Savage Insights

See How Brian Kludt Uncovered a Loan Opportunity That 9 out of 10 Loan Officers Would Have Missed

This example is representative of the situation most loan officers are finding themselves in every day in this marketplace. Interest rates haven’t dropped enough to make a rate & term refinance obvious, so some LOs don’t think there are any worthwhile re-fi opportunities.

But the attached video blows that theory out of the water. Brian Kludt had a client with a fixed rate equal to today’s fixed rates. Sounds like there’s no opportunity there, right? But using a creative approach, Brian uncovered a loan transaction that delivered obvious tangible benefits to the homeowner that most loan officers would have missed.

How did he do it? Just click here to watch this quick 4 minute video.

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS VIDEO:

• See how Brian dollarizes both the short- and long-term value, making the savings relevant to the client’s goals and needs;
• See how Brian wins over the client’s trust enough to get them to sign a rate lock agreement;
• See how Brian makes the value of his advice obvious to the borrower.

Most loan officers and homeowners wouldn’t even consider this transaction because the short-term savings are low. However, when you dollarize the long-term savings, that’s when you really see the tangible benefits, and know that the timing is right and the transaction creates value for the client.

Watch Brian Kludt’s 4 minute video to see for yourself:

Read the email in which Brian sent the video to his client after a brief phone call.

Hi Mark & Berna -

Thanks for submitting your Mortgage Plan Review questionnaire - Please watch the attached link for my analysis of your current situation: 

http://screencast.com/t/2W9WWGa9

I'd love to share this illustration with Alison Gilman, Julie Braden and Schan Taxes as you had indicated they are a part of your financial "wisdom counselors" team I'm sure they would like to add their input if need be- If you're cool with that let me know and I'd be happy to forward to each accordingly!

Have a great day

EASIER to use, MORE selling tools, MORE loans now - Major Upgrade to the MARKETING MACHINE

Introducing several new sales tools plus an improved user interface so you can create sales and marketing tools faster

Today we released 3 new sales tools in the Marketing Machine. Here is the blog post that has been posted on the Marketing Machine Blog.  In addition, I’ve created a video that walks people through the three new items, why they exist, how to use them and the new addition to the help sidebar.

Click below to watch a quick 4:22 video walking you through the new selling tools:  http://screencast.com/t/lwIHK2l2bv

	Forward Lock Letter We have integrated Jeremy Forcier’s most requested Mortgage under Management Agreement. This selling tool has been key to helping Jeremy close more than 12 loans every month this year.
	Equity Review Brochure We have integrated Dylan Kramer’s Annual Equity Review brochure. This selling tool has been the cornerstone of Dylan’s success over the years and has been critical to his success over the past few months. His biggest highlight in 2008 so far was his 50 closed loans in February.
	Client Advantage Brochure We have integrated Chik Quintan’s “Client Advantage Brochure” making it easier for you to explain your Mortgage under Management strategy to your clients and referral partners. Chik’s ability to create quality designs and marketing material has been the envy of everyone who knows him.

Your top two requests have been…

1. We want an improved user interface to make it easier to create sales tools
2. We want more turn-key sales templates from our favorite case studies

You asked for it – we listened.  We are excited to release a major upgrade to the Marketing Machine.

Thank you for being a member and we look forward to hearing your feedback and success stories. 

If you already have your password you can start using your new selling tools within minutes.  If you need a password to the Marketing Machine contact your Solution Coach at 800-951-2696.

Attention Sales Managers: The Marketing Machine gives you the power to make sure every presentation and proposal that goes out from your sales team meets your company’s standards.  If you would like us to be a guest at your next sales meeting, please let us know. 

Hear How Galel Fajardo Saves a Client $2,287 a Month and Then Helps Them Invest $1,000 Monthly for Their Future

One year ago, Galel Fajardo had no financial planner partners. Today, he’s not only got them, but he has them trained to pitch his services in a very specific way to their clients.

A loan officer from Costa Mesa, California, Fajardo has increased his business 25% since he began using Mortgage Coach 1 year ago. He credits the Equity Repositioning Analysis report with the opportunities he’s been given. “My financial services partners love it,” he says.

PROBLEM/SOLUTION:
A financial planner referred a couple who was knee-deep in debt after remodeling their home using credit cards. The client wanted to start saving for retirement but didn’t have any money to spare. In addition, they were stuck in an option ARM that was about to recast. The FP sent them to Galel.

