Over the past decade I have interviewed, coached and consulted to thousands of mortgage brokers around Australia – including many of the top performers you see listed in the media, and a number who prefer to remain private or unlisted, but quietly run million-dollar or multi-million- dollar brokerages.
In addition to seeking my advice, in working with top performers over the years I have noticed a number of common traits these top performers have compared with the rest of the industry. Having also coached new brokers to the industry, I am in a unique position to see first-hand the traits of both the very successful and those who continue to struggle despite years of trying to make it work.
There’s a very clear difference and I want to share those with you now.
Five Success Secrets
There are five secrets that I have determined you need for success in this industry. All of these secrets can be learned – successful people aren’t born successful, they learn how to be. These things may come more naturally to some, others have to work at it, but the good news is you can control your success and future.
Don’t ever think the top brokers are “special” and “you could never be like them”, it’s simply not true. Everyone has the power to create their own success, the problem is most people lack the knowledge of what to do, and others are just plain lazy.
If you do nothing, nothing will change for you. If you learn the secrets laid out in this Chapter, and take action each and every day, anything is possible.
So what are the Five Success Secrets?
Confidence
One of the easiest things to see when comparing top brokers to the rest of the industry is their level of confidence.
- Confidence in their ability and product knowledge.
- Confidence in guiding clients through the process.
- Confidence in leading themselves and their team.
- Confidence in the industry and their own success.
Top performers are sure of themselves, and it comes across in everything they do.
Confidence is also infectious. People are attracted to it. Prospects, clients and referral partners all pick up on confidence levels. People want to do business with those they feel are confident – because confidence shows certainty in your ability and that leads to trust.
For example, if you were looking for a home loan and your mortgage broker was vague, unsure, apprehensive or even negative (through their verbal and non-verbal actions) would that give you confidence in working with them? Of course not. If they are not confident, you won’t be confident either.
The problem with confidence is it’s a chicken-or-egg scenario. How can you be confident or gain confidence if you are just NOT confident right now? Don’t you need confidence to be confident? Of course it’s easy to be confident if you’re already confident in your abilities!
So knowing how important being confident in everything you do is to your success, how can you find more confidence… even if you’re not confident at anything right now?
The answer has two parts:
- Fake it!
The first way to build more confidence (if you currently have little or none) is to act and feel confident, and believe in yourself. You don’t need to be successful in order to feel confident. You can be a new broker, Day 1 on the job, and choose to act, feel and be confident.
The secret to starting to build confidence is knowing this fact: from your very first day as a mortgage broker, you already have 100x the knowledge of your prospect. There’s no reason at all not to be confident, because right from day 1 you already have so much value and expertise to share with your prospect.
Most brokers aren’t confident because they doubt their knowledge or abilities to provide value and help people, but when you realise that even the most basic information and lending strategies (us brokers take for granted because we do it every day) are unknown to 99% of prospects – that makes you feel knowledgeable and confident in the value you can provide.
- Confidence through process
In addition to the old “fake it until you make it” strategy, I have a second success tip that really makes this foolproof.
Confidence comes from certainty. If you as the broker are certain about what you need to do every step of the way, guiding a prospect through the loan process for example, you can’t help be confident because you know exactly what needs to be done and how to do it.
Lack of confidence usually comes from not knowing what to do, not knowing what to say, not knowing how to handle something and so on. Brokers who don’t follow a process often end up fumbling, losing confidence in themselves and their clients.
So the trick here is to build certainty (as best you can) into every aspect of your business – and you do that by creating simple processes to follow.
Create checklists so you know exactly what to do and in what order, so you don’t miss anything. Create scripts for phone calls, emails, meetings and any client interaction. A secret ninja technique is to build your meeting or sales process into a professional presentation (delivered on an iPad, laptop or printed in a booklet). This way you don’t need to be a flashy salesman, or confident with sales, all you need to do is follow the presentation – and if it’s designed correctly, your prospect will buy from you automatically.
When I was a broker many years ago, I was a horrible salesman. I couldn’t sign-up any clients face-to-face. I provided great value, helped them, answered their questions, but wasn’t confident in asking them to take action. The way I got around this and became very successful at sales and as a broker, was I created processes that gave me confidence and removed the need for me to sell.
One other point about confidence. Your prospects are seeking your help as a professional, they look to your advice and guidance. If you fail to lead your customer and take control of the process, you won’t have their trust and you won’t get their business and referrals. Have the confidence (using the tips above) to take control, lead your customer and be a true professional.
There’s no reason not to be confident from this point onwards – if you build yourself simple processes to follow and remember that your knowledge is super-valuable to 99% of consumers, you can’t be anything but confident and successful.