signs of the early on-set of dementia and the challenges a senior faces. With the 203k loans, there are certain nuances in selling that product that require our loan officers to go through training and take courses— they cannot just run out there and start pitching 203ks.”
Another point of view Gibran Nicholas, CEO of Ann Arbor, Mich.-based CMPS Institute, a national organization that certifies mortgage bankers and brokers, sees the situation from a different perspective. “A lot of people spend inordinate amounts of money on training with no measurable impact on their business,” he said. What goes wrong? According to Nicholas, too many companies mis-
takenly believe that education is a standalone activity that concludes once the class curriculum has run its course. Instead, Nicholas stresses that the industry is in a state of constant change and the approach to the daily workload often needs to be adjusted to meet these changes. “What has worked very well is recent years is what we call ‘habit integration,’” he said. “We take the loan officers’ pre-existing habits— even on one or two things—and get them to do that a little bit differently in order to have a higher impact on business.” Nicholas also stressed continuing education, with weekly 30-minute coaching sessions to ensure that industry professionals are up to speed on both large issues and seemingly
esoteric considerations, such as the potential problems on how the gift tax could impact a home loan. “Why should mortgage professionals just sit through training and have their companies expect them to retain everything they learned in a 15-hour class?” he asked. “Now, training becomes an implementation resource—with weekly coaching to keep them informed on a regular basis.” One aspect of contemporary mortgage education that Nicholas expresses concerns about is the heavy focus on compliance—to the point that it could obscure an emphasis on sales skills and other considerations. “Compliance is important,” he said. “But it is like eating a meal—if all you eat for dinner every night is
hamburger, you’re going to be sick of hamburger. You are going to need to switch it up.” Still, Nicholas is satisfied at how the industry has embraced the importance of education—not only for ROI purposes, but for building credibility. “When we started in 2005, there was no standardization in mortgage industry,” Nicholas said. “We had people selling cars one day, shoes the next day and mortgages the following day. We saw a void in the market— someone has to train this originator before they speak to consumers.” Phil Hall is senior editor of National Mortgage Professional Magazine. He may be reached by e-mail at philh@nmpmediacorp.com. 59
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n Utah Mortgage Professional Magazine n MAY 2014