Hot on the heels of all the Google+ action is the all new, more “integrated” form of Google Places! After a number of webinars and step by step training for loan officers on how to make use of Google Places as a lead generator, it looks like I’m going to need to run another one to demonstrate this all new, even more powerful “community-driven” version of Google Places.

It looks like Google is committed to remaining the top dog in the world of internet search. But this launch of an all new Google Places is far reaching and extends beyond just the world of Google and local search. Remember, the other tier 1 search engines often play “follow the leader” when Google does something big.

So take a look at the new Places format by clicking on the image below and spend some time browsing the new format. (Still in testing mode) Expect to see this layout and these types of features soon in your own city.

With these new features you will soon be able to grab large amounts of exposure for your own business through the community/Review/Spotlight/Offers features. Why not have a look now?

So what does all of this new technology mean for you as a loan officer? Wondering how you can harness the power of Google, and other online tools as a means of generating leads whenever you need them? This Friday (The 22nd) we will show you exactly what you need to do. Join us for a 45 minute demonstration of what you could, and should be doing with all of this new technology hitting the web. (Google+, Google +1, Facebook Business Pages, etc.)

These tools can serve as time wasters and money pits, or they can serve as a unique, and reliable method for generating all the business and leads you could ever want. The choice is yours. Join us and we’ll show you a method that has proven to work in the real world – Not just on paper… Here is the link to get the details:

https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/172589090

Talk about good timing! Just as I was making a big deal out of Google and their +1 program, Google comes along and announces their entire Google Plus project! Just how big could this be? Judge for yourself by watching the previews below… Don’t forget to scroll to the bottom and signup to help “test” Google+!

There are demo links below as well. This has the potential to be absolutely huge. Not saying it’s the next big thing, as we should take a “wait and see” attitude. But with Google pushing this so hard, and with 2 previous failures at entering the social media landscape under their belt; Maybe they learned from their mistakes and have hit the nail on the head this time? Take a peek:

more »

Have you received a “warning” email from Google lately? Certainly an email directly from Google is rarer than asparagus finding its way onto my dinner plate. So what exactly does it mean when the Big G sends you an email specifically to ask you to take a certain action? It means that you better take some action right? It’s in our own best interest to keep Google happy, and the advice is likely to be sound anyhow.

This time around Google has sent out a warning to Wordpress site owners. Here’s a look at the email that was sent:

As you can see Google is concerned about more »

Ok, ok… I’m caving to all the pressure! I can’t fight it anymore! All the questions of “Hey Chad, what strategies should I be using to get Realtors to call me back” have motivated me to schedule an impromptu webinar this Monday, May 2. To make sure that I thoroughly answer your questions, and demonstrate exactly how you should go about getting real estate agents pumped up to work with you – I’m going to show you the exact presentation that I’m giving in 3 weeks to a group of 70 – 80 of the highest producing agents in the city…

How’s that sound? Fair enough? Watch me present the material live, so you’ll know just how well it really works! Here’s what you do. Register here:

https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/972530378

The webinar begins at 1:00 Central Time, so that’s 11:00 for those of you in PST, and 2:00 for EST. Bring your most difficult marketing questions too – I’ll answer all of them. (As time allows anyway…) If you value getting loans from Realtors, be there. See you on Monday!

Make sure you’ve caught up with the latest training this week by clicking here:

Mortgage Marketing Ideas

Mortgage Broker Marketing Strategies

I was thinking back to all the loan officers I’ve met in the past 5 years of training, and I pushed my brain to try and recall if I’ve ever met anyone who made the claim: “I don’t like getting referrals.” The result of all this recollection? Nada… Not a thing… I can state with 100% certainty that I’ve yet to meet a loan officer who doesn’t like getting referrals! The reason for asking myself such a silly question?

Because I was trying my best to dream up the best way to convince the largest percentage of loan officers to go visit my new Complete Mortgage Marketing page… The solution? I decided to make a copy of the very email I sent to the highest producing real estate agents in my area available to you. This email was responsible for over 2 dozen closings + additional referrals… Not bad for a single lonely email eh?

To get a better look at just what this email said, go check out my latest project here:

Complete Mortgage Marketing

Note: This post is for entertainment – Nothing to learn here today other than some cheap laughs at my expense! Enjoy!

Have you ever had something happen to you that was so embarrassing you later found it impossible to think about without your face turning red? Do any of those events take place while at work, or in the field presenting to  a potential client? My friends at SBTV are hosting a contest to see who submits the most “horrifying presentation story.” I entered my story yesterday. Read it and weep for me ok? Yes, it really did happen, and yes I still embarrass myself talking about it to this day. Here it is:

My presentation horror story is one of those “cringe worthy” events that hurts to even think about. This happened when I was a brand spanking new sales rep for a rather well known telecommunications giant. (So please cut me some slack for my reactions ok? I was still a youngling!) I had scheduled a presentation with a potential client that was far bigger than any I had worked with up to this point, so I was stoked as you might imagine!

