Over and over I witness mortgage professionals sabotage their own goals and potential success.  This is a 3-part series to point out the natural human behaviors that are being ignored in trying to win business.  If you missed the first mistake, click here to read and get caught up on this discussion.

To introduce the second mistake, let’s start with the fundamental human behavior that leads to it:

“We want what we cannot have.”

How is this a mistake in trying to win business?  The mistake is spending your career trying to be “all things to all people”.  You’re too easy to have as a resource.  Your always available, and you promote this.  You answer emails in the evening and on weekends.  Without realizing it, YOU are positioning yourself as a commodity, when that’s the one thing you hate the most about this business…being viewed by others as a commodity and not being valued as unique.

Think about your approach to building new Realtor partnerships.  How “open” are you to them sending you business?  How easy do you make it for them to have a referral relationship with you?  Sure, I’ll be one of three cards you hand out!  Sure, pit me up against two other lenders over and over, so I can further be viewed as a commodity.  I love talking about rates, fees, and products all day…it’s glorious!  Absolutely I’d love to pay half of your marketing costs, piece of cake!  Honestly, whatever it takes to get you to refer me something!  And yes, I’ll be available evenings and weekends for you and your clients and even sit at your open houses for you.  No problem!

Hopefully, you can read my sarcasm here, but that’s how we often come across when trying to woo a new Realtor to work with us.  It’s really ridiculous when you think about it.

When’s the last time you told a new prospective Realtor partner, “I only have time to partner with 5 Realtors.  And for those 5 I choose, I do “x”, “y” and “z” like nobody’s business.  Your business will become easier, more profitable, and more fun.

Sounds bold, I know.  But until you become hard to have, and create something worth chasing, you will continue to play the numbers game and contribute to the revolving door of referral relationships that have been going on far longer than you’ve been in this business.

You can insert your own numbers in the above, but the real magic must come from you sitting somewhere quiet, with the phone off, and deciding what you will do for those 5, or 10, or 20 Realtors that YOU choose to partner with.  Create an experience and partnership so compelling they will want to have it…and then you can make it hard to get.

If you don’t buy any of this, think about the last time there was a premier type of event, with very limited availability?  Do you remember that feeling of scarcity when you thought, “Oh no…will I be able to get in?  I better hurry, and HOPE I can be one of the few.”  Create YOUR iPhone 8.  Build YOUR Tesla.

Create something not everyone can have, and let human nature kick in and make your prospects want it.