Successful Phone Sales
Written by Paul Fiore Friday, 18 September 2009 15:34
Articles - Sales and Marketing
“Once you have mastered the inner workings of the product and truly understand Reverse Mortgage 101, the most important part of selling this product successfully is building the emotional connection to your client.”
It has always been my belief that selling a reverse mortgage is not about how much someone qualifies for, how much you can make on the loan or the fact that this is a growing product in a struggling mortgage industry. Selling a reverse mortgage is all about your connection to your client in both an emotional as well as logical way. We should be committed to providing our clients with the highest level of service, personalized attention, and sound advice when looking into a reverse mortgage. We should not sell a client a reverse mortgage unless we have a clear understanding about how much a reverse mortgage can change their financial situation and more importantly that the client has decided that they believe a reverse mortgage is right for their individual situation.
When I think about all the different sales jobs within various industries, I realize how lucky I am to be in the unique and special industry that is reverse mortgages. There are very few sales jobs that allow you the individual to both earn a living while also selling a product that can and does change people’s lives. In the 5 + years I have been in the reverse mortgage business, running a sales floor and training salespeople, I have been very fortunate to see how much this product can do to change the lives of our seniors. I am sure that there are many of us within this industry who can point to a special story of how a reverse mortgage changed the life of their clients. Many of us who have been in sales for a long time will also tell you how it changed our own life. The reverse mortgage is truly an emotional sale for both the salesperson as well as the clients.
Whenever a new loan officer begins in this business, whether they are experienced mortgage professionals or not, I always talk about the challenge of the first 90 days. It is imperative for a person who enters this industry to understand that there is a significant learning curve to being a successful reverse mortgage professional. If you take the cold, analytical, by the numbers approach to selling this product without taking the time to understand what is most important to a client you will have moderate success at best. It is only when you get to the “emotion” of the sale that you can become a consistently successful loan officer. What is it that the client believes a reverse mortgage can do for them? Do they believe a reverse mortgage is truly something that will change their financial outlook? How will the product impact a client’s day-to-day life? These are just some of the questions that you need to answer through the discovery part of the sale.
The challenge in learning the proper way to sell a reverse mortgage begins on the first day. When you begin in this industry, it is imperative that you take the time necessary to learn the demographic to which you will be selling. It doesn’t matter whether you are going to be selling this product face to face or over the phone, without knowing your client base, you will never be able to relate to or understand them. What is it that is most important to our client base? What are the differences between the baby boomer generation and the WWII generation? As you go through training, whether it is company provided or on your own, think about why this product is designed the way that it is. Instead of looking at it as another product that you are going to sell, think about all of the features and benefits of this loan program and how that can positively impact a senior’s life. You want the client to emotionally see how much a reverse mortgage can benefit them but you must also see clearly how this program will change their financial future.
Once you have mastered the inner workings of the product and truly understand Reverse Mortgage 101, the most important part of selling this product successfully is building the emotional connection to your client. It is important to realize, despite the wealth of knowledge that you may now have about the program, it all means nothing unless you get to know your client, their situation, and what they are looking to accomplish. Think about this, how important is what someone qualifies for when you don’t even know if they are eating three meals a day? The biggest mistake we make in sales is trying to close someone before they are ready and before we have earned the right to do so. Take the time to get acquainted with your clients, be patient and listen to them, learn what is most important to them and their specific situation. Being a great salesperson within this industry is not about how fast you can close someone, it is about how much your clients trust and believe in you. More than anything, whether you sit at someone’s kitchen table or sell this product over the phone, you are selling how much this product will impact a borrower’s life and how you will be the individual to help them achieve their goals. Learn and understand the situation, build rapport and trust with your client and determine if a reverse mortgage will be a part of the solution before you talk numbers with your clients.
The best test in determining whether you have made a connection with your client is simple. Can you close your eyes and think about how your client is currently living? Are you able to clearly see the entire picture? Do you know how important their family is to them? What are the things that give them joy in their lives? What are the things that cause them pain? If there was one thing that they could change in their life, what would it be? Once you are able to clearly see the picture of your client’s current situation, close your eyes again and think about how that picture would change with a reverse mortgage. Do you see a difference? Write down what is different in the new vision of the future versus the current one. More than numbers, how are their lives going to be impacted by the reverse mortgage? I challenge and ask every one of my loan officers to do this PRIOR to selling the reverse mortgage to any client. This is a simple test, if you cannot clearly see a vision in the future that has been impacted positively by the reverse mortgage; you should not sell one to your client.
It is up to you to choose whether you take the short cut to selling a reverse mortgage or if you take the time necessary to truly learn the proper and ethical way to sell this fantastic product. Whether you sell a reverse mortgage face to face or over the phone, whether you have a celebrity spokesperson or you buy leads, whether you have a recognizable brand name or not, what matters more than any of that is whether you take the time to learn the proper way to sell a reverse mortgage. In a time when the economy has had such a negative impact on so many people’s lives, we can only be thankful and proud for being a part of an industry that can help soften some of those economic worries and improve the quality of our senior’s lives.
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