Practically walking on air at this point as I had worked nearly 6 months to land this appointment with regional manager and VP of this massive firm. The only issue I had to overcome was the client could only meet with me at 7:00 in the morning, so I had to ask my boss permission to go straight to the appointment from my house the following morning. He agreed and gave me a little pep talk that amounted to a “go get ‘em” and “don’t screw this up” all rolled into one 45 second speech.

I set my alarm, put on my best attire, and left the house early to beat rush hour traffic… Traffic was great, I was set to arrive professionally 5 minutes early- everything was going my way! It would take a Yak and 10 oxen to pull the massive smile from my face! Or so I thought. See, even though it seemed as if the stars were aligned in my favor at this point, apparently fate has a wicked sense of humor and decided my smile was a tad bit too large and perhaps even mildly offensive as I was about to discover.

I pull into the lot exactly 7 minutes early and park the car, careful to avoid any of the “reserved” spots.  Before exiting the vehicle I did one of those last minute review mirror checks to make sure I was “studly” enough to make a great first impression. Come on, you all know what I mean. Where you look in the mirror and check your “angles” from the left to the right to make sure there’s nothing funny hanging from your teeth, or a suspicious smear on your face…

Go through the process with me now: Tie looks good? Check… Right side of face free from errant food or hair? Check… Left side of face? Chec…. Er, HAIRY? Wha??? What is this? Some kind of bad dream?My  pulse accelerated from zero to 500 in a fraction of a second as it suddenly dawned on me that I had stupidly managed to completely shave one side of my face, while the other side remained untouched by my trusty razor! I believe my inward response was something akin to “Nooooooooooooooo!”

At this stage I I must of looked like a mad man as I clawed at the hairy side of my face a bit making sure I was actually awake and not caught smack in the middle of a cruel, but very realistic nightmare. My mind raced as I noticed that in less than 4 minutes I’d be standing in front of 2 very important, and very demanding executives looking far more like a mildly crazed Batman villain (2 Face) rather than the polished professional you trust with a 6 figure contract!

No amount of words could describe the look of sheer terror that spread across my face at this moment, so I won’t even try to describe it. Just use your imagination and multiply it by 27 and you’ll likely be pretty close.

“What do I do? What CAN I do?” It’s moments such as this that you realize just how far your brain is willing to reach to weasel its way out of awkward situations such as this. Every nutty idea was entertained, but quickly dismissed. Can I make it through the whole presentation with the unshaven left side of my face resting in my palm so they don’t see my mistake? No, no… Never work. I doubt they’ll think I’m normal if I stand up with my face still resting in my palm and my elbow floating in free space. Might find that a tad bit odd…

Can I insist on walking to only one side of the prospects and only look at them from my “clean” angle so they never have a chance to witness my humiliation? No, no… That won’t work either as I’m sure they’ll find my tremendously odd and wonder why this twitchy kid can’t look them straight in the face… Doubt they’d want to do business with a man such as that.

I even considered calling the whole thing off and coming back later, but I knew that my boss would never excuse such a decision, and I would never get a second crack at this! What the heck? How did this happen anyway? (I remembered that as I was shaving early in the morning, the phone rang, and I got into a lengthy discussion with a friend I rarely hear from. Out of habit, I washed the cream from my face as I was chatting, and moved on, forgetting to finish up before I left the house. Mindless mistake I never made again!)

With 1 minute left on the clock, my early arrival opportunity down the drain, I sucked it up and marched right through the front door painfully aware of the eyes seemingly fixated on the lower hemisphere of my face as I announced my appointment for 7:00.

I felt like a doomed soldier marching to certain death at this juncture. Face red as an over-ripe cherry and sweat building up so quickly you’d think I was standing 4 inches from a heat lamp. I waited my fate in the cushy office chairs as I heard the elevator ding signaling my meeting was seconds away. Two well dressed men stepped out of the elevator and walked in my direction hands extended in greeting.

I had decided to admit my stupid mistake early on instead of trying to hide it, or play it off. I think I over-did the apology and killed off any chance of redemption as I was overly self conscious through the entire meeting, probably looking like a wide eyed maniac as I over-played the “Eye contact” rule in an effort to force the men into looking at my eyes instead of my half clean, half Wookie chin and neck. Don’t think it came off too well! Then again, I was new to sales, and not too polished, so I don’t feel too bad as I look back on this experience.

Naturally I didn’t land the sale. I assume the unspoken message I sent to these VIP’s was “if this guy forgets to shave half his face, what else would he forget?” Can’t say that I blame them, nor can I blame my boss for being disappointed with my performance that day! But I will say this… I learned an important lesson that day so many years ago! Always, always, always carry a spare razor in your glove-box!

