Interview with a Winner:
Craig Strent
"It's very important to be a student of the industry"
Craig Strent, Apex Home Loans, Greenbelt, MD.
2001 Origination Volume: $75 Million
2001 Average Loan Amount: $156,250
Boni Lonnsburry: What is your referral source mix?
Craig Strent: 50% financial advisors, 30% repeat clients, 15% networking, and 10% Realtor.
Boni: How did you get started in the mortgage business?
Craig: I started right out of college. I was an international business and accounting major, and I wasn't sure what I was going to do. I had a friend who owned a mortgage company, so I went to work for him. That was in September of 1994.
Boni: Were you an immediate success?
Craig: I guess so… I was making bonuses within a couple of months. It was terrific!
Boni: How did you learn in the beginning? Did someone teach you?
Craig: It was definitely baptism by fire. The first day they said "Here are the three things you need to know and here are some leads. Go call them. Let us know if you have questions."
I started doing sub-prime loans. Later, I started a company with my partner and we focus on conforming loans now. I learned origination from sub-prime loans, which turned out to be helpful because you have to be very persistent in that end of the industry.
Making the switch from sub-prime to conforming loans, where people are much quicker to provide you with documentation, call you back, etc., was a nice transition and a pleasant surprise. Learning the hard way, with credit challenged customers, taught me a lot of the follow-up skills I needed to be more successful in the conforming end later.
Boni: What mistake do you think rookie loan officers most often make?
Craig: I think it is very difficult to get the proper training. Rookie loan officers, because they are anxious to make money, don't have the right mentors and aren't getting the proper training they need. I think the biggest mistake (rookies make) is not learning the products prior to trying to sell them.
Boni: What about veteran loan officers?
Craig: I think veteran loan officers become somewhat jaded. They lose some of their sales skills and forget to put their client first. They forget some of the basic relationship building skills, and they lose their focus.
Boni: How did you build your financial planner business to 50% of your business?
Craig: I began by attending a financial planning seminar. I went for the sole purpose of meeting financial advisors. I met one, and we developed a referral relationship together. I showed him how using the mortgage as part of a financial plan could benefit his clients and his business. We've had some success in turning some of his prospects into clients.
The other advisors in his office caught on, and as that happened, they started referring clients to me when they needed mortgage loans. Eventually, I got to do loans for some of the managers. I then solicited the managers to have me come in on a regular basis to do training for the new advisors who didn't know anything about mortgages.
I've been doing that for a few years, on and off. I have a couple presentations. One is an "Introduction to Mortgages for Financial Planners". The other is an "Advanced Equity Repositioning Plan". It is a presentation showing higher-end advisors how they can help clients maximize the equity in their home and leverage it as an investment to build and create wealth in the long term.
That has been the number one most successful thing we've done by far. I think it is important to stress that, having worked with advisors at a lot of different levels, the goal is to share referrals with each other. It's difficult to create a relationship with more than one advisor because everyone wants a direct referral.
When a financial advisor has a prospect who wants to invest each month, but doesn't have the means to do so (because they have too much debt or their mortgage is too big, or whatever), we help by restructuring their debt and freeing up some cash flow. This in turn helps the client to fund a plan with the financial advisor. While this isn't a direct, cold referral from us to the financial advisor, we are still creating a client for them where they didn't have one before.
Everyone wants to make a referral that works out great for them. If a financial advisor refers someone to a bank, they often risk losing the client to a lending officer in the bank who is cross-selling financial products. They don't have that issue with a mortgage broker, and we point that out to them.
We help reinforce the relationships they have with their clients by making them look good, by doing a good job, by having their clients come back and we thank them for the referral. We add a lot of value to their practice and, as a result, they tell other advisors about us.
Boni: If you had a son or a daughter entering this business, what would you tell them?
Craig: I would tell them that they need to commit to a minimum of five years. And that they are going to have to work very hard those first five years to build up a client base, to thoroughly understand the products, and to develop relationships with referral sources.
There is a large turnover in this business. New loan officers come in, looking to make a quick buck, and they don't develop relationships. Then when rates go back up, they don't have any source of referrals and they're right back out of the business. I would tell them to make a long term commitment, and to spend time and energy developing relationships with quality referral sources.
Boni: What was your most successful marketing campaign?
Craig: Probably educating financial advisors. We send them regular, informational emails on specific mortgage products. It is the most successful marketing thing that I do.
