We all know how competitive the mortgage industry can be, and in this episode, we’re diving into the strategy that can immediately set you apart: speed to lead. That’s right, we’re talking about the game-changing impact of simply answering the phone. We break down the surprising stats behind conversion rates, explore the psychology of borrower behavior, and share practical systems that can help any loan officer, whether you’re a solo act or part of a team, win more business.

Joining the conversation are Tom Mills and Robert Fillyaw, bringing our perspectives on building rapport, scripting collaborations with referral partners, and optimizing your business hours. Together, we get specific on what really matters most when that first call comes in, why responsiveness trumps rates and marketing, and how the right habits and structure lead to exponential returns.

This episode is everything you need to know about why being first to respond isn’t just a good idea, it's the most underrated strategy in mortgage.

Here’s what we cover:

• The hard numbers around conversion rates and the outsized advantage of being the first loan officer to connect with the borrower
• How borrower psychology dictates behavior and why most clients aren’t actually shopping with spreadsheets full of lenders
• Best practices for collaborating and scripting with your referral partners to increase conversion rates
• Smart systems, team structures, and time management tips to make sure your phone always gets answered
• Building trust fast, avoiding “corny” sales tactics, and how to make the most of that critical first conversation

Key takeaways:

1. Answering the Phone Increases Your Conversion by 50%
2. We can’t overstate this: more than half of borrowers work with the first loan officer they actually speak to. It’s not about the lowest rate, it's about who picks up and establishes the connection first (00:31).
3. Psychology Is Everything Most Borrowers Want a Simple, Comfortable Process
4. Many clients are out of their element and find mortgage shopping daunting. When you answer the phone and make them feel comfortable, they’re far less likely to “shop around” (03:43).
5. Referral Partnerships Need Scripting and Relationship-Building
6. Top producers work hand-in-hand with their realtor partners, scripting introductions and building mutual trust. This dramatically raises conversion rates sometimes well above 80–90% when the intro and first call are handled right (07:27).
7. Systems and Organization Trump Busyness
8. Solo originators and growing teams must put systems in place team lines, call routing, answering services, and clear processes to ensure no lead is missed. Proactive time management means handling “busy work” outside of lead-generating hours (13:20).
9. Nail the First Conversation Be Real, Ask Great Questions, Establish Trust
10. Generic small talk and forced rapport won’t cut it. Focus on open-ended, relevant questions, give a clear roadmap of the process, and genuinely show expertise. That’s how you turn a lead into a client (20:40).

After today, the answer is simple: answer the damn phone. Build trust, move fast, and watch your business grow.

Got a story about how answering the phone won you a deal? Think we’re missing something? We’d love to hear from you. Hit subscribe, leave feedback, and let’s keep the conversation going.

Robert, Tom, and Dave

Answer the damn phone. Answer the damn phone. We're, we're big ROI guys, right? If there's something that you said, hey, if you do this one thing, you're going to increase your ROI by 50%. You're going to, you're going to increase your effectiveness by 50%. Like, you would do it without question. You. You wouldn't even, like, take it any further. You'd be like, hell yeah, sign me up.

So answer the phone. You just increased your conversion by 50%. Here's a stat that might surprise you. Roughly 50% of borrowers end up working with the first loan officer that actually talks to them. Not the lowest rate, not the best marketing, the first one who answers the phone. Today we're talking about the massive advantage of being the first to respond and why speed might be the most underrated strategy in mortgage. I'm Robert Filyaw. Tom Mills is with me.

This is Lending Leadership with the mortgage pros. Welcome, Tom.

Thanks, Robert. Interesting. The speed to lead conversation.

Lead it, rule it. Rules everything. Right. But did, like, even if someone is shopping, right, if they're, they're out there, they're making multiple calls, it's still over 50% of customers end up going with the first person that they spoke with. That's crazy.

Yeah. To have your opportunity go down by half once you talk to that person is. It's an uphill battle from there, right?

No doubt, no doubt. I mean, if, Listen, I don't think we're, we're big ROI guys, right? If there's something that you said, hey, if you do this one thing, you're going to increase your ROI by 50%. You're gonna, you're gonna increase your effectiveness by 50%. Like, you would do it without question. You. You wouldn't even, like, take it any further. You'd be like, hell yeah, sign me up. So answer the phone.

