This week I have the pleasure of having a conversation with Mark Kerzner, the President and COO of TMG The Mortgage Group.  This was a really great interview for me as I have just recently gotten to know Mark a lot better working side by side on the CAAMP board of directors.  My respect for Mark started a number of years ago when, dissatisfied with the status quo in our industry, I started what I dubbed The Mortgage Revolution.  Mark took the time to contact me and made a point of catching up for a coffee when he was out in Edmonton.  To me it highlighted Steven Covey's habit 5 of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Seek first to understand, then to be understood.  The other really neat thing about this conversation is the fact that Mark and I, theoretically are competitors.  So for us to share information together really speaks to the level of passion for our industry and the fact that we both are prepared to put aside our own agendas to try and move the needle within the environment that we both share.

Mark has his MBA from the Rotman School of Business and has held senior leadership roles throughout the broker channel.  He has seen both the lending side of the equation as well as the broker side.  In this conversation we try to get beyond some of the cliches and dig deep into what actually makes a successful leader.  Love to hear your feedback on this one.   As always these conversations are a practice and I need your feedback to keep improving them.  I hope you enjoy this one!

Brendan Calder is a man who many cite as a mentor.  He has probably helped produce more leaders in the mortgage industry then anyone.  It is my pleasure to spend an hour talking leadership and management with Brendan.  I certainly took some things away from this one that change the way I look at how I do things.

About Brendan:

Brendan Calder is the Entrepreneur in Residence and Adjunct Professor and Chair of Desautels Centre for Integrative Thinking at Rotman where he conducts the award-winning course, GettingItDone®. He was the founding Chair of the Rotman International Centre for Pension Management. He also serves as the Director of EllisDon Construction, Equity Financial Trust Co. and FirstService Corp.

Brendan served as the Chair, President and CEO of CIBC Mortgages from 1995 to 2000. He also served as Chair of TIFF and of the Peter F. Drucker Canadian Foundation.

Andy is the President and CEO of Canada Guaranty Mortgage Insurance.  He has a vast array of experience in the mortgage business.  He helped introduce the concept of variable compensation mortgage origination to the big bank.

We talk about the lessons he has learned over the years in a variety of executive roles with major financial instutions.  We talk about the need to surround yourself with talented people.  We talk about how Andy has done that over the years.

Andy tells us some of his personal leadership insights and talks implementation.

"If you wait for a perfect plan you've waited too long."  He says "A good plan effectively executed today is better than a perfect plan reasonably well executed six months from now."

It's all about execution. "Every one in the organization has a sales or customer responsibility."  It is all about the customer whether you face them directly or support those that do.  

Scorecards are key to implementing the shared vision.  Individual scorecards need to be linked in to incentives.  Well defined management process linking back to the objectives of the organization.

Relationship building is a key skill to build on.  Finding and solving problems for your customer allows you to do that. 

Yousry is currently the President and CEO of Kanetix, the leading provider of online insurance marketplace.  He has served on numerous boards and been Chairman of several.  After holding senior executive roles with two of Canada's Yousry decided to step up his game becoming President and CEO of Filogix, a technology provider to the Canadian Mortgage broker industry.  Select Accomplishments at Filogix:

- Grew revenue from $3 m to $60 m
- Turned bottom line losses into $21 m EBITDA
- Acquired and successfully integrated ten companies
- Sold two divisions with a good return to shareholders
- Changed shareholders three times while meeting or exceeding ROE hurdles for each
- Invested in and successfully deployed significant system infrastructure for new software and database for financial institutions across Canada
- Increased market share from 7% to over 50% of all Canadian mortgage originations

 Yousry shares many leadership insights as he walks us through many of his career experiences.

Conventional marketing wisdom would suggest that you want to meet or exceed customer expectations.  The problem that we sometimes run into is that many times our customers expectations are grossly misaligned with reality.  Imagine you have a client that has seen you present at a First Time Buyer workshop.  They are extremely excited about the prospect of buying their first home.  You have given them hope, courage, wisdom and inspiration from your words at the presentation.  They follow up with you after the presentation to discuss the options for that $400,000 mortgage they are going to need to buy their dream home.  Sounds fantastic.  There is only one small problem.  They only qualify for a $250,000 mortgage.  You can see the look in their faces.  The dejection, the disappointment.  You know that they will likely walk out of your office and never return.

So how do we deal with unrealistic customer expectations?  Well, we really have three options at this point.  We can do one of three things:

Often times option 1 is simply not feasible.  In the example above, if the client doesn't qualify they don't qualify.  The sooner we can recognize what the customer expectations are and assess whether or not we can realistically meet those expectations the better off we will be.,  Too often I have watched good mortgage brokers spend a great amount of time, energy and money trying to meet unrealistic customer expectations.  While there may be times when you can succeed at this the vast majority of the time you will not be able to pull off that miracle and meet those expectations.  Time is valuable so don't waste yours or your customers.  Recognize if it is not possible or likely to meet your customer expectations early in the game.

