Goodbye Fairway! Hello Opening Day!

Opening day!!! Every baseball team in the majors gets to start on an even playing field. No wins, no losses, no errors and no home runs! Every team is working hard so they can win the last game of the year. What team is your favorite? Who will win that last game of the year?
 

The Jerry Ashford Team has moved out of our offices at Fairway Mortgage in Stillwater. We very much enjoyed our time at Fairway and will always remember the great relationships we had there. Our team is setting up shop in Oklahoma City! Realtors, clients and our referral partners will all have access to us and our offices.  What does this change mean to you? Absolutely nothing. We are taking applications and closing loans just as we always have. Our phone number is still the same: 405-517-4959. Our new email address is Jerry@jerryashford.com. Once we get moved in, we will have our open house where you can come out and meet the team. Start your season on The Jerry Ashford Team!

 

We will not be holding any events this week as we are moving. We are getting into our new offices as well as changing over email addresses, contact info and social media. It will be an exciting week but it will be a busy one!

 

The Jerry Ashford Team is dedicated to taking care of you, your clients and referrals. We are honored to help our veterans, New Home buyers, new builds, FHA…. Well, everyone! We will close on time, get docs out three days early and fund our loans on time! All the great service you have enjoyed with The Jerry Ashford Team over the last sixteen years is still alive and well.

 

Questions or comments? I would love to hear from you!

The Law of the Hook

By Todd Duncan The Law of the Hook says that a captivated audience stays to the end. That’s because the principle that keeps your eyes glued to a screen and your hands glued to a book is the same principle that keeps your prospects glued to you. You see, an audience is an audience whether in a sales office or a theater; and to keep an audience around, the per­formance must be captivating from the get-go.

Think about it this way: When was the last time you finished a book that didn’t grab you in the first chapter? If you’re like me, there are probably several books gathering dust on your shelves that just didn’t make the cut because they weren’t intriguing enough in the beginning. They didn’t grab your attention. And the same is true of salespeople who fail to capti­vate their audiences in the beginning—they are brushed aside for someone more alluring.

On the other hand, when prospects are captivated by what you offer to them and by the way you offer it, they are compelled to give you their business; and not just once. Quality, high trust salesmanship is like a great book or movie; it captivates right away and keeps one coming back for more.

The Hook

What’s your hook? Do you have one? Do you offer your prospects something so intriguing and captivating that they have to know the rest of the story—that they can’t wait to see the deal through to the end? If you don’t have a hook, it’s time you did.

Based on what you initially say, do, hand out, mail out, promote, or distribute to ask for business, can you honestly say that you would be compelled to place an order with you? Would you be captivated by you? Would you do business with you based on the impact of your opening performance? If you’re not sure, it’s time to change the way you sell.

ACT 1: THE APPROACH

This is the process by which you predetermine who your best prospects are, and then initiate high trust relationships with them by effectively setting an appointment to meet.

ACT 2: THE INTERVIEW

This is the process that follows your Approach in which you conduct a high trust interview to secure the shared essence between you and your prospects. It is also in this Act that you establish your prospects’ needs, their buying strategies, and the emotional fulfillment you must offer in order to meet their real needs and gain their business.
And now allow me to introduce you to . . .

ACT 3: THE SOLUTION

The Presentation is about offering captivating, fulfilling solutions to your prospects in order to secure their devoted business. And that’s where applying the Law of the Hook must begin, because even if you’ve made it this far with a client, a poor presentation can quickly make a prospect disappear. That’s why making an early impact is so critical.

Act 4: The Action

The most exciting part of any sales presentation is hearing prospects say yes after you’ve asked for their business. Once you’ve made an impact with your presentation, there will come a point when you must ask for the prospect’s business. If you’ve done everything right to this point of the sales interaction, Act 4 should be easy. In fact, there will even be occasions when you don’t even have to ask for business, but only confirm what a prospect has already made known to you.

The truth is that prospects actually close their own sales if you offer valuable solutions to their real needs and values.

As you’ve already learned from the high trust interview, prospects will tell you the precise benefits they are looking for from your product or service if you take the time to ask them in a professional, strategic manner. That means that when you move to your sales presentation, you can be confident that you’re offering your prospects exactly what they’ve told you they want. That’s what the Law of the Hook is all about.

Ultimately, if your audience is truly captivated—whether immediately following your solution offering or after some effective objection management and follow up—they will want to stay with you to the end. And in the elite echelon of high trust selling that means your business will realize the full value of their relationships. That is the ultimate goal of every sales relationship.

