Strategies for soliciting lenders

[MaceyA]

Greetings,
I was wondering if the experienced agents can explain how you approach local mortgage brokers and lenders for referral business. Many lenders will have a front desk person. Do you approach whomever is at the front desk? Do you ask for a specific person? Do you call first and set an appointment or just go door-to-door? My goal would be to introduce myself to as many brokers as possible in each office I visit. Additionally, what are your follow up strategies for keeping the the business relationship open? How often do you visit the offices? Do you bring lunch, gifts? Lastly, has this activity been lucrative?

Thanks for the help!

 

[MaceyA]

I would assume some agents use lenders as referral partners?

Anyone out there?

 

[fed up]

Stop by monthly so that they place your name/face with what you do. Realize that they are probably already working with up to 5 agents and ask them to give you a shot. they are going to call with the tough one first and see how far you will go to place a policy. Don't drive past the auto dealers on your way to the mortgage lender. Don't count on lenders as your bread and butter. 1 policy per month, 2 if you are lucky

 

[VolAgent]

Give'em diabetes.

 

[Allen Trent]

Give'em diabetes.

Nah, give them coffee & the jitters, not diabetes. Bring them mugs with your name & logo on it. Supply them with good fresh coffee from a local beanery. in some cases, even supply them the coffee pot if they have sent you some business & have a small plate engraved on it that says "compliments of XYZ Agency".

instead of eating a nasty donut & forgetting about you 10 minutes later or resenting you for ruining their NY resolutions, you will be top of mind every time they drink coffee out of your mug, or see the mug on their desk/counter or see the bag of great coffee with a label on it compliments of you, etc.

 

[VolAgent]

Nah, give them coffee & the jitters, not diabetes. Bring them mugs with your name & logo on it. Supply them with good fresh coffee from a local beanery. in some cases, even supply them the coffee pot if they have sent you some business & have a small plate engraved on it that says "compliments of XYZ Agency".

instead of eating a nasty donut & forgetting about you 10 minutes later or resenting you for ruining their NY resolutions, you will be top of mind every time they drink coffee out of your mug, or see the mug on their desk/counter or see the bag of great coffee with a label on it compliments of you, etc.

I never said it was a good idea...

There are a lot of better ones along the same vein, such as yours.

 

[Dreamiekid]

Greetings,
I was wondering if the experienced agents can explain how you approach local mortgage brokers and lenders for referral business. Many lenders will have a front desk person. Do you approach whomever is at the front desk? Do you ask for a specific person? Do you call first and set an appointment or just go door-to-door? My goal would be to introduce myself to as many brokers as possible in each office I visit. Additionally, what are your follow up strategies for keeping the the business relationship open? How often do you visit the offices? Do you bring lunch, gifts? Lastly, has this activity been lucrative?

Thanks for the help!

Let me know how it goes!

I tried it with a couple places but they are rude as hell. Which i'm sure they get a lot of people with the same question.

 

[MedicareMillionair]

Greetings,
I was wondering if the experienced agents can explain how you approach local mortgage brokers and lenders for referral business. Many lenders will have a front desk person. Do you approach whomever is at the front desk? Do you ask for a specific person? Do you call first and set an appointment or just go door-to-door? My goal would be to introduce myself to as many brokers as possible in each office I visit. Additionally, what are your follow up strategies for keeping the the business relationship open? How often do you visit the offices? Do you bring lunch, gifts? Lastly, has this activity been lucrative?

Thanks for the help!

I ran a branch for a national mortgage company. Not once over the years I did this was I ever approached by an insurance agent. In contrast I had a client that owned a mortgage company. I implemented a 401k , group health, buy-sell disability and then created a joint venture insurance company. We were 50/50 owners and we provided in house sales of mortgage insurance to all of their clients throughout all of their branches.

The point I want make is that you make them a client first and in time get all the business. I don't think you'll get much business out of an individual mortgage broker as they don't close that many deals per month. However, if you can capture an decent sized office of loan officers, this could work well.

As for how to approach them. Call the person that runs the office (not the office manager) and invite them to lunch. You got to get them on the phone. If they give you a lot of resistance, say "you do eat, don't you?". Usually people resist for the sake of just resisting. Get a good pitch and make it happen.

Let me know if you need more than this.

 

[AgendaAgent]

Call the person that runs the office (not the office manager) and invite them to lunch. You got to get them on the phone.

I'm not the OP, but I'm equally interested in this! Question though- how do you know who runs the office? I got the idea from the way you worded this, that an office manager is not the one who runs these offices?

Get a good pitch and make it happen.

When you were in that position, what would have gotten your attention? I'm always a bit confused about what kind of 'pain' we can ease for those in the mortgage industry.

I know one agent who was fairly successful by promising 24 hour turn around on binding policies. But even he expressed his regret because it caused a stressful and high maintenance relationship. I'm not sure if he continued on with it or not...

I have heard of other people supplying leads to mortgage reps in exchange for the exclusive referrals, but again- there seem to be issues with that when the leads aren't as good as the rep was hoping for or the expense for the agent to keep supplying them.

I'm genuinely interested to hear your personal experience and thoughts MedicareMillionair! Also, just clarifying that I'm looking at this from the P&C side of things...

 

[MedicareMillionair]

I'm not the OP, but I'm equally interested in this! Question though- how do you know who runs the office? I got the idea from the way you worded this, that an office manager is not the one who runs these offices?


When you were in that position, what would have gotten your attention? I'm always a bit confused about what kind of 'pain' we can ease for those in the mortgage industry.

I know one agent who was fairly successful by promising 24 hour turn around on binding policies. But even he expressed his regret because it caused a stressful and high maintenance relationship. I'm not sure if he continued on with it or not...

I have heard of other people supplying leads to mortgage reps in exchange for the exclusive referrals, but again- there seem to be issues with that when the leads aren't as good as the rep was hoping for or the expense for the agent to keep supplying them.

I'm genuinely interested to hear your personal experience and thoughts MedicareMillionair! Also, just clarifying that I'm looking at this from the P&C side of things...

First, my greatest insight is as a life agent, not P&C. So, this may not hit the mark for you. I shut that operation down in 2006, so much has changed since then. When I last ran an office in SC, I had a state license in my name. It covered not only my office but every office in the state. You may want to look up licensing requirements. That could lead you to the decision maker.

Second, most of these major lending offices do advertising. Look in realtor publications. Go after the bigger players. The smaller offices will cause you a lot of ramp up time with little results. Some of them do radio shows on weekends talk radio. Certainly many are ego driven and the top dog wants his/her picture on the advertisements. I just googled mortgage brokers in Greenville, SC (where I live) most of the listings had a name. I don't think you'll have a problem getting to the big hitters.