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Think Critically, Think BIG
In any profession, continued endeavor or activity we can fall prey to complacency which I would personally define as a false sense of contentment when we can do so much better. In essence selling ourselves short. This is not to disregard that one should recall and account for their successes. But more to the point. How can we as reverse mortgage professionals break complacency and embrace the motto ‘question everything’? Well here are a few points to ponder.
#1- The adjustable rate product often a better choice? The previous popularity of the fixed rate mortgage may lurk in the minds of many but truthfully which is a better product for the consumer? Should one forgoe a lower loan balance, a growing line of credit or future tenure payments all in the fear of increasing interest rates? After all if interest rates increase the borrower sees no change except that their loan balance will grow more quickly.
#2- Ditch Your Canned Speech. Certainly their are some elements of our presentation we should retain when speaking with loan officers reviving transactions or receiving….
7 Comments
Shannon,
Good presentation as usual. I agree with you 100% to throw away that canned pitch, good opening.
A loan officer must do before anything is build trust between themselves and the prospective clients. I can’t emphasize the word TRUST enough!
You are right, we have a new year ahead of us with many changes and challenges facing us and our seniors. We need to be questioning these changes and what we are hearing about them, we must educate ourselves more than ever in order to be successful in this day of age.
Coming out of the gate with the prospective senior/client is to build that trust immediately and then uncover their need. Quickly capitalize on both once you have accomplished those two most important foundation builders!
From that point on it is building the relationship up to closing the sale professionally.
To many times we have a tendency of trying to sell the product first off rather than selling the concept. Find the need of the senior and building the trust between you and your senior client is what it is all about!
2014 will be a different year, seniors are going to be more confused with the changes and we have to be the one’s to have the patients to guide them through the process. We have a lot of opportunities in 2014, we only need to recognize them and grab hold of them!!
Job well done Shannon.
John A. Smaldone
John,
Good emphasis.
Trying to explain how a HECM works has not been full of so many pits as it is today. Whoever said HECMs are now easier to explain never has tried to originate one.
The problem with so many “experts” is that most are not. Only those of us who have sat across the kitchen table, a dinning room table, or a desk from a senior as their face goes blank know how difficult it is for seniors to comprehend the details of this product. Most of the time counselors have it easy since we have generally gotten prospects over the tough hurdles by the time that they have counseling. That is not to say counseling never runs into what we experience but generally it is not as bad or frequent as when we are first presenting this product.
John and Shannon, I hope as two find out more information about the changes, you two will keep us informed.
Have a great weekend.
Cynic,
I appreciate your compliment and your point of view as usual, you are great. Happy New Year and you make it a great weekend as well.
John A. Smaldone
Realistic optimism and realistic pessimism are both oxymorons. We need a realistically positive outlook, one which sees, recognizes, and learns from problems, setbacks, and losses but seeks out and emphasizes positive results.
In the midst of industry endorsement setbacks, there is a silver lining we can latch onto, if we want. I do not subscribe to the party line that recent HECM changes are positive at all except to the extent they have forced me to look at how to originate to the other 98% and that they mean a better MMI Fund picture for the future.
You are right about canned speeches. Today I was helping a loan officer with a presentation she is making to some wealth managers. I threw out much of the canned speech our lender suggested. It focused far too much on the negative rather than on compliance. We can tell listeners about compliance issues without hammering the same things again and again such as paying taxes and insurance; that is something we do with borrowers. We can talk about HECMs without even discussing reverse mortgages or the less than favorable changes HUD has done to HECMs. And, yes, we need to say in each speech that HECMs are a great product but they are not necessarily for everyone.
While our opportunities have changed, they are still opportunities.
Very interesting. Do you have a transcript of the webinar about asking the right questions. If you do, is it available to us. Thank you.
Jonathan,
We most certainly do. Below is the link to our webinar replay library which includes a PDF of the slides and full video replay. All of our paid members can access this. If you need you can upgrade to access.
https://www.reversefocus.com/user/webinars.php
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