A few months ago, I began working with a client whose biggest problem, he told me, was that he was overwhelmed with everything he had to do. His company had provided him with an assistant, but even with that help, he was still overwhelmed, he was not closing enough loans to justify the assistant, and he was unable to find time to go out and get more business.
What finally motivated him to contact me was that he had recently had a series of purchase transactions go south on him, and they either closed late, or didn't close it all. Two of his best Realtors were upset with him, and he was afraid he was going to lose their business.
Together, we took a close look at his systems and procedures, starting with lead generation and going all the way through to post-closing. What we discovered is that he really didn't have any systems and procedures to speak of. He and his assistant were treating every loan as if it were a completely new experience. They were reinventing the wheel every day on every transaction.
So we created a detailed checklist system that factored in the complexity of the mortgage origination business, as well as the unique individuality of his clients and their situations. And we included a process for revising the system to resolve new problems as they arose, so that the system got better with time and experience.
The checklist system did two important things for him: it removed much of the necessity of spending time trying to figure out what to do next on a file, or which file to focus attention on next. And it completely eliminated mistakes that he and his assistant had been making because they were trying to rely on their memory to determine what should be done next, or to remember whether something had been done.
As soon as his checklist system was complete, he went around and talked to his Realtor partners. He acknowledged that he had not been bringing his "A" game lately, but that he had figured out what he had been doing wrong, and he proceeded to show them his checklist systems. Some of you may have noticed that Realtors are not always the most organized people in the world, and as it happened, my client's Realtors were very impressed with his new system. Not only did he keep their business, but over the next couple of months, his Realtors referred several of their colleagues to him (colleagues who were becoming frustrated with the disorganization of their own loan officers).
This is just one example of the ways in which we either waste time, or fail to accomplish as much as we could in the time we have.
I'll be presenting a free online seminar on Thursday, June 6: "Who's Got Time for That? How to Get the Originations You Want - with the Time & Resources You Actually Have". For full details and to register, click here.
What finally motivated him to contact me was that he had recently had a series of purchase transactions go south on him, and they either closed late, or didn't close it all. Two of his best Realtors were upset with him, and he was afraid he was going to lose their business.
Together, we took a close look at his systems and procedures, starting with lead generation and going all the way through to post-closing. What we discovered is that he really didn't have any systems and procedures to speak of. He and his assistant were treating every loan as if it were a completely new experience. They were reinventing the wheel every day on every transaction.
So we created a detailed checklist system that factored in the complexity of the mortgage origination business, as well as the unique individuality of his clients and their situations. And we included a process for revising the system to resolve new problems as they arose, so that the system got better with time and experience.
The checklist system did two important things for him: it removed much of the necessity of spending time trying to figure out what to do next on a file, or which file to focus attention on next. And it completely eliminated mistakes that he and his assistant had been making because they were trying to rely on their memory to determine what should be done next, or to remember whether something had been done.
As soon as his checklist system was complete, he went around and talked to his Realtor partners. He acknowledged that he had not been bringing his "A" game lately, but that he had figured out what he had been doing wrong, and he proceeded to show them his checklist systems. Some of you may have noticed that Realtors are not always the most organized people in the world, and as it happened, my client's Realtors were very impressed with his new system. Not only did he keep their business, but over the next couple of months, his Realtors referred several of their colleagues to him (colleagues who were becoming frustrated with the disorganization of their own loan officers).
This is just one example of the ways in which we either waste time, or fail to accomplish as much as we could in the time we have.
I'll be presenting a free online seminar on Thursday, June 6: "Who's Got Time for That? How to Get the Originations You Want - with the Time & Resources You Actually Have". For full details and to register, click here.
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