You just increased your conversion by 50%.

Before we go deeper, why. Why do you think that is?

It's a great question. I think it's. I think it's probably something in the psychology of being that first ink, that first conversation. Like, you become the anchor for the transaction. You're then kind of the bar that everything else is measured against. You get to set that tone. And like, now everybody is competing and comparing to you.

Yeah, I think it's probably different per customers. A lot of customers don't want to shop. Like, you know, you think a lot of people are just hoping to get approved and you take your time with them. Spend, spend the time and Walk them through when they learn something, you know, you're, you're winning. You know, that person was scared to get approved. They don't like having their credit run. They're conservative. They, you know, or they've had credit shoes, whatever the case may be.

You know, I think that they don't want to shop. It seems, it seems daunting or exhausting, I think to a lot.

Yeah, I think that's, you know, I think that's probably very true. So that a whole, whole different line of thought.

Right.

But that even takes it more, more important not just to answer, but the, the how you answer and what you're, you know, what your borrower conversation looks like and what your follow. That's a whole different topic.

Right.

I don't want to get off topic, but yeah, I mean, I, I see it all the time. When we would help clients with homeowners insurance and I'd be like, you need to call and get some homeowners insurance quotes. And this like deer in the headlight glaze came over their eyes. So we started getting those quotes on their behalf. Right. We'd reach out to a couple insurance agents and get that Mortgage shopping is the same way for a lot of them, like, they don't want to do it. It's not comfortable. They don't know they're out of their element.

They're out of their depth. They don't have the financial literacy. So if you're that first person that answers and you make them feel comfortable and you get them approved to your point and the numbers are in line with what they're looking for, like, then it's, it's a task to take it further and to shop more.

I don't, I don't think the consumer really knows how to shop. And I mean, I think that they tried to create the new LE years ago and that's what, that's what, what it was intended to do. I think it actually created more confusion. But, you know, it's tough because, I mean, the customer, the customer knows one thing to ask that is, what's my rate?

What's the interest rate?

Everybody knows that. Right. So, you know, when you shop, if all you're asking is what's your rate? You don't know how to shop, you know, and that, that's a bad way to kind of start. I think it's that, you know, I think the people that convert high are those people that, that customer comes in and they ask questions, they understand, they move the customer towards why they're asking Those questions and, you know, the customer gains a level of appreciation and feels comfortable over that. I also think part of the reason that, you know, part of the reason that it's 50 is, you know, a lot of referral partners give out, you know, one, two, three names. And I think the customer's thing is if I'm going to call this, I want to get on the phone now. You know, these three names mean nothing to me. You know, these are who I was told to call.

This person didn't answer. I called this person. This person to answer. It's the third person there, unless the. The, you know, agent gave them. I've called this one first. They just kind of pick one first.

Yeah.

So it's a random draw really, too.

Yeah, there. And there. There's some. There's some psychology to it also. I. I'm convinced of this, even though I don't have any data to back it up, that it's. It's a feeling of security. Right.

When you call and that person answers, you get the sense in the feel as a client doing something that you're not comfortable with, out of your depth, that they're going to be able to better guide me through this transaction than the person that I called that didn't answer, because they're going to be available when and if I need them, if something, you know, if I have a question, if I'm. If I'm nervous, I can pick up the phone and they're going to be there. They're like my wobby through this transaction. It's a trust advantage.

How important, you know, whether you miss that first call and get that customer on the line, you know, soon, sooner or not, I think is dependent on how. How the agent, like, introduced you, you know, so if they give three cards and they're like, hey, I would try to reach Robert. You know, most of my customers work with Robert. Robert's my, my. The best person in the market. And, you know, I've sent many people there, you know, three cards and, and, and they've shopped and everybody comes back and they love working with Robert. I have a great experience and always get to closing table in the end. I would start there, you know, and if he doesn't get back to you in a reasonable amount of time, then.