Once we educate the new people, they are added to an email list. They then receive ongoing emails. I did this for a couple of years in a row, and every Monday night I would blast out an email to all my financial advisors with topics like, "Hey, here's the difference between a fixed and an arm. Here's how a line of credit works versus a fixed rate mortgage. Here's why you should put no money down versus putting 20 percent down." I'd pick a new topic each week. Even if they were just deleting it without reading it, I felt like minimally my name was sitting in front of them.
Boni: Do you use scripts?
Craig: My feeling is that it's very important to be a student of the industry. At my last job, and even in my current job, other officers make fun of me because I read everything I can get my hands on. I read all the mortgage industry magazines and the mortgage newspapers. Even if I'm doing it at night or on vacation, I try to keep up with all the marketing articles.
I think being an ongoing student of the business is the best thing I can say in regard to that. You've got to stay on top of everything. I don't have scripts, but I constantly read what other people are doing.
I've attended all the Mortgage Originator Superstar seminars that have been in my area. I recently attended a Todd Duncan Inner Circle Strategic Planning Seminar which I thought was unbelievably helpful and very specific.
I've pulled scripts and marketing materials from all the speakers I've heard. I have a lot of them programmed in my head, but I wouldn't say that I have scripts in front of me when I'm talking.
Boni: Who or what was the biggest contributor to your success?
Craig: I would say that attending the seminars and reading "Mortgage Originator" magazine has had the largest impact on my success. Reading what other good originators do, going to the superstar series and listening, and buying the marketing and product manuals of other top originating superstars has given me the ability to do what I want to do.
I read "Top Producer Strategies" interviews every month. I read about the Mortgage Originator Superstar of the Month. I read what all these guys do, follow along and just execute the ideas.
My feeling is that what we're doing is not rocket science, it is just a matter of making your clients very satisfied, treating them the way they want to be treated, and being able to execute. It seems with marketing that the genius isn't really in the ideas as much as in the implementation of them.
I've spent a lot of time getting my database up and running, staying in front of my clients, managing my monthly mailings, making the process go smoother, limiting the phone calls from clients, and delegating as much as I can. These are all things that I've learned from Ron Quintero, Tim Braheem, Todd Duncan, Dan Smith, Karen Deis, David Jaffe and all the other people I've heard speak over the years. None have unbelievable ideas, but these guys are just better at executing them than anybody else out there.
Boni: How do you put a system into place to limit phone calls from clients?
Craig: I'm happy to talk to my clients. I like talking to my clients. I consider a lot of my clients my friends, so it's not that I don't want to talk to them. But in order to be more efficient and to limit the amount of time they need to spend on the mortgage process, so that it is as hassle free as possible, I try to be as proactive as I can in answering their questions.
In the initial call, I lay everything out right there. I schedule the loan on the spot. They get a letter from us confirming all this and indicating where their loan will close and at what time. We email a document indicating what paperwork might be missing during the process.
We send them a postcard that says "Relax, your loan is handled" once they decide to lock in. We continue to maintain written contact throughout the process. We try to proactively answer any questions they have ahead of time. We've done pretty well so far.
Boni: If you had a magic wand, what would you change about your current business?
Craig: The amount of hours that I have to work to get the desired effect. We're really trying to implement a system with assistants to help us out, and the most difficult part is finding enough of the right kind of people. I would like to be able to delegate more, and work less.
It is important to have quality people on your team. It truly does not matter how many great marketing ideas you have, how good your systems are, or how loyal your clients are if you do not have good people to act as an extension of yourself. It's impossible to build your business and develop long-term relationships without having the ability to transfer the file to another person once the loan terms are agreed upon. Then you have to have complete confidence in their ability to execute the task as if they were you. My staff is terrific...I just wish I had more of them! So if I had a magic wand that is what I would change about my business.
As far as the business itself, I'm very satisfied with the clients I get. Every single lead we get is an inbound referral. People referred by a friend, a repeat client, or by their financial advisor. It's all what I would consider high trust selling, meaning that they are already sold on using us as long as our terms are somewhat competitive.
They want to work with us because we've done well by our other clients. People have heard so many horror stories in the mortgage business that they just want to find somebody who they know treated someone else right. We've positioned ourselves as such. This is why our level of repeat clients is so high.
I immediately send all referral sources a thank you card, the minute I get the credit report back. It doesn't matter how the loan turns out, good, bad, they don't close with us, they do close - it doesn't matter. I immediately send out a thank you card to the referral source thanking them specifically for that referral and for their ongoing trust in us.
Boni: What are your goals now?
