Your Greatest Asset Is Your Contact Database

Your Greatest Asset Is Your Contact Database

There’s no need to spend more; use your tools wisely

BY ADAM SMITH, SPECIAL TO NATIONAL MORTGAGE PROFESSIONAL

As a loan originator, you only have one job. Do you know what it is? Nope. That’s not it. I could give you another guess or two but I’ll just tell you. Generating leads.

Generating leads is your only job. That’s the only thing you have to do. Originating loans means just that. Originating. Once a loan has been originated, your job is done and you only need to focus on originating more loans.

The job title isn’t pay stub chaser or closing scheduler. The job is going out and generating more leads. Originating more loans.

Just The Tips Coaching is focused on exactly that: lead generation. We are not life coaches. We’re not going to make you better lovers. We’re not even going to help you become better negotiators or closers.

You can generate more leads without spending any more money than you already are on crap you don’t need. You don’t need a fancy CRM. You don’t need to be running paid ads on Facebook. You don’t need to be shelling out cash for complicated funnels. And you certainly don’t need to be sending out mailers and putting you picture on grocery carts. You need to be building and furthering relationships and get to a repeat and referral business that still grows, even if you decide to disappear for a month.

I’m hoping you already know that your greatest asset is your contact database. I don’t care what your business owns: this is more valuable. You need to treat it as such. You need to nurture it and grow it. You need to pay attention to it and maintain it. This is a crucial piece of everything you need to do in your lead generation going forward. I think my contact database is currently about 12,000, maybe more.

Start to focus on your contact management. The contact database doesn’t do you any good if you’re not staying in front of those people and have contact management systems in place. You need to be contacting these people. You need to call them, text them, email them, ping them on social media, and so on to ensure you are staying in from of them. We touch those 12,000 people about 40 times a year, each.

You need to be building and furthering relationships and get to a repeat and referral business that still grows, even if you decide to disappear for a month.

TAKE ADVANTAGE

What about your email and texting? Are you using it to your advantage? You’re paying for it, one way or another, so you’d better. And what about your email signature file? Is that sculpted in a way that helps you generate even more leads? It should be. Did you know you could have a text signature file? Yeah, you can.

And you know you need to be using more social media. You need to be using Facebook and Instagram and LinkedIn and Twitter and on and on. You need to work on your profiles. You need to work on your assets. You need to work on your content. You need to work on all of it and eventually you need to pay someone else to do it.

MORE THAN KIDS

Facebook is a great tool when you use it properly but we’re not just posting pictures of our kids here. We’re using the algorithm to our advantage and improving our edge rank with every post. We’re making sure our profile info is top-notch. And we’re focusing on our business page being active.

We’re being intentional about what and when and why we post. And we’re using groups. And messenger. And live video. And all the other tools that affect that algorithm and improve our edge rank so more people see more of our stuff and generate more leads.

Instagram is another great tool for generating leads on social media. It isn’t just for the Instagram models, but be one of those if you want as well. But your wall, your stories, Instagram TV, and threads are all important tools in lead generation. You didn’t even know about threads, did you?

HOOKED UP

LinkedIn is the epitome of business social media and you need to be using it. Did you know Google and LinkedIn are in bed together? Like, they’ve done real estate deals together, in bed together. Do you know how popular LinkedIn is in Google searches? Do you know what happens when someone refers you, that person Googles you, your LinkedIn profile comes up - and it sucks?

And how about Twitter? Do you know that this is still the premier social media platform to find out what is going on with other social media platforms? And that this is the premier social media platform to make initial connections with people you want as advocates? Well, it is. And you need to be learning how to use it and why to use it.

HUGE DEMAND

Do you have a YouTube channel? Are you putting regular video content there? Because video is huge. Really huge. It may be one of the most important things in lead generation today so you need to be using YouTube.

And how is your tech? Are you using every solid and available app to help make you more productive and minimize your brain damage?

What do your campaigns look like? Do you do snail mail? Sending out some awful postcards for a free muffin, are we? Well, how about email, and text and voice mail campaigns? Those are things that people pay attention to instead of your boring mailer finding its way into my waste basket.

And are you getting business from your referral partners? You know, the car sales guy, his finance guy, the hairdresser, the jeweler, the florist, the landscaper and a thousand others. Do you know the psychological triggers in people’s lives that make these people invaluable to being eyes and ears in the world for you?

WRITING

And how about doing somewriting? Yup, just like this. Are youcontributing to industry publications?How about writing a book? Yeah,we did that too. Writing and gettingpublished is huge for your credibilityand for getting recognized.

And finally, how is your team structure? Do you know how to hire? How to maintain your company culture? How to do personality profiles? How to determine who is going to do what tasks? Do you want to be able to disappear for a month someday while your business grows? So, whether you’re looking to go from 20 deals a year to 50 or from 50to a 100 or if you want to build a team that does hundreds of deals a year while you step aside and watch, or even insert yourself into your business where you want and when you want, then Just The Tips Coaching can help you if you come to the “Your FirstMillion Dollars” program at OriginatorConnect in Las Vegas on Thursday, Aug. 20 at 1:45 p.m.

Spend just 15 minutes with us during this program. Whether you want to get your first million, or get to millions and millions, we’ll help you do just that.

Adam P. Smith is the founder, owner, andhead coach at Just The Tips Coaching.