events. Most of the time. These are things where they're not charging people. These are things where if you're part of the community, you can come set up a table or a booth or just be there to network. And then a lot of times when you have a folding table with a tablecloth and a chair on you, It doesn't really matter whether it's set up in advance or not to set up a little area or, you know, your table, right? It's very simple in 2 seconds. You can pop up your table, put the table cloth on and now you're separating yourself from everybody else. And if you really want to separate yourself from everybody else, then you get the 6 foot pop up banner, put it right next to you. And now you have like an entire setup there for a couple hundred dollars. And again, that's going to make every event that you attend more effective. But the reason I talk about it on the community events is because again, it's the type of stuff where it's, it's usually free, right? You don't have to buy a booth first and then show up with your stuff. Usually you can just pop up wherever you are, boom, pop up a table. And what a difference, right? From just walking around, kind of talking to people to having an actual, you know, quote unquote booth or table it's branded. It's professional. And like I said, all that for, you know, under 100 and then it's not really necessarily an event, but I put open houses on here. We did the open house training last week. Remember the key with the open houses is really to be there to quote them. Yeah. Right. On the spot, that's our secret sauce at the mortgage calculator is, you know, staying there at the open house with the realtor all day with the computer pulled up, all of the specs inputted. We know the home price, we know the taxes and insurance, right? All that is in the quote already. All you're doing is plugging in the contact info of the perspective buyer, you know, slash borrower and their credit score. Essentially, right? Is pretty much all you're putting in because you already have all the other data in there for a nice full quote. So again, not really an event, but something that is important to utilize and something that's in the physical presence. Okay. So we want to attend all real estate events as often as possible. Eventbrite. It's so simple, right? The, the key here is to use Eventbrite. The key to really everything I'm talking about here today is very simple. Use Eventbrite. The event industry, Is very consolidated. Actually you have, you know, Ticketmaster, which handles all the super big events and then Eventbrite pretty much handles everything else. There's a couple other little ticket services and event services out there. But for the most part, if it's a major large event, it's Ticketmaster. If it's a smaller event, it's going to be on Eventbrite. Because even if it is on some other ticket platforms, usually it's also on Eventbrite for anything that's not a Taylor Swift concert or whatever, right? That's all Ticketmaster stuff. But the point here is that pretty much everything out there is on Eventbrite. And so Eventbrite is super easy to use. Type in your city, type in the type of event you're looking for, and you will all see that there's dozens of events that pop up when you put in the name of your city and then put real estate. You can also sort it by ones that are free, So you don't, you know, if you're not looking to invest any money to go to a bunch of events at this time, you can sort them by free and only go to the free ones and stuff, which again, usually those will be the more one off things like the mixers and stuff. You're not usually going to get a free pass to an entire weekend conference, right? But there's plenty of free events on there. Now here's the, the, the biggest, I should have like super put this in bold or something here. The key to going to events is to document the attendance and involvement in the events. It's just as much about that as it is about actually being there in the first place. Now, what I mean by that is that it's It's just as important for you to show your social media, your audience, your sphere, that you were there than it was to actually be there. It's a, it's about the, it's about 50, 50 for the importance, right? Actually being there is, is obviously extremely beneficial, but especially when you start to string these events together and do them often a huge benefit of it. Is to document it. So that again, your, your, your potential clients, your prospects, your sphere, they're all seeing you. Wow. Kyle's at all the real estate events. Oh, he's really, he's really into the real estate stuff. He's really does it. He's a real professional. Now, this especially important to the newer. Loan officers out there where your sphere you know, they don't know you for that, right? They don't know you for being a loan officer yet, but they will, if they see you posting on your profiles every single day, that you're at all these different. Industry events and some of them you're a part of and all this kind of stuff. I mean, it totally changes the perspective. All that people think of, if all you're doing every week, you're posting yourself at different events and involved in different events. Yeah. All that comes to mind when people think about you is that you're a real estate person and that you're a mortgage person and that you're doing all kinds of mortgage events. I mean, it's branded into their head because you're out there actually doing it and showing it right. That's the super important part about this. So I want everybody to really take that in. It's literally just as important