Growing your net branch business.
Should you hire more loan officers or is there a better way?
After becoming branch managers many successful loan officers try to duplicate themselves by hiring more loan officers. It is a logical step. But is it the right step?
The internal conversation usually goes something like this: “If I can hire 3 loan officers and make an override on their loan production, I can use that income to pay overhead and I can keep more of the origination income from my personal production.”
Sometimes this does work out as planned but many times branch managers find that managing loan officers takes up so much of their time that their personal production suffers. Helping with someone else’s clients, troubleshooting operations problems, trying to help with underwriting and other investor loan problems all take away from the managers personal productivity.
Then there is the successful loan officer that the branch manager mentored through the learning process only to have the producing originator leave to open their own branch office. Instead of being able to reap the rewards for mentoring a loan officer the branch manager now has created another competitor.
Is there an alternative?
I think we have lot to learn from successful Real Estate Agents. When an agent wants to increase their business many times they hire an assistant. The assistant helps with the non income producing tasks that come with more business. There is more follow up, more appointment setting, more calls and emails to make sure business is moving forward. By delegating these tasks to an assistant the agent has more time for core activities that generate income.
There are a number of benefits to hiring an assistant instead of hiring more loan officers.
An assistant’s focus is on you and your business not on growing their business.
An assistant’s income is fixed. It is either hourly or weekly you are not splitting fees.
The cost to benefit ratio is a good one. If an assistant can help you increase your productivity by 40% how much is that to you in net income?
An assistants work can have a synergistic effect on your production. synergy = “The interaction of two or more agents or forces so that their combined effect is greater than the sum of their individual effects.”
In plain English that means that more than one person focused on that same goals can produce higher results.
Hiring an assistant instead of hiring more loan officers could be a better answer.
If you find this information helpful please let me know. I always welcome suggestions, comments and new subscribers.
(To subscribe please visit my new blog home http://blog.netoriginator.com)
Mortgage Net Branch Opportunity