Craig: My short term goals are to maintain this level of production, continue to build on it slowly, but with less time and energy. This means making my systems more efficient, delegating more, and when rates go back up, still creating the same level of volume by spending a little more time with my referral sources and building new and strong relationships. I want to strengthen existing relationships and build new ones.
My long-term goal is to build a company where we have a good reputation. People throw around these words loosely: "lifelong client" and "lifelong mortgage broker". What I tell people is that once they get a mortgage from me, and they go through the process, they are never going to have to shop for another mortgage again. The reason they stay with me is because once they go through the process and I do everything for them, they're never going to have to go through the process of calling six people again to find out where to go.
They're going to be so happy with the service, they're going to find it smooth and easy, and they're going to be satisfied with the terms in the end. We are going to keep them on our ongoing mailing list so they are informed, aware, and will know when to refinance. We have people who we've refinanced four times in three years.
Visit my website, www.apexhomeloans.com, and I'll tell you what I do there. We give people a closing package which includes one of our annual newsletters, a copy of their appraisal, and a customer testimonial form with a return postage paid envelope. We ask them to fill out that form and mail it back to us. We get well more than half of them back.
We take the responses and post them on the web site, comments such as, "I was so happy with the process." When we go to meetings with clients, we bring the reference book with us. We show them references from previous clients when somebody is shopping us or asks for information. We send out our brochure with product cards and testimonial cards.
Everybody is trying to sell the same thing. We prefer to let our clients speak for us. It has worked really well. Once I direct a prospect to the web site, they usually work with us. Whenever I email a proposal or a Mortgage Coach spreadsheet or anything like that, I always attach a link to the testimonial page of our website. I say "Thanks for checking with me. Here is the information you requested. Please take a look at the illustration. By the way, please check out our references and hear what our other clients had to say."
Boni: Speaking of Mortgage Coach, I bet that is a useful tool with your financial planner referral base.
Craig: Mortgage Coach is a great tool to use with financial planners. I started using Mortgage Coach only a year ago and I think it makes a huge difference.
It saves a tremendous amount of time in the sense that you don't have to sit on the phone and quote rates and closing costs to somebody - you can email it to them. And you're not emailing it to them in the form of a good faith estimate; you are emailing it to them in a very sophisticated format that shows them how they can leverage their equity for long-term growth.
If they talk to ten guys, I'm typically going to be the only one who is sending them something to that degree. It also opens up the door to refer them to a financial advisor if they don't already have one. And it shows them a picture of the mortgage and how they can benefit from it in a way that somebody just quoting rate and points can't show them. It really elevates us from the competition.
The other thing that is absolutely indispensable is Barry Habib's "Mortgage Market Guide". This is a tool that helps maximize revenue, but most importantly, it helps you give your clients the advice they need, especially in a very volatile market like now. The third really important point is that it helps you maintain your existing pipeline in a decreasing rate environment by having the proper technical explanations to give your clients. There are guys out there who are probably dropping loans left and right, but with Barry's assistance and his commentary, you can avoid a lot of that.
We paraphrase what Barry is saying in the "Mortgage Market Guide". Every once in awhile, we may cut and paste his stuff for a chart or direct our client to watch him on TV. A partner here recently did a site visit over at Barry's place. Barry was so kind and gracious, just to have him come in and spend an hour and half with him talking about how he does his business.
Those three points I just made are so crucial. We've become so dependent on it, and on him, that it has really helped us grow our revenue, especially with the sophisticated clients who are being referred by financial advisors and who do understand how the money markets move. It has given us the knowledge to speak their language.
Boni: Is there anything else you'd like to say to originators who'd love to have the kind of business that you've created?
Craig: They have to take a long-term approach. We decided a couple of years ago that we were going to stop doing a lot of our direct marketing, and we were going to focus on building relationships for the future. We also decided to do everything we could to stay in front of our existing clients and continue to market to them.
Having a plan is important. We've never had a written business plan, but we all know what the plan is and how we are to follow it. You need to come up with a plan and make a long term goal for following it. Stick to it. Don't give up if you walk into the Realtor's office and they close the door. And don't give up if the first financial advisor you talk to doesn't want to work with you.
You've got to keep going to events, keep staying in front of referral sources and your clients. Eventually it will snowball to the point where you're getting a lot of them and then you can stop doing it because you'll be staying in front of them naturally. By using the products of In Touch Today, for example, we stay in front of all our referral sources as well as our clients. That, in itself, in a refinance market, is well more than enough to perpetuate plenty of business.
|
