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Loan Officer Training: Learn How To Shape Realtors Perceptions
In medicine, a placebo is a pill that you think will make you better, and so it does. In your business, a placebo is a prospect having the experiences they expect to have, and so they have them. For example, you take your vehicle to get serviced. You walk into a clean lobby and are greeted warmly by a service technician. You think that it's a quality service center. And so it is. After your vehicle is inspected, the service technician explains in plain English the service your vehicle needs. You decide the technician is trustworthy. And so he is. You receive a coupon in the mail from a new dry cleaner in your neighborhood. It includes a picture of the owner who looks experienced. You take your first order to them and the service line moves quickly. You think the dry cleaner is efficient and professional. And so they are. Social scientists have discovered that a person's perception creates expectations and influences his or her experiences. If you've heard the phrase - Perception is Reality - than you're familiar with this phenomenon. Placebo effects are all around you. And if you're not aware of them, they can work against you. Have you ever met a real estate agent and felt they made their mind up about you before having a true opportunity to demonstrate your services? For instance, you meet a prospective Agent and they appear standoffish. The Agent has an immediate perception of expectations based on their previous experiences, even though those experiences didn't include you or your firm. You learn that they have had many bad past experiences dealing with other lenders. You have to overcome the negative placebo effect to become trustworthy. However, if you learn to manage placebo effects, you can shape an Agent's expectations before this happens. If you shape expectations, you shape their experiences. To Shape Expectations, Improve Your Materials Do your materials create an expectation of trust, skilled, competency? Do your materials distinguish you? Do you look smarter, better, more successful? Are your materials made with better materials? Usually, your materials are the first contact an Agent has with your service. You never have a second chance to make a first impression. First impressions are eternal. Use two of the most powerful things in your materials: images and brevity. Images speak visually. Considering that Agents are bombarded daily with communication, use pictures to convey your message. And secondly, use as few words as possible. But make every word count. A simple, precise message combined with a matching image can effectively communicate your point with greater precision than an overcrowded message screaming for attention. To Shape Expectations, Develop Your Website Does it look professional, clear and easy to navigate? Is it inviting to Agents? Look at some of your competitors and notice how they only appeal to consumers. Does your website shape the Agent's perception of your service? Agents should find your site to be an educational resource of how your services differentiate from your competitors. It should address common concerns they have about lenders:
Use visual descriptions to shape their expectations differently. To Shape Expectations, Review Your Touchpoints Is your company's image of service better than your competitors? Does it create an expectation of being personable, reliable, and dependable? Are the people who answer the phones congruent with the image? Are messages returned promptly? Do you uncover problems before they arise? Do you fulfill requests before they're requested? Your touchpoints are any point of contact between the Agent, the client and your service. This includes product touchpoints, human touchpoints, and system touchpoints. For instance, an Agent receives your invitation to meet and discuss opportunities. They're impressed with the quality of your letter and materials and decide to respond (product touchpoint). They call your office, which is answered by the receptionist. The receptionist is courteous and polite (human touchpoint) . The Agent is connected to your voice mailbox and listens to your professional greeting. They leave a message and easily exit the system (system touchpoint) . Your touchpoints are placebo effects that help shape their experience. Without having met you, the Agent has a perception of what to expect from you. This expectation will influence their experience when you meet together - hence, The Expectancy Theory. Jeff Nelson helps mortgage companies and individual loan officers increase loan originations by attracting quality relationships with real estate agents from the development of customized relationship-building strategies. Click here to get a free copy of the Marketing Planning Guide, a 20-page workbook designed to help you outline a strategy to becoming an Agent Magnet. Visit us at http://www.loan-officer-marketing.com
MORE RESOURCES: There is something emotionally charged about the buying and selling of New York high-end real estate. How else to explain the juggernaut of reality TV shows about high-end brokers? After 30 years of marriage, Sharon and Michael Newman decided it was finally time to move from the Catskills to New York City. On blocks near Kissena Park streets are quiet, houses are small, and the electricity that charges the atmosphere in downtown Flushing is nowhere to be found. A five-story, seven-bedroom house in Brooklyn Heights has sweeping views of New York Harbor and the Manhattan skyline. Demand is so intense that there are waiting lists in some buildings, and a few landlords report that eager renters are even bidding up rents. Sales at the very high end of the market barely missed a beat in the recession. But that prosperity hasn’t yet trickled down. A Flatiron condo, a Midtown South co-op and a Brooklyn Heights carriage house. A four-bedroom ranch in Montclair, N.J., and a four-bedroom colonial Cape in Babylon, N.Y. For a century, Roosevelt Island housed a grim penitentiary. It was demolished in the 1930s. More borrowers are opting for fixed-rate loans with terms other than the standard 30 or 15 years, especially when it comes to refinancings. Two more glass skyscrapers are added to a group of towers on the waterfront of Long Island City. Insurance coverage for a co-op unit; when a tenant is ‘blacklisted’; a co-op is smaller than estimated. The market for $500,000-to-$600,000 houses in Westchester has become especially active. A shaky real estate market means more sellers are providing buyer concessions, from gift cards to help with paying property taxes. Houses of worship are adaptable to residential and other uses as congregations dwindle. Nearly two million Americans could benefit from mortgage relief from the nation’s biggest banks, as part of a broad government settlement to be announced on Thursday. A cold war-era satellite relay station is for sale in California after a Silicon Valley mogul gave up on plans to turn it into a weekend home. How can I make my front porch more appealing to buyers? Court hearings meant to protect New York homeowners from foreclosure are hopelessly slowed by endless paperwork and requests for additional information. The Bay Area and Silicon Valley expect the windfall from the Facebook stock offering to make their in-demand region even hotter. The house, designed by the architect Eric Fisher, looms over the street like a big industrial arm. A town house in Dallas, a midcentury modern in Rhode Island and a Tudor in Denver. Prices in some parts of the country are still off by as much as 25 percent from their 2007 peak. Trinity Church is the largest landlord in Hudson Square and is part of the effort to rezone the area to residential from manufacturing. Rising oil prices and a boom in shale exploration are leading companies to add office space in the Houston area, most notably Exxon Mobil. Ms. de França is the president and chief executive of Douglas Elliman Development Marketing, which focuses on new residential developments. Meet the real estate broker’s interns: an ambitious group willing to do anything, earn nothing and wake up early on a Sunday to fluff the couch cushions at open houses. A Flatiron condo, a Midtown South co-op and a Brooklyn Heights carriage house. A four-bedroom ranch in Montclair, N.J., and a four-bedroom colonial Cape in Babylon, N.Y. Homes in Dallas, Rhode Island and Denver. Compare the cost of renting and buying equivalent homes. For recently divorced men, a new breed of decorators offers help navigating a strange new world. Plants that light up the winter garden can be found at Broken Arrow Nursery in Connecticut, which has long been a favorite of gardening geeks. A sister in need drew the painter Beverly McIver back home to North Carolina, unaware that a new beginning was in store for both of them. A jewelry designer finds striking new objects for storage. Timothy Sakamoto and Jochen Repolust are part of the small but growing niche making mobile apps focused on specific works of architecture. To promote an auction of 20th- and 21st-century design, the interior designer Stephen Sills has created a preview exhibition in an apartment at the Apthorp. Fishs Eddy now sells plates acquired from the archives of the now-defunct Syracuse China Corporation, many more than 100 years old. The designer Russell Greenberg creates custom baby rattles with ends shaped like profiles of mom and dad. |
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