UPDATING YOUR SKILL SET

As technology, market conditions and customer expectations evolve, so to do the skills loan officers must apply to be successful.  A  check of market conditions by the time this article is published will reveal a market vastly different from the re-fi mania of the past 18-24 months. This dramatic change creates the following question within training circles: Do your current training programs accurately reflect the skill sets required for today’s changing market?

 

Change is inevitable, progress is not. Training programs locked into “tried and true” curriculum do not and will not address the idiosyncrasies of a changing market. Some believe the fall in volume will be precipitous. This alone is enough to raise blood pressure and trepidation levels. But from a training perspective it is an exciting and invigorating time because selling and calling skills, handling objections and building relationships are now critical to survival. Wholesale account executives must now become much more proactive in prioritizing their customer base and their time. Individual brokers must understand they now have to go out and actually call upon their past customer base, many of whom they have not seen in a year or more. This ”change in course” mandates a change in thinking about training. Training today must reflect the skill sets required in a shrinking market. Volume will not be the measurement, but maintaining market share should be. From the perspective of training, what skills will be required to succeed in a vastly different market? The answer to this question should drive all training decisions. 

 

Loan originators have been so busy plucking the “low hanging fruit” of re-fi’s during the last year, their calling and relationship building skills have either become rusty or completely disappeared. Approaching training in 2004 with 2003 attitudes and skills will be the death knell for many. Last year success was possible without actively marketing and applying selling skills. Thousands of people participated in training sessions during the past year, only to find the realities of the market made making money a higher priority than applying what they may have learned. Training today must therefore accurately reflect the skill sets required by a changing market. The market is evolving so fast; skill sets of the past do not address what is required today.

 

A prime example of this observation is how rate sheets are used as a sales tool. We train loan officers how to keep rates updated and what the rate sheets should look like for ease of computation and faxing. Many simply cannot function without them. However, when  “relationship based” volume should be replacing “transaction based” volume, traditional use of the rate sheet no longer works. Unfortunately, many loan officers have allowed rate sheets to become their crutch and or excuse. From a training perspective the question therefore becomes not “what skill sets are we training” but “how are we applying those skill sets to a changing market”?

 

The more pressure loan officers place on their pricing, the less pressure they place on the selling skills they must apply to deliver their programs to their customer base. . Further, the more attention loan officers focus upon the rate sheet as a sales tool, the more credence the borrower/Realtor will place on the issue of rate. The rate sheet therefore becomes an easy out for those customers who do not wish to work with your company.  Training programs that endorse the importance of relationship building undermine their objective by not addressing the damage rate sheets can cause in a relationship-building environment. Training programs must not only consider the full impact of the skill sets they build but equally important, how they are applied in the field.

 

When addressing training needs the following questions must be applied:

 

What are the skill sets we must build for our people to be successful?

 

How should those skill sets be field applied in a changing market?

 

What are the ramifications of continuing to train on long established skill sets?

 

Are the skill sets we presently address based upon what we have always done or how we are currently assessing this changing market?

 

Where might we be “undoing what we are trying to do”?

 

Skill set applicability applies equally to operations personnel.  The days of a processor in every branch are over. Today, centralization provides the efficiencies, (some would argue), and economies of scale, to make processing centers an intricate part of the workflow process. Question: Has your training addressed the change in communication challenges and internal relationship building? In many cases, the answer is “no”. If proximity is not possible, it must be replaced with mutually understood expectations for all parties involved. The ‘how’ and ‘when’ of contact with processing centers should also be part of internal training programs. The market has evolved, but in many cases the treatment processing centers receive from their origination teams is worse today than when processors were on site. The telephone and now email can create the opportunity to be less than cordial because face-to-face contact no longer exists.  Changes in workflow and communication expectations should become an integral part of today’s training curriculum.  Training someone how to process  loans is one thing, preparing them to deal with loan officers is another.

 

The critical message for those with training responsibilities is this: Be sure to monitor the skill sets you deliver and measure how they are applied in the field. Using rate sheets is one thing but an over dependency will undermine building relationships. Processor training on the technical side will be undermined by less than stellar communications between loan officers and processors. Skill set applicability really does matter, now more than ever.

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