The Six Things Highly Efficient Originators Do!
This time of year we all see the reports of all the organizations and magazines that “rank” originators based on dollar closed performance or units closed. While this may bring some interest in the mortgage community, it often is nothing more than a list of names and numbers that lack real specific information. Example, you never know if this originator really did originate these loans or was it a series of “Team Members” or “Assistants” that were the ones that did a great deal of the work? You also never know the quality of the client and referral partner experience for all of these closed loans, and many people who have closed, may have never once met or spoke to the originator taking credit for the closed loan.
I don’t have an issue with teams or production partners, I have coached some of the most successful teams in the industry and really believe in that model, but to the average originator who closes less than 40 units a year and feels like they are working all the time, it’s very important to not ignore that the differences between average results and exceptional results is very small, and that some of the people they see on these lists take home less money, sometimes a LOT less money, than you think they do after all their expenses.
So over the next few weeks I am going to walk through my list of what I see are the six things that really stand out as the items that the really efficient originators address in their business that help make them out perform their competitors, but also provide a quality experience for their clients and referral partners. It is also an important point, that the standard I use for efficiency is 6 to 10 closed units per month average per member of the origination team. That includes everyone involved with:
- Prospecting
- Marketing
- Consulting
- Product and program determination
- Communicating
- Qualifying
- Loan application
- Set-up
- File submission
- Pipeline management
- Clearing origination conditions
- Closing preparation
- Final review
- Closing coordination
- Post-closing communications
- Database maintenance
Obviously we look at actual loan processing, underwriting, title, wiring, and some closing issues as “company” responsibilities, but it’s the originator that is obligated to oversee all of these and take responsibility for them.
The six areas that I plan on addressing over the next few weeks will be:
- The Business Plan
- The Complete process from prospecting to post closing
- Work schedule
- Plan execution and service delivery
- Tracking results against our projections
- Making the needed adjustments
When I look at the people in the industry that I admire and those that I have worked with and helped reach their higher potential, I see the importance in addressing all of these issues. I walk through these step by step and share with you the standards that I see help provide clarity, quality, performance, and profitability to originators, those who build production teams, and those managers who want to bring out the best in their people!
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