Building a Successful Mortgage Business

MBA annual conference session

November 7, 2006

By NEIL J. MORSE

Steven Little, a business growth consultant, travels around the country constantly and, as a result, spends too many nights in hotels. So, to simultaneously amuse himself through all that time away from home and also conduct real-life research into some of his professional theories, he practices the “milk shake test” at many stops along the way.

Roughly and briefly, it goes like this: As a reward for all the irritations of incessant business travel, Little orders a milk shake from hotel room service each evening when he gets to his room. Notwithstanding all the empty calories, the consultant finds it especially interesting to place this particular order when it is not on the menu; when food personnel therefore assure him he cannot have it. In those instances, Little orders instead, all the ingredients of a milk shake, since milk, vanilla ice cream, a long spoon, etc., are almost always in stock.

He does this to prove a point that has nothing to do with food, or predictable hotel fare for that matter.

“Systems shouldn’t make you stupid,” Little explains. He draws a parallel to the business world where artificial boundaries can prevent an organization from succeeding.

Indeed, surveys indicate that financial institutions have found it has become a necessity to differentiate their services with higher regard being placed on customer service. According to a survey conducted last year, of 35 financial institutions across the United States, 94 percent said it was “critical or extremely important” to improve the customer’s experience.

The Real Job
Moving from milk shakes and intellect, Little told an audience during a presentation on business growth strategies at the Mortgage Bankers Association’s 93rd Annual Convention & Expo in late October in Chicago, that “recruitment, training, retention are the most important objectives of any organization,” though they are too often seen as “getting in the way of the ‘real job’.”

It’s a simple equation, he maintains. Better people = better customers = spiraling growth = better people, etc. Round and round it goes. “So, it’s not about getting enough new business; but rather about getting good people,” says Little, who is affiliated with Inc magazine.

Another predictor of a company’s success is the effectiveness of its growth planning, which the consultant said, “must be written, well communicated and regularly updated.”

Looking downrange, he advises that successful firms will be those with the foresight to ride trends developing today, something he rhetorically calls, “20/20 vision of the year 2020.”

For example, according to Little, 67 percent of the world’s population will live in cities by then, compared to only 12% in 1900. And, life expectancy will be 100 years old, compared to 47 in 1900.

In 2020, 85-year-old workers will be commonplace, the consultant predicts, noting that even today, “75 to 85 year-olds “gots all the money.”

Bucking the world urbanization trend, the U.S. will experience population decentralization, so much so that towns like Rogers, Ark. will be the size of Orlando, Fla., according to Little.

Rogers is situated halfway between Fayetteville and Bentonville, the latter home to Wal-Mart’s world headquarters and undergoing a luxury infrastructure building boom, to attract worldwide management to live there.