Every salesperson wants to increase income. Mortgage loan officers (LOs) and Realtors are no different but those who have longevity in the business also have a sincere desire to help consumers build their dreams and financial futures through homeownership.
What Sets Elite Producers Apart?
In an industry where very few pull away from the pack and distinguish themselves as high earners, what’s the difference between low-to-average and elite producers in mortgage and real estate? Making quantum leaps in performance to dramatically increase income is easier than you think.
First, it’s important to understand the habits of those who succeed – and those who want to:
Low-to Average Producers
Distracted: Constantly looking for the magic bullet they think top producers are using.
Non-committal: Bounce from company to company, system to system – thinking the “grass is always greener.”
Disorganized: Always seeking and grabbing lead sources, they pursue the lowest-hanging fruit and hottest leads, and lose track of or discard other opportunities.
Undisciplined: Fail to execute on fundamentals due to lack of plan and centralized system.
Inconsistent: Lack of commitment and indecision on best systems and methods leave gaps in marketing efforts.
Elite Producers
Focused: Attention to small, key details in their daily efforts and business that generate massive, incremental results.
Committed: They make and commit to their core strategy and systems and stay the course.
Organized: Regardless of how many lead sources they have or how many leads they’re generating, they manage what they have at all times. Leads and opportunities are categorized by short and long terms.
Disciplined: Constantly monitor leads and opportunities and make adjustments as prospects shift from various stages like cold to warm or ready to convert.
Consistent: Deliver messaging in the form of emails, texts and phone calls specific to the path identified leads are determined to be on at any given time.
The chasm between producer survival and success is evident when habits of different performers are juxtaposed.
Marketing automation factors into the habits and activities of the low and high-performing groups – the difference is the extent to which they commit to and employ it. While average sales people are mired in trying to decide which systems to use, caught in perpetual states of transition from one system to another or working across multiple platforms, top producers have every contact and lead type in a centralized system, enrolled in various forms of marketing that reinforces their brand, keeps them in front of people, and dispenses marketing messages and calls to action. How can LOs and Realtors make the quantum leap into the high-earning zones?
The Path to Becoming an Elite Producer
- Identify the holes in your business.
Where are you missing opportunities? Where do you lose track of people during the lifecycle of the lead? Do you fail to follow up – and how often?
It’s important to be honest and face the reality of how you really work and eliminate excuses. Failure to execute and follow-up properly can be traced back to indecision about best practices, lack of commitment to one system and the disorganization that results from either or both.
- Choose a solution and commit to a process.
One reason many salespeople have lead leakage and leave money on the table is because they don’t have a solid plan backed by the necessary tools to execute it.
A lead can’t make its way from the “top of the funnel” to becoming a closed transaction if it never makes it into the funnel in the first place. It’s also difficult to market to leads that are scattered across multiple platforms without connectivity. You should be working with a reliable customer relationship management (CRM) system that allows scheduling of follow-up tasks for all opportunities such as call-backs and email check-ins.
- Automate and optimize.
Once your prospects are organized and your tasks are set, make sure your leads are on appropriate automated drip campaigns for the short- or long-term, depending on the type of opportunity and level of urgency. Even if every email doesn’t get read, it’s important for people to see your name pop up in their inbox frequently.
Establishing and maintaining basic lead management and follow-up is great, but expand your efforts into multiple channels via social media, texts and other ways that create awareness for the most reach.
The difference between low-to-average and elite producers has been a point to ponder since the dawn of sales management. The most obvious difference is that elite producers buckle down and do the work, while their less-productive counterparts seem to spend their time and energy looking for the proverbial magic bullet to avoid doing just that. Even small tweaks in your efforts and overall business management can add up to huge increases in income. While low-to-average performers create more work to do, elite producers get more work done.
The good news for LOs and Realtors seeking to increase their business – and the people who recruit and manage them – is that marketing automation really is a magic bullet. The catch is, this miracle solution to business growth must be used in conjunction with the tried and true fundamentals of planning, commitment and consistency.
To learn more, listen to a recent podcast, “Using Marketing Automation to Convert Leads” by Total Expert Founder and CEO, Joe Welu.