So if we decide that option 1 is not an option at all then we are faced with option 2 or 3.  Obviously option 2 is the least desirable option as it means that we do not earn our customers business and likely have them walk away unsatisfied.  That said, you should ensure that you at least consider option 2 before moving on.  We've discussed this before and there are certainly some customers that you really should just walk away from.

So ideally we want to shape or frame our customer expectations.  Let's talk about two scenarios that I see regularly in our business.  The first is setting customer expectations with respect to documentation requirements.  As brokers we know that documentation requirements seem to be increasing not decreasing.  We discussed this at length at our last team meeting and one of our agents shared a strategy that had worked well for her.  She started the client conversation talking about the fact that the lending landscape has changed, over the last few years, and continues to change.  This is not news to your customer.  The media has made sure they all know about the rule changes that have gone on so this is an easy place to start.  She would then go on talking about the fact that she would be their advocate to the lender and as such they needed to understand that if she came back requesting documentation the customer should know that she had already had the conversation with the lender, had already fought the battle on the requirement and lost.  That if she was asking for it then they could rest assured it was a document that was required.

This does a couple of things.  First, it puts you on their team and second it helps diffuse and potential future conflict in the event that you do need to come back and ask for more documentation.  That said you are always better off to ask for more up front than you will likely need.  This is a lesson it took me the first four years of my career to learn.  I would be timid to ask for everything up front and as a result would have to make multiple requests back to the customer causing even more frustration than if I had simply asked for more than I needed up front.

The other area around setting customer expectations is the scenario I opened with and was brought up again this week by one of our agents.  I help run an affordable housing program geared at low to moderate income households.  As a result some of the clients that we get are tight on the income side of the equation.  Sometimes they are new to Canada or simply just starting out.  The problem the agent was running into was the fact that once she took an application (online or by phone) and crafted a nice email talking about documentation requirements and pre-approval amounts the client would often simply disappear.

This was usually because they had hopes, dreams and expectations of buying their $400,000 dream home and she had to tell them that they only qualified for $250,000.  We talked about framing the initial conversation in such a way that she could first get a sense of what their expectations were.  If they were out of line with what she expected they might qualify for then she would shift into talking about the fact that the $250,000 home they would likely qualify for would make a great stepping stone into that $400,000 dream home.  She could talk about the potential of principal reduction and equity increase while their income increased and really allow them to see the possibility.  This would help them get excited instead of deflated.

There are a number of other areas where setting our clients expectations can really help to make a more smooth transaction.  What are some of the methods that you employ to set your customer expectations?

Boris Bozic is a 25 year veteran of the mortgage business and has seen what it is like to be a feet on the street broker as well as holding senior positions at one of Canada's largest financial institutions.  Boris went on to found Merix Financial and bring a very unique value proposition to the Canadian Mortgage Broker market.

As founding President and CEO of Merix financial Boris shares some of his insights and experiences that has helped him shape an extremely successful organization.  We talk about the difference between leadership and effective leadership.  Boris shares some of the lessons learned at their corporate retreat at Disney.

Dan Putnam is a true industry leader that has seen a variety of the different sides of the mortgage business.  Dan has advanced through a number of different leadership roles and has experience ranging from brokering, to running a small independent brokerage, to heading up one of the largest national broker franchises, to senior executive positions on the lender side of the equation.

Dan shares insights on sales and leadership lessons learned from his experiences.  Let me know what you find for take-aways.

“The difference between a good race and a bad race is how you manage the (inevitable) pain” Chris “Macca” McCormack on triathlon.

In 2013 I completed my first Iron Distance triathlon.  In the lead up, and training to complete that race I started paying a lot of attention to those that had been there before me.  My coach, other triathletes that I knew and I especially started paying attention to the pro field of triathletes that graced the covers of the triathlon magazines I had started reading.  Chris “Macca” McCormack soon became one of my favourites.  In early 2013 “Macca” published an article entitled “Embrace the Suck”.  The quote above his opening line.  

I think that statement holds equally true for life.

Hali Strandlund is the Senior Vice President Residential Mortgages and Broker Relations at Fisgard Capital Corporation.  Hali says she was born into the business and she is not kidding.  Hali is a leader at Fisgard, she has been the president of the Mortgage Brokers Association of BC (Twice), she is a past chair of the Canadian Association of Accredited Mortgage Professionals and has recently helped found WIMI (Women in the Mortgage Industry).  

Hali shares her leadership philosophies and lessons that she has learned over the years.  A life of consistent action has made her who she is.