All-Time Record Month!! Why and What Did We Learn?

All Time Record Month!! Why and What Did We Learn?

May was another all-time record month for JVM Lending – with 83 loans and $45 Million funded.

It is fun to look at what spurred our recent growth and success.

Here are a few thoughts – in no particular order:

True Agent Support. We built out a highly effective agent support network that includes our digital marketing assistance, homebuyer’s booklets, social media advisory work, an agent network on Facebook and much else. We have been adding 30 to 40 new agent-partners every month as a result of this and our many other value props.
Super-Team Grit! We tout our “Super Team” concept often but it of course requires an actual “super team” to make it work. Our current group is our best ever by a long shot. Without their extraordinary diligence, congeniality and just pure grit (many of them worked non-stop 13 hour days), we could never have achieved what we did. Btw, we are happy to share our elaborate screening and hiring processes (that are ten years in the making).
Fearless Experimenting. We experiment with everything, constantly. It takes a huge amount of time and money, and we sometimes get killed like we did when we expanded into SoCal too soon or when we experimented too aggressively in the consumer direct realm (losing tens of thousands in both cases). But, it is 100% worth it b/c we figure out what works (see above and below) and what does not work. When businesses fail to take these risks, they always get left behind sooner or later.
New CRM. We spent a fortune customizing Salesforce and I can’t begin to describe how valuable a super-powered CRM is. We could not grow without it.
Lower Rates. We lowered our rates significantly in August of last year, and it worked wonders for our overall business.
SEO work. We simply optimized our massive website to improve our Search Engine Optimization and we are now getting more consumer-direct business than ever before.
Better Culture. Our team had to put in non-stop late nights and weekends to maintain our renowned service levels, as I mentioned above. But for the improvements we have made in our culture, we could have never asked so much from our excellent team. Culture really does “eat strategy for breakfast.”
More Reviews On More Sites. We now have hundreds of five-star Yelp, Google and Zillow reviews. These are a necessity in this day and age, as I often mention in my blogs, and they clearly drive business to JVM.
Texas Expansion. We opened up a new market in Austin earlier this year and things are going amazingly well. We now know that JVM can travel. :)
Way Better Marketing. Our social media marketing, remarketing ads, email campaigns and much else are sharper and more sophisticated than ever. We are also much better at providing “value” (usable info) with our marketing.
Business Development Officer Program. Our BDO program finally came to full fruition last year and it is working beautifully. We now have four full-time BDOs with more on the way.
The Market. Falling rates and hot purchase markets always help.
Constant Tweaks. We meet every week in Sales Meetings, Marketing Meetings, Processing Meetings, Technology Meeting and Overview (Management) Meetings, and we make concrete improvements every time. Over one week, the tweaks are negligible, but over a full year, they completely revamp JVM. 2019 JVM is unrecognizable from 2018 JVM, and 2018 JVM is totally unrecognizable from 2017 JVM, and so on… We never stop improving, or “Slight Edging.”
No One Thing. We stopped looking for the “one thing” that will bring business gushing in, and instead just started to hit and test every avenue for business that we see.
Support Group of Industry Vets. We are part of the L360 Coaching Group and the info and ideas we get from the other individuals in that group are invaluable. Support groups like this are a necessity for every professional trying to grow their business.
Much Better Technology In General. We bought and implemented more technology over the last year than over our previous twelve years combined, and it has vastly improved our borrower experiences, our internal efficiencies, our data tracking and our overall marketing.
Empathy. This sounds cliché, but I have never before worked with so many ultra-accountable people who truly care about every agent, borrower and teammate they work with!
Tracking Data and Metrics. Our new technology and CRM allow us to track every piece of data down to the most minute detail and then respond quickly to it. This includes email open-rates, website views, leads, lead conversions, applications, pre-approvals, pre-approval conversions, expenses, margins, real-time cash flow estimates, new agent meetings, new agent relationships, agent referrals, workload distribution, online reviews, lead-sources, and of course every possible element of loan-related data.
Kombucha. We have two kegs of Kombucha on tap at all times, and you can never overstate the value of a healthy gut biome! :) (true story)