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THE MODERN LENDING
PLAYBOOK A Retail Loan Consultant's Guide to Leveraging Digital Disruption, Developing Business AND Scaling Influence.
04
Referral Partners
MODULE
In this module, you will learn how to develop a repeatable, consistent, and dynamic prospecting strategy centered on building relationships, establishing trust, growing your referral business and gaining new partnerships.
Audit Your Referral Partner Efforts Food For Thought
DID you KNOW? Buyers typically search for 10 weeks and look at a median of 10 homes. The length of the home search was the longest for buyers 37 to 51 years at 12 weeks.*
Analyze Current Partnerships How many realtors do you currently work with on a consistent basis? How many leads are you generating from your current referral partners monthly? ow many deals did you close in 2018 that were directly attributed to referrals from real estate agents H and builders you currently work with? How much business is being done by agents in your marketplace that you are not currently working with? How could you potentially capture more of that business? Evaluate Current Practice (check all that you currently utilize) Monthly Mailers & e-Blasts
Digital Strategy
Face-to-Face Strategy
- Host Trainings
Business Meetings
- MSAs
Open House
- Referrals Sent Back
Co-Marketing
- Other Service Providers
Post-Closing
- Listing Yard Signs
Lead Management Strategy
- Cross-Qual Strategy
Social Media
*https://www.nar.realtor/sites/default/files/reports/2017/2017-home-buyer-and-seller-generational-trends-03-07-2017.pdf
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10 Referral Partner Strategies Below you will find ten specific referral partner strategies to deploy in order to dominate your market. They are designed to build on each other and operate congruently. You are encouraged to pick and choose different strategies that work for you.
1. Digital Marketing & Social Media This strategy is centered on building digital connections to those in your network, establishing a surround sound marketing effect. The key here is to not over engage, but maintain delivery of consistent, valuable content to your audience. See Module #2: Digital Marketing
Identify + Connect
Build your digital audience by connecting with prospects that you are working with on your social media channels. We have constant events happening in our lives that make for great content on social and digital channels.
Engage
Here are some examples to consider below: Important Life Events (ILE)
Important Business Events (IBE)
An effective way to make your digital connections more
personal!
What better way to announce, welcome or congratulate the arrival of a new baby or a new pet to the family than with loanDepot and melloTM branded gear?! loanDepot Pet Collar mello Infant Creeper
Generally, people enjoy seeing other people succeed and people who succeed are generally surrounded by successful people. Consider recording a brief video of a surprise visit to someone’s office or desk. Congratulate them on a promotion or for a job well done (don’t forget the balloons and noisemakers!). This would make for great social content to promote your team culture and success.
ASSESSMENT What are upcoming life or business events YOU could create content for and share with your audience?
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2. Face-to-Face (F2F) A face-to-face strategy is foundationally built on consistency and discipline. It’s a set of repeating activities with the simple objective of getting you face-to-face with the targeted prospect group to develop, influence and gain trust through rapport and relationship building. RELATIONSHIP BUILDING
Phase 1: Get to Know Me Before you can get here:
PRO TIP: Do some research. You need to get here:
This is a rapport and relationship building phase and should never involve “selling” of products or services. A potential referral partner should know you, like you and, finally, trust you before you sell them anything you have to offer from a business standpoint.
Check out the individual’s social channels and digital profiles before reaching out or setting a meeting so you can understand who they are. Gather some general personal and professional topics from this preliminary research to help establish similarities and common ground between the two of you.
Move to Phase 2: You are likely out of this phase if you walk into an open house and the agent actually remembers your name.
RELATIONSHIP BUILDING
Phase 2: Offer Value This is when it becomes appropriate to begin offering things of value. This phase will help you identify how much trust you have with your prospect. Start with simple scripts offering financing flyers, bottled water at open houses, single property websites to help further promote their listings. Note how they respond. If they give you a hard no, chances are you need to build more rapport and trust. Here’s an example of a “pitch script” you can customize based on the level of rapport you have with a prospective referral partner:
Be Bold! Send a note to realtors with links to marketing material and simply say:
"Hey, congrats on your listing. I wanted to be bold and go ahead and create some marketing for your listing to try and help you sell that home. Check out this website: (insert link and attach fliers)
Click to view sample materials
3465 COUNTY ROAD 44 MINNETRISTA, MN 55364 Pass through the majestic 15-foot castle gate entry, and begin walking on cobblestones said to be walked on by President Lincoln and others over 150 years ago. The Hawks Nest Castle located on the shores of famous Lake Minnetonka- the home of Purple Rain & Tonka Toys. Inspired by a 1789 English manor, the estate, built in 1989, includes the latest technology, with infloor heat, commercial air conditioning with 40 zones, and elaborate security systems. Over 22,000 feet of spectacular interior.
Angela Realtor Realtor 568-987-9999 office 508-987-0000 cell 12345 Executive Drive, Suite 3022 Minneapolis, MN 55346 brian.walerius@yahoo.com totalexpertinc.com License: 01031979 Program Name
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John P. Publictest NMLS# 10100 Senior Loan OfficerTestinglong 555.555.5555 office 333.333.3333 cell 6321 Bury Dr Suite 15, Suite 3000 Eden Prairie, MN 55346 jpublic@loandepot.com jpublictestingwebsite.loandepot.com
loanDepot.com, LLC. NMLS #174457 (www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org). Residential Mortgage originator License No. MN-MO-40203037. This is not an offer to enter into an agreement. Any such offer may only be made in accordance with the requirements of Minn. Stat. § 47.206 (3)&(4). For more licensing, please visit www.loanDepot.com/licensing.
