Handling major loan changes (to avoid losing customers)

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 the topic at hand, Handling major loan changes (to avoid losing customers), with Dale Vermillion. Hi Dale.
Dale Vermillion	Hey Jake, how are you?
Jake Vermillion	Last installment, we discussed some really powerful strategies for resolving conflicts with customers, which can arise from just about anything. In this installment, we want to specifically address post-sale changes to the loan that could unravel a deal—the big stuff, in other words. Dale, is there a specific process you would recommend loan officers use when working through changes that affect the final loan offer for a customer in a high-volume market?
Dale Vermillion	Well, as you probably can guess I would say the answer is yes, Jake. Here's the number one thing that I want you to focus on, okay? So, you're getting to the end of the game, you've been through weeks of this, and something has changed in this deal that really changes the loan for the customer. You have to start with the good news when you make that phone call. Look, at this point, you're basically having to resell your deal all over again. You need to understand that. I think a lot of times what happens is we're so worn out by this point that it's like we're at our point of frustration and we will call the customer and go, "I can't believe it, but this just happened." And you know what? That's never going to lead to a good result because misery loves company as the old saying goes, and you've just created that. What you need to do is when you have these changes, and you're ready to call back and finalize this deal, is you've got to put your very best foot forward, your most positive mindset forward, and you've got to find the good in the dirt right here. You've got to find the silver lining every time. So, I want you to begin with, "Hey Mr. Jones/Mrs. Jones, I got great news. We got our final clear to close on this. We are ready to go. This loan is going to do so many great things for you. Let me walk you through the final details." Notice there. I never hinted to anything negative. And then once I get through that, and then I say, "Okay, now there's been a few changes that are going to fundamentally affect the loan the way we've been looking at it. But let me explain to you what they are, and why they happen, and what we've done to correct those." So, you walk them through that process of making sure that you are explaining that. Don't just say your appraisal came in low, or this happened, but help them understand that these things do happen and always close it out by saying, "But this is still a great, great, great loan for you." We call this the sandwich principle. You're going to start in with good news, "We got you ready for close." Then I'm gonna move into the bad news, "Okay, here's what changed." But then I'm going to close with the good news, "That's a great loan for you." So, I'm opening and ending—I'm bookending—that concerning information with positivity. It is gonna help you get a lot more customers feeling better about closing their loan.
Jake Vermillion	So Dale, this is one of those areas where I think salesmanship really shines. As a sales expert, I'm just curious to know what are some special tips and tricks that you have for communicating with the customer about final loan changes to tie those changes back to the initial benefits that you presented to them at the beginning of your relationship with that borrower?
Dale Vermillion	Yeah, that's a really important point, Jake. And here's the key is you want to make sure that you are focusing your customers on the big picture. We tend to focus on the small picture a lot of times. We tend to focus on the negatives versus the positives in things. So, when you go through this, keep bringing them back to say, "Look, we are still accomplishing the majority of those goals for you. And although it may not have been everything we'd hoped for on the front end, we knew there was chances and risks that could happen, but let's just focus on all of the goals we're accomplishing for you. All of the things that are going to come out of this that are good for you..." And if you can get them to that mindset, what's going to happen is it's going to make them feel better about it. And remind them, "Look, I'm going to be calling you every year on your loaniversary. I'm going to be checking in with you, looking at what the market's doing. And you know what? We might find that a year from now I can bring you back in and we can do the rest of the things we couldn't do today. But man, this loan right now is a great loan for you guys based where you're at." Your positivity, and your bringing them back to the big picture, is going to make all the difference.
Jake Vermillion	Any parting thoughts on this topic Dale?
Dale Vermillion	So, let me share a quick analogy that I've used with a lot of people that they seem to get a kick out of it, but it really does apply to this. It's the analogy of the elephant and the fly. Years ago I was on a missions trip in Africa. We actually got to go out and do a Safari. And we were sitting in this Jeep and we saw this whole herd of elephants and they went by these beautiful, magnificent animals. And the guy next to me says, "Hey, did you see that?" I said, "See what?" He said, "That elephant had a big old fly on its butt." And I laughed and said, "Wait a minute, you just saw one of the most beautiful, massive, majestic animals ever and all you saw was the fly?" You see, sometimes we see the fly and we miss the elephant. That's exactly what happens. We've got to get our customers looking at the elephant and realize the beauty of what we did and quit focusing on the fly. Okay? That fly's going away, that elephant's going to be around for a while.
Jake Vermillion	Don't forget to complete today's Skill Challenge by writing down a recent negative interaction with a borrower and then brainstorming ways you could have possibly handled this situation differently using the tips Dale shared in this installment. And then let us know how the process went, or how you were able to use Dale's tips to handle a hiccup effectively by clicking the feedback link in the show description. Coming up next, the final installment of the series, Earning ongoing business (from customers-for-life).