Once there was a loan officer, who marketed his services to some Realtors. His story went something like this...

...One day he invited an agent to lunch. During the course of the meal, the loan officer told the agent every reason why they should do business together.

By the time they had finished, the loan officer convinced the agent to use his services. At first the agent was reluctent, but eventually acquiesced when they saw the loan officer pick up the lunch tab.

A week later the agent referred a buyer to him. Unfortunately the transaction didn't go smoothly. Although there were several meaningful reasons, the agent didn't want to hear it, and instead, became upset, really upset.

The transaction finally closed, albeit a week after the initial close of escrow. The agent was so disgusted by this, they told the loan officer that theyd never refer another buyer to him again.

It Doesn't Have To Be That Way

Loan officers tell stories like this frequently. In fact, some loan officers refuse to pursue real estate agents because theyve developed an unfortunate perception - a negative one. Either way, the perception was created from their own personal experiences or they listened to too many loan officers describe their horrific stories.

Dont let a bad past experience ruin your enthusiasm to partner with agents. Dont allow what other loan officers have said negatively about agents to interfere with your beliefs. The greatest source of purchase transactions that occur daily are with residential real estate agents. You cant ignore it. If you do, you're forfeiting too much earning potential.

The Power Of Choice

You have something going for you thats extremely important when dealing with agents, they need you more than you need them.

See, you can earn income from generating loans from many sources of business. An agent cant. For a purchase transaction to be completed, an agent needs you to handle the mortgage financing, unless of course, it's a cash sale, but how often does that happen!

This isnt meant to give you a sudden ego trip. Its meant to point out the obvious when dealing with agents. You have the power of choice. You get to decide which agents your marketing will attract.

Many Go About Marketing to Agents Wrong

Like a manager hiring a candidate for a job position, you're hiring agents to become your strategic partner. However, like managers who make poor hiring decisions, so can loan officers selecting agents.

To prevent this from happening, what if when you choose an agent as your strategic partner, you implemented the best practices that are used to hire good employees? For example, if you were given the task to hire a secretary, the first thing you would do is put together a list of criteria that the applicant would need to meet. Then you would hold an interview, sometimes several. And finally, you would conduct some background and reference checks before deciding to offer one of the candidates a position.

Its not that much different when selecting agents. Why waste your time with unqualified agents? You begin with criteria they must meet before having an interview. So when you meet to explore the possibilities of working together, you're speaking with candidates who match your targeted audience.

3 Elements of Criteria

If you agree with the concept of targeting the agents you want to attract to your business, than your first step is to develop some basic criteria that you can use as a baseline for your selection process. Criteria that you can use to instantly screen agents, so youre only pursuing ones that meet your profile.

Evaluation and criteria is easy to determine. For instance, there's statistical data you'll use to evaluate prospects, called agent demographics. Some examples include:

- Do you prefer working with part time or full time agents?

- What type of buyers does the agent work with?

- What type of loan programs does the agents buyer use most frequently?

You typically have two objectives in this regard:

- To determine what segments or subgroups exist in the overall Agent population.

- To create a clear and complete picture of the characteristics of a typical Agent of each of these segments.

Next, you'll want to attract people who are a lot like you. Doesn't it make sense if you're going to be spending time and great deal of energy working with particular agents that it's with people you enjoy and like?

The four-quadrant behavioral profile, DiSC, provides a better understanding of yourself and others. Personal and professional success requires understanding people's model of the world, and realizing the impact of your personal behavior on others.

What is the DiSC Learning Model?

It's a nonjudgmental tool for understanding behavioral types and styles. It provides a tool to help people explore behavior across four primary dimensions:

DOMINANCE
Direct & Decisive. Their focus tends to be on the bottom line and results.

INFLUENCE
Optimistic & Outgoing. They prefer participating on teams, sharing ideas, and entertaining and energizing others.

STEADINESS
Sympathetic & Cooperative. They prefer being behind the scene, working in consistent and predictable ways.

COMPLIANT
Concerned & Correct. They plan ahead, are constantly check for accuracy, and build systematic approaches.

In prospecting, you'll be more effective if you understand the different types of communication styles that work best for each. Some prospects are going to want all of the facts and supporting data and may take a long time to make a decision to move forward. Others will want to know how your service will benefit their team or organization and may even make a decision without hearing an entire presentation.

When dealing with demanding situations, loan officers need to be able to adapt their communication style to match the prospect's communication needs. After all, the golden rule has changed to, "Treat others how THEY want to be treated."

Finally, the most overlooked area and reason why loan officers experience so much grief working with agents is because of values. Loan officers are eager to transact business with Agents and commonly overlook if their values are similar or not.

Have you ever had an agent ask you to cut your commission for no apparent reason? Not learning about an agent's values early in the relationship building process and sometimes lead to disaster, misunderstanding and consequences. Values include, but certainly arent limited to:

- Are they honest?

- Do they have integrity?

- Are they empathetic, especially when everything isn't going smoothly, like a loan not closing on time?

People are creatures of habit and the best predictors of future behavior are the ones demonstrated in the past. If you want to learn about an Agent's values, ask them about past experiences dealing with other loan officers. Listen for stories that get repeated, but with different loan officers. Although there are two sides to every story, when you develop a perception, it most often leads to reality.

Remember, if it walks like a duck, talks like a duck and acts like a duckit must be a duck!