Dustin Owen offers small talk tips for communicating with potential mortgage customers

In the latest episode of “The Loan Officer Podcast,” co-hosts Dustin Owen and John Coleman discuss important tips for loan officers when chatting with clients who want to get paid. Owen and Coleman explore common conversation topics, conversational nuances and best practices for communicating with clients from diverse backgrounds.

These questions and answers have been slightly edited for length and clarity.

To start the conversation, Owen and Coleman go into the first tip, which involves asking for the client’s area code to learn about their backstory. Owen opens with an explanation.

Dustin Owen: We all have an area code, right? That area code tends to tell us something about each other and that, well, where are we from? Marketing is built on trust; it is based on relationships. The first thing I need to do is find someone who will love me.

Check the area code. Is it in place or out of place? If it’s out of place, do you see it? If it’s out of place and you don’t know it, it’s delicious. That’s your first question. Where did you go to high school? What did you do after high school?

And every time, I give the person a chance to talk about themselves, asking good, basic questions. The more they talk, the more likely we are to finally do something together.

Coleman then takes the conversation forward with Owen’s question.

John Coleman: Because you can remember people’s names, and what they say, is that something you do, or is it just one of your traits as a person?

Owen: The truth is, I beg you to remember the names. But I truly love reading a new story. And what I like, like other people, I like the way people work. I love how businesses work. And as you tell me, I am creating my own story.

Coleman: What advice do you have for first-time borrowers? Because there are, you know, the weird ones in the community.

Owen: Find your people. At the end of the day you have to find your people. If you have weird stuff, or your freak flag flies higher and faster than other people’s flags, just go find more people like you, because you will attract your ideal client.

To set up the conversation, Owen offers a final tip that involves being vulnerable and establishing trust in the conversation.

Owen: Small talk is false because people will not be in danger. If you want to get someone to really love you, trust you, it’s because you show them a piece of you that they feel special, right? Being vulnerable, willing to talk about my worries, my fears, my anxieties and some life experiences, I think that’s where small talk goes to another level.

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