New Loan Officer Playbook

March 18, 2023
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Over the last 12 years, Mortgage Coach CEO and Founder Dave Savage, has interviewed the best of the best—from loan officers to branch and regional managers to coaches, trainers, authors and Realtors. In 2016, Win By Noon Founder Todd Bookspan joined Dave to kick off the Friday Mortgage Coach Productivity Mastermind where they’ve conducted over 250 interviews together.

At an in-person mastermind conducted in Nashville last year, Dave shared some of his takeaways from some impactful interviews and he also heard best practices from several others who have been helping new loan officers fast-track their success. He decided to document and share some of these best practices to help everyone in the Mortgage Coach community, and it was a huge success.

For 2022, Dave invited Todd to collaborate and update the Playbook. If you’re hiring new loan officers, here’s a 4-step playbook that has proven successful with hundreds of new loan officers who start with no previous mortgage experience.

They kicked it off with this interview:

Step 1: Have a “90-Day Plan” That Includes A Starter Prospecting List

Here is something to consider. At Sales Mastery a few years ago, Todd Duncan announced an astonishing statistic. 94% of loan officers arrive at their office with no plan for their day. As a result, 91% have inconsistent month-over-month business.

“You became a loan officer to set your own hours and that is the exact reason you may fail” is what Todd tells new loan officers. If you worked at Starbucks you’d have to show up at a certain time and complete required activities until your shift ends. As a new (and seasoned) loan officer, you need to schedule the proven activities that are discussed in this article every day if you want to succeed, ideally all before noon.

David Gallegos—whom Dave Savage recently interviewed—is one of the best at fast-tracking the success of new loan officers.  For years, Dave has been mentoring new loan officers and turning them into top producers. For example, Giuseppe Battaglioli has been the #1 highest-rated loan officer in America in the Social Survey platform (out of 30,000 loan officers) three out of the last five years, and he’s always in the top 10.

Schedule out their first 90 days so they know what they’re doing throughout the day every day. Require that they come on board with a list of 150 leads (friends and family members to call after 30 days of training) and they build the list out to 300 within 30 days. Have them spend two to four hours a day prospecting after the first 30 days. Once they start closing loans, get them into the habit of asking for a referral to friends and family using Jeremy Forcier’s strategy and precise scripting.

Watch “How To Generate Referrals From Your Active Clients with Jeremy Forcier”

“We start them with a database of 150 people. We call it their personal sphere of influence,” says Kevin Watson, Tennessee District Manager at Churchill Mortgage. “But in addition to all the Churchill leads we give them, we want them to continue to build a network where they live and work. We want them to be part of those communities.”

“And this is really important: As a team, we hold an accountability meeting every Monday and everyone talks about how many great conversations and face-to-face meetings they had and networking events they went to. And then we track and measure that and hold them accountable.”

I highly recommend new loan officers use the Win By Noon planner to plan and track their daily activities.

Step 2: Learn Mortgage Basics

Starting with day 1, you need to build your mortgage IQ and literacy, understand mortgage language and develop loan competency. The place to start is with the free training provided by your company. Ask your co-workers what resources they found most impactful.

The Mortgage Coach YouTube Channel is also an amazing resource with hundreds of interviews and trainings. Be sure to check out the New Loan Officer Playlist as well as past Script-a-Palooza videos to hear the best scripting in the industry.

One great source for new loan officer training is XINNIX, and I listed several other great new loan officer resources at the bottom of this article. Set a list of objectives for each week and a list of KPIs for fulfilling those objectives. “All our new loan officers have been through the XINNIX program, and I think the lowest one is probably doing $30 to $35 million, and the highest is about $65 million,” says Jim McQuaig. “So it’s a good group of people that have survived.”

Here’s A Great Mortgage IQ Resource:

Download the RateWatch app and watch Dan Rawitch every morning. To help with training, have new loan officers watch How to Use RateWatch with Dan Rawitch.

