Mortgage Broker Discovery Call Strategy: Building Trust, Authority, and Client Confidence

So this is how to build trust and authority in the first call, which is what I would call a discovery call. Now the first thing, discovery calls obviously are hard to do. The first question I would say. Is, what should a mortgage broker say in the first 60 to 90 seconds to establish a as, as and the call, sorry.

What should a mortgage broker say in the first 60 to 90 seconds to establish authority without sounding scripted or forceful?

To establish authority without sounding scripted or forceful. So the mistake people make when it comes onto the call is, what they do is they dive, they, they don't, they don't take control of the call. So what they should say in the first 60 to 90 seconds, you want to get on the call, you want to be a little bit friendly and a little bit more kind of jolly and stuff like that.

You know how you ice break a little bit for about. For about 60 seconds. Okay, so just have it maybe, maybe, maybe a minute and a half just to kind of put everyone at ease. But you want to quite quickly, within the first couple of minutes, get into a, into what I would call the, the setup of the call and the setup of the call is what we call the intention, the agenda, and the outcome.

And all in all this, this is that framework use, so intention, agenda, and outcome. And of those frameworks, what that then allows you to do is create a. Um, create effectively positioning at the right point. So let's break that down for a second. So, what do I mean by intention? Intention is to, um, you, you set at the call what the, what the actual intention of this call is.

Many people get on calls, they don't have any idea what they're talking about, as in where they're gonna go with it. And we've all been that meetings and stuff where you think, what are we doing here? What's actually happening? Why are we doing these calls? That's an intention. And I remember, um, hearing is it Oprah Winfrey said that she never goes into a meeting without having an intention knowing exactly what we're in the call for.

So we know what we're doing. So the intention is what we're going in now with intention for us as a mortgage broker. Our intention is to see if this is a good fit. So that's the first thing you wanna say. This is an intention to see if this is a good fit for us to work together, not to try and sell 'em.

So we're trying to say, effectively, this is an interview. Do we want to work together? Do we both want to work together? So that's the intention. Then what you do within that is you then set the agenda. So the, the agenda is three things. So they know what we are going to do. So the agenda would be. I literally very simple.

As you know, we, um, you know, I'm gonna learn about you and your situation, all about you and your situation. I'm then gonna learn, um. I'm then gonna to explain my service and how that works. And then what I'll do is I'll give you some rough figures and of, and show you kind of what you can potentially borrow and what that will potentially cost you in a rough way without obviously seeing any documentation.

And that's the agenda, so they know what we're going to do. And then what you do is you do the last bit, which is the outcome. And this is a bit that a lot of people don't do. A lot of people don't do any of this, but if, but a lot of people always miss this bit. And the outcome is, what are we expecting to do by the end of the call?

What is the outcome of this call if this works? And the outcome is always, if the end of this call, we will decide whether or not it's a good idea for us to work together. Now why is that important? The outcome is you're actually setting them up for the close. So you're saying, look. I'm gonna ask you if, if I'm gonna close you at the end.

We are gonna decide today if this is a good idea. So there's no, let me think about it. It's none of that. So it allows you to, um, to, to, to, to close the client down. And that's how you do it. You see, it's not forceful, it's not scripted, but it will. But it absolutely sets the stage, this intention, agenda and position.

It sets the stage for everything else. So then the second question I've got here is,

How can a mortgage broker build rapport that feels natural and human while still keeping control of the conversation?

So this is one of those things, um, that often people do is they feel that they get rapport. Mistaken with just being nice.

And I remember my, my estate agent boss years ago when I was an estate agent saying to me, are you a good, he said, I fear that you are, that you are a really nice guy. You're just not a good, the the no. He said, what he said was, I think that my problem is they see you as a really nice guy that don't see you as a really good estate agent.

And he said, and you're not. And and I remember being like quite taken aback by that and being like, what are you talking about? And he was like, no, it's because you're not building rapport correctly. You are making people. Like you, but you're not making people like you for the thing that you are going to sell them or they're gonna buy from you.

The two very different things. So you need to, as a broker, build rapport in a way that makes them like you within mortgages. Okay? And so to do that is ask them about the sale. Ask 'em about the purchase, ask 'em about what's going on within the purchase if you are spiraling off into talking about dogs and kids and sports and hobbies.

