Loan Officer Sales Training 4/23/24: How to Retain Clients

In this episode of "Loan Officer Sales Training," we tackle one of the most crucial aspects of building a successful career in lending: client retention. Keeping clients satisfied and loyal is essential for long-term success, and in this episode, we'll explore proven strategies to help you do just that.

Join us as we discuss the importance of fostering strong relationships with your clients and providing exceptional customer service throughout their journey. From the initial consultation to closing and beyond, we'll share practical tips and techniques for exceeding client expectations and earning their trust and loyalty.

Discover the value of personalized communication, proactive problem-solving, and staying top-of-mind with your clients even after the deal is done. We'll also explore the role of technology in streamlining processes and enhancing the client experience, helping you stay ahead in a competitive market.

Whether you're a seasoned professional or new to the industry, mastering client retention is essential for sustaining and growing your business. Tune in to gain valuable insights and actionable strategies that will empower you to retain clients, build lasting relationships, and achieve ongoing success as a loan officer. Don't miss this opportunity to elevate your client retention game and take your career to the next level.

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 S

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

Restream recording Apr 23, 2024 • 04:00:38 PM: 0:00

So welcome everyone. My name is Kyle Hiersche. I'm the COO of the mortgage calculator, and this is our loan officer sales training that we do every weekday at 12 PM Eastern time, where we go through the front end in the sales end of the mortgage business. Today, we're going to be talking about how to retain clients. So just some general. Stuff to go over here to keep in mind to make sure that we're not only Working new leads and getting new clients, but also retaining the clients that we've already had. A lot of loan officers are kind of in the, the just, you know, churning business you know, and not really worried about the people they've already closed. Cause they figure they're not going to do a transaction for a long time. And so they're right onto the next one, trying to just chase the quick money. And that's not what we want to be doing. Right. So let's talk a little bit about this here. Okay. So number one way to retain a client is to become a loan officer consultant. We talk about this day in and day out here at The Mortgage Calculator, becoming a consultant, a loan consultant. When you've done your job properly as a client, Loan consultant and got that point across to your client that that's what you are. Then retaining the client is nothing like all this other stuff we're talking about is all great here. The rest of the stuff will go through the presentation, but you don't really have to worry about much of this. As long as you are just being the proper loan consultant you know, that you're supposed to be right. That's kind of the overarching thing. As long as you're doing that. Then you'll be okay. Now, part of that is educating and empowering your borrowers. So knowing the programs, right? So that's another way to retain clients, knowing what you're talking about, knowing the programs, being able to speak to them in detail about these types of things, right. And educating them on the different choices. Right. And of course, effective communication, even with bad news. We talked about this on the communication training, the number one complaint from both realtors and clients about loan officers. This was an actual study. The number one complaint about loan officers from clients and realtors was lack of communication. So communicating effectively will definitely help you keep a client, especially when there's bad news. Now, another general thing here is that we're always going to have the customer's best interest in mind. Sounds like a no brainer, right? Well, remember we all swore and attested that that is what we will do when we got licensed. That is what our license is based on. The number one rule of having a mortgage license is that the customer has to, we always have to have the customer's best interest in mind. We always must be looking out for the borrower. I'm sure you all remember that from your schooling. That is the number one rule of mortgages is that our job. Is to protect the borrower, right? And so it's easier said than done, especially when real life happens. So for example, you got to pay your bills. You're trying to get a deal done. You could maybe cut some corners and close it. You could maybe kind of steer your client slightly into whatever is quicker for you to do or easier or more likely to close as opposed to being the best cost option, which. There's nothing wrong with doing the going with an option that would be more likely to close, even if it's expensive. For example, if you have a purchase that's under the gun of time, UWM has terrible pricing, but they're the quickest. So that's a conversation you can have with your client saying, Hey you know, we have an option that's extremely quick. So, you know, we have a much better chance of actually closing, but the cost is going to be or we can take our chances and go with a much lower rate. But I'm, you know, it's not as quick as the fastest lender in the country. You can't get everything you want, right? If you want the speed, you're going to have to pay a little bit more. If you pay less, you're going to have to deal with you know, not as speedy. Right. So that's a conversation we can have with our customers. But what we can't do is not have that conversation and us make that decision. Because again, you may not think you're doing something malicious, but you are breaking the oath that you took to your license of always having the customer's best interest in mind. That doesn't just mean saying, Oh, I, you know, You know, I don't want them to lose their deposit or have anything bad happen. There's actual real life things that come into play here where just one