|
Special Reports
Recruiting and Training
Xinnix to Provide Training Services for 1st Metro
Teaching how to lead in any situation.
By Brad Finkelstein
1st Metropolitan Mortgage here selected Xinnix to train its originators and branch
managers, including holding a leadership class for the mortgage broker's branch managers and sales managers.
Casey Cunningham, president of Atlanta-based Xinnix, said the training is designed for anyone who oversees or manages
loan officers and a sales force. "The content goes deep into understanding how to improve your retention,
how to have better recruiting wins and how to improve production from your loan officers. It teaches how to coach
effectively, how to plan, how to hold your loan officers accountable and ultimately how to be an effective branch
manager or sales manager," she said.
Many managers in the business were top salespeople but many lack basic business leadership and administrative skills.
"Typically, the top producer gets the title, but it takes two different skill sets," she said.
Daniel Jacobs, chief executive of 1st Metropolitan, said the company made the decision earlier this year to help
its branches as they suffer through the upheavals in the market to adapt and to do better.
It searched for a leadership course to send them to. In deciding on Xinnix, 1st Metropolitan sent its entire management
team to sit through the two-day course. "I wanted to see if this was a company that I was willing to endorse
on a ongoing basis. "I was so impressed with what Xinnix is doing that I decided to make it a requirement."
The reason why it is making it a requirement is that most branch managers were not trained on how to run a mortgage
branch.
If they did get some training, it was from another branch manager. There is a general lack of training in the industry,
he said and specifically leadership and management training.
The way this course differentiated itself from the others he's observed is "it did not focus on how to do
loans all day long. It did not talk about how to sell. "It talked about how to lead people to sell and to
be productive in any environment and no matter what your marketing plan is."
Mr. Jacobs admitted he originally planned to just attend the leadership training class for part of the day and
take care of other business in Atlanta. But he found the course so interesting and informative that he stayed the
entire time and has even implemented some of the concepts that he learned. "I felt like it had that much impact,
that we needed to help our successful managers, who were successful loan originators, be successful leaders and
so they can differentiate themselves from being a normal branch manager to being a really fantastic branch manager,"
Mr. Jacobs said.
Recently, 1st Metropolitan had orientation for newly hired branch managers, and Mr. Jacobs spoke about the relationship
with Xinnix, and one of the attendees told the class she had attended the leadership class as well as Xinnix's
Edge training.
She suggested branch managers go to both classes and send their loan officers to the Edge class. She had a loan
officer who did $400,000 a month before the Edge class. After, the LO did $1.8 million per month, Mr. Jacobs recounted.
"What I liked about their courses in general, they are not selling books and tapes. They are really talking
about the meat and potatoes, how to do it. "It's not conceptual. It's here's what to do and how to do it,"
he said.
Ms. Cunningham said it shows 1st Metropolitan's commitment that it brought its entire leadership team to access
the course. Many of their executives are now enrolled in Xinnix's coaching program, where they have a one-on-one
coach who is helping them become better leaders, she said. "We do everything we can when people are in the
classroom not to sell and just really teach the tactics," she said.
The Edge is a two- or four-day program for experienced loan officers. It teaches tools and tactics "to immediately
accelerate your success and of course have higher production. "We teach these loan officers to be independent
sales people, that can think on their own, that can go out and implement and execute proven tactics and strategies,"
she said.
Mr. Jacobs added that the Xinnix instructors use so many universal sales concepts and combine them with what happens
in the mortgage business. Too many sales training sessions, while teaching general concepts, do not show how they
apply to selling mortgages.
Xinnix gives all of its courses out of its campus in Atlanta.
Besides the Edge, Ms. Cunningham said Xinnix has a new loan officer course called the Originator. It is a six-week
class, over 400 hours of learning and has a four-part final exam.
|