That's not rapport, it's just conversation with somebody that you get on with and then they're leaving and go, yeah, he is really lovely. Oh, he said great. Didn't really talk about the mortgage though. That's not good. Now this is different. If you've got something like a, um, no, I won't go into that. That's fine.

Um, but yeah, that is, that's what this is about. So that's how you do this. So how you do that, the way I do it with my clients, we have about seven to 10 questions, and the question's very simple. What are you looking to tell me about you, yourself, and your situation? Tell me about the property you're looking to buy.

Tell me about. What it is you, um, you tell me about what it is. You, you, have you spoken to any estate agents already or so any brokers already have you? If you got any concerns about getting a mortgage, what's your long term financial plans? It's just millions of different questions and you can make your own different ones depending on your niche and whatever, but they need to be property specific.

And the moment the client starts to deviate from those, or you feel the conversation pulling away from those, you wanna pull 'em back on, go, oh, that's really, really great, just by the question I've got for you. Bring them back. And that's how you do it. You don't have to be rude, you don't have to just, oh, that's really cool.

Got another question though. Quickly, this thing, and then it's like you bring them straight back to where they need to be. That's how you do that. And honestly, it's one of the worst things that kill your sales and it's right at the beginning. The call should be that you go from agenda into, um, into that kind of, um, into that kind of, um, rapport stuff.

Keep it on track. So it's very much leads lead into soft, fat questioning. It's gotta be very purposeful. Um, which is important. Third question we've got is,

Which questions help a broker uncover meaningful, soft facts that build trust quickly?

So the, probably the best question to ask is, and I've, I've put them already, but the, probably the best question to ask is things like, um, what, you know, I mean, the questions that we have is like, yeah, like, like I'd say like, tell me about yourself and your situation.

You're normally gonna have, uh, two or three types of clients. The first client will, um. Well then we'll go for that. So, so I'd probably say that, um, that's probably the, the best question that that helps you uncover stuff is getting them to open up and then you can pull from there. I think the other questions that are pretty good to talk about are, and these are the ones I have within the, what, some of the questions we have in the system, not the whole lot, but some of them, um, is we have, um, like.

Any experience of the brokers' is gonna establish where, where they're at, you know, what type property they're looking to buy, so you can see what they're looking to buy, um, you know, any, any priorities of choosing their mortgage so they can find any preferences. And I think things like, do you have any specific concerns?

That's another one that's really important to do. 'cause again, it gives you a real idea, a clear idea of what it is. They're trying to do, and that allows you to get real meaningful, soft facts about them, about the reason and the motivation behind the purchase. Because the end of the day, remember they're not here for a mortgage.

They're here to buy a property. We are gonna sell a mortgage, we're gonna sell 'em insurance. That's the, that's our goal.

Their goal is to get a property. And so the biggest mistake we make is not doing that. So we need to make sure we do that now. Um, those are the questions. I'd say it does that now. Question number four we have is,

How should a broker transition from a rapport into hard facts, into hard facts without losing momentum authority?

So your, what you wanna do from, from your discovery, from once you gone into rapport, you then move into what I call hard facts. And I sometimes call it, um, I actually call it interrogation. And the idea here is that you're trying to get the client, you are now gonna read the, their information from them.

You're getting fact, like real factual information now about. Fact finding type stuff. And this is how much money do you earn? Um, you know, do you have any bad credit? Those things. So the first one is more fluffy. That's that rapport. The second bit is this hard facts or interrogation. And it is much more structured and much more direct and it's closed.

And the way you transition into it, and this is actually, I do this in my own discovery calls when I work with clients, say, look, I'm just gonna ask you a few other questions, A few questions now. About your situation might fi, it might seem a bit direct. I just need to get the answers correct or as correct as I can, and that will 'cause obviously you're still rough figures, but I just need to ask 'em, are you're still distressing that, and again, they'll be okay with it.

What you'll notice throughout this is you're constantly getting their permission to be more assertive. If you think about the, the beginning one where you are doing the intention agenda and, and, and, um, tension and gender and outcome at the outcome, you're getting their permission to close 'em at the end.

So each, throughout this, you're constantly getting their permission to do something that's very, that is what you would class as quote, salesy. But the, once they've got permission, they're okay with it. So that's how you transition from it. Um, you know, is, is is the type of thing you should be looking at, is you transition into just getting their permission.