Then move on, I think. So, you know, if you think about it just. And top originators and top agents, they. They script this stuff together. They're in sync, you know, and, you know, top agents know that they, they can't be so passive when it comes to that, you know, who'd you get pre approved with? Oh, my online bank. You're going to talk to my person. You know, I'm one of the best agents in the market for many reasons. I work with the best lenders and, and I need to make sure that, you know, you're going to be well represented, you know, and then that, that shift happens there.

But there's a lot that you can do with controlling how, what kind of conversations you're having with your referral partners about how they refer you.

Yeah. And that just sets the tone out of the gate.

Right.

That's, that's why we keep going back to. It's gotta be relational with your referral partners. You have to be on a level where you can do some role playing with them, do some scripting, position them to be comfortable in the way that they position you, and then it's quid pro quo. You're gonna give it right back to them. Right. When that borrower calls. Oh, my God. You're working with Sally.

She's amazing. You're in such great hands. I'm so glad you're working with her. Easily one of my favorite realtors to deal with. So it really becomes a symbiotic relationship. Right. Where you're helping each other and when you can bridge that gap with your referral partner and they refer you in that manner that you're talking about.

Yeah.

The battle's like, it's over. Like, and then you answer the phone. I would say that conversion shoots up probably in somewhere in the high 80s, low 90s. Right. Like you're, you're so sold before you ever even talk to the client. You can't help but win the deal.

Yeah. If you think about it, you know, I can go back and check the statistic too. We also have our app is shareable by the realtor. So sometimes you, you actually don't get a phone call. You, you get an application. I bet you that's the highest converting application in the market because it was referred. They sent them the link to your application, then they went through the application, they put in personal information. Many of them logged into their payroll and their bank account so that we can make a seamless transaction for them now.

They're really vested now. It just wasn't like a conversation. It's like I've given, I've uploaded my documents, I've linked my bank accounts. Like I'm in this hub now where we can do business. And I, I think that customers look for that. I think it, it, it increases the conversions.

I agree 100%. And, and for that client, like, they're in it before they, like they're past the point of no return before they even realize it. Right. Like they, and, and then it's just the process and it's just the flow and it's just, oh, here we go, here we go, here we go. And there's never, there's never a chance really to raise an objection and to say no, there's never an off ramp, which makes it really easy to convert.

You're right, you're right. Just keep it moving.

And you know, one thing I think there, there's a misperception of, I think we think these, these customers are, you know, shopping comparison, like with a spreadsheet of five and six age lenders. And they, they're bow out and bow out doing all this.

Customer just.

Yeah, bow out. Yes, absolutely. Bow.

Done that. I'd be like, look, with all due respect, I'm not, I'm not your guy, Red cheat. I'll just bow out now.

Yeah, but the reality is the majority of clients, you know, maybe contact two to three and they really only get serious with one or two. So like, if you can get to that serious stage, so you're think you're saying things are getting serious, you know, you got a pretty good chance of winning a deal.

You know, shopping if you're just, you know, really, when they're getting referred, usually they want one thing, they want the letter. You know, they, they want the letter so they can go do what they want to do. You know, shopping really doesn't make a lot of sense or early on, we don't have a property. You're getting your credit pulled for what, a bunch of quotes that don't mean anything tomorrow, you know, and from lenders that know that that quote doesn't mean anything tomorrow, you know, and then you, you know, open yourself up to, you know, less, less truth. I think, you know, the good transaction, the easiest transaction for the customers, deal with somebody. You know, what you have to do as an originator is what, while that person's in that shopping phase, you have to win them. You have to, they have to know why I want to do business with them. You can't not give them service and communication.

And then when they go to shop you, when you get a contract, tell them about the great service and communication you give. You've already had that ability for 90 days or so.

You've already lost.

Show it. Like, why show it now when it's under contract. But, but the customer, I mean as long as you, you, you keep them informed and you offer a, what seems to be a competitive rate, you know, they, they go with you, I think. But if, I think that that's the window that they should actually shop if they're like, man, Robert hasn't been a great communicator. I'm not so certain about this rate. I've seen better online, you know that that's, that's when they should shop in reality.