Their monthly expenses were $5,940, of which about $1,400 was their current mortgage payment. Galel persuaded them to more than double their mortgage payment to $3,617. At first they thought he was crazy — but then he showed them on the ERA how they would actually be saving $2,287 per month. That convinced them that Galel’s recommendation was in their best interest. They also took half the savings and invested it with the financial planner, which secured his trust and loyalty for Galel.

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS CALL:

• Hear how he gets his clients’ approval to call on their financial planner;
• Hear the closing question he asks financial planners that wins their referral business every time;
• Hear how he trains financial planner partners to look for referral opportunities for him and then teaches them how to position his business to his clients;
• Understand how much time Galel spent in the initial discovery process with the client and what he focused on;
• This was a huge change in this client’s way of thinking; hear how Galel won their trust before even showing them a loan option;
• Hear the specific questions he asked to uncover their needs;
• Understand how and why he presented both short- and long-term savings options.

This is a must-listen-to call. This 20-minute conversation is chock full of great ideas that you can incorporate today. If you’ve got great ideas like Galel’s and would like to share them with your peers, email me at dsavage@mortgagecoach.com.

Click on the player below to listen to the conversation with Galel.

or you can download it here grab the 20Mb file here

Click here to access Galel’s PDF.

Click here to email Galel Fajardo

THANK YOU to Everyone Who Participated in my Video Experiment. It Was a Huge Success!

Now on to Step 2: Turning this experiment into a four-week PROJECT

First, I want to take this opportunity to give a special “thank you” to everyone who jumped through hoops to participate in this video experiment. I received 25 comments and 16 videos over a five day period - each one was unique, and each one delivered value to both a homeowner and referral partner, and each one taught us a unique way to use video as a powerful sales tool.

In my call for action last Monday, I had encouraged loan officers to create videos in three categories:

• One following up a client a.k.a. the borrower
• One presenting to a referral partner a.k.a. the Realtor, Financial Planner, etc
• A case study that could be watched by many, either clients or referral partners showcasing the value you create for clients

I have no idea who had the best video – I received so many great videos.  Below are some of my favorites.  Please comment on which one you think delivered the most valued to a homeowner or referral partner. 

If you are in the mortgage business you NEED to watch these video’s TODAY…they are some of the best examples of how to deliver value to a homeowner on the planet.  And best of all, every video is less than 4 minutes long…so there is no excuse not to watch them right away.

Below are a few of the best videos – sit back and enjoy

• Watch Scott Nicholson explain his seller buydown strategy to Realtors:
  http://www.screencast.com/users/scottnicholson1/folders/Jing/media/54ad683d-aacf-4289-8101-3d4a3756cf7b
• Watch Linda McKinley send a follow-up after a meeting with a financial planner yesterday:
  http://www.screencast.com/users/LMcKinley/folders/Jing/media/05bc7216-c1cd-4878-8c2b-8780d9c51a04
• Watch Chik Quintans follow-up with a client: http://www.screencast.com/users/ChikQuintans/folders/Jing/media/d762a1c6-131f-4c72-80c8-84973ccb0d4d
• Watch Dylan Kramer follow-up with a Realtor to explain his Mortgage under Management service: http://www.screencast.com/users/Dylan_Kramer/folders/Jing/media/778e7541-8b14-4547-ba24-e00442c459eb
• Watch Scott Nicholson presenting a maximized seller buydown to a borrower:
  http://www.screencast.com/users/Scottnicholson/folders/Jing/media/9ca2be57-44d2-4d4d-b2a4-c6e74a063b73
• Watch Linda McKinley explain a Rent vs. Own Analysis to a Realtor:
  http://www.screencast.com/users/LMcKinley/folders/Jing/media/11ebb957-1b34-49a0-bccb-158af393b399
• Watch Jonathan Klein explain his Divorce Plan: http://www.screencast.com/users/jkcdppi/folders/Jing/media/94663d38-71ae-4fa1-b0d8-dfcefb5aba1c
• Watch Linda McKinley give a referral and follow-up with a financial planner: http://www.screencast.com/users/LMcKinley/folders/Jing/media/b92fc875-3f58-4b1c-af53-582acc11104b
• Watch what I consider to my personal best video so far: http://www.screencast.com/users/dsavage/folders/Jing/media/e6739cf8-81d4-4799-91d9-b9ee74797c5e

I also want to give a special mention to our own Philip Garcia of our client services team for creating a really easy walkthrough of the Opportunity Optimizer. http://www.screencast.com/users/Azzriel12/folders/Jing/media/de5719e4-c922-4362-95fc-3bbb210f4efd

My goal with this experiment was to help loan officers easily incorporate a new tool into their day-to-day business that would give help them influence and educate their clients and partners.

