The Art of the Sale

ReverseTalk: E11: John Luddy

Norcom Mortgage’s John Luddy is a master of the art of selling at the kitchen table. We sat down with John for his advice on branding, active listening, and the art of the sale.

Editor in Chief: HECMWorld.com

As a prominent commentator and Editor in Chief at HECMWorld.com, Shannon Hicks has played a pivotal role in reshaping the conversation around reverse mortgages. His unique perspectives and deep understanding of the industry have not only educated countless readers but has also contributed to introducing practical strategies utilizing housing wealth with a reverse mortgage.

Shannon’s journey into the world of reverse mortgages began in 2002 as an originator and his prior work in the financial services industry. Shannon has been covering reverse mortgage news stories since 2008 when he launched the podcast HECMWorld Weekly. Later, in 2010 he began producing the weekly video series The Industry Leader Update and Friday’s Food for Thought.

Readers wishing to submit stories or interview requests can reach our team at: info@hecmworld.com.

1 Comment

The_Cynic
June 3, 2019 at 12:55 am
John brings a view of the HECM that is very relevant to the historic senior customer base who has long been the bedrock of our industry. His style suits the basic relationship of originator and senior prospect who is NOT a referral from a financial services provider, attorney, or Realtor. Referral based origination does not APPEAR to be at the forefront of his expertise. Many experienced and successful reverse mortgage originators are no different.

I have a friend in the industry much like John who rightfully is very strong about his ideas on how to originate successfully. He has managed the sales efforts at several lenders in both forward and reverse mortgages. Yet when discussing the differences between originating to referral source prospects and those who respond to originator marketing and advertising efforts alone, his advice, particularly on referral based prospects, gets all jumbled up. While he is very opinionated about how to gain referral source business, his emphasis starts in the right direction but quickly turns to the same advise for the prospects obtained from prospects who are not referred to the originator, i.e. obtaining from marketing and advertising alone.

While there is nothing wrong with John’s advice, it is marginally directed to referral sources and the resulting prospects. Yet successful approaches with even the prospects alone are much different. I have observed originators who successfully originate using referral sources only and how they conduct their businesses are very different from those who emphasize obtaining marketing and advertising based prospects.

So I encourage John to present in detail his approach on achieving success with a referral source based business versus gaining success with a marketing and advertising based approach to acquiring prospects. Some are terrified about presenting to referral sources and what groups they should be emphasizing. John’s approach may improve the chances of gaining prospects from referral sources? If indeed, John made a detailed explanation of referral source business and its nuances, I am not aware of it at least the last five years or so.

However, if John believes that the approach to all prospects should differ little, then that would be valuable information as well.
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