If you are a loan officer or mortgage broker and you are considering purchasing leads, you may want to consider “real time” mortgage leads.

If you have been frustrated with mortgage lead companies in the past, it may have been because you were receiving recycled leads, or better put, “junk leads.”

Junk leads go round and round from lead company to lead company. Bought in bulk for cheap, than sold to unassuming loan officers at a profit.

For this reason alone, you should give serious consideration to real time leads, because real time leads are delivered within seconds of the prospect submitting the on line form, and you can be sure the lead is of good quality.

Before you go and commit to a lead company, be sure to do some research on the company. Call the lead company and speak with someone in customer service.

You want to be sure you are getting your money’s worth, so find out how the lead provider obtains their mortgage leads.

If they are not obtaining their leads through sites they own and operate on their own, than the leads are not fresh, and you need to move onto the next lead company.

Remember, you work hard for your money, so if the lead company you are considering cannot give you answers to your questions, than most likely they can’t provide you with good quality leads.

Professional salesmanship is critical to both growing sales and optimizing gross margin. So salespeople -- especially those new to the sales profession -- that take the time to read sales books, attend sales seminars and listen to sales albums will almost invariably out perform those that take a more casual approach to learning their profession.

A few months ago, I was conducting a sales training session for a Florida client. As we were working on how to open conversation with a prospect, an attendee raised his hand. When I recognized him, he said to me, “That kind of crap won’t work in this market. All my customers and prospects want from me is the lowest price. When I’m successful at beating my competitors’ prices, I get the order. When I fail, I lose the order. It’s that simple.”

Thinking to myself…no wonder this business has gross margin problems, I asked him, “How do you open conversation with a prospect?”

“I walk up to the prospect, introduce myself, shake his hand, and ask him if he will let me quote him on a few key products. Since most all prospects will let me quote them, I selectively quote a few prices that I know are below the market.”

“Do you find that approach to be effective?”

“Not always, but I’ve never found anything that worked any better.”

This kind of sales opening statement may make sense for a not-so-professional salesperson, but it shouldn’t take a salesperson long to realize that such an approach is disastrous to a company trying to optimize its gross margin.

I believe that progressive salespeople -- those that wish to see their incomes consistently grow -- should be learning how to achieve higher levels of sales volume at higher gross margins by adding more value than the competition.

Prospects are not stupid. It takes most prospects about two minutes to figure out when a salesperson is trying to “buy” their business. If salespeople are not trained to open conversation with a good value statement, it’s extremely difficult to solidly dislodge a strong competitor.

Here is a value statement model that sales trainer Art Sobczak (www.businessbyphone.com) recommends:

“Mr. Prospect, my name is Joe Wiggleton with ABC Company. We specialize in working with companies that wish to differentiate their businesses from their competitors so that they can get out of the pricing rat race.”

(FYI - you can either use a positive statement as in the above example or a problem-solving statement like, “We specialize in working with companies that are looking for ways to improve their product’s image and quality while still remaining competitive in the market. May I ask you a few questions to see if our services might be of value to you?”)

Here is a form that you might use to practice this technique: My name is ___________ with ____________. We specialize in ___________ (fill in blank with something your prospect is certain to wish to receive from a vendor or fill in the blank with something that your prospect is certain to want to avoid.)

I recommend spending some time on this technique and come up with a dozen or so unique benefits that you may use in different situations you find yourself in.

Be sure also to keep good notes to make sure that you remember which benefits you mentioned on your last call so you won’t sound like a broken record on your next call.

Here’s how I might use this technique in my business: “Mr. Prospect, my name is Bill Lee with Lee Resources. We work exclusively with owners and managers who are looking for ways to improve their bottom line. We help our clients measure individual performance and design compensation plans for key employees that reward them for increasing productivity. Among your managers and salespeople, how effective are they at optimizing their productivity?”

Or this, “Mr. Prospect, I consult with companies that are looking for ways to help their sales organizations grow sales and improve gross margin. What programs do you have in place now to improve the productivity of your sales team?”

VOICE MAIL MESSAGE: This kind of opening statement works equally well as an impressive message to leave when you make the decision to leave a message in a prospect’s voice mailbox.

Just like my prospects, your prospects are busy. But they all have several common interests: 1. Putting more money on the bottom line; 2. Solving their most pressing business problems; 3. Being more successful.

The popular television program, “Deal or No Deal” probably frustrates you like it does me. What is wrong with those people on the program? Take the DEAL! These are the words I shout from my home. It’s also the words I secretly shout in my head to clients when I’m selling to them.

It would be great if life were that clear in sales. Salespeople are better off with clear answers from prospects and customers. When salespeople don’t get a definitive answer, they pin their hopes on wishes and dreams. These hopes and dreams are later listed on prospect sheets that never become deals. We should be saying, deal or no deal to our prospects and eliminate the half truths.

When a prospect doesn’t say YES, the sales time table extends. This time extension creates a real challenge for the salesperson. Each time the deal is extended, the chance of getting the deal is reduced. If the salesperson doesn’t have a follow-up system, they will lose track of the opportunity and it will fade away.

Motivating Buyers To Make Deals

What is often odd about the decision process is that buyers are just as motivated as salespeople to make a decision of deal or no deal. Ironically, the buyer is often looking to the salesperson for assistance in making a decision. Unfortunately, many salespeople don’t get this truth. If a salesperson decides not to extend the opportunity and forces the question of deal or no deal, they often get the deal.

Everybody wins when a decision is made by the buyer. If the buyer accepts the deal, you don’t get stuck in limbo. If the buyer says “No Deal”, the salesperson has two choices. One option is to move on to the next deal and don’t look back. The other option is to put the buyer in a “Not Now” mode and remain in contact with them until the buyer is ready. In each case everyone is better off and time is not wasted by not making a decision.