dbartels
11-20-2007, 12:13 PM
Hi all,
I ran this article in my newsletter and wanted to share it with you too.
I would love your feedback. Hope you enjoy it.
Selling is Serving
If you want to sell smarter, you must realize that selling is serving.
I became a sales trainer at the age of twenty-two. I learned by becoming a trainer for the Dale Carnegie’s Sales Training Course. It changed my life.
Over Twenty years later, I am still applying the principles I learned as evidenced by Selling Smarter’s 5-step selling process, which was adapted from Dale Carnegie’s 5 step selling process (attention, interest, conviction, desire and close).
My biggest take away from Dale Carnegie is the importance of taking the time to find out what the borrower wants and needs and then spending the rest of the time helping him or her get it. If you’ll take the time to find out what your borrowers want and spend the rest of the time helping them get it, you won’t need any “high-pressured” or “slick” closing techniques in order to get people to choose you. Choosing you will be the natural conclusion toward which all your efforts had been directed. This is looking at selling as serving.
Do you approach your borrowers with that attitude? Are you discovering what each borrower wants and needs? Are you focused on helping him or her achieve it?
Sales = Service = Information = Trust = Loan Application = Funded Loan
This is the information age. The way people acquire information is different than it used to be. The way people make purchase decisions is different than it used to be. As a result how we present mortgage advice must also change.
If you don’t service the borrowers’ need for information, somebody else will.
When the borrower asks the rate question, you must answer the trust question.
The originator who best services the borrower’s need for information is the originator who’s going to get that borrower’s business. If you’re providing excellent service, then rates and fees drop lower on the borrower’s priority list whether they realize it or not. Rates and fees matter only if all you have to offer the borrower are rates and fees.
To us, the mortgage is just another transaction, but to the borrower, it is the biggest financial transaction they have probably ever made.
As a result, borrowers enter the discussion with a great deal of anxiety (fear of making a bad decision). Our objective is simple; to relieve the borrower’s anxiety by servicing their need for information, thus moving them from anxiety (mystery) to knowing (confidence). People filled with anxiety seek additional info (shop) while people with confidence buy.
Think about your own experiences. When you have a lack of information, you have a hunger to get information. If you don’t get information from a person you think has the information (because they are more interested in getting information from you), it creates mistrust.
Lack of information creates the need to validate what someone else told you or seek additional information. So if I, as a borrower, do not think I’m getting enough information from you, then I’m going to find someone else and ask them. My need to validate or expand my knowledge base is what causes me to shop… even when I prefer to buy.
If you understand this, then the obvious questions you must ask yourself are; Does your presentation create questions or does it answer them? Are you relieving anxiety or are you exacerbating it?
The originator that asks the last question closes the loan
You could be doing 80% of the work. You answer 8 out of a borrowers’ 10 questions and the borrower thanks you and says they need to think about. Thinking you connected with them, you do not want to pressure them, so you agree to let them think about it. The borrower, wanting to validate what you shared, clicks or calls someone else; the next originator answers a couple of simple questions and closes your loan. I know you know this happens, because you have probably won some loans this way.
You have to realize that while you are interviewing the borrower, the borrower is interviewing you too. When they ask you about rates, instead of assuming they are shopping you, try assuming that they have chosen you.
The rate question should mean the borrower is interested. When somebody asks you about rate, I want you to hear, “I want more information”, not “I’m shopping you”. What you should assume is that you have a borrower who has some anxiety and they need more information in order to feel better about what they’re doing. Your job is to service their need for additional information.
If you believe that Selling is serving, then it should change the way you present mortgage advice. In fact, it should change the way you perceive every opportunity.
If the only change you make in sales process is what I am about to share with you, I am very confident you will immediately improve the percentage of leads you convert into loan applications and closed loans.
Beginning right now I want you to assume:
1) Your borrower has already chosen you
2) That your borrower is qualified
Stop treating borrowers like shoppers and stop treating borrowers like they can’t qualify. Focus on what you want, not what you don’t want.
When you are working with a borrower you know is going to choose you and you know they can qualify for what they want, you provide a significantly higher level of service than if you think the borrower is shopping you or you think they cannot qualify.
If borrowers are choosing originators based on who they trust, I assure you that you will win more loans by treating people like they are qualified and can buy versus treating them like they are shopping you and don’t qualify.
The worst thing that will happen is you will miss the loan, but for me, I would rather work the lead and lose the loan than not work the lead and lose it.
I would rather sell the way people buy, than force people to buy the way I sell
If you have an attitude of servitude with your borrowers, they will notice it. And it will make more of a difference than anything else, rates included. Take the time to find out what your borrowers’ want and spend the rest of the time helping them get it. If you’ll do that, you won’t need any “high pressured” or “slick” closing techniques in order to get them to choose you because choosing you will be the only conclusion they could make.