Mortgage approval is a must before house hunting

Great information from Jim Steward


Setting realistic and obtainable goals for the purchase of a new home will make it a much more pleasurable and satisfying experience. In order to confidently know your purchaseing power you need to get pre-approved.

Pre-approval for a mortgage is obtained by applying for a home loan with a Mortgage Lender; providing income and asset documentation, and authorizing a credit report to be pulled. A loan decision will be based on the review of that information.

Don’t assume anything.

Credit scores and credit profile are critical in today’s lending world. Loan programs have specific credit requirements. No lender can accurately quote an interest rate for a specific loan program without knowing your credit score. Also, no lender can use a credit report that was not pulled by their company. It may surprise you to know that if you pull you own credit report and go the extra step of getting a credit score, that score will not necessarily be the same as when pulled by a mortgage company. The credit request from a mortgage lender has a different scoring model. I am not saying that pulling your own credit is a bad thing (in fact it is a good idea to review your credit at least on an anuual basis) but be aware that there are some differences.

Income is analyzed and your qualifying income may be more (or less) than you think. For example, if you are receiving any income which is non-taxable (such as military housing pay, social security, etc.), that pay may be calculated as greater than it actually is due to the fact that it is not taxed. On the other hand, you may get paid over time, receive a car allowance, have rental income, or some other sort of side income that you consider regular income; that income must meet guidelines based on the length of time and the consistency with which you have received it. Job history also matters. A job change or a first job after college can still be considered if your previous experience relates to it. Education and previous similar work is part of the job history. The self employed and commisioned individuals will generally need a two year history of this type of emploment.

Funds needed to meet closing costs and down payment are also reviewed. Some programs allow “gifts” from family members or “down payment assisance” from non-profit organizations. Banks statements must be provided to verify available cash for closing. VA loans for eligible military families (both active duty & retired) do not require a down payment. Also, most mortgage programs allow the Seller to pay a portion (if not all) of the closing costs.

The American Dream of home ownership is very much alive and well. Get pre-approved before you begin house hunting. On top of every thing else this is a powerful tool in your negotiations. It tells the seller that you are a qualified buyer who is not only serious but able to buy their home.

Hire a real estate agent to ease the process of buying and selling properties

Hire a real estate agent to ease the process of buying and selling properties

Buying or selling a property is one of the most important financial transactions of anyone’s life. Real estate offers wonderful options for all those who are looking for a home to live or only for investment purpose. The decision of buying and selling real estate needs to be supported by a good deal of acquaintance and expert supervision. If you are looking for an option that can help you choose th...e right house for you, then going for a real estate agent is always a good idea.

A professional real estate agent is a licensed person, and has significant experience in the home buying and selling process. Thus, he can help you sail smoothly through the whole process. If you are still wondering about the reasons to go for the services of a real estate agent or to spend on the fees of an agent, then mentioned below are some of the points that can surely convince you to hire a real estate agent before you enter into a real estate transaction.

Their experience in the real state sector is the main reason for you to go for their services. As they handle all these things on daily basis, thus they can guide in the best way. In the real estate sector an agent acts as a shield, thus will protect you from all types of spam. They do their work efficiently and perfectly filter the options and wipe out all those options which are of no meaning for you. In this way they narrow down your search process, thus saving your time and energy to a great extent.

A real estate agent is the best source who can guide you about the area, neighborhood and the property. Although you can also gather some data related to these three sectors, but surely the data they have is much more than the information collected by you. Being into this industry, they can provide you the best guidance on pricing. Not only a good real estate agent helps you to get the property at the best price, but they also help you do the negotiations. The negotiation done by the agent is based on the demand, supply and many other factors.

These agents have a professional network which can be of great help when if you are looking for a house in any other area. This network also makes it possible for you to go through the vast options as per your needs and preferences, before you actually make your decision. Last but not the least, is the freedom from paperwork. Hiring a real estate agent makes the whole buying and selling process less stressful, as they are going to do the voluminous paperwork for you.

The real estate business is a ferocious one. However, taking the help of someone who understands this sector quite well is really recommended. So, if you are planning to buy or sell a home, then look for a reliable real estate agent and make this important decision of your life which you can cherish lifelong.

High Trust Selling - The Law of the Bulls Eye

By Todd Duncan The Law of the Bull’s-Eye says that if you don’t aim for the best prospects you will do business with any prospect. That’s because in sales, if you aren’t aiming for the bull’s-eye, you won’t beat your competition very often. On the other hand, when you’re good at hitting the bull’s-eye prospects in your field, you can upstage your competition on a regular basis.

