Mortgage Scholars

The following is a soup-to-nuts overview of both the content and process to create and deliver a custom kit to each Branch Manager:

1. Concept: the idea here is to create a unique ‘package’ (we call it a ‘kit’) that will give you, the Branch Manager, a definite competitive advantage over your competition in the recruiting process. This is a rather unique idea seriously. To our knowledge, and we’ve looked, no one in the country has anything close to this product. Having said that, this kit is intended to be a supplemental recruiting toolkit is not intended to supplant the Branch Manager’s responsibility to successfully recruit. Every major Mortgage Banking company today has a major effort under way to recruit new LO’s the key of course is to only recruit quality originators.
2. Your interview comprises one of six total interviews that go into a complete audio tape kit. The six:

1. Interview with the President and/or CEO of YourCompany Mortgage. I will tell you that both the President/CEO’s of National City and SunTrust recently participated…insisted on doing so, actually.
2. Regional/District Manager interview. Perhaps the National Sales Manager if that fits.
3. John Ondrick, President of MortgageScholars—John has almost 30 years in the retail sales side of mortgage banking [see his bio on the "About Us" page]. Years ago he was a top level originator in the Washington metropolitan area. His self-interview is called “The Best Years of My Life”. The entire thrust of the speech is a rationalization of why ANNUITY INCOMES from loan originations are the best ‘form’ of commission income possible in any industry.
4. Pat Sherlock, President of QFS Consulting—arguably the finest interview ever done with MortgageScholars. Pat describes in detail the best practices and qualities that managers demand of top producers.
5. Mark Stamm, President of Greater Atlantic Mortgage in Northern Virginia— Mark was a legendary producer in his day. The interview is devoted in its entirety to giving an overview of the mortgage origination business.
6. Branch Manager’s interview—described below

1. Branch Manager’s interview:
1. The interview itself only takes about 25-30 minutes. There is a short 2-minute period where John verbally ‘captures’ the intellectual property rights. Then it’s on to the interview.
2. The interview is in essence a Socratic dialogue between John and the BM. The process goes very smoothly and there is never a need to get uptight as to ‘what’s next?’ John always does smooth transitions (witness the fact that in over 120 interviews no one has ever asked for an interview to be ‘destroyed’ or redone, even though everyone is offered that option at the beginning of every interview).
3. All interviews start the same way: “Where do you come from and how did you get into the business?” The sole purpose is to create a feeling with the listener that you are a real person (seriously) just like them.
4. We then make a smooth transition into the heart of the matter. There are two critical aspects to this final part [and it is important to remember ‘who constitutes your audience’ because they are two possible distinct targets: First, new prospects who have never been in the business. Secondly, originators currently with a competitor. You need to ‘hit’ both targets!]:

1. One typical question that John may ask: “What would be your advice for those who are seriously considering entering the profession and I want to stress the words ‘seriously considering’ forget the other group who have neither the ability nor perseverance to prevail”.
2. This next part is a bit of a ‘combo’ deal in the sense that you’re out to influence two targets: the new-to-the-business prospect and the originator with a competitor: this part (and John will be happy to ‘transition’ you smoothly) should address “Why YourCompany Mortgage is both the best company since sliced-bread and the Branch to ‘go to’ in your area”. As a sub-text you should consider subtly ‘knocking out’ two of the three possible competitive areas [i.e., "mortgage brokering"; "mortgage banking"; "net operations"---depending on your existing company structure]. Subtlety is the ‘operative word’ here as it’s much more effective. One of the great sales ‘closes’ of all time, in any competitive situation, is what’s called ‘overcoming an objection before you even get it knowing you’re going to get hit with it at some point’.
3. Pick out some clear advantages both your Regional/District manager and company bring to the competitive process. One company MortgageScholars did this for focused on their corporate sales school. You should easily be able to identify 2-3 specific areas where ‘no one can touch us’. Let John know a few of these before we start and he’ll be sure to casually bring them up after all, the entire purpose of the BM interview is for you to convey to the prospect why your Branch in your area is the very best. For example, perhaps you are a top producer who has been in your area/Branch for many years….tell him! Perhaps you have the best processor/closer since ‘time began’ tell him!

1. Scheduling: both our times are valuable (yours more than his!). The name of the game is to knock these out quickly! They only take 25-30 minutes….start to finish [the ‘finish to sending a kit is much more laborious!]. John is able to do up to 4 interviews of this type a day. He schedules anytime between 9 AM and 4 PM. You call him with two available times. He will call you at the ‘appointed hour’—and he is very good at this; you will be called literally ‘on the scheduled minute’. We need for you to be on a land line (no cell phone or fancy headsets…noise is our enemy!) home or office and absolutely no interruptions (so do some pre-planning on that score)
2. When this project is completed… each Branch will receive their customized kit. The kit itself holds up to six individual audio tape interviews. MortgageScholars encourages each Branch Manager to go out and purchase one inexpensive $30 portable tape player and keep it on hand. That way, the prospects have no excuse not to listen! Also, if done correctly, these kits can be the ‘gift that keeps on giving’. Let us explain how it’s done: You, the Branch Manager, need to make a ‘big deal’ out of these kits as you prepare to hand them out. If you do this, you can easily tell them that these kits “are proprietary to YourCompany Mortgage, and we are lending them to you not giving them to you. We expect them back”.
3. COST: $195 per kit. These kits are very labor intensive and are not part of our profit center. They are made available to bring value added to the Platinum module. It is also very difficult to do more than 15-20 a month. Depending on our schedule it may take 3-4 months to start your order, so best to call John at 877-666-4002. Thanks.