little decision of you saying, Oh, we should go with this because I know it's going to close. And you know, if that wasn't a conversation with your customer, if you didn't let your customer decide and empower your borrower. You know, to make their own decision, then that can get pretty sticky and that's not what you want. Right. And then positive outreach here. That's how you retain a client, right? Reach out to them positively. That's it. Just communicate positively, reach out, don't harass them about anything, but also don't forget about them and don't let them forget about you. Now. Here's a big one on a way that you can retain clients. And this is not a must, but here's a tip become a real relationship in the customer's life, connect with them on personal social media, if appropriate, if they would be okay with that. Right. And if you you know, kind of have your social media a little bit more open to people. Right. The best thing you could do after closing a transaction with someone or even before. Is be personal friends with them on Facebook. Now you're in their life, right? You're their mortgage person. And yes, you're friends with them on Facebook. They see you have, you know, they see your kids, you see their kids, you're commenting congratulations when they have a new baby or you know, whatever the situation may be. Now you're in their life. Now they're like, Oh, who commented on my post? Oh, that's John, my mortgage guy. Right. So you know, that's a huge way to just be embedded in their life. Now, maybe not always appropriate. Some won't accept your friend request or whatever, but that's big when you're, when you're that close to a client that you're like, Oh yeah, we're Facebook friends, you know, Hey, I saw you do this or, you know, do whatever. I mean, yeah, that's that's, that's huge, right? Way beyond any calls and texts that you could do for you know, to, to keep reaching them. Right. Be a genuine resource here to help customers and their families that goes back to some of the other trainings we've had about just being genuine and really embracing this business. So this is kind of directed for the newer loan officers here. more experienced loan officers. You guys already know that this is a 24 seven business that you need to live. So when we talk about living this business, we talk about genuinely wanting to be a resource for our borrowers, potential borrowers. That's a big one. Not just your actual borrowers you're working with, but anyone and everyone. We want to be a Genuine resource to help our borrowers and their family. We have an amazing job. We sell not sell homes, but we sell the ability to get into homes, right? We make money by putting people in homes and realizing their American dream, which is home ownership. Right. We also sell people money that need it, whether they need it to get by right when we're doing cash outs or he locks or whatever. Either they need it to get by, or they may need it to invest in something. Either way, we're serving a very important need. Which is housing and also, you know, investment, right? Biggest investment of their lives is typically their home. Number one wealth builder in America is real estate. Right. And so, you know, it's really embracing that and living that my goal in this business is to help as many borrowers and their families. As possible, whether that be getting in a new home, realizing the dream of homeownership or cashing out properties or helping them realize the freedom of real estate investing. Right. That's open. You can open someone's entire life and change the trajectory of their financial future by. helping them invest. And most people just don't even know that things like DSCR loans exist. If they did, they might take the hundred grand they have sitting in their savings and go buy a, you know, property with it. They just didn't know they could do that with no income verification, no job verification and all that kind of stuff. So we help people get into homes. We help people with cash when they need it or when they want it, we help people invest and build their wealth. So we have a very amazing job. It's very rewarding if we do it In a genuine way and rewarding way. So that's another way to retain clients. When you live that day to day, retaining clients is not going to be an issue. Right. It shows through in everything that you do. And that next bullet point is exactly what I'm talking about. The goal is to help as many people as possible. The goal is to not make as much money as possible. The money will come. The goal is to help as many people as possible get into their homes or get the cash they need or lower their rate or you know, not happening too much lately, lowering the rate, but you get the point here, normal course of business, those are the type of things that we do, right? Now, another thing that we do here at the mortgage calculator, which is great that we do for you, you know, like we pay for this. We send every borrower a closing gift on behalf of you. And it's in a box that says the mortgage calculator on it. And they, you know, They get an email with some questions and the bot takes their questions and puts together a gift package for them. It might be like a, a water bottle and a mini speaker or something. You know, things like that. It's like a 75 gift or, you know, something like that. And so that's something that we do for you that can also help you retain clients. Now I talked about this on the referral training a little bit ago. That that's the perfect opportunity to contact them, right? So for one, after we're done closing, we want to make sure that they know they're going to get an email, say, Hey, you're going to get an email from us about a closing gift. That's going to ask you a few questions. Once you answer them, we'll curate a little package for you and send it out. That's a great opportunity. And then on that phone call, Hey, just want to remind you and anybody you talked to that, you know, May need help with something. Please. I would really appreciate it. If you mentioned my name to them or, you know, connect me or whatever it is. So perfect opportunity. And then again, the other