Yeah, I don't disagree at all. It's amazing to me. You know, this goes back to one of the segments we did a little bit ago on the team phone and the, the team email to make sure everything just keeps moving. I want, I would, I would be interested to see this, the statistic of the deals that are lost just because someone didn't answer the phone the first time. You know what I mean? Or didn't get back fast enough like that. That's an. We say 50% go with the first person that answers. That means 50% are losing it, right? Do we reverse math it? So you know, when you're busy in a meeting or you send something to voicemail or you, you let someone else get in there, like that's a massive number.

And how many loan officers are out there being busy, right? And, and they're, they're working on putting that file together and they don't answer their phone cause they don't want to be distracted. And now it's that lead and you're, you're trying to chase it from there. Answer the damn phone. Answer the damn phone.

Yeah, when we talk about answer the damn phone, you know, there's, there's things you can do obviously to ensure that, you know, we should probably talk about systems that loan officers can put in place to make sure that the phone gets answered. Because you know, if you're an external originator and you're self generated 100 of your business, you're not always there. You shouldn't always be sitting at your desk ready to answer your phone. You should be doing things on the phone with people or, or out and about, you know, engaging. So let's talk about some of those systems.

Yeah, I mean, I think, I think it goes back to the, the segment we did, you know, on the team phone, the team email. You've got to replicate yourself, right? You, as your business grows, you can't be a one man band. So you've got to have a team phone system. You got to do some call routing. You got to train your team members or your assistants who are covering calls, even if it's an answering service at first on how to take that call and what the response expectations and service standards are like. This is not something that you can haphazard. And I think, I think a lot of loan officers out there, they don't plan for this. They don't have a process or system.

They go off the cuff and then when it breaks or it goes sideways and they've been buried all day and they have 43 phone calls to return at the end of the day and six of the people were new leads and they are now engaged with Rocket and don't want to talk to you. It's because you don't have a system. It's because you don't have a process. You're, you're, you're flying by the seat of your pants and you're crashing and burning.

I agree. I know, you know, AIs, AI, a lot of AI based systems are out there to, to help people now. And you know, we've used, you know, team phone lines and that's a massive, you know, cool. We did a recent podcast on that. You know, there's, there's backup answering services. I mean, but when you're just that the originator doesn't have a team. So when you step away, it's not like, you know, somebody else is plugged into your line. You know, you, you've gotta, you've got to look at what, what do you have in place? You know, what's your voicemail say? How recently has that been updated? Are you, are you, is there anybody you're able to forward calls to during a time that you're out of commission from 1 to 3, not able to answer the phone? You know, I think there's a lot of little things you can do at stage of your career because let's be real, like that's when you can least afford to lose it and you have least resources available.

Less resources available to you to solve the problem.

Yep. Well, and if you're, if you're that single originator out there, this is what I would challenge you.

Right.

Your business hour time should be spent engaged with clients and, or referral partners. And what I mean by that is that's not the, those business hours when people, when you have inbound calls coming in. That's not when you structure your loans and you put them together. That's not when you do file submissions. That's not. I used to stack my loans and I would, I would Stack them for a day or two and I would come in at 4 o' clock in the morning and push all of my files in at one time. And I could get more done from that 4 to 8:30 window. I could get everything for a week done in that four and a half hours.

Because the phone's not ringing, I'm not being distracted. And oh, by the way, during the business hours, I didn't have to work about that, worry about that stuff and I could focus on answering the phone and capturing the leads coming in.

Get it done in half the time.

Yeah. So if you're not doing something to that effect, if you're not working around that and you are a, you know, kind of a single operator, you're probably missing the boat a little bit. I would challenge you guys to think about that and, and work around that aspect of it. That that's where your system starts. Like that's a process.

Yeah. And when you're a single producing loan officer trying to grow, this is not a 40 hour, you know, work week. So you know, you build those eight hours, those core hours into income producing activities largely. And yeah, that's, you know, those, those after hours, those morning hours, those get back on at 10 o'. Clock. That, that's the times that are, that are great to get the busy, busy work done.

That's the biz grind. And people, I think the other thing, I talk about this a lot. I think people overestimate the response. And what I mean by that is answering the phone out of the gate is super important. Like it's probably one of the most important things you can do. Once you do that, you can set the expectations and buy yourself a little bit of time to work through the response. Not everything has to be immediate. Answering the phone needs to be immediate.

