EXPERT (Photo credit: Pete Prodoehl)found photo: business leaders (Photo credit: squareintheteeth)

Mortgage experts like to think of ourselves as professionals, that is, providing a value added service to the business of helping our clients get mortgage financing for their homes and businesses. Most spend a lot of time in professional development, learning new skills , keeping up with the changing face of the mortgage loan industry, and keeping an eye on the constantly evolving economic reality faced every day by our borrowers (and our lenders).

But many of the people who work in our industry, if pressed, would agree that the single most challenging aspect of our work is ensuring that we have a sufficient flow of new business opportunities, so that we don’t run out of clients just about the time we become knowledgeable enough to be of real service to them.

Somehow the idea of prospecting for new business seems incongruent with being a professional adviser, a little like getting our hands dirty when we really want to seem to be above the fray, and beyond the need to market ourselves and our services.

Far from it! Getting out there in front of people and winning their attention is precisely the mark of a professional. A true professional knows that he/she has something valuable to share with the borrowing public, and that the public will never get the benefit of that value if he/she doesn’t grab their attention.

So it’s not that professionals shouldn’t promote themselves, or market themselves aggressively. But rather how they should do so, rather than if they should.

So here are a few points to improve both effectiveness and the professionalism of your marketing efforts:

1. Share your skills, knowledge and ability freely with potential clients. As mortgage experts we know a lot about mortgages, financial planning and debt. Most of the time the only time we talk to potential clients is when they are looking to buy a house or mortgage a property. In order to be the expert relied up at decision time, you need to be the adviser they trust in regards to these subjects even prior to the need being expressed. Instead of sending out messages asking for business to your potential marketplace, try asking people how you can help them meet their goals through what you know and do.

2. Become a genuine expert on your potential client. It is more important than ever to know your client. Inside and Outside. Front to Back. Lenders will tell you that it is important because then your applications are far more likely to be funded, because you will provide accurate and sufficient information for a lender to make a mortgage loan offer to your client. It will improve your credibility with your lenders as well, as you become a mortgage expert they know that they can rely upon. You will make it worthwhile for them to invest the time and money in underwriting your deals. Even more definitely, however, knowing your client will prove to that client that you actually care enough about them to give them comprehensive and caring advice. They will know that you aren’t just plugging applications into the system and hoping for the best.

3. Don’t hesitate to reach out to new prospects. In fact, dedicate a real part of your day every single day to reaching a specified number of new prospective clients, and then adding them to your database of people who know you as a mortgage professional. When I was a young man just learning the ropes in the life insurance business, more than thirty years ago, my sales manager insisted that I make 25 telephone calls every single day, before noon, and not quit calling new prospects until I had made at least 2 appointments to meet with potential clients.

4. Educate. Educate. Educate. Provide resources and important information to your prospective clients, on subjects they want to know more about. How do you know what they want to know more about? Ask them. And then do your homework to give them information that helps them make their goals. Every time you make yourself useful to someone else, you gain their respect and likely, their future business.

There's no place like home?