Installment 01

Challenges and opportunities (in high-volume markets)

Understanding the landscape of high-volume markets is an essential first-step to seizing the phenomenal opportunities they offer—before they’re gone.

From short-cutting the relationship-building process, to take and submitting rushed applications, to over-estimating customer commitment, there are a plethora of mistakes loan officers can make in the face of the unique challenges presented by high-volume markets.

But, with the right mindset, loan officers can navigate the challenges of swelling pipelines, overwhelmed partners and teammates, and cutthroat competition, to seize once-in-a-decade opportunities to make a lasting impact on their borrowers’ financial wellbeing, as well as their own.

Installment 02

Working well individually (and as a team)

The key to setting yourself up for success during high-volume markets is knowing where your time is being spent so that you can make necessary changes to prioritize what you do best: sales.

That starts by first figuring out where your time is being spent by conducting a time audit, after which you can then make strategic decisions to remove unproductive workflows, reduce time spent on inefficient tasks and activities, and reassign priorities throughout the day.

Of course, priorities will only ever happen if you schedule them, and create the time and space necessary to see them through to completion. So, regulating your accessibility via email, chat, and voicemail is critical to making progress toward your daily, weekly, and monthly goals.

The key to setting your team members up for success during high-volume markets taking an OthersFirst™ approach to teamwork.

When your team members feel appreciated, know that you’re doing your very best to make their job easier—not harder, and receive clear, concise communication, there’s no question you’ll experience fewer back-end issues and fund more loans.

Start by asking yourself, “What can I do for my team members?” Instead of “What can my team members do for me?” Then, take the time to submit quality applications with complete documentation and detailed notation. Why? Because even a bad processor can process a great file, but a great processor can’t process a bad file.

Installment 03

Organizing your day (and reclaiming your life)

The brass tacks of maximizing your success in a high-volume market is always being able to answer “Yes” to the Gold Rule of Time Management: “Is this the single best use of my time right now?”

In order to be able to answer “yes” to that essential question, we have to employ the leading time management tactics, including time blocking, time batching, power hours, work sprints, and purposeful time mastering.

Leveraging these powerful tactics, we can control the flow of our day, stay focused on production, and avoid burnout by incorporating personal priorities into our daily routine.