I'm gonna ask you some direct question. Are you okay with me doing that? Just need to know about it so we can get the right information about this. Now, if you've used something like Calendly or a booking form, hopefully you would've got that information beforehand, like a mini fact find all you have to do this, you wanna bring that form back up and you would say to them, Hey look, um, can we, I'm gonna go through the form that you've submitted.

I'm just gonna ask you some questions on it. Make sure that information's correct. So you are bringing the, for you, you are, you are playing back to them what they've written. That's the best case scenario. What also is train them to say that when you ask for something to be submitted. Then you're gonna use it.

That's a really good one there. Um, the fifth question we have is,

What Q'S language or tone help brokers position themselves an advisor, not an order taker from the very start?

So one of the best ways of this is to be when it says Q'S language and tone, interestingly with one of these, um, it is. Being calm, being friendly, being happy.

So be yourself. Be your, be your authentic self, but remove any nervous ticks. Now what do I mean by this is I remember someone saying to me years ago, I have a nervous laugh, and um, this guy was like, you were really good. It was the do with that I'm talking about here, actually. And he was like, you are so good at what you do.

It was to do with like psychology and sales, and he was like, you're so good at what you do. This guy was a really high up behavioral economist, and he was like, you are so good at what you do. He said, but, and I, and I listened to your podcast and it was brilliant, and I was like, oh, I love it. He said, but I wanted to kill you the whole way through it because you kept doing this nervous like, ha ha ha ha ha laugh.

He kept doing this silly little laugh, and he said it was really annoying because it was undermining your credibility even though. I was listening to you going, he's right, he's right, he's right. Shut up. Don't do that noise. And this is something that's really important, is that you, yourself might have those nervous cues, nervous ticks, nervous, last, nervous things, be aware of them.

One of the best ways to do that is to look at, like, um, videos. You can record yourself using something like Fathom. So when you do content, when you do, um. Appointments, record yourself. So fathom is what I use. Um, all my appointments are recorded now. Watch 'em back. And when you record yourself, guess what?

You'll see it. But you need to notice those things. Ones like shifting in your chair is, I mean, I struggle with, I'm a DH adhd, so I bounce around. Um, but there's things like that. Talking less is a big one and not, and this is what I'd say that was the big one. What language positions you as, as an, as an authority, as the advisor, not an order taker.

At the very start. If you get straight into the call straight away, like we said, like you go straight in and you control it. If you control the pacing of it straight away, that agenda. You know, the, the intention, agenda and outcome. Then straight into rapport, very seven to 10 questions of very specific questions.

Then in like, but open for again to talk then into those hard fact interrogations where they're more closed questions, quite direct questions about their finances. You will be maintaining the flow, you will be maintaining the rhythm and they won't question you. That's the biggest difference. Whereas most people won't do that.

Most people will. Um. Bounce around and they go straight to that hard facts bit a lot of the time, and you don't wanna do that. So that's how you would do it. Um, so it's all about kind of following this rhythm. This is why within the MBM system, the Mortgage Business Mastery System, the reason why it's so predictably successful when people follow it to the letter, there's, there's like loads of points within it is because it, it's like a set of dominoes.

If one thing goes to the next thing goes to the next thing, you just have to follow it and it will work. But if you start to kind of veer off, I always say to clients, I can't guarantee it's gonna work if you don't, if you don't stick to it because it it, you are then moving the goalpost. It's designed to build, everything is designed to build authority so that you become the number one person they wanna speak to in this space.

Then, um, and, and that's how you do it.

So question number six is,

How can pro can a broker introduce protection early in the call, in a way that frames it as part of the service, not as an awkward add-on?

So, protection and, and I'm sure we'll be, we'll be doing lots of other videos about protection and diving deep into protection. But protection is, in my opinion as a mortgage advisor, if you're not selling protection, you shouldn't really be doing the job.

Um. Not if you're a bio to let ex specialist, by the way, that's a different thing. But if you are a, a, a residential specialist, Remo and, and purchase, you are, you need to be selling protection. And the biggest mistake people make with protection is they don't bring it up early enough. And then the other mistake they make is if they do bring it up early, they actually hammer it early too hard.

What you need to do with protect. Is you need to introduce the protection. We normally introduce this after the hard facts section. You introduce it when you talk about your pitch, which is, you know, when we talked about the um, the agenda, it's that bit when you're saying, lemme tell about my, me and my services.

