The beginner’s guide to writing a lazy $100 million a year

It’s important to note that just because you write $100 million does not mean you take $1 million in gross fees home. Most brokers that write this much take less than $500,000 home after paying expenses and reinvesting in future growth and talent.

1. Be passionate

Ask yourself deep down who do you want to be? If you don’t love being a broker then none of these rules will work. You cannot be truly successful if you choose a career that you are not passionate about.

2. Ignore the naysayers

The barrier to entry in mortgage broking is extreme. You have to wait up to six months before earning less than a taxi driver. Your family and friends will all tell you are crazy and you can’t do this or that. Self-doubt will creep in but ignore the voices and tell your family and friends to get lost, you want to be a broker and you aren’t going to let anything stop you. Never give up.

Of the hundreds of people I have seen enter this industry none have failed, they only have given up because they couldn’t block out the naysayers.

3. Be positive

Believe in yourself and don’t be afraid to fail. Don’t be afraid of making decisions or you will be paralysed by fear of failing. Push yourself and believe in your vision.

I never listen to “you can’t” because you can.

Give positive feedback to those around you. A positive environment attracts opportunities and creates an energy that customers are drawn towards. Talent wants to work in a positive, upbeat environment. So remove anyone in your team that is negative and watch the immediate positive impact this will have.

4. Work your butt off
Make work your life. Sure have fun and let your hair down but network and pitch for business at the same time. Some of my best clients and my biggest deals were won after midnight. Be the product knowledge expert. You need to know at least all the rates for all majors across every price band to $2 million loans off by heart, then know at least three or four non-major lenders, plus all their fixed rates and every point of difference. Then every policy variance of all the majors and be armed with three or four non-major lenders’ policy variations and a comprehensive knowledge of Genworth’s and QBE’s LMI underwriting policy.

If you now rate yourself less than nine out of 10 for product knowledge then you’re not working hard enough.

5. World-class VP

Every time I meet a broker I ask them, “What’s your value proposition?” (VP), “What’s your pitch?” or “Why should I deal with you?” The blank faces often staring back at me are endless and frightening. How can we ever hope to be the professional industry that we want to be when we can’t all answer these simple questions? You need to build up a VP and practise it. Role play with your colleagues and record yourself on your smartphone. Play it back and ask yourself and others, “Did it come across as compelling and genuine?”

Your pitch has to close both verbally and non-verbally. This is what makes you money. Not practising a VP is like an AFL player not turning up to training.

Any sales manager who hasn’t practised this with their team should do so immediately.

6. Prospect! Prospect! And prospect!

Prospecting comes in two types in my book – cold-calling and referrer prospecting.

Every broker should be making at least 50 cold calls/connections per week to clients, calling every single referrer/account they have in their database weekly and pitching 10 cold calls per week to new referrers.

Yes, it’s hard but you can’t afford not to. When comparing two brokers at the same level, it is always the one disciplined enough to make their calls every week that has the most consistent growth and hits $100 million faster. Real estate agents have always been doing this and mortgage brokers need to catch on.

7. Enhance the value of your partner

All the best brokers work closely with referral partners, mainly real estate agents.

With partners you need to put your ego aside and focus on enhancing their VP, so their business looks better and you will become an invaluable part of their team.

Work for your partner, eg. when reviewing a customer’s asset and liability statements, if you see they have multiple investment properties, why don’t you sell the benefit of combining all their property management with your partner to your client? Explain the benefits of having all their properties with one manager and the potential for cost savings you may be able to negotiate for them with your partner. Collect as much information on their current position, and with the client’s consent share that with your partner to ensure they can win the property management opportunity.

Partners can give you a constant source of clients and every client can introduce you to two or three new partners. So if you’re not working with agents and/or other accounts/partners your growth rate will be much slower and the corner much longer.

8. Win within the first three feet

Our clients expect us to look as if we work in finance – you should be wearing a nice suit and tie.

Looking great makes you feel great, which gives you an edge when you meet a client or referrer for the first time. That confidence and energy creates a ‘wow’ experience.

In addition, make sure your presentation and marketing material is world-class. You should only use professional photography and bright, high resolution, professionally printed handouts. Using tech devices to present is good, but keeping up with the latest tech devices can be an expensive headache. I prefer printed handouts because a good quality, A4, thick, stock flyer is a great reminder on a potential client or partner’s desk.

9. Ten lodgements rule

Crack open the champagne, you’ve just lodged 10 loans in a month and are now on track to start making a decent living. Don’t get too comfortable because this rule makes the long corner even longer.

Before you start paying off your credit cards, hire a full time assistant. An assistant will let you jettison all the non-dollar productive tasks that take you off the $1,000 per hour activities. Create a large bonus structure based on settling up to $100 million. Remunerate them via this bonus so they feel a part of the journey and motivated to put in the long hours ahead.

Invest in a quality CRM that automatically updates your clients and partners throughout the application process and get your assistant to own it.

Now that you have created the void in your diary, ramp up your prospecting and face-to-face meetings. Ask for referrals and testimonials. Get your clients to pitch their accountants, agents, planners and solicitors to work with you. Grow your referrer base and simply add more back office support.

10. Give back

On your journey to success help new entrants and share your past experiences to give them confidence and support on their journey to success.

Share ideas with your associates and competitors. Include your team. Encourage ideas and let your team experiment with them, creating energy and passion in their core roles.

Challenge yourself with new ideas and break the rules when it comes to trying different things. You cannot be a true pioneer without breaking the rules.

Most of all remember you were once at point zero and you needed help initially. Extend a hand to help a newcomer as they take their first or next step. To best describe giving back, I must quote a Latin phrase that was taught at school, “Vitia Lampada Tradunt”, which roughly translated means to “hand on the torch of life.”