Dear Loan Officer: The Law of the Scale

Dear Loan Officer,

Happy Tuesday – I hope this week finds you in good health! This month, I am diving into the… drumroll…. Law of the Scale. The Law of the Scale remits that if you want more business, have fewer clients. Now, I don’t know how you feel when you first hear that. When I first heard it in my young days in the business, I did not quite understand what it meant. But after digesting it, I knew it was profound (see below facial expression for emphasis):

My takeaway after 22 years in the business, is this: Go deep with your referral partners. Choose the people you really enjoy working alongside, and whom you want to do more business with. Quit digging a bunch of 1-foot wells, and start digging 5-10, 100-foot wells. My first step in employing the Law of the Scale gem, was identifying who were the referral partners that I wanted to go deeper down the path with.

Here are some qualifying questions you may want to pose to those partners:

What makes them tick? What are their biggest stresses? Why did they get in the business in the first place? What is important about being successful to them? What is their 3-year vision for their business? What does their team look like down the road, and how many of them can I help? What are their biggest frustrations with the lending side of the business, and how can I help them?

In a sales profession like ours – continuing to build on your relationships engages more trust and keeps you top-of-mind, which will lead to true victory. I wish you all the best!