as going to the actual event and networking there and getting business there. To document it on social media and use it to your advantage so that everybody knows you're out, you're about, you are a dedicated professional, you know what you're doing, you're really involved in, in the community and in the industry. So super important. You can also sponsor events to get involved with events, right? Of course you can buy boosts at conferences. A lot of times you can provide prizes or, or giveaways or raffles to sponsor different events. You know, I, I've talked about this before, but I love it as an example, Nick and I sponsored a golf tournament. And it was so cool because you can buy a hole in one insurance. So you guys can all look this up, you know, and there's a lot of golf. Tournaments going on at this time of year starting. Right. So, you know, we spot, all we did was pay like 200 for a hole in one insurance for 50, 000 hole in one prize, right? So you pay the couple hundred bucks. If somebody hits a hole in one on that hole, then they pay out 50, 000 cash. And they give you signs to set up and you put your logo on it and stuff like that, that this 50, 000 cash prize was sponsored by the mortgage calculator. And one really cool thing about this, the reason I bring this up is because it's so genius from the fact that obviously it's a huge prize. So it's like a big deal. Well, 50, 000. How are we getting that? Who's putting that up? What's going on? Right? But it's also an opportunity to speak to everyone because as the person who did it, you have to be there to hand them the little sheet of paper that says the rules on it. And explain to them what's going on. Now, most people that are in golf tournaments are typically going to be the homeowner type, right? They're usually not people who will never be able to have a home in their life because they have no money and terrible credit. That's not necessarily the demographic of people who are participating in golf tournaments usually. Right. So it's a good demographic to talk to. And they physically have to speak to you before they tee off on that hole to ask What's going on and to get the rules and you sit there and talk to them and say, Hey, I'm Kyle from the mortgage calculator. We sponsored this whole, this is what we do, blah, blah, blah. Here's the rules. And so it was really cool. We didn't even know, like we just did this last minute and found out that you can do this. So anyways, Check that out. Anybody that's either into golf or has a lot of golf stuff going on around them. Anybody in Florida obviously is a big one with tons of golf, you know, tournaments and stuff. But the reason I say that is not just because of doing that, but the point is to that you can think outside of the box, right? You can you know, do things that you might not necessarily think. I mean, how many golf tournaments are going on that you could say, Hey, could I sponsor one of the holes for a 50, 000 cash prize? I mean, you know, you have it. All you got to do is pay the, you know, 180 bucks or whatever for the hole in one insurance. You don't need 50, 000. The company that you buy the insurance does from, right? So pretty cool stuff there. You know, think outside the box, collaborate with people, do whatever it is that you can. And then the last bullet point here is host events yourself. Right? So let's, let's talk, I guess I have the next, the next slide here. So let's talk about hosting events yourself. Now, hosting events is not easy, right? I recommend that you plug into other people's events for the most part, because they are doing all the work. You could either partner with them on it in some way, or just be a part of it, just attend it, whatever it is, because it's very difficult to do events. Now, another thing about doing events is that if you're trying to get something out of this event, which is usually, you know, networking and business and stuff like that, potential clients. So if that's what you're looking to get out of an event, remember that when it's you that hosts the event, Most of the people are already coming from your network in some way, right? The only way you have to promote the event is through your network. So the people coming to your event are not necessarily the new people that you want to benefit from meeting. So a lot of people think like, Oh, we're going to do this event and tons of people are going to come, but in reality, unless you have a lot of systems set up and a lot of advertising set up, the only way you're going to have to promote the event is to get it out to your network and they're already your network, right? So it's not a very big networking thing when you do a networking event and only the people that are already in your network. Come that's great to talk to people and stuff, but at the end of the day, you're not penetrating any new potential clients or partnerships. Right. And so I would recommend plugging into everybody else's, especially if you're not an event person, or especially if you are not that experienced in loans, you know, and they're, you know, it's going to usually take money to do these sometimes quite a bit. So anyways, I suggest plugging into other people's, but if we are talking about hosting events, which some of you may want to do What you really got to think of first is what is the event purpose? So like I said, is it to network with new people? Because if it is, then you should probably not be doing the event yourself. You should probably either be doing it with someone else or just plugging into someone else's event or attending someone else's