opportunity is later 2 weeks later, you follow up. Hey, did you get the closing gift? Did you like it? We appreciate that you were working with us again. If there's anybody, you know, looking for, you know, that needs my services, please let me know. So not only is it a way to retain clients, obviously, because they feel good that you sent them a gift that keeps you top of mind, that you know, kind of keeps some knickknacks around that, you know, they, they, they will remember that you gave them. So when they look at it, they Think of you, right? And then use technology to keep in touch. That's an obvious one. Again, things like being connected with them on their personal social media is even above and beyond that. But remember after you close a loan, you should still be having follow up tasks set for that lead. Every lead should have follow up tasks set just because you closed a deal doesn't mean you just leave it in the past. Every contact in the CRM needs a follow up task for the future unless they've unsubscribed or something, right? So you know, it goes for this too. And that's again, how you retain clients. You keep in touch, right? You don't, you know, Wait, and then say, Oh, they'll call me three years from now when they need to refinance. I know they will. They'll just pick up the phone and call me. Not true, right? Not true. Especially if they're buying a home. You know, I don't know the exact percentage, but there's a huge, large percentage. Of people who will just work with whatever loan officer, their realtor tells them, even if they worked with another loan officer before when they're talking to this realtor and they go out to start looking for a house, the realtor goes, oh, you need to connect with this person. They don't really care. For the most part, usually, right? Especially if it's been 2 years since you took care of them, they're not remembering the intricacies of how well you worked with them and what you did for them and they don't feel any you know, obligation to you because you haven't been reaching out to them and stuff. But if you've been talking to them this whole time, trying to consult them and reaching out and staying top of mind. Then they're going to use you, but if not, it's so easy for them to just go, Oh, okay. Yeah. Tell the guy to prequalify me or, or, or woman. Right. So you know, again, realtors, if you're not, if you're not the one working with that realtor, a realtor is going to want to steer them towards their, Loan officer that they work with because they think their loan officer can get it done and they don't know if you can get it done, which is a little is understandable to an extent, because this is a difficult business and there's a lot of loan officers out there that are just screwing up deals left and right. Right. And so, you know, Realtors rightfully so want to know that the deal closes because let me tell you, a realtor doesn't care about what rate the client gets. They don't care if you charged them 20%. The only thing a realtor cares about is the deal closing. Trust me. I own a real estate brokerage here in Miami as well. And that's it. All the realtors care about is if the deal closes, they have no idea what the interest rate is. They don't care. They don't know who is a better loan officer to give the client a better deal, or, you know, all they care about is, is this loan officer going to close this deal so I can get my commission? Zero care for the interest rate for the client. And that's never going to change. And that's just the way it is. All they care about is, you know, Getting their end done. Right. And they don't care how you get your end done. As long as you get it done, you'll be charging the client 20%. So my point here is that they will quickly steer them elsewhere. So if you don't have that firm grasp on the client and, or working with that realtor already, then you're going to have a problem. When it comes time for them to do something else. And so, you know, that's, that's, it would be only our fault. I talk about this a lot. It's only our fault. If we didn't stay on top of them, let them know, just like if one of our family members refinances without us or goes and buys a home, it's only our fault. We weren't on top of them enough. We weren't letting them know what we do. We didn't call them and. Tell them specifically, this is what we do. So when you buy a house, please use me, you know, so it's, it's along those same lines, so we've got to keep in touch. Technology can help us do that. And you know, we just need to make sure that we're staying top of mind and that we're staying in touch with them. or else we may lose them for future deals. So those are the different ways that we can retain clients. Obviously there's tons more, but again, let's come back here to the first slide. The overarching theme here is everything we talked about is pretty much adding up to being a loan consultant, right? Everything we talked about here all comes together. To as long as you are a loan consultant, that's properly guiding your clients through the processes and doing the work, not just part of the work to get the deal done, not just the work that's easy, but going through the motions, looking up the guidelines, finding the best programs. I mean, these are processes that need to be followed. It's not about just closing a deal and making quick money because. A lot of the things we talked about today, if that's your attitude, then it's, you're going to end up losing the client. So that's the big thing for today. Be a loan officer consultant, walk your clients through everything. Don't skip steps, take the proper steps and you should not have any problem with retaining clients. Okay. I don't see any questions in here. Like I said, I wanted to keep it quick. I'm going to try to keep these a little quicker because like I said, we do do them every day. So I just want to You know, get, get them a little bit shorter and sweeter. So we'll be back tomorrow with a new topic. Remember we do this 12 PM Eastern time every weekday. So I will see you all tomorrow, 12 PM Eastern for the next episode of the Loan Officer Sales Training with the Mortgage Calculator.