... PAGE 4 CONTINUED
good way to open a conversation to find out what’s really going on. That kind of conversation, based on values and honesty, is what builds (or lets go of) relationships. And if it means letting go of a relationship, that’s okay. You want to be surrounded by people who are a fit for you and your business (unless you’re ok with superficial relationships). That’s the slippery thing about values: There is no right or wrong. There is only clarity and whether something is working for you or not.
So, pay attention to where you are putting your focus to learn about what you really value. If it isn’t what you think it is or what you want, you can focus differently going forward. If this caused you to think or get new insights about your “investments,” I’d love to hear about it below. Thanks in advance.
CLOSING MORE DEALS FROM LEADS YOU ALREADY HAVE
DON’T FORGET YOUR PAALS
PAAL stands for “Pre-Approved and Looking.” It refers to people that we’ve already pre-approved, who are now looking for property. As everyone in the mortgage business knows, once you pre-approve someone, they typically go out looking for houses. Loan officers sometimes get so busy going after the next lead that they ignore the leads they already have. Ignoring the people we’ve already pre-approved to get more people to pre-approve can cause a number of issues. We spend so much time and money getting that lead and building trust, but it’s even more than that. To get the lead, we first have to spend a lot of time on the referral partner. So, once they’ve sent us a lead, and we’ve done our due diligence and built trust with that lead, ignoring them to look for more leads is a huge waste of time and money. Another problem that can come up with ignoring pre- approvals is PAALs disappearing. If that happens, it’s probably because they’ve found another lender, or worse, another lender and another realtor. If a realtor keeps sending you leads, only to have those leads buy from someone else after you pre-approve them, then they’re probably going to start referring their leads to someone else. As loan officers, we have to follow up. Realtors have to trust that they won’t be losing sales by sending their leads to us. They’re relying on us, and being attentive with their clients will build a beneficial relationship for both of us. We like to call our PAALs every Thursday. Thursday works well because it gives us an extra day before the weekend to tweak things if we need to. Once we call our PAALs, we
then call the real estate agent to let them know we followed up with that person. This is a good way to build trust and demonstrate that you’re dedicated to cooperating. This is far from the only issue with PAALs, however. Sometimes they can drag out their homebuying process so much that it starts to hurt you and your realtor. One example of this is PAALs who are still on the fence. They’ll look at property after property without ever deciding on one. When you’re having trouble getting clients to commit, future casting can help. Future casting is where you get your prospect to envision themselves with their desired result. In this case, we’re getting that PAAL to imagine themselves already in a new home. When I call them up on Thursday to touch base about how the house hunting is going, I’ll ask something like, “Refresh my memory, what’s the purpose of the move?” If, for example, their purpose is to get a pool home, then we can speed up their decision by having them envision that pool. The goal is to get them to visualize what they’ll be doing with that new home, whether it’s swimming, having barbecues, saving money, or downsizing. There’s an old saying that demonstrates this idea well: Wherever your head is, your butt will soon follow. If we can get their heads into that house, it’s in their best interest, and they’re not going to bite off something they can’t chew, they’ll get off the fence all the faster.
727-787-2275 | 7
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker