Interview with a Winner:
Brent Burns
Woodfield Planning Corporation, Rolling Meadows, IL
Loan Volume: $33,194,400.00
Average Loan Amount: $166,800.00
Software: Genesis 2000 for loan origination, ACT with the US Infobotics mortgage template and their SyncMaster software to merge from Genesis into ACT and vice versa.
Boni Lonnsburry : What is your referral source mix?
Brent Burns: 40% realtors, 15% affinity partners (including financial planners, CPAs, attorneys and insurance professionals), 28% past clients, 15% referrals from past clients and 2% consumer direct.
Boni Lonnsburry : How did you get started in the mortgage business?
Brent Burns: I responded to a “help wanted” ad in the Chicago Tribune for Home Savings of America. I was in the car business at the time in north central Illinois. Previous to that, I worked with my dad at the family dealership in a small town in northwest Iowa. My grandpa and great grandpa were car dealers – I grew up in the business. But I hated it. The long hours and the Saturdays were going to kill me before I got to 30.
The mortgage business is different in that you control your hours and really all you have to do is be nice to people. In the car business, you are essentially making people do things they don’t want to do. Nobody really needs a new car; they just want a new car. But people do need mortgages.
I went to work for Home Savings of America and was there for six years before they were bought out by Washington Mutual. Then I came to Woodfield Planning Corporation.
Boni: Were you an immediate success?
Brent: 1992-1993 was the first big refinance boom. I was full time at the bank, and got about a half day of floor time every week, answering incoming phone calls. I could answer 60 to 70 of them in a half day of floor time. It was a great way to get my initial 250 person customer database set up. My business spring boarded from there.
Boni: What mistakes do you think rookie loan officers most often make?
Brent: Each person I’ve seen leave this business has been poor at follow up. Rookie loan officers enter the business, go out and meet people - but they don’t follow up with the next step. They don’t send those people thank you notes for taking the time to talk to them. They don’t put them on a mailing schedule. They just expect that because they’ve gone out and seen someone, that someone is going to send them loans. It’s an evolution, not a revolution. They’re going to have to build their relationships over time. I see the rookies not investing that time and not doing the follow up. They aren’t building value in themselves for their potential clients.
Boni: What about veteran loan officers? Do they make the same mistakes?
Brent: I think the mistakes that veterans such as myself make is not setting aside the time to step away from the business and analyze what is working and what is not. They need to be doing this consistently, maybe every six months. Todd Duncan calls it “sitting on his rock”. He goes and sits on a rock on the beach in San Diego and thinks for half a day.
That’s where veterans make their mistakes – not analyzing. We are also too quick to not let an idea mature. If we have a good, valid idea, and there are other people who agree, we have to be able to invest the time to let it mature. We can’t send one renter postcard mailing out and expect to get phone calls. We can’t start a mailing campaign to top realtors and expect them all to call after the first mailing.
Another mistake is when veterans just sit back and rest on our laurels. That’s what I did in the fourth quarter last year because it was so busy. I really didn’t do much to build business in the fourth quarter, and that of course affects my business going into the first quarter of this year.
Boni: You have a high realtor percentage in your business.
Brent: Yes I do. But I think only 1 out of 50 Realtors is worth working with. Probably only 5% want to work with a mortgage loan officer for the value that they add to their business. You have to talk to a lot of Realtors before you find the good ones.
I’m trying to add another pillar to my business. By building affinity relationships with financial planners and attorneys, I hope to have more consistent business year round. Everyone else is out there talking to Realtors. My Realtor just told me this morning that 15 different people walked by her office today with rate sheets, donuts, bagels, pens, sticky pads. I always try to be where everybody else isn’t. And I think there are other more consistent sources of business that I can go after.
Boni: How do you plan on raising that affinity section of your business?
Brent: We are adding value for the affinity partners, by establishing my website at www.LoanPlansNow.com. It’s not the typical “ego” mortgage site that says, “Here’s my company, fill out an application”. My website is a place where these affinity partners can have listings. When my clients need a referral, they are going to be able to go to the website and get a referral to a financial advisor, a life insurance agent, whoever they need.
Then for new clients, I’m going one step deeper and asking them about their non-competing financial relationships. Who is their financial planner? If they don’t have one, would they like a referral? Have they set up a will or estate plan or trust? If they haven’t thought about it, would they like a referral? That gives me the ability to build value in my affinity partners’ businesses by referring people out. Or more importantly, if a client already has a relationship with an estate planning attorney, that’s a warm introduction for me. That’s a validated prospect, and I can write a letter or send an email saying, “Hey we have a mutual client in common, why don’t we get together to talk about how we can help each others business.” It’s not a matter of just saying I want to go out and call on affinity relationships. It’s giving them something of value which is what I’ve always tried to do for my Realtor and referral relationships. This is a great way to do it for the affinity partners and my client base.
Boni: How do you differentiate yourself from other loan officers?
