Solving problems, communicating, and marketing are the three ways your loan origination team can grow revenue.

In the lending industry, being able to navigate challenges effectively is the cornerstone of success. Because it often falls upon the loan officer to deftly maneuver these obstacles, your company’s primary objective should be to equip your origination staff with skills for doing so.

Here are three ways to transform your loan officers into a team that boosts revenue and grows the company:

1. Problem-solving
2. Communication
3. Marketing

No. 1: Problem-Solving

Know your products. To excel as problem solvers, your team must thoroughly understand all your company’s products. Loan officers must grasp the nuances of each product, identifying what can be adjusted and what is rigid. Familiarity with how capital flows within the company, from onboarding to loan servicing or sale, is crucial. No borrower wants to be led to believe they are making progress on a loan only to find out they never qualified.

Identify potential problems. Train your team to ask probing questions during interactions with borrowers to uncover their underlying concerns. If a borrower struggles to articulate their issues, conduct a problem audit. You may wonder why you would bring up problems when there may be none.

There are always problems.

Not knowing the issue upfront is what gets you in the end. Be direct in your discussion. Your job is to ease the borrower’s concerns by offering solutions. Remember, no loan problem question is off the table as you conduct the audit. The more questions you ask, the more you will find out about the borrower’s concerns. Armed with that knowledge, you’ll have a better chance to address the problems and sell your product.

Here are some examples of audit questions:

• Is your primary concern related to out-of-pocket costs or interest rates?
• Are you more focused on the timeframe for closing or the duration of the loan term?
• Do prepayment penalties factor into your decision-making process?
• When do you think you would have this project completed?
• Do you need help with a refinance option to hold the property?
• Is there an amount out of pocket you need to stay within to close?
• How much are you expecting in funding?
• How much do you think the property will be worth fixed up?

Finally, to make sure you have surmised the main focus of concern, ask: “Is your primary concern related to XYZ, and is that your deciding factor?”

Once you understand your borrower’s needs, you can sell the product that best fits their needs. The point is to ask questions to guide the borrower to the best programs, make sure they understand their risks, and gain confidence in the team. At the end of the day, borrowers end up going with the team they feel most comfortable with that will close their deal. Be conversational but control the conversation and ensure your audit questions are answered. When it comes to asking probing questions, remind your team that when you finally get to the root problem and can present a viable solution, your closing percentage drastically increases.

Employ the 1:3:1 method. This process involves stating the problem, offering three potential solutions, and recommending the most suitable solution. Let’s look at an example in action:

• State the problem: “You said your biggest concern is prepayment penalties.”
• Offer three solutions: “Here is what we can do:
  • We can put you in our no prepayment penalty product, but you will be at X rate.
  • We can put you in the six-month prepayment penalty and offer you a better rate at X.
  • We can put you in the 1-year pre-payment penalty and give you an even bigger rate discount, which would be X.”
• Recommend the most suitable solution: “After looking at your $60,000 rehab budget and the 95-day time-on-market in your area, I think we should do the six-month prepayment option. The reason is that I can reduce your rate, decrease your holding costs, and give you the best option for the likely amount of time it will take for repairs, sell the house, and close with a conventional lender. How do you feel about that option?

At this point, the borrower knows you are trying to solve problems and there are multiple solutions. Reiterating the problem to the borrower ensures mutual understanding and fosters a relationship of trust. Actively listening to your borrower contrasts with the conventional approach of inundating customers with information. Encourage your sales staff to prioritize listening and ask insightful questions to keep the dialogue flowing. The more engaged the customer, the better the chance your team will seal the deal.

Nurturing the problem-solving skills of your origination team is not just a necessity; it is a strategic imperative for sustained business growth and customer satisfaction.

No. 2: Communication

Timely communication is key. Many loan officers and companies have failed because communication is poor. As the borrower anxiously awaits updates on their loan approval, regular communication calms their nerves and stop fires from starting. Send daily emails reminding them they are at the top of the pipeline and when new information is available, they will be the first to know. A call once or twice a week letting them know whether there have been any changes is also helpful.

If you do not think you are bothering the borrower, you are not contacting them enough. In the world of lending, silence is not golden; it’s nerve-wracking to the borrower. Even bad news is well accepted if you communicate regularly—and you will retain your borrower for future deals.

Education is key. You are teaching the borrower the tricks of the trade. From deciphering loan terms to understanding how to calculate profits, borrowers rely on loan officers to shed light on the nuances of lending. If you can educate the borrower, you will have repeat business that becomes easier to close each time.

Document. This one is more for the internal communications. Documentation is critical to lending. Documentation allows multiple departments to seamlessly care for a loan as it walks through your underwriting and operations processes to closing. A system of checks and balances between all parties, including the borrower, needs to be established.

The borrower needs a firm but friendly reminder of what is needed for the file and, more importantly, the consequences of not having that information by the specified date—and appropriately document the communication. This is true for all parties—internal and external. Document each phone call, text message, and email. Doing so keeps everyone on task, but it’s a bit of an insurance policy for the lender when things go south too. Remember, everyone is friends until they aren’t. Documentation is your saving grace if you want to stay out of legal issues or avoid a bad reputation.

Manage your pipeline. Believe it or not, pipeline management can be a very big problem in communications. Your team (i.e., loan officers, assistants, and processors) should be meeting at the beginning and end of each day to review the pipeline. Discuss your leads from those “closest to close” to new leads, in that order, making sure everyone on the team is updated on what is needed, problems to solve, and what must be set up for the rest of the day or the next day to move the file.

If you want to scale your closing numbers, your team should be able to answer any questions on an account file. The only way to do that is to meet as a team and make sure everyone is on the same page. Nothing will frustrate you, your team, or your borrower more than confusion close to closing.

No. 3: Marketing

All marketing boils down to how to get someone interested enough to go to your website, text you, call you, and start talking. Train your loan officers to have a mindset that they are small independent businesses—and you just provide the capital. Have them drive the leads. Borrowers work with loan officers, not companies. People work with people they like. Make your team helpful and likable and your leads will grow.

So, how do you drive the leads?

Post on social media each day. You can use reels, memes, videos, or anything that puts you out there daily. This isn’t the company; this is the individual loan officer driving leads along with the company’s marketing. We schedule our static marketing for four months, so we know there is some daily interaction in all social media channels.

Help prospects understand. Some of the most successful pieces of marketing your loan officers can produce are basic how-to videos. Remember, you are in the industry. What seems common knowledge to you now is organic chemistry to prospects. It’s your job to show them how simple it is to work with you. Offer simple information about applying for a loan, how LTV lending works, and what your construction draw looks like, for example.

Basic information about the daily interactions with originations and servicing is helpful as well. In addition, you can send these video links to borrowers who are in the process of closing their loans to educate them on what to do next. This marketing not only drives business but also saves time.

Network effectively. Yes, you must network and talk to people. Nothing is more impressive to a borrower than your initial communication when you meet them. Create digital business cards so your lending information can be saved to the borrowers’ phones, or provide them with a pre-approval letter on the spot. The next day, call, email, and text each person you met to thank them for meeting you and to offer them either a pre-approval letter or a free evaluation of their next project. From there, put them in your regular rotation of seven, 14, 21, and 30-day touches. The person who will get those prospective borrowers is the person who contacts them first when they need it.

Solving problems, communicating, and marketing sound simple enough. And that’s the beauty of it—it is. These simple tips, appropriately managed, will do wonders for your business and your origination operations.