Seizing Sales and Referral Opportunities: A Workshop for Mortgage Lenders
Written by: Donna Thaxter - Training, Coaching, and Professional Development Consultant
As the mortgage industry anticipates a decrease in interest rates, predicted by the MBA and FNMA, lenders find themselves in a favorable position for increased refinance and purchase production in 2024. Capitalizing on this opportunity requires strategic alignment of customer service expectations for sales and operations teams. While sales is often perceived as a front-end role, a well-executed service approach that begins at the time of application and follows all the way through to loan servicing can have a positive ripple effect throughout the customer’s experience.
Turn your Loan Operation into a well-oiled customer experience team:
SCA has developed a training workshop tailored specifically for your mortgage operations teams. The workshop includes a playbook offering insights and best practices that promote disciplined teamwork and specific strategies at every stage of the lending process. Lenders can leverage these tools to create a culture known for consistent, positive customer experiences.
Here are a few examples from the Playbook: Dial-up Your Pipeline Reviews: It’s likely that your operations team is already conducting some form of regular pipeline reviews to identify loans that are stuck or need special attention. But are they as proactive, meaningful, and holistic as they should be? Our playbook provides a fresh take on this process to ensure communication between MLOs and Operations is initiated and driven by Operations. This allows your MLOs to focus on new business while having peace of mind that their customers are experiencing top-notch service. In this course, we also provide strategies to Include your Loan Servicing team at strategic points in your Pipeline Reviews meetings. This shift promotes smoother transitions and ensures the servicing team has a head start in setting a positive, long-term relationship with your customers.
A second Playbook strategy involves Implementing Brian Tracy's "Eat That Frog" principle. This approach is about prioritizing the most difficult and vital problems (AKA problems we might tend to put off) and addressing them first thing each morning. This habit ensures that the team tackles the day's most significant challenges early on and head-on and has been proven to alleviate stress levels. A proactive problem-solving approach also improves efficiency and fosters a team accountability culture. Our playbook provides strategies to not only encourage this habit but to make sure it’s actually put into practice.
Sales and Referrals are the Report Card of Service:
When the customer experience that your Loan Originators promise and the Operations team deliver are aligned, asking for and receiving referrals becomes (to use the idiom) a “piece of cake.” If you would like to learn more about how this workshop can be tailored to fit your lending operation’s needs, contact our Director, Bill Dolan. You can reach Bill via email (WDolan@scapartnering.com) or phone (617-694-2617).
