CMG Home Ownership Accelerator WebEx Training Sessions

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CMG Home Ownership AcceleratorWebEx Training
Sessions 6-7Building the Basic Pitch
Kern Lewis CMG Marketing [phone] klewis_at_cmg
mortgage.com V1.0 live7.7.06
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Building the Pitch

• Pitch Foundation Customer Benefits!
• The Accelerator has significant benefits for
  prospects with good cash flow.
• Clearly communicating the benefit keeps the
  prospect interested.
• Keep the focus on the benefit, not the mechanics.
• Classic Sales Sell benefits, not features!

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Building the Pitch

• The Pitch Framework
• Adopt the traditional marketing approach
• Point out the problem
• Offer the solution
• Prove that the solution works.
• Said another way
• Make the prospect sick
• Explain how to make them better
• Prove you can do it.

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Eye on the Prize!

• Have a goal for each interaction. What are you
  trying to accomplish with each pitch?
• Short pitches lead to long pitches
• Long pitches lead to applications

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Stay out of the weeds!

• Sell the concept completely before proceeding to
  details.
• Cement the concept (simple) in the prospects
  mind before delving into details (more complex,
  and distracting).

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The Basic Pitch Outline

• Set up the problem
• People are (or should be) concerned about getting
  out of debt.
• Retirement (when???)
• Investment plans
• Other plans (travel, tuition)
• Home loans have not traditionally been much help
  in reaching these goals.
• Prepayment not attractive

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The Basic Pitch Outline

• Solution Pay debt back more quickly.
• Accelerating the rate of payment leads to
• Saving thousands in interest
• Paying off in half the time
• Achieving your financial goals more quickly
• Personal cash flow holds the key to accelerating
  principal payments as painlessly as possible.

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The Basic Pitch Outline

• Introduce the piles and holes concept.
• Cut the bank out of the equation
• Lend your money to yourself.
• Save interest on the reduced balance.
• Invest that savings by keeping it in the
  account.
• Compound your savings, accelerating loan payoff.
  (Same concept as compound interest peddled by
  the banks.)

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The ski slope pitch (start at the top!)

• You deposit your income directly into the loan
• Therefore, your daily balance is less.
• Therefore, you save interest.
• Therefore, you have more money for principal.
• Therefore, you pay off faster.
• Notice how we didnt change your spending?

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Use the Movie as Support

• The five-minute movie reinforces the concept you
  just introduced.
• Visually depicts how the interest savings are
  created.
• Introduces enough loan structure to confirm why
  this new loan creates the savings.
• At the end, check for understanding and
  agreement. Or, use the pause button to check for
  understanding during the movie.

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Use the Simulator as Proof

• Established the problem.
• Got agreement on the solution.
• It is time to prove your hypothesis with the
  simulator.
• Work with the prospect through the simulator
  first.
• People flying solo may not use it correctly and
  self-select themselves out.
• Use the four-pass method.
• Get to the results screen quickly, then go back
  and refine the scenario.

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Summary of Pitch Construction

• Set up the problem
• Get agreement that a problem exists
• Outline the solution
• Get agreement that the solution has potential
• Run movie if venue permits
• Prove the proposition with the prospects own
  numbers
• Run the simulator.
• Get agreement that the results are valid.

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Pitch Varieties

• Pitches vary in length and audience
• Be ready to use the time given to you.
• Be focused on what the audience wants to hear.
• Prepare for both circumstances ahead of time.

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Tailor pitch to audience

• Consumers are interested in solutions to their
  own problems.
• Becoming debt-free by a certain date
• Building equity on which to live later in life
• Small businesspeople are similar
• More emphasis on maximizing the return of cash
  flow.

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Tailor pitch to audience

• Realtors are interested in future transactions.
• How can their clients build equity faster to move
  up or invest sooner?
• Financial Planners
• How can their clients continue to invest for the
  long-term, but also work on reducing debt?
• Accountants
• How can their clients make their own cash flow
  work more aggressively?
• Assure their clients that tax implications are
  positive.

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Pitch Lengths

• Short Pitches
• Thirty-Seconds
• Two-Minutes
• Medium Pitches
• Ten-Minutes
• Twenty-Minutes
• Full Pitches
• Thirty minutes plus

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Short/Medium Pitches

• Useful for
• Social gatherings
• Professional mixers
• Phone conversations (cold and tepid)
• Goal
• Gain agreement for follow-up meetings

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Short/Medium Pitches

• Step 1 Bring up the subject with past clients
• As your mortgage advisor, it would be remiss of
  me not to tell you about a new loan that could
  have significant benefit for you.
• I have a loan that works best for financially
  savvy people who understand the power of cash
  flow.
• I know from past conversations that you want to
  retire at xx. There is a new financing solution
  that may fit that plan very well. Would you like
  to learn a little bit about it?

