Mastering Your Prospecting Game - A Practical Guide for Loan Officer Lead Generation

Let’s break down to art of prospecting and lead generation in a clear and actionable way. You’re aiming for a system that’s  both straightforward and seamlessly integrates into your daily routine, making prospecting an anchor of your day. 30 -45 minutes that's predictable, clear, and stress-free.

This takes the pressure off and simplifies things. No more staring at your phone and wondering who to contact and if it's the right time to call, text, email, or hit them up on social. You've got a plan. 

Let’s be honest, call reluctance is a real problem, and I don’t know too many people that don’t come up against it.

So, we must look at what causes call reluctance. Is it performance anxiety? Is it a fear of rejection? Is it a lack of confidence? Something else?

It’s all these things, and it comes down to a lack of preparation. With proper preparation, you can eliminate call reluctance.

Before we get into what it means to be prepared, you have start by identifying what it is you want. What’s the reason you’re contacting this person in the first place? What’s your goal? What’s the desired outcome?

In the case of prospecting real estate agents, this is simple. You want the prospect to agree to meet face-to-face with you. That’s it. Say yes to a meeting and schedule it on the spot. That’s the desired outcome of the call.

So, let’s put this in proper context. If you contact a prospect to book a meeting and they say no, are you any worse off than you were before you contacted them?

The obvious answer is no, you’re not worse off.

Is it possible that you could be better off? I say yes, and here’s why.

Prior to your call the prospect had never heard your voice and never had any direct exposure to you. They had no awareness of your existence. That means you had an absolute zero percent chance of doing business with them.

Once you call, even if they say no, you’re on their radar, even if it’s just a blip. It’s above zero.

Going from zero to non-zero is an exponential increase in odds. That’s just math.

Consider this the first domino. Now you can take steps to build on these odds slowly and methodically by following a systematic prospecting rhythm.

Taking this into consideration, your true goal is to make contact with a prospect.

The MOST desired outcome is to land a face-to-face meeting, but the minimum effective outcome is to simply make contact and get a no.

Knowing this allows you to overcome call reluctance.

You can emotionally disconnect from the outcome of your actions and simply commit to the activity. A yes is a huge win. A no is a small win. The only loss is not making contact.

Once you realize this and adopt this mentality you can start making huge gains by establishing a consistent and systematic prospecting rhythm.

Let’s break this down. Here’s a simple formula to set yourself up for successful:

Step 1: Have a list of qualified prospects

You can’t effectively prospect if you don’t’ have a list of qualified people to contact.

Start out with agents you’ve closed a loan with more than a month ago and less than 12 months. Include the listing agents on these deals as well.  

These are your A Agents.

Now add agents that you’ve met with, spoken with, or have had meaningful interaction with on social media, but have not yet closed a loan.

Also, agents that you’ve closed a loan with more than 12 months ago.

These are your B Agents.

Finally, find agents that meet minimum production standards and are near your home, office, gym, church, kid’s school, or other place that’s closely connected to you.

If you have access to MMI or similar agent production data source you can use the mapping feature to save time. If you must, use Google Maps and search nearby for real estate agents.

Minimum production standards can be whatever you choose. As little as 3 buy-side transactions in the past 12 months or as high as you wish. You can find this data on MMI or similar tool.

These are your C Agents.

Step 2: Qualify your list

Make sure your B and C agents meet minimum production standards, so they are worth your time to call on. For me, if an agent has sufficient production to send me one referral every 3 months, I’ll add them to my list.

Step 3: Text your contact card

Now that you have your list compiled and qualified, text each A agent your contact card with the following script:

“Hi [agent name], it’s [your name] with [company name], it’s been a while since we last worked together. Hope you’re well. I want to make sure you have my most up to date contact info handy. Hope you’re finding the opportunities in this market! Let’s catch up soon. What works for you in the next few weeks?”

Text each B agent with the following script:

“Hi [agent name], it’s [your name] with [company name], it’s been a while since we [met, spoke, connected], hope you’re well. I want to make sure you have my most up to date contact info handy. Hope you’re finding the opportunities in this market! Let’s catch up soon. What works for you in the next few weeks?”

Text each C agent with the following script:

“Hi [agent name], it’s [your name] with [company name], I’m sending you my contact because I’ll be reaching out to discuss business in the next few days and wanted you to know who was calling.”

Step 4: Be prepared to engage

Some of the agents you texted are going to respond. When/If they do, don’t text back. Immediately call them. If they answer, say:

A and B Agent:

“Hey [agent name] great to hear from you! I’d love to catch up and chat about opportunities in this market. Would it be crazy to [grab coffee, get lunch, other] in the next couple weeks?”