I ran this article in my newsletter and wanted to share it with you too.
I would love your feedback. Hope you enjoy it.
Selling is Serving
If you want to sell smarter, you must realize that selling is serving.
I became a sales trainer at the age of twenty-two. I learned by becoming a trainer for the Dale Carnegie’s Sales Training Course. It changed my life.
Over Twenty years later, I am still applying the principles I learned as evidenced by Selling Smarter’s 5-step selling process, which was adapted from Dale Carnegie’s 5 step selling process (attention, interest, conviction, desire and close).
My biggest take away from Dale Carnegie is the importance of taking the time to find out what the borrower wants and needs and then spending the rest of the time helping him or her get it. If you’ll take the time to find out what your borrowers want and spend the rest of the time helping them get it, you won’t need any “high-pressured” or “slick” closing techniques in order to get people to choose you. Choosing you will be the natural conclusion toward which all your efforts had been directed. This is looking at selling as serving.
Do you approach your borrowers with that attitude? Are you discovering what each borrower wants and needs? Are you focused on helping him or her achieve it?
Sales = Service = Information = Trust = Loan Application = Funded Loan
This is the information age. The way people acquire information is different than it used to be. The way people make purchase decisions is different than it used to be. As a result how we present mortgage advice must also change.
If you don’t service the borrowers’ need for information, somebody else will.
When the borrower asks the rate question, you must answer the trust question.
The originator who best services the borrower’s need for information is the originator who’s going to get that borrower’s business. If you’re providing excellent service, then rates and fees drop lower on the borrower’s priority list whether they realize it or not. Rates and fees matter only if all you have to offer the borrower are rates and fees.
To us, the mortgage is just another transaction, but to the borrower, it is the biggest financial transaction they have probably ever made.
As a result, borrowers enter the discussion with a great deal of anxiety (fear of making a bad decision). Our objective is simple; to relieve the borrower’s anxiety by servicing their need for information, thus moving them from anxiety (mystery) to knowing (confidence). People filled with anxiety seek additional info (shop) while people with confidence buy.
Think about your own experiences. When you have a lack of information, you have a hunger to get information. If you don’t get information from a person you think has the information (because they are more interested in getting information from you), it creates mistrust.
Lack of information creates the need to validate what someone else told you or seek additional information. So if I, as a borrower, do not think I’m getting enough information from you, then I’m going to find someone else and ask them. My need to validate or expand my knowledge base is what causes me to shop… even when I prefer to buy.
If you understand this, then the obvious questions you must ask yourself are; Does your presentation create questions or does it answer them? Are you relieving anxiety or are you exacerbating it?
The originator that asks the last question closes the loan
You could be doing 80% of the work. You answer 8 out of a borrowers’ 10 questions and the borrower thanks you and says they need to think about. Thinking you connected with them, you do not want to pressure them, so you agree to let them think about it. The borrower, wanting to validate what you shared, clicks or calls someone else; the next originator answers a couple of simple questions and closes your loan. I know you know this happens, because you have probably won some loans this way.
You have to realize that while you are interviewing the borrower, the borrower is interviewing you too. When they ask you about rates, instead of assuming they are shopping you, try assuming that they have chosen you.
The rate question should mean the borrower is interested. When somebody asks you about rate, I want you to hear, “I want more information”, not “I’m shopping you”. What you should assume is that you have a borrower who has some anxiety and they need more information in order to feel better about what they’re doing. Your job is to service their need for additional information.
If you believe that Selling is serving, then it should change the way you present mortgage advice. In fact, it should change the way you perceive every opportunity.
If the only change you make in sales process is what I am about to share with you, I am very confident you will immediately improve the percentage of leads you convert into loan applications and closed loans.
Beginning right now I want you to assume:
1) Your borrower has already chosen you
2) That your borrower is qualified
Stop treating borrowers like shoppers and stop treating borrowers like they can’t qualify. Focus on what you want, not what you don’t want.
When you are working with a borrower you know is going to choose you and you know they can qualify for what they want, you provide a significantly higher level of service than if you think the borrower is shopping you or you think they cannot qualify.
If borrowers are choosing originators based on who they trust, I assure you that you will win more loans by treating people like they are qualified and can buy versus treating them like they are shopping you and don’t qualify.
The worst thing that will happen is you will miss the loan, but for me, I would rather work the lead and lose the loan than not work the lead and lose it.
I would rather sell the way people buy, than force people to buy the way I sell
If you have an attitude of servitude with your borrowers, they will notice it. And it will make more of a difference than anything else, rates included. Take the time to find out what your borrowers’ want and spend the rest of the time helping them get it. If you’ll do that, you won’t need any “high pressured” or “slick” closing techniques in order to get them to choose you because choosing you will be the only conclusion they could make.