191: Immediate Success in Mortgage Brokering with Sandro Mariotti

Today’s guest is Sandro Mariotti, a mortgage broker based in North Vancouver. Before becoming a broker, Sandro was an area sales manager for a large manufacturer. His main motivator for leaving that position was to spend more time in the same city, and his sales experience made for a painless transition into mortgage brokering. Sandro shares what he did to find immediate success in brokering, along with where he generates deals from today and advice for new mortgage brokers.

[1:07] How long have you been in the mortgage business?
• In February, it will be seven years.
• Before, I was a territory sales manager for a large manufacturer for BC, Alberta, and Saskatchewan.

[2:02] How did it go in your first years when you decided to jump into mortgages?
• Everyone thought I was crazy, but I hit the ground running. I had some connections.
• I got into the presale game through Origin.
• All of my business was presales when I first started.

[2:47] At what point did you transition away from presales?
• In years two and three, I started to get calls from previous clients.
• In year three, I almost completely moved away from presale into resale.

[3:43] What’s something that’s working really well for you right now?
• Every year I’ve been pivoting my business. This year, probably like a lot of brokers, I’m doing a lot of switches and transfers. I hit that hard.
• I have an opportunity to be in a RE/MAX office, so that’s working really well for me.
• Most of my business is coming from my own book. The realtors are just the cream on top right now.

[4:48] Is there an app or tool that you have found to be useful in your business?
• Being with Origin, I have Velocity. That, for me, is critical.
• ScheduleOnce was a game-changing app for me. Instead of going back and forth with clients, I can just say “here, book a time.”

[7:47] What structures have you put in place to make you more focused?
• Time blocking.
• I have certain things that I do each morning and throughout the week, like calling my clients who are in pre-approval.

[9:29] Who helps you? Who is part of your team?
• I’ve got the back end at Origin available to me. They know how I conduct business and my personality and acts accordingly.
• I’ve got another person at Western Broker Services. I’ve had her since year two or three and I was one of her first clients.
• I still build relationships with realtors and past clients.

[10:53] What kind of things do you do in your follow up system?
• I do an annual review packet that I send out.
• Very few send it back, but it is an invitation to treat. It gives me a reason to send two movie tickets to the client.
• I send out a scratch-and-win on birthdays.
• I do a monthly newsletter.
• I send a closing gift.
• On intake, I send out a coffee card.
• If I get a referral from a realtor, I’ll send them a coffee card too and give them a “thank you” phone call.

[13:26] If someone was starting out in the business today, what advice would you give them?
• System, system, system. Build that system early.
• Consistency is key.

[14:56] You do a fun thing with your realtors, so tell me about that.
• I had been running some lunch and learns at RE/MAX, and what I learned was I’d get more people out if I supplied booze and food.
• The first time I had an event with alcohol, I had six or seven people. That number grew quickly; word got out.

[17:15] If you could go back to when you started, what three things would you tell yourself?
• Pick up the phone more. I didn’t do enough of that early on.
• Be more consistent.
• Recognize that you need help right away. Don’t want until you get busy.

https://newton.ca/velocity/
https://www.scheduleonce.com/
http://sandromariotti.com/