Submitting complete files (for faster processing and underwriting)

Jake Vermillion	Welcome to Up-Market Sales Success, a series designed to help U.S. Bank 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 we are incredibly excited to bring this powerful offering to U.S. Bank thanks to Beth Ryan, Todd McFadden, and the entire executive team. Let's dive into the topic at hand, Submitting complete files (for faster processing and underwriting), with Dale Vermillion. Hi Dale!
Dale Vermillion	Hi Jake!
Jake Vermillion	In this installment, we want to explore how to prevent back-end issues and build a positive reputation with our operations team members by submitting complete files. Now, look, I don't think any loan officer says to themselves, "I want to be known for submitting crummy files!" But, we see a lot of loan officers become focused more on the quantity of the apps submitted versus the quality of apps submitted. So Dale, in today's world—and with the busyness of high-volume markets—how can loan officers submit complete applications efficiently?
Dale Vermillion	Well, the key to this entire process is understanding that when we say "complete," we mean complete. Look, it's the age old mindset that, "garbage in, garbage out," "great stuff in, great stuff out." You are trying to tell a story to your operations team when you take an application. That story is not just the facts that you fill in and an application that tell them about, you know, the income and the credit and their history and their equity and all of those things. But, it's making sure that you're filling in the back pieces to that too. So, it's not just "Okay, I've got the bare minimum of two years of income and that's what I need. I'm going to report that," but give the story to your team. If you can get 10 years of previous jobs, get them. The more information you can give to your operations team, to your underwriters, to your processors, the less likely they're going to bounce that file back to you. So, as we talk about being efficient, I always want to remind you that the key here is to be urgent without rushing. Very, very important that we understand that—that we're not rushing through the application. We're urgent to complete the application, we have high intent, but we're going to focus on completion because the more complete the application is the less times you're going to touch it and the better job that your team can do on the backside. Remember, I've said it many times that a great processor can process a bad file, but a bad processor can process a great file. So you got to understand if it's a great file for everybody, everybody can process that! You may not control what processor or what individual is handling your files, if you complete a file and you do it right, and you fill in all the boxes, and you get all of the information, and you get all of the attachments, and you make sure that you're verifying those things, you're going to see great results.
Jake Vermillion	So, speaking with one of our partners just the other day about this sales-operations relationship, a truism kept rising to the surface, which is that: as a loan officer, your reputation proceeds. So, I just wanted to ask you how can submitting quality applications affect a loan officer's reputation amongst his operation team members, and how can loan officers use both the quality of their work and the tenor of their intra-company communications to build powerful working relationships with back-end staff?
Dale Vermillion	It's really important for every loan officer to understand this: that you build your reputation with the internal team based on your quality and your completeness. And it's just that it's a reputation. If people know that you're that person that doesn't provide complete files, that doesn't give all of the informationthat's hard to work with, when it gets down to the end you're the one who's going to have your hair on fire, and you're going to start getting rough with your colleagues, and start sending those snarky emails. Look, they're going to shy away from your files. They don't increase their desire and motivation to work on a file with somebody who's hard to work with, they decrease. What you want to do is just the opposite of that. You want to make sure that you remember that you'regoing to attract a lot more bees with honey than with vinegar. And you want to make sure that first you're establishing relationships with all of your internal team, that you're kind to them in every opportunity you can be, that you're understanding empathetic and forgiving when things happen, and work with them. Look, don't be afraid to educate your operations partners so that you can show them how to do things the right way and the way that you like to have things done so that they can start to emulate that going forward. And absolutely to the point you made Jake, if you're producing good, complete, high-quality, highly-committed borrowers ithl full documentation every time—which is what we should be doing—you're going to get the reputation for that, and the ops team is going to be wanting to work on your file first and foremost. You're going to get yourself through the system quicker. Not only that, but remember you'll also build a reputation with your colleagues. Not just with the operations team, but other loan officers too. If they know that you're putting in files that are incomplete, files that are messy, files that have problems, files that have a lot of issues, you're slowing down their files too. So, as a good team member, you want to make sure you're holding your weight to provide high-quality files. You're treating everybody kind, you're compassionate and understanding you communicate well. Don't be afraid to bring in donuts when it makes sense. Don't be afraid to send cards, and gifts, and thank you notes, and all of those things. These are all powerful things to do because you're trying to work as a team.
Jake Vermillion	Dale, any parting thoughts on this topic?
Dale Vermillion	Yeah, I'm going to close with John Wooden's quote that says, if you don't have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over? You know, I've said many, many times, "If you can't get it right the first time, where are you going to find time to do it right the second time?" We've got to make sure that we understand that the best time to get things done right is the first time. The less touches you get on the file the better off you are. High-quality, high-completion is the key to all of that.
Jake Vermillion	Don't forget to complete today's Skill Challenge by submitting a complete file with detailed notes for your processor and underwriter. And then let us know how it felt setting your team members up for success by clicking the feedback link in the show description. Coming up next, Setting clear expectations (with customers and partners).