Last week, I attended the annual MBA convention and not surprisingly, many of my conversations with executives were about why the hiring strategy of pirating veteran originators from other companies no longer works. One executive even lamented how she was tired of pacifying originators who made $750,000 in the past and now were earning only […]

In my conversations with originators, they will often confide how much more difficult it is to sell today versus in the past. The truth is it is more difficult to sell in the current marketplace. Real estate agents don’t go to the office anymore; brokers don’t want more than a few lenders; and borrowers don’t […]

As markets continue to shrink, a hot topic for sales executives is how to retain current customers. The accepted rule in selling is that keeping current customers is cheaper than devoting precious resources to finding new customers. Acquiring new customers costs an estimated five to eight times more than it does to retain existing customers. […]

In recent conversations with sales managers, the most common refrain I hear is that we need originators who can sell value, not price. I have always believed that selling value is the fundamental role of the originator and mandatory for a sales organization’s success. The problem is that value may look slightly different to each […]

I had a chance to watch the Ryder Cup this weekend and was disappointed in the U.S. team’s performance. It was clear early on that this was not going to be our day. It is surprising that some of the nation’s best golf players can’t seem to win this contest. The U.S. team has lost […]