But if you answer the phone with that client and get their information or maybe pivot them to the app to get their information in, you can set that expectation that, hey, I'm so excited to work with you. Once I get your stuff, it's going to take me a few hours, it may be tomorrow morning before I can get back to you with some estimates. Does that work into your timeline or is, you know, is there anything I need to be aware of that I would need to expedite this? What that does now is you don't have to stop and run that pre qual. You can answer the phone when more leads are coming in and you can do that pre qual at night when the phone stops ringing.

Right. It could be Monday and you, you could, you could be Monday, and you get that thing, you're putting it together. You spend the next hour and a half, there's a little hurdle you're trying to run it through. Delay us looking at different guidelines. And that could have been a customer. You said, hey, when's a good time to go over this? And they would have been like, you know, I'm busy today and tomorrow. Thursday would be great.

Yeah, absolutely.

You just, like, you just spent yourself in your, in your core time. So, yeah, that's simple, little effective time management, and it does all that. Simple, effective. It's a lot of little things that add up to your ability to answer the phone.

And even if you're working towards that, the other thing, I would challenge you, right, because, no, the phone's not ringing. I don't expect you to sit there twiddling your thumbs waiting for the phone to ring. Like, work on. Start working on the phone. Make it right. Make it ring. Absolutely. What I see so many loan officers do, if you're working on something, right, and it's during those business hours when the phone may be ringing and the phone rings, answer the phone.

Put, put. Unless you're in front of someone, answer the phone. Like, I. That's really what it all comes back to for me. So we built the systems, we got the processes in place. Your phone's ringing, and now you're answering it on the first call. What, what do you do then? Like, what. What's the next steps?

Well, first impressions are. Are everything, I think, in, in. In in sales and life. You know, if you don't make a good first impression, you're, you know, that other. That guy that didn't get the, the first talk. Now he's got an opportunity. You know what I mean? Like, you, you open the door. I wouldn't know what percentages or how to compute this, but fact is, you can open the door to getting shopped then, or you can close the door to getting shop then, not, not throughout the whole journey.

Not to say you won't get shot to some point, but that first call, really well, they're not jumping right on to the next and going through that. That's what I do know.

Yeah. Yeah. I always, I mean, you have to establish trust and, and really establish yourself as the authority. And you got to do this quickly, right? So, like, I always like to build a little bit of rapport, find out a little bit about them. You can't be corny with it, right? I just, I just went through. I'm in the middle of shopping for cars with my kids and some of these, like, I can see it a mile away. Some of the tactics that these salesmen are trying to do to build rapport, it's fake and it's corny. Like you have to be genuine and sincere.

Right. But I mean, there's some questions that you can ask that you need it, you need to know anyway. You know what, what's got you looking to purchase a home? Like things like that, Open ended questions are your friend, don't ask. For those who may not know, an open ended question is a question that can't be answered by yes or no.

Right?

So it would be what's got you looking to purchase a home? You can't answer that with yes or no. You got to tell me about it, right?

What's your biggest concern? As you enter, as you enter, you know, this phase of home shopping? What are you concerned about?

Yeah, what are you concerned about? You know what? Yeah. So you, you start building the rapport through that. I always like to give kind of a high level overview. You know, you're in great hands. Here's what we're going to do to take care of you. This is how the process usually works. We do this every day and we underestimate the uncomfortableness that our clients have with it. So when you can give them a roadmap and kind of let them know what it's going to look and feel like and that you're going to be there and walk them through the whole thing.

You just took so much of their insecurity away and set yourself up as the expert. It's a powerful, powerful part of it. Our producers tell me I'm supposed to give some examples of what the corny stuff that these, these car salesmen were trying to do. You know, it's just asking fake questions. It's, you know, hey, buddy, like the, the whole buddy pal thing, right? Like, I got called buddy more times on Saturday than probably the entirety of my life put together. And then it's that like, you know, hey, what's your hobbies? You don't care about my hobbies. Like, why are you asking me about my hobbies? I'm trying to buy a car. Has nothing, My hobbies have nothing to do with the car I'm trying to buy.

