This content provides practical strategies for professionals, particularly in client-facing roles like mortgage brokers, to prevent clients from "ghosting" by establishing control during initial discovery calls and setting clear expectations for the next steps.
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How to prevent clients from ghosting
you. Hey, I'm Scott Pegford and today
this is a live uh session where I'm
going to share with you some insights
from coaching calls I've had in the last
week. So, something I started last week
and I was calling it the weekly broker
breakdown, which doesn't even make
sense. So, I'm just going to call it
coaching Q&A. And my whole goal here is
to either give you conversations from
coaching sessions I had and maybe some
point I may do them live where I have
real coaching sessions with people, but
who knows? Right now, I'm going to do it
just this way. So today I did a deep
dive into discovery calls. I was doing
some training with some of our agents
and I thought there'd be some things you
would find useful. Uh if you've ever had
clients ghost you. So you know you have
that initial conversation, everything
seems great and they disappear. Why
didn't they do the app? Why didn't they
send you docs? And then even worse, they
circle back to you, you know, 30, 60
days later with an offer in hand and
say, "Hey, can you get me financing? Uh
I, you know, you've got five days or
less to get me financing and it's a
nightmare. I'll tell you how to get how
to prevent that from happening. Also, uh
if you ever get on a call and and you're
finding the client is actually just
peppering you with questions and you
find you can't get into a rhythm, I'll
tell you how to fix that as well. And
then I'm going to give you the best
opener that I personally think you
should do on every single discovery call
for every client from now until you
decide to hang up your calculator. All
right, before we jump into that, I want
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and let's dive into this episode.
All right, so first things on a
discovery call, you have to have a plan.
You can't do these things and just kind
of wing it and hope for the best. And
when I was used to broker, I always had
a checklist of all the things I needed
to cover in that discovery call so that
I wouldn't forget because you do have to
a little bit go with the rhythm of the
call. Some people are going to come in
at a certain spot and I don't want to
make it so rigid that you can't and
maybe in another call I will break down
more of the details. Today I just want
to cover three key things. So the first
is the first question you should ask. So
if you if you get a call from a client
and they reach out to you and they say,
"Hey, uh, Scott, I want to talk to you."
Awesome. You get on that phone call.
First thing I want to say to them, "Hey,
look Bob, you know what? looking forward
to chatting with you and see if I can
help you. Just out of curiosity, how did
you hear about me? And very important
question, there's a follow-up question
to that. And I want them to tell me and
it was a referral. Then the next
follow-up question is awesome. What did
Sally say? And the reason I want to do
this is twofold. One, I want to hear
what Sally has to say. What was how was
she selling me? She's like, "Oh, Scott's
amazing. Even if you got, you know,
terrible credit, he's going to help you
out." I'm like, "I don't want that
client, frankly." And then I can go back
and coach Sally or figure out what I'm
saying to her. So, you really want to
ask what did they say? uh at first how
did you hear about us and then when they
tell you the person what did they say
the other thing is if they say oh I saw
your social media ask or was something
you posted hey which post stood out to
you now you're figuring out which
content actually drives that conversion
and connection and do more of that
content so you see why this is such a
valuable question and then the second
thing sort of second underneath this is
that when they start telling you about
what Sally said or they start telling
you about the content they're actually
selling themselves on working with you
so there's a psychological they're
leaning in and making a micro
commitment. So, this is why it's so
valuable to ask that question. First
thing you should ask and awesome. Then
you got to set a frame. And the frame
basically is whoever asks the questions
is in control. If you sit there and the
client's hammering you with questions,
you're not in control. That client is
running the call. They're and I always
say they your job is is to drive the
bus. You have a process that you must
follow. If you let them drive the bus,
they will always crash it and it will
always be your fault. And they you can't
blame them because you let them have the
steering wheel. They can decide where
they want to go because that's what you
should be doing, guiding them, but they
don't know how this works. And so them
asking questions and say, "Well, let me
ask you this. What's your rate? What's the
the
call's already lost. So you need to set
a frame at the beginning and say, "Hey,
look, Bob, you know what? Based on what
Sally said about you, definitely sounds
like I might be able to help you out.
