Jeff Rickard

Continued from Monday February 25th. ( Remember I am going to go through the exercises from The Seven Minute Difference to develop a story of how my service is different from my competitors)

Part 4 creating a unique positioning statement.

     Remember this whole exercise is to help me realize how I am different in the market place as well as help me create a “unique positioning statement” that allows me to tell others in one or two sentences “here is what I do and here is why that information might interest you.”  We are finished with the exercises and now it is time to create the statement.

     “I am a residential mortgage lender with Universal Lending.  I run my business differently than most mortgage professionals.  I would love to show you what I do.”

That statement always elicits the required question, “how are you different?”

Now is the time for the unique positioning statement:

“I do everything I can to make the mortgage process understandable and to make my clients feel that all their questions and concerns are important and need to be addressed to their satisfaction.  At the end of the process my clients feel they made a wise and safe choice.”

I am interested in your input, what do you think of my unique positioning statement?

     I have just spent the last few weeks fielding several calls that have started out with the phrase “last year I qualified for $300,000″ or “last year a mortgage guy said I could get a loan for $300,000″.     Well let me tell you, last year was a long time ago. 

     There is no more stated income, there are a lot less “bad” loan officers, there are no more “B” paper lenders and the concept of just saying yes and we will see what sticks is finally over.  

     The key is that these people who I have been talking to who are saying they qualified for $300,000 (a payment of about $2100/month) only made $2500 a month gross.  They NEVER “really” qualified for $300,000 but they are in total shock when I tell them they can only qualify for about $140,000. 

     You may ask how can they be that *&%$#@, but the truth is, the mortgage industry and certain Realtors not only said it was possible but actually closed the clients friends and coworkers, who made exactly what they made, on the $300,000 house.

     So what do we do now?  Start over, get the correct answers and instead of being angry about how much you qualify for be thankful that you did not buy last year!