This has been an extremely successful experiment in many ways. If you haven’t tried Jing yet, I encourage you to get on board today. The feedback to this has been so overwhelmingly positive that I’m turning this experiment into an official ongoing project.

Once a week for the next four weeks I will be showcasing some of the best video’s I receive from MC members. 

If you would like to participate in this video project please forward me your best video every single week. 

At the end of the month, I will report the results to MC members so that everyone can share and learn best practices from each other. 

To be part of this project as we roll it out, email me by checking here Dave Savage.

To review the videos from the initial experiment, click here.

To download Jing, click here.

To read my blog post that started this experiment, click here.

Please Help Me With an Experiment!

I’m conducting an experiment and would appreciate your help.

The experiment is this: I’ve discovered an easy-to-use FREE tool aka “Killer App” that can take your ability to educate and influence your clients and partners to the next level, and help you leverage yourself beyond imagination. It’s called the Jing Project, and it offers so much opportunity to loan officers that when I tried it a few days ago it absolutely “wowed” me!

It wowed me for several reasons:

1. Because it was so easy to learn how to create my first video;
2. Because it was even easier to actually share my new video via email; and
3. Because of the high quality of the actual video. 

My first video took me less than 25 minutes to create and that included the time it took to download the software, learn to use it and create three different versions of my first video. Here is the link to my very first video!

The Jing software records content on your computer screen and, in real time, follows and records movements you make, such as pointing with an arrow, circling important information, or filling in fields in a Mortgage Coach report.

I have three core ideas on how loan officers can leverage these simple videos:

• To create a customized proposal that a client would watch on their own time as you verbally and visually walk them through their personal MC report;
• To help you adopt more “mortgages under management” (MuM) by educating your clients so they will refer you to their friends and family. For instance, you could pull up a RateWatch Report and another favorite MC Report and then visually illustrate how your MuM program works through a call to action at the end requesting referrals to friends and family members who can benefit from your MuM program;
• And for my favorite idea of all, you could create a monthly case study video for your referral partners. By highlighting your favorite success story of the month, for example, you would pull up the specific MC report you used and then tell the story of how you help the client while giving your current client a guided tour of the MC report. The power of this strategy has many layers:
  1. It would deliver evidence of your success;
  2. It would educate your partners about the value of your advice;
  3. It would teach referral partners how to refer business to you and what to keep an eye out for;
  4. It would provide you with the leverage of creating one perfect case study story and then enable you to forward it to all your best referral partners.   

Now that you’ve heard my vision on how this killer app can be used, I wanted to conduct a little experiment to actually see how Mortgage Coach loan officers would put it to use. I am not only interested in hearing about your experiences in creating the video, but most importantly I want to see the videos you can create over the next 5 days.

If you are interested in participating in this experiment between now and Friday, all you have to do is this:

• Go to jingproject.com and download the software. Make sure you select “save” and not “run” so it saves to your hard drive. Then, go to start, run, browse, find the icon in your program files click on it, then click “run” to start the install.
• If you are on a PC, it may tell you need to install Microsoft .Net files (even if you don’t see Microsoft .Net installing, trust me, it is, and it takes a few minutes, so be patient. If you start pushing buttons too soon you will interrupt the installation.).
• When the Microsoft .Net files are done installing, a screen will come up to install Jing.
• Once installation is complete, restart your computer. (I know restarting your computer is a pain — again don’t worry, it will be worth it.)

To create a video:

• After installing Jing, you will see a yellow sun-like circle appear permanently at the top center of your monitor screen.
• Open the report you want to go through and click on the sun to start the recording. Begin filling out the report and explaining as you go along. Two to five minutes in length is plenty. 
• You will need a microphone. If one is not built into your computer, you can purchase one that plugs directly into your computer for under $20 (if you aren’t happy that you purchased this after creating your first video, I will buy your new mic from you for double what you paid).
• Upload the finished video to the comments section of this blog post and write a few sentences about your experience. I am very excited to hear your feedback and see the creativity of Mortgage Coach members first hand. 

This video experiment has the potential to be one of the best breakthroughs in your business for 2008, but you need to try something different and you need to take the time to learn something new.

I challenge you to create your first video within the next 24 hours and then upload it to the comments section of this blog ASAP. Between now and the end of this week, I will be closely watching the comments of this post and I am planning to write a white paper and share the best videos with all Mortgage Coach members, so if you want to be part of this experiment, you need to create and submit your video this week. 

Thanks for participating!

To create your first video today go to http://www.jingproject.com.

To check out my first video, click here. And please give me your feedback and suggestions.