Here's what I need to do. I got to ask
some questions just to understand where
you are and where you want to go. And
then I can let you know if we're even a
fit because I may not be." So does that
sound fair? And then at the end, when
most people when you say a phrase like
that, does that sound fair? 99.9% of
people except for psychopaths will say,
"Sure." Soon as they do that, they've
given me permission. And then I'll
usually add after that, hey, at the end,
I'll make sure that you can ask me any
questions you have. All right? And then
now they've got I've got the frame of
the professional, the frame that I'm
going to ask the questions. And then
what happens is is that on I'm on this
call with them. And now if they start to
get off track, I'll say, "Hey, you know
what? I I'll get to that. I promise. But
what I really need to know is where are
you at right now? What type of income do
you have?" So I'm going to bring them
back. So you you don't ever need to
argue with them if they try to go off
track. You sort of answer and deflect
and go right back to your your plan,
which is I need to understand where you
are and where you want to go to even
know if I can help you. And you think
about this like if you're a doctor and
you're doing a or even a mechanic, you
can't really diagnose somebody without
getting doing some looking under the
hood. If somebody drives in with their
car and says, "What's wrong with my
car?" And you're like, "Well, let me
have a look." No, no, no. I want you to
just tell me. If you're a good mechanic,
you should be able to know. I have no
idea what's wrong with your car. Same
thing with the doctor. If you go to see
a professional, they'd say, "I want to
see your blood work. I want to do your
blood test. I want to I want to actually
check your blood pressure. How am I
supposed to know how to diagnose you
based on that?" And plus, people don't
if they just tell you, I don't trust
what they tell me. I need to see what I
can get in in writing, right? Uh Ronald
Reagan used to say, "Trust, but verify.
I trust that you think you know what you
make, but I got to verify it for before
I'm going to use it and let you lean on
that in and rely on it in order to get
you approved." So, you're going to go
through this whole question asking
process. you know, income, down payment,
credit, uh, you know, what's the ideal
scenario? I love a magic wand question.
You know, if I could wave a magic wand
to get you exactly what you want, uh,
what would that look like? You know, and
then if they say, "Oh, I want a house."
Okay, so then the next question, I want
to find about timing. If they say, I if
I'm looking to buy a condo, whatever,
awesome. If you found the perfect condo,
are you ready to proceed tomorrow? What
kind of timeline are you on? I want to
know if this person is just searching
now going, "Oh, no, no, I can't buy yet.
I'm waiting for a gift from my
grandparents and it's 6 months away."
Cool. That's good to know. That's a
That's a But again, if you don't start
asking good questions, you're not going
to find these things. So, again, at the
front end, you're going to ask, "How did
you hear about them? What did they say?"
That's going to help you find out either
content that's converting or
conversations that are happening in
advance. Uh, and then you're going to
get them. They're going to sell
themselves on you. The next step is
you're going to say, you're going to set
a frame. You're the professional. Do not
let them. And even if you've only done
three mortgages, it's more than most
people have done because they do it once
every 5 years and they've only ever see
the other side of it. So, don't even
worry about it. So you basically you're
going to ask questions to dig in. And
then at the end, this is really
important. This is how you're going to
pre prevent getting so people that have
a conversation with you and then ghost
you. What the reason they do that by the
way is that you give them enough
information in that call that they think
they know and they think that they're
good to go and they're not because you
haven't you probably you haven't seen
documents, you haven't seen application,
you have no you haven't seen credit, you
have no idea what you don't know the
hundred landmines that are in that
application. And I I personally would
not give anybody uh a sense of what they
qualify for without some commitment. The
other thing is that if they don't want
to give me that commitment, we're not
working together. So if you want me to
just make up numbers and say, "Oh yeah,
I think I can do this, that, or the
other thing." I have no idea. Like I'm a
professional. I'm not going to do that.
I don't do a bait and switch and I will
make sure that whatever I tell you, I'll
stand behind. But that's only if I have
documents and an application. So you get
to the end of that conversation. You
say, "Look, you know what, Bob? Uh
sounds like I'll be able to work with
you based on what you said to me. Here's
the next steps in the process. We need
to schedule a strategy session. So, this
call should take about 15 minutes, by
the way. Uh, and you know, if you're
good, 10 minutes, maybe 10, 15 minutes.
And what you're going to do is you're
going to schedule the the strategy
session before you do it before you tell
them about the app and the link and all
the documents. I like to schedule it
because uh people if they don't have a
deadline, they don't ever get around to
it, right? So, if you just say, "Hey,
fill it this out." And then we'll have
So, I like to book it, say, "What's your
schedule look like?" Okay, I want to set
up a strategy session to go through a
pre-approval to go through a budget
worksheet to work out all the numbers
with you to show you or renewal refi,
show you all your options. Does that
sound good, Mr. Customer? Awesome.