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Short/Medium Pitches

• Step 1A Bring up the subject in general
  conversation
• The question you might get
• How are you? or How is business? are
  openings you can work with.
• Respond very positively
• Great! Unlike the rest of the mortgage
  business, my business is holding up (or doing
  well).

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Short/Medium Pitches

• Step Two Keep the focus on consumer benefit
• When your listener asks why, respond with how
  you are helping customers, not product specifics
• I am working quite a bit on helping my clients
  solve a growing problem. A lot of my folks are
  starting to focus on the challenge of paying
  their mortgage off more quickly, so that they can
  retire debt free.
• We work up a plan to have their home loan
  expire the same year they want to retire.

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Short/Medium Pitches

• Step Two Keep the focus on consumer problem
• The mortgage business has always been focused on
  the front end of the process, getting people into
  homes.
• Finally, there is a loan product that
  concentrates on the back end Getting people out
  of the loan more quickly.
• The customers with whom I am working are very
  excited to finally be able to aggressively tackle
  debt reduction.

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Short/Medium Pitches

• Step Two Keep the focus on consumer problem
• I have been shifting the focus of my business
  from affordability (lower rate, payments) to debt
  reduction
• Reducing what you owe can have a bigger effect on
  the interest you pay than your interest rate
• Most people struggle to find the extra money to
  make additional payments, but I have a new
  solution that make finding the extra principal
  payments a lot easier
• Home financing should not be about just rate and
  payment. It should also be about balance
  reduction.

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Short/Medium Pitches

• Step Two Keep the focus on consumer problem
• You as a borrower should concentrate on how much
  you pay in interest, not just rate and payment.
  Your total interest bill is driven mostly by how
  much you owe.
• The only way you reduce the term of your
  mortgage, and pay less interest, is to reduce the
  amount that you owe.

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Short/Medium Pitches

• More Step Two Focus on consumer problem
• Stay focused on the problem
• People are starting to wake up to the fact that
  retirement is twenty years off or less, and they
  want to enter it without the burden of a mortgage
  payment. I have a very nice solution to that
  challenge.
• Get agreement with the listener that this is an
  issue worthy of their concern.

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Short/Medium Pitches

• Step Three Start involving the listener
• Ask questions
• What about you? When is your target date for
  retirement?
• What are your plans for dealing with your
  mortgage?
• Are you planning on keeping your property or
  downsizing to a new property?
• Do you plan to tap home equity to support your
  retirement budget?
• Key on the answers to determine your next
  comments.

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Short/Medium Pitches

• Step Four Introduce main concept
• Your current loan may not be much help in
  helping you achieve your retirement goals, but
  there is a loan that can help.
• Would you like to learn more about a home loan
  that could save you thousands in interest and
  pays off in about half the time, but requires you
  to make no change to your spending habits?

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Short/Medium Pitches

• Step Four Introduce main concept
• Tell me more.
• The concept is simple. We have created a way to
  let you flow all of your monthly cash flow
  against your loan balance instead of through
  checking and savings accounts. (into ski slope
  pitch)
• In effect, you are cutting the bank out of your
  financial life, keeping their profit for yourself
  and investing it as principal reduction.

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Stay on Topic

• Keep control of the conversation by asking more
  questions
• Think about where your cash is now. What kind
  of return do you get? (They answer.) Now if you
  could flow that money against your loan balance
  monthly, you would save interest on your home
  loan. Does the interest rate on your deposits
  match the interest rate on your home loan? Which
  would earn you more money?
• Do you currently make extra payments towards
  your home loan? Why dont you pay more?

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Stay on Topic

• Answer questions about details, but move back to
  concept
• Q How can I get my money back out?
• A This is a line of credit, not a mortgage.
  You can access cash every day if you need it.
  Until you need it, however, that cash stays in
  your account, keeping your balance lower. Think
  about how much cash flows through (or sits in)
  your checking and savings accounts every month

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Maintain Momentum

• Final Step Get to the close
• Q Is this an intriguing concept that you would
  like to learn more about?
• A Maybe, but I am pretty comfortable in my
  current mortgage.
• Q Your current mortgage may actually be the
  best solution for you, but an investment of
  twenty minutes can discover whether the Home
  Ownership Accelerator might offer more value to
  you.
• My consultations also cost you nothing. And if
  we find that that staying put makes more sense,
  you have lost nothing but a few minutes of your
  time.
• Would you like to schedule a time in the next
  week to review your particular situation in more
  detail?

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Final-Final Step

• Ask for referrals.
• Do you know anyone else who could benefit from
  the power of this new loan? Someone with good
  cash flow who might benefit from maximizing the
  return on their money? I would love to present
  this opportunity to them.

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The Bottom Line

• Focus relentlessly on consumer benefits
• Customize your pitch to fit yourself
• It should fit like a glove
• Customize your pitch to your audience
• Have several variations in the can
• Customize your pitch to the time allowed
• Use short pitches to gain the chance for long
  pitches

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Thank you!