How I Made MyMark, Part I

How I Made MyMark, Part I

How I Made MyMark, Part I

There I sat at my small desk in my little basement office wondering how I was going to pay my bills next month. I had just closed a loan where the commissions covered the current month's bills and I was hoping something would shake loose prior to the end of the following month. As a loan officer and specifically as a new loan officer working in the commercial lending arena it can take some time to get a consistent book of business flowing. I understood the principles of sales and marketing and most of it boiled down to numbers. The more business owners I spoke to the better chance I had of getting a hold of one who needed something I could help him with.

I used a CRM to keep me focused during the most productive times of the day and I was on the phone a lot. I picked up the white pages and decided to call the entire book. I started in the "S" section for some reason and just started calling businesses looking to speak with the owners of each businesses. I started by forcing myself to speak to 20 business owners a day; this would mean that I would have to call 100+ business to actually speak with 20 new business owners. I eventually had to move the number of business owners I would speak with to 10 due to the follow-ups and appointments I had to do as well each day. I discovered quickly that this business was all about numbers; of course you had to know your products, maintain honesty, and give people a good quality solution, but if I were not speaking to many people everyday I would not have been successful.

After a while of doing business the hard way I decided there had to be a more simple way of getting in front of business owners. I realized that as a new loan officer I had no brand, no online presence and for that matter nothing that a business owner could look to for supporting evidence that he/she was making the right decision by choosing to do business with me. Each professional needs to have a matching professional brand, which relays the specific message that is wanted/needed. I understood that I had to create a presence that would help potential customers understand who I was and what I could do to help them in their business. This professional brand had to accomplish two things: 1st it had to set me apart from my competition; 2nd it had to build trust between my potential customer and me quickly.

The next question was how do I create my professional brand and an online presence that helps grow my business without spending thousands of dollars? I had heard of a blog and I new very little about social media and online marketing. To say the least I was shooting in the dark with little to no direction from a reputable source. This was 2004 and the world of social media had not expanded as it has today.

The point of Part II of this blog is to outline step by step what I did to do three things: 1st create a powerful online professional brand; 2nd create a network of professionals who I could market my products and services to and 3rd how I turned these two items into ongoing revenue.

Please stay tuned for part two of this blog to hear the step-by-step process of how I made My Mark and created a professional brand for me.

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