C Agent:  

“Hey [agent name] it’s [your name], figured I’d put a voice to a name. Did I catch you at a bad time? The reason I’m calling is that I realized we’re friend on Facebook and it looks like your office is right down the street from my [proximity place from when you made your list] but we’ve never actually met. I’m trying to a better job with that this year. Would it be crazy to [grab coffee or other] in the next couple weeks and talk about the opportunities in this market?”

If they don’t answer, leave this on their voicemail, then text it to them.

Only about 20% of agents you text your contact card will respond. That’s OK. What you’ve done is tied your name to your number in their phone. That way when you call them in a couple days, their phone will say “Maybe [your name]” rather than an unknown number. This increases the likelihood of them answering your call.

Step 5: Call for the meeting

For those that didn’t respond to the contact card text, wait 48 hours, and call them to request a face-to-face meeting.

A and B Agent:

“Hey [agent name], it’s [your name] with [company name], did I catch you at a bad time? The reason I’m calling you is that we’ve worked together in the past {reference deal if necessary] but it’s been a while and I’d like to catch up and talk about ways to turn this down market into a growth opportunity. Would it be crazy to {grab coffee or other] in the next couple weeks?”

C Agent:

“Hey [agent name], it’s [your name] with [company name], did I catch you at a bad time? The reason I’m calling is that I realized we’re friend on Facebook and it looks like your office is right down the street from my [proximity place from when you made your list] but we’ve never actually met. I’m trying to a better job with that this year. Would it be crazy to [grab coffee or other] in the next couple weeks and talk about the opportunities in this market?”

At this point you’ve contacted many prospects and systematically went about raising their subconscious and conscious awareness of your existence.

Gone from a zero chance of doing business to a non-zero chance. In essence, infinitely increased your odds of eventually winning business.

You’ve warmed them up and disarmed them.

You’ve wiggled your contact into their smart phone.

You’ve leveraged persuasion psychology in your scripting to increase the odds they’ll be receptive to you.

Let’s explore that a little.

When you say “did I catch you at a bad time” you’re giving them an opportunity to say no, which is what they want to say, but in saying no to this question, they’re saying yes to accepting the call.

When you say “we’re friends on social media and your office is right down the road” you’re disarming them by presenting yourself as someone who’s already in their sphere. You’re not a disembodied stranger attempting to sell them something they don’t want.

When you say “would it be crazy…” you’re closing the loop from the first line by again allowing them to say no, which means yes.

If you do all of this, you will land about 30% of the meetings you request.

So, if your prospect list has 100 agents, you can expect to land 30 meetings. That’s a big deal.

I’ve been helping loan officers through this for years now. Over the past 4 years we’ve built this type of systematic prospecting into a complete rhythm I call ProspectPulse™.

ProspectPulse™ includes everything mentioned in this post and so much more.

The most important thing you can do once you get through these early stages of prospecting and landing meetings, is to follow up effectively with the 70% of prospects that did not accept your meeting request.

LO’s that use ProspectPulse™ are averaging a 52% success rate with meetings.

Meaning they capture an additional 22% over the 30% by systematically following up with unique scripting with the agents that did not say yes, the first time.

So, if your list is 100 agents, that’s 52 meetings.

Once this is complete, it’s incredibly important to have a strategy for facilitating your face-to-face meetings to build the most rapport possible and set the stage for multiple follow-ups.  

ProspectPulse™ guides you through this and gives you a list of questions to weave into conversation, allowing you to discover “Anchors.”  

Anchors are key pieces of information about the prospect that allow you to carefully articulate your value propositions in unique and effective ways as you continue to follow up after the meeting.

If you’ve met with real estate agents before, you know that meetings can go smashingly well and then you end up ghosted.

We help you identify your value propositions, and articulate them in six unique ways, for six scheduled and scripted follow-ups.

I call this the Six Articulations. This dramatically increases the odds that you’ll reach your prospect at a time and place where they’re receptive to your message.

The cliché’ “the fortune is in the follow up” exists for a reason. Because it’s a fact!

With ProspectPulse™ every bit of this is precisely ordered, detailed, and scripted for you. All you must do is follow the instructions.

Our LO’s are averaging a 67% referral rate. Meaning if their list is 100 agents, they are receiving 67 referrals in the 12 months following their use of ProspectPulse™.

This equates to an average increase in funded units of 2.9 loans per month – or about 35 new loans per year.

Four years of fine-tuning, and it’s a game-changer. Follow-ups, unique scripting, and a strategic approach to face-to-face meetings. It’s all laid out for you.

Use it, and you’re not just getting meetings – you’re building a referral empire. If you’re curious, check out www.prospectpulse.io for a free trial.

Got questions or just want to chat? Hit me up at mike@merriamgroup.com or shoot me a text at 919-637-4555

Even if you do nothing else, trust me, follow these steps, and watch your production grow.

Good luck and go get ‘em!