That’s my presentation horror story… What’s yours? Would love to hear your comments below as well, that way I don’t feel all alone in telling my story of screw-up numero uno:

http://apps.facebook.com/contestshq/contests/49018

So you’re heading back in from a 3 day weekend, officially billed “the last real weekend of summer”. I hope you had a great time, and are chomping at the bit to make some great things happen this week. I wanted to talk to you briefly about making use of the marketing opportunities that are out there right now waiting for. (Each of us has an opportunity every single day to make great things happen) If you’re still in the beginning stages of marketing to Realtors, here’s some thoughts I would like to share with you:

#1 – Start now… Right now!

Marketing to Realtors is all about momentum. Unfortunately, it’s so darn easy to question ourselves and worry if we’re “really ready” to get started, and we tend to put things off. This is why in 2010 I launched many tools that do not require you to be a marketing expert, or answer a bunch of questions to send to your agents. The newsletter series mentioned above is just one example of this, as is the SEO poster and mini e-book.

If you did nothing more than focus your efforts on getting these helpful tools into the hands of your target agents, you’d be several large steps ahead of most other loan officers struggling to get Realtors to give them loans. (Unsure of what marketing tools I’m talking about? Then register for my free webinar at the bottom of this post and learn how to implement these powerful strategies)

#2 – Follow up regularly

This one is intimidating isn’t it? I’m with you there. I still remember my first few follow ups to my “dream team” of agents. Know how I felt? Like a timid school did sauntering up to the table “Please sir… Can I have some more…” (Oliver Twist?) Really, I felt a bit like a beggar and failed to realize just how much these agents needed me. But my first success came within my very first week of following up, and it emboldened me… Then my second success popped, then another.

It’s like a snowball effect of confidence molding you into a confident professional who views follow up calls as “so darn easy” you can’t keep yourself from making those calls. I’m not lying or stretching the truth here one bit, this is how it really happens folks. These calls need not be scary so long as you’ve given yourself a built in excuse to make the call. (Calls without a purpose are still scary to me, as I don’t feel I’m accomplishing anything. Calls with a purpose on the other hand are as easy to make as… well…Something really easy to do) – Sorry, ran out of cool sounding references!

Place a quick call to make sure the agent received the latest newsletter. Ask for their feedback. See if they’d like to receive your SEO poster. Ask if they’d like your help submitting their site to Google Places ( Powerful!) and as we discussed on last weeks call, you can even offer to provide mini-sites for all their listings!

What do all these calls have in common? VALUE! You’re offering something they benefit from. If they turn you down, then too bad for them right? There is no reason to feel sheepish, or embarrassed for offering something they need. That’s my take on the whole follow up process, and I hope you decide to follow suit. With all the powerful tools at your disposal, there’s no reason you cannot have several new referral partners by the end of this month. Make it an awesome and productive week, and I’ll see you on the Lab!

Want to learn how to implement some of what we’ve discussed in this post? Here’s the link to our next 4 day FREE marketing webinar series: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/140581546

Quick reminder for you that this coming week is your final chance to participate in the complete Loan Officer Unleashed training series. The training begins on Monday July 19, at 1:30 CST. (That’s 11:30 PST/2:30 EST) Here’s the registration link:

https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/346619458

We’ve managed to shorten this session to just 4 days this time around, 1 hour per day. What will you get in return for attending these 1 hour per day sessions?

How to target only the best agents who have loans to refer

A unique “approach” that is both easy to implement, and works almost every time you use it

A strategy that absolutely blows agents away, and makes them want to meet you

A step by step follow up approach that makes getting referrals an “after-thought”

How to place your Realtor marketing on auto-pilot

As you can see, we’re going to pack this 4 day webinar series with usable information that you can begin using right away. You really don’t want to miss this! I’ve been told an extra special guest will be making an appearance during one of the webinars to share some marketing nuggets that we haven’t touched on yet. Want in? Here’s that link again: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/346619458

Great call yesterday for Day #2 of Unleashed. I am especially grateful to Michael and Roy who shared their results with us live on yesterday’s call! Very unexpected, but very pleasant to hear listeners speaking up to share their results. So how about you? What are you doing to create momentum right this minute?

It’s easy to think up reasons to “hold off” on taking action that we might find uncomfortable. But most of those ‘reasons’ are dashed to pieces when you see what’s possible when we stop putting things off, and take action right now. Reality is a wonderful teacher. You will learn more in 1 hour of taking action than 30 days of “thinking about it.”

So how about it? Will you be our next listener to speak up and tell us about your great results? Roy shared with us yesterday that he landed 7 “yeses” from the Realtors he spoke with (Out of 12) + 1 agent who asked to schedule a meeting right away! Not bad for less than 2 hours of work! Imagine what would happen if he stuck with this for the rest of the month?

See, this is the best part about marketing to Realtors. Eventually you can toggle down your efforts. Imagine if Roy kept this up for a full month, and landed several high producers Realtor partners? He would then be able to toggle down his efforts, and spend more time on closing the referrals than on getting new Realtor partners. But his ability to get these appointments will never go away, so long as he is willing to take action “as needed”. Nice feeling isn’t it?

I look forward to hearing from more of you during Loan Officer Unleashed! Mortgage lead generation is a whole lot more fun when you get results isn’t it?