Loan officers have had a pretty tough time of it over the past four years and it appears as if that state of affairs will carry on for at least the next year or two. Few people have much sympathy for those who make their money from lending money, but society does need people doing these jobs.
Besides that, sometimes it seems as if the ‘money men’ have been made scapegoats by politicians who took their eye off the ball because so much money was being created that it made them look impressive. Both the regulators and the renegade money men are to blame. However, politicians appear to have successfully passed the buck.
Here are various ways that loan offers can increase their chances of staying in business (it applies to many other businesses too).
A marketing plan is the most important instrument to have in any business and being a loan officer is no exception. If you have a business plan, you will be at least one step ahead of 90% of your competitors. You have to make a reasonable prediction of what you will be able to earn and how you are going to accomplish that goal. Make the plan for twelve individual months and amend it at least every quarter.
Work out how technology can help you attain these goals. If you cannot do it alone hire one-off help for this one-off job. Purchase the hardware, software and skills to be able to take advantage of this information.
Build up a database of leads, commonly known as a list by Internet marketers. There are many strategies for doing this, but essentially it means that someone has to request additional information (on or off line) after having read an on or off line advert.
This is accomplished by the use of an autoresponder (or a secretary) that sends out information to those who request it, but saves their personal details for you to process.
Once you have a list, analyze it: which details did people ask for; which products did people buy? Focus on those aspects that are most popular and cross-sell to people who have purchased before.
Use Yellow Pages to find new find new referral sources. Write letters of introduction to about twelve a month and see what comes back. Off line promotion is still important to an online business. Try to secure two new referrers per month – they soon adds up.
Send out at least one direct mail shot per quarter. Not everyone is online and often the decision-takers in a household are not even if their kids are. More and more businesses are abandoning this avenue because mass emailing is so much cheaper. Try it and see if it works.
Join a local business club in order to make certain that other businesses know you and that you are someone to be trusted. Try the Chamber of Commerce too. One night a month is not too much to invest to have your finger on the pulse of local developments.
Advertise on a routine basis. Put ads in the local paper and send out personalised calendars to past and prospective clients.
If you do all this, you can be sure that you will still be in business when the economy picks up.
Owen Jones, the writer of this piece writes on quite a few topics, but is at present concerned with website marketing plans. If you would like to know more or check out some great deals, please go to our website at The Best Sales And Marketing Strategy.
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