Yep! You read that right. Nope! This is not a gimmick. What you are about to read is how you can earn $1,000,000 by dedicating yourself to three easily achievable daily tasks for just twelve weeks. This is not new for if it was new, it would not be true. What I am presenting is a challenge. I personally used this challenge to launch my MLO career back in 2004. Over the past 17 years I have bore witness to dozens of originators (and some non-mortgage professionals) attaining similar to better results. Think “No Shave November” or “Sober October”. You can do anything for a short period of time as long as you know there is an end in sight. Compare this challenge to any fad diet you have endured. Except, unlike your fad diet, you will never revert to looking, feeling or being worse off just a few months after completion. This is “The 12-Week Challenge”. Twelve weeks equals 84 calendar days or 60 business days. You are going to be asked to consistently complete three tasks every business day for 12 weeks. Literally, suck it up for 60 business days. Don’t miss. Don’t skip. Don’t make excuses. Your reward will be earning an incremental $1,000,000 in commissionable income.
Disclaimers first and then I’ll jump into the meat and potatoes. Let’s address the $1,000,000. This $1 million will not come all at once nor all in one year. If it did then the challenge would fall in the category of “too good to be true” at which point this article would have never made it into this publication. The 12-Week Challenge is about laying the groundwork to create long-term referral sources that will feed your business for years to come. The 12-Week Challenge is designed to bring you an additional 37 closings per year. Assuming your average loan amount is $250,000 (a low number in Dever, Miami or Seatle but a high number in Cleveland, Detroit or Little Rock) then this means you will fund an additional $9.25 million in volume. I use the words “additional” and “incremental” as it is assumed you will close some business even if you do not complete the challenge. These 37 loans are loans you will procure because of the challenge. Assume an average LO commission of 110 bps (again, some MLO’s are at 70 bps and others are at 150bps) then the LO who accepts and dominates the 12-Week Challenge will earn an incremental $100,000+ per year working with referral sources who will be reliable for future referrals well into the future. In just 10 years, because someone dedicated themselves for 84 calendar days (60 business days), they have earned themselves $1,000,000 in incremental income. Full disclosure, I think I am undercutting you and the challenge as we have not even factored in all the Listing Agents you will meet through these 37 additional closings and business relationships you will form with them. Nor have we discussed the refinance opportunities the incremental 37 fundings per year will produce in the near future let alone all the current client referrals and past client referrals you will receive.
Ok, so here is how it works. Each and every business day for the next 12 weeks you must:
- Text / E-mail / Mail twelve (12) referral partner targets.
- A target is someone you do not currently receive referrals from. The challenge does not care how you reach out; it is just important you do. 80% of who you reach out to should be Realtors and Builders. The other 20% can be a mix of CPA’s, Financial Planners, Divorce Attorneys etc. The purpose of the text / e-mail / letter is to notify the person of who you are, why you are reaching out and to give them a heads up that you will be calling to schedule a time to meet.
- Call twelve (12) future referral partners to schedule one (1) meeting.
- This means you will call twelve but not all twelve will pick up and not all twelve will say “yes”. You only need one (1) to agree to meet with you. The twelve you call will be the same people that you previously texted / emailed / sent a letter.
- Go on one (1) meeting.
- The purpose of this meeting is to build rapport and lay the foundation towards building a solid, long-term business relationship. The meeting should be you figuring out how you can add value to the target’s business as well as you figuring out if the target has potential to be a long-term consistent referral partner. (Not all targets do enough business nor project to having what it takes to conduct enough business to be reliable referral sources.)
By complete these three simple tasks every day, this means over an 84 day period of time you will have reached out 720 times via text / email / snail-mail, made 720 calls, scheduled 60 one-on-one meetings and attended 60 one-on-one meetings. To accomplish this, you will need a list of 250-400 targets. Your prep work each week is going to be compiling your list of targets.
Targets should come from:
- Referrals from referral sources you already work with
- Referrals from friends and family
- Referrals from local title companies
- Lists created by your sales manager of referral sources familiar with your company but not currently working with an LO from your branch.
- Google (Yes, you can find agent rosters on-line. It may make the call cold but a cold call is better than no call.)
The last thing you need to understand is that the 12-Week Challenge is a numbers game. You may make 720 contacts and attend 60 face to face meetings but you are only looking to build 15 referral relationships.
Here’s why:
- Of the 60 meetings with potential referral partners, 50% of them don’t do enough business to be reliable partners.
- That leaves 30 targets that do conduct enough transactions to be considered a long-term referral source.
- Of the 30 that have the ability to consistently refer, you don’t like half of them or they don’t like you.
- This leaves 15. These are 15 people that you like and in return they like you. They are serious about their business and therefor will have ample opportunities to referral you and your services to their clients.
- Each of these 15 are worth 2.5 closings per year for you.
- 5 multiplied by 15 equals 37.5. I round down to 37 as referenced above.
Simple, right?! Now the real question is, “Are you willing to accept this challenge?” Imagine the possibilities. What if you completed the 12-Week Challenge once a year, every year. What would your business look like after just 5 years? How many millions of dollars would you earn? Know this…this challenge is for all those who are serious about growing their business. It is not just for Rookies of Newbs. To quote the words written on the back my running shoes, “Just Do It.”
