MORTGAGE JUMPSTART DAY#2- Your Database

Today’s lesson is building the foundation of your business, which is your database.

Okay, the first thing you do today, is write down everyone you can think of. Friends, family, former business contacts, high school teachers, and anyone else you can think of. Don’t exclude anyone at this point.

Now obviously the more information you can add to your database the better. Hobbies, birthdays, interests, etc. However, this can take a ton of time, and hold you up from really launching your business. So here’s my advice. Shoot for a name, a mailing address, a cell phone number and an email address. That is plenty to get started.
Put all this information into an Excel spreadsheet. Why Excel? Because Excel is easy to use and uploads to all database software programs. So having your database in Excel will accomplish this. You can opt for a more sophisticated database management system right away, some great ones are act, gold mine, or your company may have a proprietary one. They are all good. I always recommend to start with Excel just for the simplicity and the fact that it uploads to any other database or social media you will need.

Now some people like to sort and segment their database by importance at this point. Honestly, I don’t necessarily recommend it at this point because it can add delays. Remember the goal is to get launched as soon as possible so I say add everyone you can think of, and treat everyone the same for this initial start up time.

No if you do decide to sort and segment at this time, make sure to keep it very simple. Here is what I recommend for sorting and segmenting your clients. A+’s- these are referral machines who are constantly referring you loans that close. As a benchmark I would say at least 4 per year. Now if you are just getting started you probably don’t have any A+’s yet. Don’t worry, it can take a while, I have 9, and I’ve been in business for almost 20 years. Next are your A’s- these are people who have done business with you or referred you any loans that have closed. Again, if you are just getting started, these are people that you know with 100% certainty will use you if they needed a mortgage , and would refer you if they knew someone who needed a mortgage.

OK now, After you put this together, I recommend that you send a simple email to this list and your social media network that says this: For the Header put- VERY IMPORTANT, PLEASE ANSWER. and have the body say this…” you may or may not know this, but I’m a mortgage originator and I’m trying to grow my business by referral and give extra quality service to my best clients. Please be honest with me on this. If you were buying, refinancing, or had someone to refer for a home loan, would you refer me? Please be honest I really appreciate it.”

Please don’t over think this, just do it and people will respond.

Ok, after you send out this initial email there are some other great ways to build your database of quality clients especially if you are somewhat tech savvy, and comfortable social media. Check out these Internet resources that will be incredibly helpful in consistently building your database.- Convertkit & Click Funnels which are both Opt-In Software Aweber and Infusionsoft which are autoresponder software

Once you get these programs started they run on their own, which is what is called evergreen. These programs are not expensive. check them out. There are great tutorials on the websites for all of these programs.

Please excuse my grammar. I do not edit these posts.. Everyone’s time is to valuable. My goal is to get information out as quickly as possible.