I’ve been thinking a great deal about the magnitude of the ‘content’ updates I am planning to make on our main website for 2008, their effects on our SEO key word/phrase placements, along with the significant philosophical differences I see that I have with most others in our industry, are on my mind a great deal.
As I think through the differences I have with so many, I have been able to break it down fairly clearly in my own head. It appears the preponderance of those I interact with, whether they are students, folks inside an industry discussion board, those that I speak with who author industry publications – it looks like everybody started in our business since the cycle ‘correction’ of August 1998.
It appears to me, the generation of people that started during this post-98 cycle, entered the industry for the big easy money that was at hand via the new big-commission biz notion that developed then. Looks like compassion toward customers, has been substituted for selling & closing clients with this bunch.
In my adult lifetime I have seen too many sales pros use various props, scripts, and tricks of all sorts to ‘close’ people. I’m still too idealistic about our industry, so this philosophical aversion to ‘sales’ I have, as evidenced by most of my writings which highlight the need for Integrity and Ethical behavior … I think many want to have faith in my approach … yet our competition all seem to market themselves as sales guru’s and promise to show their seminar attendees how to earn the big bucks! And, considering they came to the industry for the ‘big bucks’ and ‘easy money’ in the first place, those motivational speaker types, who prey on pumping up everyone’s ego, looks like the sort of industry education and training they are attracted to vs the more career minded approach I offer through Secret! University.
The fear I have is that the theme I intend to promote throughout our site in ‘08, may drive many of them away – it can be summarized this way: ‘from stranger to 1003 to funding and beyond are all included within the many important moving parts of the residential mortgage lending industry – DON’T STOP AT SALES. At Secret! University, our curriculum range and our teacher/Mentors have far more know-how than mere ordinary sales skills, you need to reach higher!’
So … what-do-ya-think?
PS: And I know why this is; when I started it was salary and small bonuses, and face to face with customers, not websites & e-mails like now days. We were never promised the opportunity to earn enough income in a year or two, to purchase a house outright, so the big-bucks wasn’t the draw like lately – it was a ‘career’ I entered. We signed-up customers, hundreds and even thousands of loan customers face to face; seeing their fears, desperation, and relief when approved, made a lasting impression on me from my early days in training. I believe these two major differences are why I think so much like I do.
