No. A loan officer’s business plan should start with what that loan officer is actually trying to accomplish. Some want to build and scale a large team. Others want a strong business, a great living, flexibility, and time with their families. Both are legitimate goals, and they call for different plans.
Are sales leaders building the business their loan officers want?
Not always. It’s easy for a sales leader to coach toward the business they would build themselves. The question every leader should ask is whether they are helping their people build the business those people want, or the business the leader wants them to have. Those are not necessarily the same thing.
What does success look like for a loan officer?
It depends on the person. Success doesn’t look the same for everybody. For one loan officer, it means growth, scale, and building something substantial. For another, it means running a very good business that supports the life they want outside of work. Neither one is wrong.
How do you build a business plan around a loan officer’s goals?
Start by understanding what success looks like to them, then work backward. A useful sequence is to answer three questions together:
• What kind of business do they need to build to reach that goal?
• What skills do they need to develop?
• What systems, tools, or resources can be put around them to help them get there?
The point is to help the loan officer uncover the answers for themselves, not to hand them a finished plan.
Who owns a loan officer’s business plan?
The loan officer does. The leader’s role is to help create the plan and then hold the loan officer accountable to it. Because the loan officer helped build it, it is their plan, measured against their definition of success.
What is a sales leader’s job in coaching loan officers?
A sales leader’s job isn’t to decide what somebody else’s success should look like. It’s to help each person reach their fullest potential, whatever that looks like for them, whether they want to go big or keep things smaller.
What should a loan officer ask before writing a business plan?
Before setting goals for the year, a loan officer can ask: What does success actually look like for me? Do I want to build a team, or build a great business with flexibility? What has to be true about my business, my skills, and my support systems to get there? And is the plan I’m working from built around my goals, or someone else’s?
Bryan Lovell is VP of Sales at Highland Mortgage, where he coaches loan officers on building businesses around their own definition of success.