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

Dave: First, the cornerstone of a successful business based upon referrals is the delivery of great customer service. Second, you deliver great customer service by exceeding your customers’ expectations. Third, you will never exceed your customers’ expectations by promising more than you can deliver.

If you over-promise you will always under-deliver. These three tenants are the foundation of any business. They cannot be broken in any way, shape or form.

Now here is the problem. If you under-promise—you will lose the loan because everyone else is promising the world. This is really frustrating. But, if you are coming from a position of expertise, those you deal with will respect your position. They also will know your reputation if you are dealing with referrals rather than cold calls.

I have no problem with making a statement such as—“I can’t promise _____, but I will promise that no one will work as hard as I can to help you through the process.” Quality real estate agents will gravitate to those they can respect, and they know will deliver on a continual basis throughout their careers.

Newer agents and those who are not quality producers will be led astray time and time again. Obvious, you need to work with quality agents and that should be a long-term goal of your business plan as well.

One other consideration: even if you lose the loan, call the person back two to three weeks later. When they discover they have been over promised they will be unhappy. You can put yourself in a position to get the loan back if the timing is right.

Don’t call asking for the loan back—just check in to make sure everything is okay. Leave the door open. Remember, if you don’t put yourself in position, you will never succeed. I find that so many loan officers leave this step out of the equation. This extra step can make a world of difference within your business. I would not overlook this very important tactic.

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..