THE PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY OF PROFITABLE PROSPECTING

The fact is that even if you have great interviewing skills, great presentation skills, and great objection management skills, but don’t have the right prospects, none of that really matters. Obviously, nothing is sold without someone to sell it to. Therefore, if you’re not prospecting, your business is dying. Prospecting is the blood that will keep your sales business alive. And not just when you’re starting off. Prospecting is not an on-and-off switch; it is a volume dial that is turned up when you want more business and turned down when business is cruising. But there is a right and wrong way to gaining prospects, and you must understand the difference.

It doesn’t matter how many prospects you see. It matters how you see the right prospects.

To a certain extent, all of us play the numbers game in selling. However, it is erroneous to assume that if you see more people you will get more business. It’s true that you usually need more prospects when you are starting your sales career than when you’re established. But in either case, it’s not the numbers that ultimately count. It doesn’t matter how many prospects you see. It matters how you see the right prospects.

Would you rather see ten prospects and get one sale, or see one prospect and get one sale? Easy answer, right? It never feels good to have nine prospects say no. Your confidence and profits are only impacted positively by how many people say yes, not by how many calls you make. Therefore, prospecting is a productivity game, not a numbers game. And to maximize your prospecting efficiency you must replace the traditional “more is better” quantity concept with a “less is best” quality concept as you master the Law of the Bull’s-Eye in your career. This is especially critical when you consider how much time prospecting can take from your day if it doesn’t produce sales.

All sales presentation success is predicated on hitting the right prospects who will in turn become clients that reap high returns for life.
I am constantly amazed at how many sales are left on the table when salespeople fail to think long-term. But if you prospect with the purpose of landing the right clients for life, you will resolve to be purposeful in securing their initial trust. What you do between the time you meet a person and the time that individual decides to buy deter¬mines whether he or she will become your client or your competition’s.

What I want you to understand to this point is that aiming for the best prospects is not cold-calling everyone and their mothers. It’s not randomly phoning someone whose name you’ve never seen before that moment. It’s not walking into an office that you’ve never been to and trying to meet with someone with whom you’ve never communicated. It’s not leaving a business card on a restaurant table, under a windshield wiper, or on someone’s front door. High trust selling has nothing to do with the luck of the draw or the alignment of the stars.
Prospecting that leads to high trust sales and long-term clients has everything to do with preparation (knowing how to take accurate aim) and execution (knowing when to release).

Why hire a Realtor?

Hire a real estate agent to ease the process of buying and selling properties

Buying or selling a property is one of the most important financial transactions of anyone’s life. Real estate offers wonderful options for all those who are looking for a home to live or only for investment purpose. The decision of buying and selling real estate needs to be supported by a good deal of acquaintance and ...expert supervision. If you are looking for an option that can help you choose the right house for you, then going for a real estate agent is always a good idea.

A professional real estate agent is a licensed person, and has significant experience in the home buying and selling process. Thus, he can help you sail smoothly through the whole process. If you are still wondering about the reasons to go for the services of a real estate agent or to spend on the fees of an agent, then mentioned below are some of the points that can surely convince you to hire a real estate agent before you enter into a real estate transaction.

Their experience in the real state sector is the main reason for you to go for their services. As they handle all these things on daily basis, thus they can guide in the best way. In the real estate sector an agent acts as a shield, thus will protect you from all types of spam. They do their work efficiently and perfectly filter the options and wipe out all those options which are of no meaning for you. In this way they narrow down your search process, thus saving your time and energy to a great extent.

A real estate agent is the best source who can guide you about the area, neighborhood and the property. Although you can also gather some data related to these three sectors, but surely the data they have is much more than the information collected by you. Being into this industry, they can provide you the best guidance on pricing. Not only a good real estate agent helps you to get the property at the best price, but they also help you do the negotiations. The negotiation done by the agent is based on the demand, supply and many other factors.

These agents have a professional network which can be of great help when if you are looking for a house in any other area. This network also makes it possible for you to go through the vast options as per your needs and preferences, before you actually make your decision. Last but not the least, is the freedom from paperwork. Hiring a real estate agent makes the whole buying and selling process less stressful, as they are going to do the voluminous paperwork for you.

The real estate business is a ferocious one. However, taking the help of someone who understands this sector quite well is really recommended. So, if you are planning to buy or sell a home, then look for a reliable real estate agent and make this important decision of your life which you can cherish lifelong.