Congrats and good luck!"
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RELATIONSHIP BUILDING
Phase 3: Trust Me This phase truly begins if the potential partner will take a meeting with you to discuss a partnership. They may take things of value from you before this occurs, but an established goal of yours should be to set an appointment and have a sit down business meeting to discuss how to become actual partners in real estate. Thank them or add value to their business.
3. Monthly Intentional Contact (MIC) Establish an appropriate monthly marketing effort which should happen 1x a month, and vary from digital (email), social, and direct mail content including a personal approach to promote your strategy and brand. Create twelve touchpoints for the entire year but allow for flexibility of market demands change. Click Here to Download the MIC Strategy Template for Referral Partners!
Sample Monthly Strategy MONTH 1:
MONTH 2:
MONTH 3:
MONTH 4:
eFlyer about you and loanDepot
Direct mailer to their office about you
Video Message via email or social
Open House Survival Kit delivered
(FedEx, or signature required makes an impact)
View Job Aid
Also include “About Me” flyer MONTH 5
MONTH 6:
MONTH 7:
MONTH 8:
Funsy - Tchotchke mailer
Introducing mello™Marketing suite of marketing tools via email
Personalized Sly Dial (TOOL)
Share a Mortgage Coach TCA
(i.e. Double sided coin Throw me a bone)
Example 1 Example 2 Example 3
View Video
View Job Aid
MONTH 9
MONTH 10:
MONTH 11:
MONTH 12:
Invitation to a customer appreciation networking and cocktail event
Share a useful application of Business Tips
Thankfulness campaign for the month of November
Share your business plan and strategies for next year
View Invitation Template
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4. Leveraging the “Other” Agent Many of your transactions will contain an “other” agent – the one who did not refer you the customer and who you may not have an established partnership with. Since this will likely happen often, you need a systemic approach that leverages your success and performance to gain an appointment with the “other” agent.
PRO TIP:
Here are a few things to make sure you are doing on every deal to engage the “other” agent:
This is typically the listing agent, but if you work with home builders it will likely be the buyer’s agent.
1. Perform an exemplary job communicating with the other agent throughout the transaction. 2. Setup the pitch opportunity by asking for an appointment IF you can impress them with your performance. 3. Remind them of their agreement to this appointment at 1-2 other times throughout the transaction. 4. Add them into your CRM and include them in your F2F and MIC strategy as appropriate by levels of production. 5. Have a scripted post-closing appointment setting process built into the CRM task management system.
5. Setting Appointments A successful appointment strategy comes off the efforts of the MIC, F2F, and “other” Agent strategies. A successful goal would be to set a minimum of four (4) face-to-face appointments per month with your prospect list. Instead of following old tactics of sitting down with agents without an end goal in mind, shift your focus on providing a specific solution to a real problem they are experiencing. Example: "I noticed you have a property that can allow customers to buy it with 0% down. I have several down payment assistance programs that can help you put it in front of more buyers and get it off the market sooner."
6. Invites and Events Expanding your local marketing strategies to include your agents is an extremely compelling opportunity. These should include: •F irst-time Homebuyer, VA Benefits, Down Payment Assistance, Credit Education, Past and Current Customer Appreciation Events •L everage your local Association of Realtors events and use those to invite your targeted prospect list if you are not hosting your own events See Module #3: Local Marketing
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7. mellohome In partnership with your Branch Manager, you should have a dedicated prospecting plan for realtors (within the mellohome network) who are not currently committed to a local Loan Consultant. • I dentify and get “aligned” to as many mellohome agents in the network as you can •P erform monthly tracking via CRM of leads sent to your agents from you or direct •P erform regularly scheduled meetings to discuss mellohome (as applicable) and to work on developing other business with the agent as well • Leverage and develop a Team MSA if appropriate with the mellohome agent mellohome eBook – Prosper in the Face of Disruption Agent to Agent
8. Ask an Agent Create a quarterly strategy to leverage existing referral partners to set appointments with new agents. Use the CRM as a planning tool and build in automatic tasks that prompt you to reach out. Have a predetermined script and either ask for general help in meeting new agents or get very tactical and specifically ask your current partners if they can introduce you directly to a top 1% agent.
9. loanDepot CONNECT Nothing beats building relationships like working together in the same space. With the rise of the “virtual” realtor who never comes into an office this strategy may be misinterpreted as irrelevant, but financial contributions to the eco-system of top referral partners never go out of style. MSAs, Team MSAs and Desk Rentals continue to serve as a viable strategy to cultivate such relationships. Work directly with your manager and compliance on sourcing and setting up ABA relationships like these but never underestimate the power of financial partnerships, especially if they are directly with the Top Producing Team and not with the Broker.
10. Lead Manager Master As more agents aggregate digital leads instead of door knocking, using melloTM CRM & Marketing you are a perfect complement to their efforts. Realtors are true lead aggregators you should leverage and align with to grow your business. Having a demonstrable ability to help them foster, manage, and convert leads is an effective strategy to earning their business and their leads. Combine this with the lead management module skillset, the ability to send leads back to them via DPLP and mellohome, along with access to the lead pool and you’ve now become a truly valuable partner.
See Module #5: Lead Management
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