Battle back against rate sites, analyst urges

Don’t obsess over the disruptive nature of rate comparison sites, says one industry analyst and speaker for the upcoming Mortgage Summit – instead create your own disruption and make your own waves in the channel.

 

Don’t obsess over the disruptive nature of rate comparison sites, says one industry analyst and speaker for the upcoming Mortgage Summit – instead create your own disruption and make your own waves in the channel.
 
“I'm less concerned about how mortgage professionals and brokerages who choose the discount rate model are or are not wrecking the industry,” says Greg Williamson, the founder of 180 Degrees Solutions. “I think they are disrupting the industry, and I think that is fantastic. Market disruption is an excellent business strategy.”
 
Still, Williamson sees too many brokers getting beat up on rates and losing deals to the banks. They’re also overlooking the opportunities to build relationships and new clients through the Realtor network.
 
“My job as someone in an industry that is being disrupted is to either join them or create my own disruption to compete, but it never should be about me criticizing them for what they are doing.
 
“It helps the Realtor if you can take off their desk two or three deals and make them happen – you become the solution to the problem.”
 
Williamson, as a speaker at the upcoming Mortgage Summit in Toronto, May 9 and 10 at the Toronto Congress Centre, will urges brokers to abandon the strategy of depending on rate sites, and instead find new and creative ways to attract clients. It’s a strategy founded on believing in oneself.
 
“Mortgage professionals for some time have told themselves the story that a client’s primary concern is rate,” says Greg Williamson, a Calgary-based broker. “Of course I could also tell myself the story that clients will do business with me, pay higher rates with me, and value my strategic mortgage planning and intelligent sales process.  Whatever story I want to believe is what will come true for me and for my clients.”
 
Although Williamson encourages brokers to stop obsessing over rate sites, he doesn’t paint them as abominations in the mortgage channel. If anything, he feels they’ve provided a good kick in the pants to the industry.
 
“I think going forward in this new business cycle, one with slowing real estate markets, virtually no refinances, and a tough pricing competitive market, there is only two ways I can win: Be the cheapest, or be the best,” he told MortgageBrokerNews.ca. “I routinely ask mortgage professionals, ‘What would your business have to look like, and what would your sales process look like, if you were selling mortgages at considerably higher prices than your competitors?’  
Then I tell them, ‘Great. Now go build that.’”

Williamson will host a Lunch and Learn presentation at the upcoming Mortgage Summit, free to all registered delegates. Space is limited. To reserve your place at the event on May 9 and 10, 2013, visit www.themortgagesummit.com