event, right? You'll get a lot more networking done. Here's another key. You don't usually get networking done when you're at an event, right? Usually, or I mean, excuse me, when you're hosting an event, for example, our year end event that we do in Miami every year, I don't get to hang out and network much, right? Cause I'm running the entire event. So sometimes it can be literally the exact opposite. You want it to do the event to network, but now you're too busy running the events and network. Right? So you got to really think what is the purpose of the event? What are the benefits from the event? Now talking about two things here. What are the benefits to you? A lot of people, when it comes to things like events, cause they're fun and they're social, you know, they just want to do it. I just want to do it. But what is the actual purpose? What benefit are you trying to get from this event to invest your time and your money and your energy into this event? Be specific. Now, I guess I should rewind a little bit. When you're going to events, you also need to be thinking, what are the benefits? From this event that I'm going to get, especially at conferences, if you're investing in either sponsoring it or just investing in going, some of these conferences are decent amounts of money to attend. And so when you're going to these events, you, you want to have that purpose. So for example Nick and Jose and I go to a lot of mortgage events, right? Not, not so much in the last few months, it's just been crazy, but typically we do now. When we do that, literally in the car, before we get out and go into whatever hotel that the conference is at or whatever, we literally say, what are we getting out of this? What is our objective here at this event? Because every event's different, right? What is the crowd like at that event? Are there realtors? Okay. What do we do with Realtors? What's going to be our pitch to Realtors at this event? What are we trying to get from the Realtors? How are we going to get their attention? What is our opening line in our elevator pitch to get their attention, right? So it's going to vary depending on event. But I'm telling you literally every time we pull up to an event, it's going to be different. Before we get out of the car and go in, it's like clockwork. We go, okay. So what is the mission here at this event? So that's what you should be doing as well. And you should also be thinking about that before you even buy tickets to events, right? You should be thinking what, what I do here, how would I do it? Is it really going to benefit me? Or maybe there's another event on the event, right? List that would benefit you more, right? So to come back to this now, what are the benefits from the event? So when you're throwing the event yourself, what are going to be the benefits that you get? Again, remember a lot of the times you're too busy doing the event to actually network yourself. So that a lot of times that's not a benefit from the event, but also you need to think about before you actually create the event, what's the benefit to the attendee. So what's the benefit you're getting from throwing this event and what are the benefits from potential attendees? Attending the event. A lot of people get caught up and just, I just want to do an event. People are just going to come out. It's going to be fun. They're going to want to network. Right. But you know, what is special about it? What is drawing people to it? What are they going to get out of it? I mean, you know, people got to leave their house, get ready, get dressed up, maybe have a babysitter. I mean, you know, it's not necessarily easy to go places. What is that actual reason that benefit? That somebody is going to get from going to your event. And then of course, what venue will be used, right? So this is a big one. This is usually where money comes in, right? It's hard to find a venue to let you do an event for free. Sometimes it's easier to do it at like a bar or a restaurant, right? As far as like the networking mixers. Or happy hours. If you want to do like a really nice one that's set up in advance, most of the time they'll make you do like a minimum spend to have like a section of the place or whatever. But a lot of the times, you know, if you're just saying, Hey, I'm just going to have a large group of realtors and loan officers come here. Is that okay? You know, we'll do happy hour here. You know, just make sure you have enough seats open or whatever the situation is. Right. So those types of things are a lot easier than a hotel ballroom. Right. I mean, I've dealt with hotel ballrooms my entire life doing events and conferences and hotel event staff coordinators are the worst people to work with ever and conferences, hotels always go wrong and their staff and their equipment and all that kind of stuff. Right and they're very expensive. So the venue is a huge deal, but like I said, a homebuyer workshop you know, a lot easier and usually a networking mixer, a lot easier. But you know, conferences, real actual bigger events is pretty difficult there. I was worried my printer just turned on. Sorry about that. Okay. So last thing here, how are you marketing the event? Now, remember what I said, if you're just marketing it to your network, then not really any new people are going to come. You're going to have to spend money on advertising. And let me tell you, from somebody who's done events my whole life, It's not easy to promote events and it's also not easy to advertise events and get people to actually show up, especially if you're trying to charge any kind of