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

A: You just asked a great question, but the answer requires a book. Obviously, we don't have that much time, but I will be happy to spend some time talking about this issue, which should be helpful for rookies as well as experienced producers. The short answer is "YOU."

You are the reason you will succeed and why you will fail. It reminds me of a University of Michigan study which discovered that well over 90% of failures are due to the salesperson, not his/her circumstances, such as lack of training. In other words, good training is lost on the wrong people. So, the next question is who do you need to be?

When I teach sphere marketing, I teach that your sphere is not a database but a compendium of your life. It is within your sphere that you will find the answers, including where you are unique (another topic for another day). For example, lack of origination experience does not mean lack of experience. Do you have the experience of being a homeowner? An investor? Sales or, even more importantly, real estate sales experience? Experience in financial services or lending operations? I think you get the picture.

Each of these experiences can be drawn upon to help you succeed and, if I was hiring, I would hire rookies with experience--if that makes sense.

I could go over 20 characteristics, such as hard work and ethics, but I will cover only two very important traits in this column. One is investment. Whether you work for a large bank or a small broker, you are building a business. There are three aspects of investment: time, money and energy. Any business that is lacking investment in one of these areas will fail. You must invest in your business and, the more you invest, the more you will get out of it.

The second aspect is sphere. Many think of a sphere as a database. But as I have previously mentioned, it is more than that. It is a compendium of your life. It includes experiences, relationships, skills, background (including ethics) and more. If your sphere is extensive, you are more likely to succeed. And it is not only the identification of the sphere you have, it is your willingness to leverage your sphere.

If you have reluctance with regard to your sphere, you will be starting over, and you will be relegated to cold calling and much less likely to succeed--unless your company is giving you leads. And even if your company gives you leads, those leads will become part of your sphere and you must leverage them so that your business becomes self-perpetuating in the long-run.

Keep an eye out for Part II of my response to Peter from Seattle's question in an upcoming column. There, I will focus on leveraging your sphere and more.

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..