And it's just fake. It's insincere. We're not going to be buddies. Like we're, are we about to become best friends? What are we talking about now? Ask me things relative, right? Like if you're saying, I'm already telling you what kind of car that I want, like if I could see it if I come in, I'm like, hey, I think I want a new car, but I'm not sure. Then you say, oh, well, are you going to be pulling a boat, you know, or do you need trunk room for golf clubs? Like maybe it's relevant then, but I've already told you what kind of car I want, so my hobby is kind of irrelevant. That kind of stuff is fake. Don't do it.

Yeah, I think a lot of the small talk and rapport building, like if you do do your phone apps, it's, you know, you, the whole application itself should be in conversation, not in, you know, Next question, next question, next question. And there should be your, your questions of. Oh yeah, I know that area and I, you know, I, I visited there once or you know, whatever you can do to relate there and find other ways to start, you know, know moving it to more of a conversation than just a, a question, you know, based application process, which is boring. And you know, you, you get, you know, the customer's just like waiting to get through.

Yeah, yeah. And you, you, that's where the experience comes in. Right. Because you can tell the people that just want to bam, bam, bam. And you tell the people that want to be a little bit more conversational and you, you've got to tailor your give and go, your flow with your client. Right.

Yeah.

So that's, that's where the at bats come in handy.

Yeah. I think, you know that the more time they spend with you, the more inclined they are to buy with you. I think that there's certain, you know, I'm not saying absolutely have overly lengthy customer consultations and whatnot. However, there needs to be some thoroughness to it to where they aren't just jumping on the phone with the next person in two minutes and you know, and, and getting another rate spit out at.

Yeah, that, that first call, like if you're doing a true, you know, let me get your information, let me, you know, let me find out what you're doing. Let's really get the pieces of the puzzle to qualify you. That first call needs to be 15, 20 minutes at least. Like get some time invested.

Yeah, yeah, I agree. You know, there's not enough great questions asked at the, at the application that really open things up. I think, you know that asking the right questions, seeking to solve, having that, you know, that's, I'm here to serve you mindset and then you Know, find an opportunity to educate them based upon the questions that you ask. And you know, and I think also, you know, set that's a good opportunity. Like it's a good, it's okay to have a sales pitch about you and your team. And hey, Robert, let me tell you a little bit about me and my team and what it's going to be like to work with us throughout this process and some things that you can count on, you know, and that's your, that's your sales opportunity. And sell your process, sell how you communicate, sell who you are in the market, sell how your, your pre approval letter carries weight because you're one of the top producers in the market and all the agents know who you are. You know, all those things are really important aspects that if you're not taking those opportunities, you know, selling how you answer the phone, selling how you know, how you'll, you'll be in front of their communication, you're honest.

You know, there's a lot of things there that you know that, that the customer is looking, looking to hear and feel like, oh, I, I feel comfortable with this person. I can put some trust in them. I think that's, that's a, that's a great opportunity.

Absolutely. And it, it all goes back to the simplest way to win more loans is answering the phone being the first one that speed and responsiveness give you the competitive advantage that you can't replicate. There's no other place, the, no other way to replicate it. Right. So great stuff, Millsy, really great stuff.

So script your realtors, you know, talk to them about how they introduce you, how they refer you. See how you can strengthen that, shore that up, you know, maybe have a

planned, have a plan, system and process in place for how you're going to answer the phone, what it's going to look like, what the conversation's going to cover. Script some of that conversation with your team. Make sure you have a contingency plan so calls don't go unanswered.

And then make great first impression.

Be the expert. Build trust and rapport. Ask good open ended questions. You'll see your business grow, I guarantee.

Good deal. So the moral of the story was answer the the phone.

I think I heard answer the damn phone. When you're the first person to engage, you're probably leading the, the pack and you're going to have a higher chance of winning it. Great stuff, man. Thanks as always guys. Everyone out there listening, if you have any, any suggestions, maybe you think we're wrong. I like, I would love for someone to challenge us. And let's get into a conversation about it. If you have cool stories about we're answering the phone, one you a deal.

We want to hear those, too. Hit us up, give us some feedback. As always, go ahead and hit that subscribe and smash that like button. For the lending leadership with the mortgage pros, I'm Robert Filioff and Tom Mills. Thanks so much for joining us. Sam.