Make the ask. The one that makes all of it pay. Here's what I know from watching loan officers change this one thing, including myself. When my lead count is down, I can always trace it back to one question: did I ask for the business on every call? Did I ask for commitment?
I think about my friend Jared. We were working together in my live coaching class, and when he started, he was asking for the business maybe 20 to 24% of the time. By the end, he was asking over 90%. That last week, he put almost seven transactions into his pipeline. He kept telling me, "Steve, I'm learning how to ask for the business." I told him, you're not learning it. You're doing it. The results are showing it.
If You Don't Measure It, You Won't Improve It
My mentor Ron Lemon used to grab me by my cheeks and tell me, "Son, you can't manage what you don't measure." I live on five acres with a circular driveway, about a mile if you run it five times. If I just go out and run laps, I'll post a decent time. But if my wife stands at the door with a stopwatch, I run faster. Measuring the activity, especially the most effective part of it, changes the activity itself.
"Sales is not salesy. Sales is the gift of solving a problem in a cool way."
Sales Is Neutral. We Made It Negative.
If you hear "that sounds salesy" in your own head, I want you to go back to Day 1, identity. Sales is a neutral word. No family with a mortgage gets that mortgage without a loan officer. No agent gets paid on a financed transaction without a great loan officer. That's not salesy. That's solving a real problem.
If sales has a negative connotation for you, it's because a past experience framed it that way, not because the word itself carries any charge. We've got to reframe it, because without Day 5's ask, nothing else works. I could have the right calendar, the right list, know my number, and still produce almost nothing if I never ask.
Designed Conversations, Not Scripts You Hate
People tell me all the time, "I don't like scripts, I don't want to sound scripted." I'll ask them to say their phone number out loud. They say it the exact same way every time. Nobody complains about sounding scripted reciting their own phone number, because it works. Change one digit because you don't want to sound scripted, and your packages go to the wrong house.
A designed conversation framework is what to say before, during, and after, so it never feels like a pitch. My agents will say, "You asked for the business again." I tell them, yeah, it's just what I do. And here's the deal: if I'm asking you every time, I'm asking your clients every time too, and bringing every relational referral straight back to you.
10 outbound conversations with 10 asks produces about 2 relational referrals in my business. Across thousands of loan officers I've coached, that number sits within about 10% either direction.
The Math Behind a 10-Loan Month
Two relational referrals a day, multiplied across five days, gives you 10 relational leads a week. That's roughly two and a half transactions a week, putting you at 8 to 12 fundings a month depending on conversion. And it all starts with the ask.
For me personally, the right ask for commitment took my conversion from 64% to 94%. That single conversation, in the right spot at the right time, was worth an extra three to four loans a month.
Track It Like You Track Anything Else
I track OC, outbound calls. TT, talk-tos. Ask. Leads. I write those four at the top of every single day, mark them down as they happen, and tally them at the end of the week. 25 outbound calls, 10 conversations, 10 asks, about two relational referrals a week. That's the rhythm.
Day 5 of the 5-Day Challenge gives you the three biggest asks for the business.
Word for word, including the commitment ask that took my own conversion from 64% to 94%.
Start the Challenge. $297 ›If you're already closing a lot of business but you've got a team, ask yourself whether your team is asking for the business every time. Some of you don't need more leads. You need everyone on your team running the same ask, every time, tracked.
Be a pro. Ask for the business every single time. Track it. It doesn't have to be perfect. Progress is greater than perfection.