Great. Then what we're going to do is
we're going to schedule that on Friday
at 11:00. Fantastic. If there's anybody
else that needs to be there, we'll make
sure they're there. Hey, you know what?
They got that scheduled in their
calendar. Fantastic. Hey, Bob, just so
you know, before that session, I'm going
to send you a link with an application
to fill out and some documents that I
need in order to be able to do that
strategy session. If I don't have them,
I can't do it. That sound good? Can you
do that before Friday? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
It shouldn't take you that much time.
Yeah, no problem. Awesome. They just
committed to getting it done, which
means now you're going to get documents
and and application is not 100%. Nothing
is ever 100%. The only thing is this is
increasing your chances of getting those
things that you need in order to
actually properly serve them. And so
then having that scheduled and I think
it's uh Dan Martell says is bam uh book
a meeting from a meeting. Bam fam. So
book a meeting. I booked a meeting from
a meeting. This discovery call books to
the strategy call. The mistake I see
people make on discovery calls is they
actually trying to sell too much.
They're trying to sell everything. Don't
sell everything. Even if you've got a
brilliant idea, save it, hint at it,
right? Like, so if somebody says to me,
"Hey, Scott, like here's a perfect
example came up today in our training
session. Uh it was a and on the call,
the person had bought a property a
little while ago and it has it was
insured CHC insured property and and the
if somebody's got a CMHC insurance on
their current property and they're
buying another property that's going to
have insurance, they may be able to port
their premium. Now, I'm not going to get
into all explaining that a discovery
call. That's confusing. All I would say
to that client then is, "Hey look, so
you just bought this place and now
you're looking at another one." That's
fantastic. I may have an idea that could
save you potentially thousands of
dollars and I've done it for other
clients. I'll make sure that I explain
that to you at the strategy session. I
They're like, "What is this thousands of
dollars? I don't I want to know."
They're going to show up to the strategy
session. This is where I'm going to and
then if they don't want to get me docs
and they don't want to do app, we're not
working together. We're pretending.
We're like, "Yeah, we're pretending
we're working together. We're not
working together." And then I know. So
that's what you do. You book a meeting
from a meeting. But here's the key.
Another key little strategy I got from
my buddy Alex McFaden. So the next day
if you start if you don't see anything
coming in, shoot them a text. Say, "Hey,
just confirming you got the link because
maybe it went in their spam. They didn't
see it. You're sitting there going, "Oh,
they're not going to get back to you."
Who knows what story you make up in your
mind, but the truth is is that you don't
know. And so always text the day after.
If you don't see anything coming in,
hey, just confirm you got the links. And
if they say yes, then you know that
that's they put their hand up. But if
they don't, like don't don't assume.
anything else is weird is going on. So
that's that's just in a nutshell. So I'm
I'm kind of doing this in a you know
short period of time because these
episodes are supposed to be short but
the whole goal here is to help you get
better at discovery calls. And so this
all came up today in our coaching
session. I thought hopefully find this
useful. So I will wrap up with that. So
last I'll give you a quick recap. So
always ask how did you hear about me?
What did they say? Or what content did
you see? Again you're going to that's
going to reinforce. Uh the next thing is
you have to have the profame the
professional frame right? You've got at
the front of that thing explain to them
how this is going to work. here's how
this works. I'm going to ask some
questions. Find out if I can help you,
if I'm even a fit. If I'm not, I'll I
promise to tell you. And I and then you
can ask me any questions. If you just
let that thing go any direction, it will
be a catastrophe almost every time. And
then the last part is don't try to sell
too much in this meeting. All you're
trying to do is get enough to get maybe
there's is there an opportunity here?
Can you help them? And then sell them on
the next step step. Book a meeting from
a meeting. Uh hope you find that useful.
Hey, I'm Scott Beckford and as I always
say, there's no problem in your mortgage
business someone else hasn't already
solved. The goal is to find the
solutions when you need them. This
podcast is designed to provide some of
those solutions. I hope you like these
new episodes, these uh coaching Q&As's.
If you ever want to uh do a session with
me, send me a note. Maybe we can chat. I
if I uh if it sounds like it would work,
I could do a recording of some of the
conversations. I don't mind doing that
as well. Right now, I'm mostly taking
them out of these coaching calls that
I'm doing, but I'm open to it. Shoot me
a note. If you have an interesting
question or dilemma, I might be open to
doing a a session with you. Thanks for
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