Loan officers who want to see their business succeed, will need some fundamental skills in place to get there. While we often place the highest priority on skills like marketing (more on strengthening your marketing skills here) and prospecting, our communication skills can sometimes be even more valuable along the way. As mortgage professionals, we have to interact with all kinds of people and ensure we’re understood clearly if we want to function effectively. Not just with prospects and clients, but also with colleagues and referral partners. Top-notch communication skills can help us mitigate conflict, improve our client experience, and create stronger, longer-lasting relationships. However strong you feel your communication skills are currently, here are a few strategies that could be of benefit:
Be Transparent and Direct
We all want to please our clients, but sometimes the fear of disappointing them keeps us from being perfectly direct. While it may be tempting to put off relaying bad news, the best policy is always total honesty, even if things aren’t going as smoothly as you’d like. Rather than trying to make everything appear to be fine, choose to calmly and confidently deliver the information accurately. I want to emphasize though; transparency does not mean over-sharing. The second headline here is “direct”; a common issue I see with loan officers is as they try to embrace transparency, they often over-complicate and over-share information. Unfortunately, in America there is a lack of financial education and many consumers we speak with (and even some of our referral partners) often do not understand the details of what is happening, and more importantly why it’s happening. Everyone values honesty and transparency, but the key to mitigating conflict and building stronger relationships is how simple and direct we can deliver all communication.
Really Listen
We have a tendency to think of communicating as expressing our own ideas, but listening I’d argue is far more important. It’s true that we have a great deal of information to share with our clients — however, that can’t monopolize every interaction. Get in the habit of asking more questions throughout the borrowing process. When people answer questions, they often give a partial response for the first answer. Keeping that in mind, questions should be asked deeply. Follow-up and clarifying questions can allow us to target/ pinpoint a person’s needs and goals at their deepest level. Once you truly understand what someone is saying, repeat that back to them; this will demonstrate you are not only listening, but more that you truly understand them. This also applies to how you interact with colleagues and referral partners as well. Take note of your talking-to-listening ratio and work to let others have more talking time; and remember, ask deep questions.
Take More Notes
Even if you’re actively listening at the time, it’s easy to forget minor details — especially when you’re communicating with multiple prospects and clients every day. It’s a good idea to practice taking notes during conversations. Whatever you glean can and should be stored in your CRM database for future reference. Referring back to prior conversations is a great way to show clients that you’ve been paying attention and that you’re invested in them. This seems obvious but more than 90% of loan officers do not keep detailed notes in their CRM. These notes will help you during the initial conversation, but more importantly 5 years down the road when you are looking to help them again.
Boost Your Writing Skills
These days, much of our communication happens without a face-to-face meeting. It could be prospects reading your online content, email exchanges with clients, or a text message conversation with referral partners. All of those instances require us to have solid writing skills in our toolkit. It can be challenging to convey tone and emotion when writing, and there’s more room for misinterpretation. Keep working to make your written communication as clear as possible, and try to find the sweet spot between personable and professional.
Outstanding communication skills can help us stand out from the competition and make a strong, favorable impression on everyone we meet. These strategies will go a long way to sharpening your skills and building stronger relationships.
If you’d like to talk more about better communication, or if there’s another matter I can be of assistance with, please get in touch. I’m always happy to set aside some time to connect.
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