Brent: I’m the guy who is going to be up at 3 o’clock in the morning worrying about my client’s loan if something happens to it. I am totally, completely committed to each client, and to becoming one of the very important people in their life. I want to be their trusted advisor so that when they’re doing anything related to real estate, finance or a major life decision, they are going to look to me for advice.
Everybody says you should read “Raving Fans”. I read it once a month. It takes 45 minutes to read, and I can recite pretty much every word of it. You should sit down with it once a month, or once every other month, and it will start to effect your actions and how you deal with things as an automatic response.
Boni: If you had a son or daughter entering the business, what advice would you give them?
Brent: Treat each client as if they are your most important client, and they will reward you with their loyalty and their referrals.
Boni: What was your most successful marketing campaign?
Brent: My next most successful marketing campaign will be my website with the linking partners. My most successful past marketing campaign has been sending a postcard to my clients once a month, and newsletters once a quarter. Basically, I just try to keep my name in front of my clients.
Boni: Do you use scripts with your team? Or do you have any ongoing marketing strategies that you’d like to share?
Brent: I don’t use scripts. Marketing evolves from who you are marketing to. The best thing you can do in marketing yourself is to establish a database and mail to it every month.
Seven times in the past year, as I was getting ready to remove an older client from my database (such as a client from 1993 who I hadn’t done any loans for since then), the client would call! The old adage, “Don’t quit talking to them until they buy, die or move away” is the key.
The post office does a great service when they tell us when a client has moved. A lot of people initially take that as a turn off and say, “Oh gee, Joe Blow moved and got his mortgage from somebody else so I’m going to take him out of my database.” But that’s silly. For one thing, you could pick up the phone and call the client and ask him why he went with someone else. But 9 times out of 10 it’s something that was outside of his control. Maybe he was buying new construction and the builder controlled the mortgage transaction as well. Or maybe the client had a different situation and didn’t think you’d want to handle the mortgage. If I can have contact with that client every month, I don’t care if I miss one mortgage. He’ll need another one eventually, so I want to keep him in my database.
Boni: Who or what was the biggest contributor to your success?
Brent: From a values and foundational standpoint, it was my grandfather. He died when I was 14. I really didn’t figure out what he had given me until I was 25, and it was then that I realized he was successful in small town Iowa because he treated people fairly and with integrity. That is what made his business successful from a repeat client standpoint. He treated people the way they should be treated.
From a mortgage standpoint, almost from the beginning of the business, I’ve been a disciple of Todd Duncan and the Mortgage Mastery Club. Now I have a one-on-one coaching relationship with Ron Quintero. I can tell that it will have a big impact on me going forward.
Boni: If you had a magic wand, what would you change about your current business?
Brent: The only thing that I would change about my current business would be to do enough of it to afford to hire three more people to work just for me.
Boni: Would you say that’s also your goal?
Brent: My goal is to take production to 60 million dollars a year, or 5 million dollars a month. Also to put 100 linking partners on my website over 7 different professions, and add those three of four employees. I want to higher what I call a “DEW” (database, email and website coordinator), an account executive to nurture the affinity relationships, a Realtor account executive to nurture the Realtor relationships, and eventually a fourth person as an inside support/application taker. Most sales people are horrible with the details. I’m actually great with the details, so I don’t have a problem with being my own application taker for awhile. My money will be better spent hiring people to help me maintain and develop new relationships.
Boni: Is there anything else you’d like to leave other originators who aspire to the same kind of success you’ve created?
Brent: Number One - Brand yourself, not your company. My clients do not know me as Brent Burns from Woodfield Planning Corporation. My clients know Brent Burns, Mortgage Planner, and the Brent Burns Team. Brand yourself. Your clients are referring to you, not to your company.
Number Two - Keep and follow very high standards, and don’t associate with other professionals whose standards are lower than yours. Don’t be afraid to loose a deal if it will not produce a long-term positive. I see too many people panicking about loosing a deal for whatever reason. You have to have the intestinal fortitude to let the occasional deal go. If you don’t, it will consume you. Also, don’t be afraid to do a deal for a lower commission or a lower profit if you have the feeling that the client is going to be someone special – someone who is going to refer to you, who is going to say good things about your company.
Number Three - Search out and find the best possible partners to work with, but only expect 1 out of 50 to meet your standards.
Number Four - Read “Raving Fans” once a month, not just once.
Number Five - Constantly strive to learn all there is to know about your business. If you’re new in the business, you can differentiate yourself by becoming a master of product knowledge. I feel very strongly about certification. The National Association of Mortgage Brokers has done us the extreme favor of giving us the ability to become Certified Residential Mortgage Specialists. When you open Mortgage Originator magazine or Mortgage Broker magazine, there are only two pages or CRMs in the whole country.
Number Six - Find and go to work for a company that will fully support your efforts, not only in the back processing and closings, but that is committed to developing and supporting you along the way. If it doesn’t feel like the right company, don’t hesitate to move on.