By Ward Morrison, President, Motto Franchising, LLC
Loan Originators drive the core of a mortgage business. In fact, the ability to attract and retain exceptional Loan Originators (LOs) is integral to the success of an office. Enhance your recruiting efforts with industry best-practices to strengthen your venture and expand your deal-count opportunity.
Build Your List
The best mortgage brokers may not be the ones combing LO job postings. It doesn’t hurt to post job openings but taking a proactive approach to building your potential recruit list can bolster both the quality and quantity of mortgage professional hires. An additional benefit of this approach is a personnel buffer in the case that you unexpectedly lose an LO from your team – speedy hires aren’t always the highest of quality.
Experienced real estate broker owners may learn that connecting with mortgage professionals is more difficult than reaching out to agent recruits. The less-saturated mortgage professional arena makes way for torrents of regular recruit calls. “LOs are heavily recruited and many won’t take appointments because they are jaded by the multiple attempts they receive weekly. Our process, when we are in need of hiring an LO, is to start with agents from our brokerage,” said Scott Comey, owner of Motto Mortgage Elite. Begin your pipeline expansion by requesting mortgage professional referrals from real estate agents. They likely trust 2-3 LOs with their clients’ home loan needs, which bodes well for the quality of those referrals. Include the agent in the introductory call or meeting to bridge the “jaded” gap. Take this approach one step further by incentivizing valuable connections through a referral program in order to promote the highest of quality referrals. If your mortgage office isn’t co-located with a real estate brokerage, reach out to agents in your community. It may also be beneficial to reach out to personal networks for mortgage professional referrals – many family and friends have likely worked with someone to acquire a home loan.
Nurture Your Contacts
Successful contact nurturing comes down to the ability to continue meaningful communication – for the long term. The Loan Originator you have your sights set on may be happily situated for now, but could experience work-place frustration in the coming months. You never know when a potential recruit will be ready for a change. That’s why it’s essential to continue connection efforts.
- Send scheduled holiday and topical messages to stay top of mind. Many CRMs (customer relationship management system) enable automatic messaging for just this purpose.
- Engage with potential recruits on their preferred social media platforms to show that you care about what’s going on in their world. This will help forge a foundational personal connection. Plus, it won’t hurt that when you share content on said platform, they’ll be much more likely to see it. This is because social media algorithms typically favor reciprocity of engagement.
- Did you notice an important life event for your prospect while engaging with their social media? Give them a call or send them a short text to congratulate them or to provide a supportive comment. Phone calls and texts feel more personal, so be sure they’re sporadic and driven by authentic intent.
Comey, like many master recruiters, relies on this relational approach; “The key is to start by creating relationships with the mortgage professional. It won’t be likely that the first meeting leads to them wanting to join the company, but stay in touch and friend them on Facebook. If your initial meeting goes well, invite them to company events and meetings. This way they can experience your culture first-hand.”
Ask Questions
Once you’ve attained a valuable phone conversation or in-person meeting, be sure to lead with questions. Recruiting is no different from sales in that it’s all about them. Experts say that by asking your potential hire just a few questions on the topics of life and work, you’ll be able to gather essential information about that desired LO’s pain points and professional desires. Then, you can respond with the solutions your office can provide. Rattling-off every highlight of your operation can be overwhelming and impersonal, but addressing the specific concerns of the individual can be a priceless recruiting tool.
Leave Them with a Reminder
After making an impression on your desired recruit, leave them with a continual reminder of your Mortgage office. Provide the LO with office information and your business card, at the minimum. Better yet, gift your potential hire with a branded item they’ll use time and time again. Mugs are popular options, as are keychains and other daily-use items.
Retain the Best
Don’t lose sight of the valuable LOs already supporting the success of your office. Retaining a great professional is far less costly and time consuming than searching for a new one of the same caliber. Keep an open dialogue, demonstrate your appreciation frequently and be sure your compensation model is competitive.
Published on February 17, 2020
