6 Resolutions for Mortgage Professionals in the New Year

The start of a new year comes with a clean slate. It’s an opportunity to set goals, resolutions, or intentions for the year ahead. But when you work in the mortgage industry, how do you know how to set your resolutions for the year ahead? Twelve months is a long time to plan for!

To find out, we interviewed mortgage professionals to find out what New Year’s resolutions they set for 2021. Here’s what they had to say.

Resolutions for mortgage professionals to consider this year

1. Build relationships with customers.

Connection is everything, and any mortgage professional knows that to make sales you need to build relationships with potential clients. You can’t create connection by simply repeating the same instructions about the mortgage application or answering the same process questions over and over. To build relationships, it’s important to get to know your leads on a personal level.

If you’re considering focusing on relationship-building as your New Year’s resolution, ask questions of your prospects. Find out about their family, what about their new house they’re most excited about, or what they do for a living. Know of any local restaurants or stores near their new home? Recommend them. Ask about their children in future appointments. Sometimes, it’s these little touchpoints that make clients feel comfortable and secure. (Plus, happy customers are more likely to write great testimonials!)

2. Educate referral partners.

The better your referral partners understand how the mortgage process works, the better they’ll be able to send potential clients your way at the very point they need you.

If education is one of your goals for this year, take the steps to create a reoccurring monthly workshop or seminar and invite your referral partners to attend. But before you plan a year’s worth of content to teach them about, ask your attendees what it is they want to learn. You’ll also be able to learn a lot from them!

3. Continue to self educate.

Staying educated is a goal that should be on any mortgage professional’s list of resolutions. And the beauty of having this as a goal is that it can mean different things to different people. You might choose to learn how to market yourself better. Someone else might invest in trainings and courses to stay current with the what their counterparts are learning. The opportunities are endless when it comes to bettering yourself professionally.

What can you do to learn and grow in the year ahead?

4. Build a personal brand.

While referrals are important to all mortgage professionals, one recurring resolution we heard this year was how important it is to build up a personal brand to build relationships with potential future clients and position themselves as trustworthy, intelligent professionals.

Any efforts that go into building a brand that attracts potential borrowers will reap rewards. Not only will you need to rely less on referrals, but you’ll be connecting with people who are genuinely interested in working with and learning from you.

5. Support newer mortgage professionals.

Have a need to hire? Make onboarding, training, and mentoring newer professionals in the mortgage industry one of your resolutions.

People are actively seeking work, and by hiring people with sales experience and then training them about the mortgage industry, you’ll be helping them and also benefitting the business. Your next hire may have all the drive and determination to succeed as a mortgage professional, but what they really need is for someone to show them the way.

And let’s not forget about some of the mortgage professionals who are already working with you, either. Mentoring is a wonderful opportunity for professional growth, and is useful at any point in a career. If you know someone who would be interested, offer your time to help them grow.

6. Find creative ways to define success.

Your definition of success might not be the same as your coworkers’, or your employees’. When everyone’s different definitions can be considered, individual pathways can be created, setting everyone up for success in different ways.

Of course, you’re going to want to set some number goals. Do so, and make it clear for all of your staff on what you’re expecting. Then, let them lead the way to getting there. Set individual meetings and ask them how they define success and what steps they’ll take on that path this year. Coach your employees. Let them know you’re there to support them as they work toward their own goals. If they struggle, offer guidance. Help them course correct. Teach your team to achieve by making it their opportunity, not something that’s forced on them.