[caption id="attachment_9654" align="alignright" width="268"] Dave Hershman[/caption]

A: I will not comment on whether you should move from your company. First, I don't have enough information about you and/or your company to answer with any confidence. Secondly, as an educator, it is not my place. That being said, you raise an interesting question about "losing" deals. I will ask you to consider one thing: Is there someone else at your company converting more calls than you? If there is, the issue may very well lie within. Again, I don't know you well enough to assess your skills or what you are saying, but I will impart some knowledge in this regard.

You do give me a clue in that your clients are calling you. In some respects that is a good thing as they are showing some semblance of loyalty. On the other hand, it also tells me that they are in rate shopping mode by calling around.

One of the keys to being successful in this case is for you to make the first move. Imagine if you called them BEFORE they even thought about refinancing. If you could speak to them, go over the benefits and impart real value with regard to advice--some of them may never make the move to shop.

So, the first point here is to be proactive instead of reactive. You will not eliminate all "rate shopping," but you will lessen it. It may be that they are not ready now, but you can promise to contact them when their savings hit a certain level. You are elevating yourself as a long-term advisor in this situation, rather than someone to call among many.

Regardless of who makes the initial call, I would like to address what you might say to the client. We also spoke about a survey conducted by BankRate.com, which indicated that 35% of homeowners have no idea what their interest rate is. Why? Because they don't make a rate every month. They make a payment every month. Yet, they are calling you asking about the rate.

Your job is to change the conversation from rate to payment. And it is easy with questions such as "What payment are you looking for?" or "Are you more interested in lowering your payment or saving thousands of dollars by building up equity more quickly?" There are plenty of other options, but here is the point: the conversation should not be about the rate, but the benefit.

The key is digging deeper to the client's needs. The key is to focus upon benefits, rather than features. A lower rate is a feature of a mortgage. But the lower payment is the benefit. A lower rate on a conversion to a 15 year could actually raise their payment but add the benefit of building equity more quickly. Perhaps the benefit could be getting cash to pay off debts, pay for college or even purchase a car.

Even the cash is not the benefit--the benefit is what they do with the cash. For example, if they need to purchase a car---you should be focused upon questions regarding the car because that is what they are interested in. They are not interested in a mortgage, they are interested in a car. Even when they purchase real estate, they are not interested in a loan, they are interested in a home. The more you are focused upon the ultimate benefit, which is what your client is interested in, the deeper relationship and trust you will develop. And your conversion rate will increase accordingly.

Dave Hershman is Senior VP of Sales of Weichert Financial and the top author in the mortgage industry. Dave has published seven books, as well as hundreds of articles and is the founder of the OriginationPro Marketing System and Mortgage School–the online choice for expert mortgage learning and marketing content. His site is www.OriginationPro.com and he can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..