What Should I Be Doing Every Day as a Loan Officer?

What should I be doing every day as a loan officer? I'm running a series right now answering the biggest questions I keep hearing, and this one keeps surfacing more than almost any other.

I talked to a friend recently who told me, "Steve, I literally have no more margin." She was in two BNI groups, going to chamber events, going to every realtor association event on the calendar. I asked her how many deals she'd closed traceable to any of it in the last six months. Two or three. She was spending nine hours a week on activity that produced almost nothing.

Busy Is Not the Same as Productive

I had another loan officer tell me almost the exact same thing. "Steve, I don't have one loan I can trace back to any of this activity in the last six months." So I asked her what was actually producing her last 10 deals. When you strip away the emails, the targeted ads, the mailers, all useful supplements, it boils down to one thing.

And the good news: don't make cold calls to people who don't already know, like, and trust you. I talked to a loan officer going through the Challenge this morning. He told me about a friend, Mike, who made calls yesterday and landed two realtor appointments today. That's the loop working exactly as designed.

It's Not an Assistant Problem

I talked with a loan officer closing four or five a month consistently, who told me she needed more help. I challenged her on that. It's great to have support, but I don't think that's actually her bottleneck right now. Her real challenge is she's not doing two hours of outbound, proactive prospecting.

If you've got the business you want, don't push prospecting to Friday. Do it Monday through Thursday, four days a week, two hours a day, without excuses. "I was prepping my list" doesn't move the needle. Conversations move the needle.

The Math, Boiled All the Way Down

I talked to a friend in the Beaumont area this morning who's been chasing 100 outbound calls a week. He made over six figures last year and told me, "I'm blown away with how little you actually have to do to make a lot of money in this industry." If he keeps making those 100 calls a week, it'll be a game changer for his income.

If you want to close 10 loans a month, around $2.5 to $4.5 million in volume depending on your market, have 10 real conversations with 10 asks for the business, with the right people, every single day, five days a week. I believe it really is that simple. Not easy, simple.

Stop, Start, Keep

Go back and look honestly at your calendar from the last 90 to 120 days. Ask yourself what produced a loan and what didn't. Did the BNI chapter produce a closing? Did that networking event? If you'll take an honest assessment, you'll find activities worth stopping, activities worth starting, and activities worth keeping because they're already producing your current pipeline.

Your Only Real Job

As a loan officer, your job is to build authentic relationships with people who know, like, and trust you, people who can actively refer you, and to solve their problems when they need you. They make money, you make money. It's a genuine win-win, not a transaction you're forcing on anyone.

Don't let go of the most important thing. Conversations with an ask for the business, every single day, are what drive your pipeline. It's not perfection. It's progress. Get aware of the gap, make an intentional decision about your number, and don't get off of it.