What we do within, within my system is we call it the mortgage package. So you advise on everything inside the mortgage package, and that includes the mortgage, the month course, the monthly mortgage payment, the buildings and contents, insurance and personal protection. Then you say, look, have you heard about this before?

And they say, no or yes, doesn't perfect. Doesn't matter. Um, let me make sure I explain it so we're all on the same page, and then you explain it now why you're, and then you explain, you know, there's three, the three types of cover, like, you know, like income protection, little life cu illness, and you explain all the reasons, what they do and why you would have it, but why you wouldn't have it.

Sorry. There's a whole different thing. So it's three reasons why you wouldn't have it, which is perhaps the, the kind of reverse psychology, but the actual framing of it. And well, they'll do that in a deeper video, but the actual framing on this is that you bring it up. As part of the mortgage, not as a separate bolt-on, which is why I, um, am not a fan of people calling themselves mortgage and protection advisors.

I think you're a mortgage advisor and with, within the realm of a mortgage advisor to do the job correctly, you should be doing protection and a mortgage and, and, you know, um, uh, what's it called? Um, home insurance. That's what you should be doing. And the reason being is, is because. That's what you should be doing.

It's just, that's it. You know? That's how it should be. So how you approach it is you link it to, you just link it as part of the mortgage package. And if you do that, and that's the word you wanna use, mortgage package. So you don't, you don't advise on the mortgage, you advise on all things within the mortgage package.

If you change that kind of framework in your mind and that kind of framing in your mind of it's the mortgage package and I advise on that, and then you include the mortgage package of those three things. Clients will start to take it and they'll start to see it as, oh yeah, there's part of the mortgage.

It's the moment that you go, you know, my advice comes in two equally important parts. The mortgage and the, and the protection. Something like that. What starts to happen is you're splitting it. So when you are, when you're removing it, the client's getting your choice. So I want that one and not the other one.

You don't want that. It's a, I advise on everything in the mortgage package and that includes these, and that's what we're gonna do. It's kind of an assumptive close, and they will kind of just go, yeah, okay. And they'll move along with it because that there's no. Only people who've had been, been, been like GED up by their friends or family to not take it, will have a, will have a resistance to it, but most people will just go, yeah, sure.

And that is, that's actually what happens. It's quite crazy. Seventh question is,

What may, what mistakes, sorry, cause clients to lose trust or interest in the first call and how can brokers avoid them?

So, um, mistakes number one, I'd say is like, big mistake would be like not having any structure to the call, just winging it.

Um, if you, if your calls feel unstructured, big one, um, they can lose trust. Another one is actually weirdly not having a call on Zoom. So you should have your calls on Zoom because if they can see your face and hear your voice at the same time, then it's creating trust. 'cause you are a person, you're real or is a voice on a phone is literally just a nobody.

Um, there are people who literally. Have advised their entire career and never seen their clients face to face. And it's crazy because they're very, they're gonna be easy to win because nobody has the same connection to voice only. Um, so that's a big one. A big one for initial trust as well is you, you looking scared.

So I always say it's a bit like clients are like sharks. They can smell the blood in the water. If they can smell the nerves in the water, if they think you're nervous or scared, they're gonna get you. And on the other side of that, if they think you're trying to sell 'em. They'll get them too. So they, a great discovery call is not about, um, trying to close, trying to sell the client.

It's about trying to interview the client to see if they're a good fit and at the end, if they are a good fit, then they'll close. And if they're not a good fit, if you think about the outcome we're looking for, at the end of this call, we'll decide if it's a good fit for us to work together. At the end of this call, we'll, sorry, the end of the call, we'll decide if it's a good idea for us to work together.

If. They, they decide no. And the intention of the call is to see if we're a good fit to work together. The intention of this call is to have to get to know each other and see if we're a good fit to work together. And at the end of this call, we'll decide if we proceed further and work together on this case.

Something like that. What you're saying here is the whole goal of this call is to make, is to decide. And if they decide no they don't like you, that's actually still a win 'cause you've actually succeeded in the call 'cause you succeeded in making the decision. A yes or a no is still not a problem. One no just means someone else.

You don't have to waste time on. But most brokers are out there like doing rate checks and all this stuff with people who probably will never use them because they're gonna wait until it's crazy. So actually what, what, you know, mistakes are they, I think not being strong and, and, and, and, and assertive as an advisor and friendly, but not assertive.