Hello? Is Anyone There?
A while back my phone rang.
Nothing unusual about that. What was unusual was what the guy on the other end said almost immediately after I picked up.
“I can’t believe you actually answered.”
Turns out he’d called four or five other mortgage brokers in Halifax before finding me. Not one of them picked up. No answer. No callback. Nothing. Just a guy with real questions, real finances, and a real deadline — sitting there listening to voicemail after voicemail from people who are supposedly in the business of helping people get mortgages.
I answered. We talked. I listened to what he actually needed, asked the right questions, and eventually funded his mortgage.
All because I picked up the phone.
So why don’t other brokers answer?
Honestly? My theory is that they’ve convinced themselves that whatever they’re doing at that moment is more important. Underwriting a file. Updating a spreadsheet. Grabbing a coffee. Whatever it is — it can wait. Almost anything can be paused when a phone rings with a real live human being on the other end who wants to talk about their mortgage.
A warm prospect goes cold fast. If someone has worked up the courage to call — because let’s be honest, calling a stranger about your finances takes a little courage — and nobody answers, they don’t always call back. Sometimes they just give up, or worse, they find someone else who did pick up.
I don’t want to be the broker they couldn’t reach.
Here’s what I actually do when I answer.
I listen.
Radical concept, I know.
I’m not running through a script or trying to qualify someone in the first 90 seconds. I’m having a conversation. A real one. Because the person on the other end isn’t a transaction — they’re a person with a specific situation, specific concerns, and specific questions that deserve a specific answer. Not a voicemail. Not a contact form. Not a chatbot.
Me.
I have a prospect I’ve been talking with on and off for months now. Every time he calls there are kids screaming in the background. Every. Single. Time. And every time, I answer anyway — because he’s calling because he needs guidance, and if I’m not there to give it, what exactly am I here for?
I’m not a help line. But I am here to help. There’s a difference — and most days that difference is just picking up the phone.
A word to anyone who’s been ignored.
If you’ve called a mortgage broker and heard nothing but voicemail, I want you to know something: you are not a number. You’re not an interruption. You’re a person with a real question that deserves a real answer — and if the person you called can’t be bothered to pick up, maybe they’re telling you something important about how the rest of the process will go too.
My number is 902-465-5533.
I answer.
Pat
