Communicating with customers (amidst mass uncertainty)

Jake Vermillion	Welcome to Up-Market Sales Success, a series designed to help busy loan officers just like you make the most of high-volume markets. My name is Jake, I'm a member of the Mortgage Champions team, and we are incredibly excited to bring this powerful offering to you. Let's dive into today's topic, Communicating with customers (amidst mass-uncertainty), with Dale Vermillion. Hi Dale!
Dale Vermillion	How are you doing Jake?
Jake Vermillion	Doing well, doing well. In this installment, we want to explore how to effectively communicate with customers during mass-uncertainty, because typically high-volume markets are going to be driven by low rate environments; which, in the era of Quantitative Easing, are often precipitated by a concerned Federal Reserve. Now, for those listening at the initial release of this offering, that economic uncertainty has been compounded by a global pandemic, widespread social angst, a looming Presidential election. Needless to say customers, while enthused by the prospect of a low rate, may have a number of financial and emotional concerns weighing on them. So Dale, how can loan officers embrace borrowers excitement to capitalize on favorable rates while still addressing the unease that they may understandably have approaching a major life decision with so much uncertainty.
Dale Vermillion	Great question Jake! I really want those of you listening to pay really close attention to what I'm about to say, because it's so critically important in times like we're in—anytime you're in a high-volume market—because as Jake very clearly articulated, high-volume markets usually are driven by some kind of disaster. Or some kind of economic challenge. Because we know that with challenges come a drive to push rates down to create a more stable economy. And therefore there are concerns that people have, and we want to make sure that we're always that compassionate, caring, empathetic, loan officer that's really thinking about the times our customers are in, and the times we're dealing in. So, when we're dealing with somebody that's in a high-volume market and we know that there's uncertainty out in the marketplace, there's a real simple tip that I want to give you that'll make a massive difference. We call it the check-in, check-up, check-out approach. Now, what's a check-in, check-up, check-out approach? If you haven't heard of it before from me. Well, here's what it is: it's simply making sure that before you start to talk about products, and programs, and pricing, and all of the mortgage details that we tend to get into as loan officers, that you stop for a moment and you just recognize the person you have on the phone as being somebody who probably is coming to you with a very large need and some concerns that are deep rooted in them. And those concerns are probably financial. So, the check-in is simply just that: you're checking-in. "How are you doing today?", "How's your family doing?", "How are things going for you in these times?" It's very important that you bring them to center on the marketplace that they're in and that you get that quick connection with them so that you show them that you personally have interest in them as a human being. Then you check-up. Once they tell you that you come back with, "How we can help you in these times to be more effective and more successful financially and change your life in a powerful way so that we can relieve any financial concerns you might have." It's as simple as making sure that you're letting them know that now the next stage is that you're going to start to dig into their concerns, dig into their situation, start to understand their qualifications. It's a great preemptive statement to lead into an application. And then once you start to get some feedback from them, You can move to your check-out. Your check-out is simply, "Now that I better understand your situation, let's check-out what we can do for you and take some time to really dig in and change your life powerfully." It's the process of building connection, addressing concern, and then gaining commitment. Cause here's the bottom line you want to show your customers that you care about them. And I'm going to use an acrostic here for CARE. It stands for these four things: The C is for Connect: connect with them on a personal level. The A is Acquaint: get to know them better by spending a little time understanding what it is they're trying to do. Then the R is Recognize: make sure that you recognize their needs so that you can actually provide a solution to those. And then lastly, the E is Educate: educate them on how you're going to change their life in a powerful way.
Jake Vermillion	So, what are the specific concerns that homeowners have when there's a high level of uncertainty in the marketplace?
Dale Vermillion	You know, after 37 years of doing this, these concerns have really never changed. They're always the same because it's home ownership we're talking about. So, what are the primary concerns that the customer is going to have? Well, number one is always going to be their payment. Can they afford the payment they're getting? Are they going to get enough reduction if it's a refinance to put them in a comfortable situation? They're always coming to you with that initial concern. Well, I hate to say this to you, but because they're coming to you with a payment concern, they probably also have a rate concern. It's always been interesting to me that as rates drop, consumers actually get more rate-sensitive instead of less, which is the opposite of what you would normally think it would be, but that's because they're trying to drive to get to the lowest they can. It becomes somewhat of a pride issue, a little bit of an ego issue, a little bit of a competitive issue. The bottom line is they're trying to drive to get low rates. They're concerned about what they're going to pay and they're concerned about the payment they're going to have. But, here's really where a lot of their concerns fall into is their liquidity. It's really important you understand that in high-volume markets, there's something happening to drive that high volume and that something is probably driving liquidity concerns. Maybe there's changes in stock market prices. Maybe they've had issues with challenges for debt or for things that have affected their financial situation. You want to make sure you're addressing how you can help them through this loan to build better cash liquidity. And people always have a concern about their debt. Everybody's concerned about bringing on more debt. Your job is to show them how to get them out of debt faster. And that means really focusing on term reduction, not term extension. And then lastly, the last thing I find that's common is a concern about what property values are going to do. And we know that, having been this many years in the business, that whether values are going up or values are going down, there's benefits on both sides. Values are going up? Then you want to buy quick. You want to take advantage of that. You want to use your equity to refinance if you have low cash liquidity. If values are going down, you want to make sure that you get ahold of a home that you can now take advantage of when that upswing comes back in. So, there's opportunities on both sides of that. The bottom line is there's really three things customers are looking for Jake, and only three that I've ever found, and that's stability, security, and savings. And stability comes from building equity and building wealth—through people's equity—and providing them with that fixed-payment advantage of a mortgage loan. Security comes from getting an affordable payment with cash liquidity to build reserves. And savings comes from the low payments, tax benefits that may come with a mortgage transaction, which by the way you want to tell them to talk to their tax advisor about. And any other ways they can save money. These are the things that build a strong connection between you and your borrower.
Jake Vermillion	Dale, any parting thoughts on this topic?
Dale Vermillion	You know, the key I would say is this: that in a marketplace where you're in a high-volume market, it is so important to understand that you've got to really leverage good communication with your customers. You've got to make sure that you establish strong communication up-front. If you can do visual communication versus just verbal communication, that's a big plus. And then make sure that you constantly stay in contact with your customers throughout the process, because look, you're going to quell their concerns on the front-end if you do it right. But, you know what, when they have that phone, they're going to start thinking about these things again, you want to over-communicate to some extent, to stay in contact with that customer all the way to funding so that you make sure you maintain that connection, you maintain that relationship, and you keep them comfortable about the transaction they're doing with you.
Jake Vermillion	Don't forget to complete today's skill challenge by discussing how a mortgage can provide stability, security, and savings with a prospective borrower. And then let us know how different your day feels by clicking on the feedback link in the show description. Coming up next, Prioritizing your leads (to sell early and often).