Last week, I discussed common mistakes that managers make when coaching originators. This week I would like to cover what I believe are the two biggest errors originators make that prevent sales success. They are:
1. Not creating a personal sales system — Originators who “wing it” have a haphazard sales approach. These individuals never do the same thing the same way twice. While these producers may be temporarily successful when interest rates are declining, they are not able to close loans in a more difficult marketplace. A personal sales system is all about standardizing how leads are generated, how first contacts are made and how hot prospects are divided from cold leads.
Top originators structure their selling approach and fine-tune it frequently. They know what works and what doesn’t by having an organized way to handle prospects and customers. They look at selling as a science and apply a system to their own selling efforts that fits their strengths. Producers without a sales system rarely succeed in the long-term because as Dan Kennedy succinctly observes in his book, No B.S. Sales Success in a New Economy: “If you do not have a system for selling, you are always at the mercy of the prospect’s system for buying.”
2. Lack of consistent prospecting efforts — Originators who do not allocate weekly time to prospect eventually will lose their referral sources. This pitfall is something I see time after time when consulting. Top producers recognize that their income is dependent on referral sources and that it is a fact that the real estate agent or referral source will retire, die or leave the business at some point. Because of these normal occurrences that can ruin a sales person’s pipeline, top originators include frequent prospecting as an insurance policy that pays dividends when these events happen. Originators who fail to prospect on a regular basis are always surprised and caught off guard when they lose their referral sources. The best in the industry always incorporate prospecting time in their structured sales process to ensure a perpetually full pipeline.
How many of your originators have a structured selling process? If you are not sure, what are you doing to ensure that a structured process is in place?