Let us say that you are working on your mortgage marketing presentations. You have just made a perfect presentation to a Realtor. They were excited and impressed with your services and said they were ready to move full stream ahead with you. What is the next step? Going back to the office and waiting for a phone call?
You may find yourself waiting a long time. It is incredibly frustrating to be promised one thing and never have it come to fruition. That is what happens when your mortgage marketing does not focus on building a solid relationship with the Realtor, even if it sounds like they made a commitment.
You know the expression of out of sight, out of mind. If you have not properly built your case for doing business with you, the agent will forget all about you as soon as the door closes.
For your mortgage marketing to be effective, you are going to have to continue to build your case. Then, and only then will you solidify your relationship with the agent.
Documented Performance Builds Case
When you document your performance you account for your actions with clients. It demonstrates how you work to solve problems. Nothing captures prospects attention like a track record for proven performance.
One way to document the performance is by meeting with the client. It works well because it gives you an opportunity to remind them of why they should continue to use you, instead of your competition. If you find there is not a positive experience to document, you can use the meeting as a learning opportunity. You can interview the client to find ways to improve your future performance.
When you demonstrate your performance, you have something concrete to follow up on. It is difficult to follow up on mere promises. But, with demonstrated performance, you have something to promote.
It is far easier to promote your proven track record than it is to promote a promise. For example, which of the following is easier to promote, and more importantly will produce results?
Example 1: I promise I will close your loans on time.
Example 2: Over the last 3 years, 99.5% of my loans closed early, usually at least two days before the close of escrow.
The second example has a great deal more impact because it employs the S.M.A.R.T. method. It is specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time dependent. It makes the reader sit up and take note. As you continue to document, you have fresh results to share with your prospects.
Keep it Fresh
We are a see it to believe it population. We are far more likely to believe what we read versus what we hear. So your first effort at documenting your track record should be in writing.
But after your first effort, it pays to mix it up a little bit. There are many ways you can document your case to prospects. Your mortgage marketing materials should vary, such as case studies, newsletters, audio CDs, articles, postcards, and flyers.
It is important to produce your documentation in different formats because people access information in different ways. Some prospects want to know everything; others only want small manageable bite size information. Those that want the abbreviated version will appreciate a postcard, while the prospects that want to know all the details will prefer to read a lengthy article.
Presenting a variety of styles also gives you a chance to reinforce the information by repeating it in a variety of formats. This way you first send an article, then an audio CD of the article, followed by a postcard, etc. You are using the same message, but communicating it in different ways.
Keep Your Focus
When you begin documenting your performance you will find many examples of your superior service to share with your prospects. Resist the temptation to show your prospects all your documentation at one time.
If you shove all your marketing materials at them at once they will never absorb the information ; they will just tune it out. And, if you throw them all of the information at one time, you do not have anything fresh to give in the future which can make mortgage marketing even more frustrating.
Sometimes, it is far more effective to share drops of information, instead of an ocean.