money. If it was easy, everyone would do it. Right. But again, as somebody who's done events my whole life and made a living off of it, it's not easy, right? Even when you've got the system down, I mean, it's difficult because you've got to get out there and get new people. If you're not getting new people in most of your, your benefits. And your purpose that you were trying to get are not really going to be effective if nobody extra that you don't already know comes, right? And so how are you going to market the event as a big one? A lot of people just get caught up in thinking, Oh, I just need a flyer to post on all my social media and people are just going to come. Let me tell you, that is not true. Just posting things on your social does almost nothing. Now it may get people that are already attending, planning to attend to remember about it and keep it in mind and maybe help you promote it a little bit too. Maybe they repost it or something, but let me tell you at the end of the day, you know, we've had events before, both in this industry and other industries where people with. Hundreds of thousands of followers, repost the flyers and retweet and all this kind of stuff. Even person with over a million followers and guess what comes out of it? Not much, right? Not much. It's just a flyer. Just another image people are scrolling past on their screen. I mean, it takes a lot to actually get people to physically leave their house. And come to an event. So you're going to have to make sure that your value proposition is there for somebody to actually get out of the house. Like I said, you know, get ready, get dressed up, do whatever they have to do to be able to leave their house, then leave their house. And, and, you know, then come to wherever it is that that thing is maybe pay money. At least, at least they're paying money for transportation or gas or Uber there or whatever. So we're talking about time out of their day money out of their pocket. Again, maybe they needed a babysitter or something. Maybe that's even more money. So it's not easy to get someone there. So you really got to think before you do these events, what's the purpose is this purpose. Can this purpose be served with me just going to someone else's event. But if it can't, and it's something unique to say, Hey, I know I want to do this event because I know I want to get this out of it, then what are the benefits that you're going to get out of it? But also one of the benefits that your clients are going to get out of it, to get them out of the house and to your event and make sure to, you know, the venue is going to be the hardest thing, right? When you're throwing an event, that's all that matters. Like the first thing you think of is the day and the next thing is the place. Right. And then. That's all doing an event is right. It's finding the place. Like that's it. You can't do anything until you find the place. So, you know, your whole team, like as an event company, your whole team, we find the event date. And then all we're focused on is the place because we can't do anything until we have the place. And that's always the hardest part and usually the most expensive. So just to run it back here again, to utilize events here as a loan officer, we want to attend all real estate events that we can. We can use Eventbrite to find events. We can use Eventbrite to find free events too. Make sure that we document our attendance and involvement that makes sure that no matter what happens at the event, that's also more motivation for you as a loan officer to get out there and go to these events. If you're just thinking like, Oh, I might not even need somebody at this event. It might not even be worth it. I might not need a client or I might not need somebody to network with or whatever. Well, that doesn't even matter. Just get there, document it, post it, the attendance, the involvement, get the footage, get the pictures. Right. That's super important too. So that should double your motivation to get out there and go to events that it's not just about what's happening there after you leave an event, pat yourself on the back. It's a little check mark off your box of sweet. I got pictures and videos of me at this event that boom, duh, money in the bank. Right. And so it, you know, regardless of what had happened there, right. Again, you can sponsor events. You could also host events yourself, but I do recommend really thinking about that before you do. But again, just to wrap it up here, events are great. We love events. We participate in events. We sponsor events. We host our own events. And so we're very big on events. There's nothing like getting out there and talking to people face to face, building those relationships. Right. So definitely get out there, go to as many events as possible. And remember real estate weekend, Miami, December 13th through the 15th. You can get more info at real estate weekend. Miami. com, all of our mortgage calculator team gets free VIP passes to come for the weekend and do the VIP yacht cruise and all that kind of stuff. And then all loan officers closing loans at the mortgage calculator, get their hotel room paid for as well. So keep that in mind. I don't see any questions here, so we'll go ahead and wrap it up. Remember, we do this at 12 p. m. Eastern every weekday where we go through the the front end and the sales end of the mortgage business. So we'll be back tomorrow with a new topic. Thank you everybody for tuning in. We'll see you tomorrow, 12 p. m. Eastern for the next episode of the Loan Officer Sales Training with the Mortgage Capitalists.