Executive shares secret to stronger referral partners: ‘Think like a spy’
One executive says the lack of action backing up that promise has nothing to do with not wanting to send deals to a particular broker.
DJ Christofferson (pictured top), executive partner at NEXA Lending and co-founder of Dodoche, said the real problem is that referral partners forget about the broker they just made a connection with. That’s why he turned to a technique used by spies to help build stronger referral partners.
“There’s a methodology that, whether you’re the CIA or FBI, I know it sounds really crazy, is how you can recreate the environment and develop a relationship,” Christofferson told Mortgage Professional America, describing that familiar pattern. “It’s exactly the same thing that the FBI does for their undercover agents to go deep within organizations, or the CIA to recruit assets.”
The four-part formula
Christofferson said the framework he teaches, which he is bringing to an upcoming breakout session at the Association of Independent Mortgage Experts (AIME) Fuse conference, did not originate with him.
“There are four components to developing relationships, and I didn’t invent these things,” he said. “This came from an FBI agent named Jack Schafer. He wrote about it in one of his books called The Like Switch. The four things are proximity, frequency, duration, and intensity.”
