Edited by Margery Weinstein
Quicken Loans has found coaching to be an important training tool. The company’s team of regional mortgage banker coaches runs a program broken down into several initiatives, or “plays,” that promote a culture in which bankers and leaders at all levels continue to learn and sharpen their skills. Key components include:
Coaching Cycle: One-on-one “game films” (i.e., call reviews) take place between banker coaches and selected mortgage bankers. These bankers also receive live call coaching from their banker coaches outside of the game film reviews. The goal is to increase average conversion among participating bankers compared to their peers in the same region. In the company’s newest banking regions, participating bankers average 3.5 to four more loan commitments per month than individuals not working with a banker coach.
DMB Certification: A coaching program isn’t effective if the coaches and leaders aren’t on the same page. Therefore, to ensure that its Directors of Mortgage Banking (DMBs) are reinforcing the skills taught in the game film reviews and off-the-floor classes, Quicken’s banker coaches run a DMB Certification program. This ensures that the company’s DMBs are certified to be effective coaches. This is an eight-week program that gives DMBs the opportunity to practice training and coaching their bankers on fundamental phone skills. DMBs are taught the “Tell, Show, Do, Practice, and Review” format, which they must follow when presenting back skills. For each of the eight skills presented, DMBs are measured on a pass/fail basis. Feedback from a banker coach is provided on the spot afterward, and a Web page shows each DMB’s progression through DMB Certification, so they and their leaders (Quicken’s regional vice presidents) can track progress at any time.
The Standard/The Ascent: DMBs get to execute the skills they learned during DMB Certification weekly during two ongoing banker coaching and training initiatives: “The Standard” and “The Ascent.”
The Standard is a habit in which DMBs dedicate 30 minutes at the same time three days a week to train and coach a designated phone skill to their entire team. On Mondays, each DMB delivers the provided training material to his or her team. On Wednesdays and Fridays, each DMB conducts “hot seats” with his or her team to ensure each banker gets repetition practicing the skill, receives feedback, and that the skill from Monday has transferred into behavior change.
The Ascent is a competition that enables DMBs to showcase their training skills. Each DMB is required to personally prepare and deliver two training sessions to his or her team each month. Each session is evaluated and videotaped by Quicken’s banker coaches and housed in a shared library so all DMBs can watch and listen to best practices that other DMBs are promoting with their teams.
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