Have them shadow you for a day or week, so they can see the value of your successful routine: “We go through four or five clients that day,” says Kevin Watson. “And they get to see whether they really want to do this and is this something they love. The ones that do go get their license. These guys are coming out of the gate in 90 days with $1 million in loan production. And they’re all using the Total Cost Analysis to present mortgage strategies and they don’t know any other way to present high-value information other than with Mortgage Coach.”

Step 3: At 30 Days, Start Learning and Using a Mortgage Coach TCA and Become a Mortgage Coach Black Belt In The First Year

Dave Gallegos and most mentors start teaching and training new loan officers on Mortgage Coach at 30 days. They require new loan officers to subscribe to the Mortgage Coach YouTube channel and watch at least one hour of videos weekly. While different leaders have them watch different videos based on what they are teaching, I recommend you get all new loan officers familiar with the Mortgage Coach New Loan Officers Playlist. Also, require them to subscribe and be active in the Mortgage Coach Productivity Mastermind Facebook group. That’s where advice-based loan officers are, and new LOs will be able to network, get their questions answered and learn from others.

Step 4: Between 30-60 Days, Start Calling Your List Of 300 Friends and Family

This is a critical time for new loan officers because they need to start creating a TCA-A-DAY routine and habit. And they also need to build a 2- to 4-hour-a-day habit of prospecting and winning by noon. The best way for new hires to become high-value mortgage advisors so they can help clients make the best mortgage decisions for their family’s current and future wealth is to show them all their options in a Total Cost Analysis. New loan officers need to build this success habit from day one.

Dave Gallegos gives new loan officers an incentive to achieve new Mortgage Coach belts every 30-45 days. Until they become a Mortgage Coach black belt, they need to build at least one TCA a day every day for the first 100 days. Assign them various types of TCAs as homework and grade them. In fact, your whole team should be doing this. Click to purchase a TCA-A-DAY calendar from Win by Noon because this is a great resource for new officers to build the Mortgage Coach habit and the win by noon habit.

Easy and Powerful Scripting For Cold Calling Friends and Family as a New Loan Officer

Script for Calling Renters

>>“Hey <firstname> I need your help. I’m a new loan officer, and I need to practice my Rent Versus Own Analysis. Do you mind if I practice on you? I just need to ask you a few questions, and I’ll create one for you.

Script for Calling Homeowners

>>“Hey <firstname> I need your help. I’m a new loan officer and I need to practice my Move Up Analysis. Do you mind if I practice on you? I just need to ask you a few questions, and I’ll create one for you.

Keys to New Loan Officer Success:

  • #1 Learn the basics and work on their mortgage IQ daily
  • #2 Prospect two to four hours every morning before doing anything else so they can win by noon
  • #3 Do a TCA-A-DAY
  • #4 Win By Noon every day
  • #5 Ask for referrals from every client using Jeremy’s scripting

Watch How To Fast Track the Training and Success of New Loan Officers with Dave Gallegos

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Tetkm2UBMH0%3Ffeature%3Doembed

Resources for New Loan Officers:

Must-Read Books For New Loan Officers

  1. The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz (my #1 emotional IQ book)
  2. The Challenger Sale by Matthew Dixon (my #1 sales skill book)
  3. High Trust Selling by Todd Duncan (my #1 sales book created for mortgage professionals)
  4. How To Win Friends & Influence People By Dale Carnegie (a must-read for all salespeople)
  5. Think & Grow Rich By Napoleon Hill (a must-read for all salespeople)
  6. Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin (my #1 leadership book)
  7. Big Money Energy by Ryan Serhant (an awesome new book on personal energy and sales principles)
  8. The Compound Effect by Dan Hardy (#1 book for the fundamentals of long-term sustainable success)
  9. Marketing Made Simple by Donald Miller and JJ Peterson (my #1 marketing skill book)
  10. The Power of Who by Bob Beaudine (a must-read for all humans)
  11. Start with Why by Simon Sinek (a must-read for all passionate visionaries)
  12. The Greatest Salesman in the World by Og Mancino (a must-read for all salespeople)
  13. Raving Fans for Ken Blanchard (a must-read for everyone in business)

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