Recently we received an email from Dan Stevens, with Wells Fargo Home Mortgage in Healdsburg, California. Dan said, "We've done such a good job of implementing BRO tips, systems, etc. that we are overwhelmed with volume (just hired another junior loan officer to help with the load). We should fund over $100M in volume in 2010. Thanks again for all you do for our business!"

We followed up with Dan and here's what he told us:

"I'd be guessing because I've been too busy to even look at it, but we probably have 55, 60 transactions in the pipeline right now.

"For the past six years my team has been a full-time assistant and myself. I added the full-time junior in mid-March."

The strategies Dan has implemented include the Popcorn Letter and the Turbulence Letter from the Turnkey Touchpoints Program, and, "I send thank yous at the end of every month for every transaction we've done, and a thank you to the person who referred us to that transaction, which is almost all of our transactions. I send the By Referral Only Client Newsletter to anyone I consider an advocate or an aspiring advocate. I send birthday cards to anyone I consider an advocate or an aspiring advocate."

With the birthday card strategy, says Dan, "Every Monday my assistant gives me 15 to 25 birthday cards for the people who have a birthday the following week. I add a handwritten note, get them back to her by Thursday, and she mails them. We have that automated.

"It's amazing how many people will call me within a couple days after getting the birthday card. They'll thank me and then say, 'You reminded me I wanted to call you because we're looking at upgrading our home and we wanted to run through the numbers with you' or, 'We're looking at buying an investment property' or, 'We keep hearing that rates are still super low – maybe we should be looking at refinancing or changing from a 30-year to a 15-year,' and so on.

"We're sending about 600 birthday cards a year, we're in our third year of doing this, and it's bringing us one to two transactions a month, probably $35,000 a year.

"The key to birthday cards is – and this is part of the By Referral Only mindset – you're making the relationship more personal. I think the more personal you can make it, the fewer barriers you're going to have with things like rate and fees. And the more comfortable people will feel talking to you as a consultant instead of a transaction person.

"Birthday cards are just one more step towards personalizing the relationship. And at the end of the day it's all about relationships."

(Reminder: Sending birthday cards is one of the touchpoints in The 30/30 Program. Are you implementing this program and getting results like Dan's?)

On June 17 Yvonne Coelet, with Monument Properties AZ in Lakeside, Arizona, shared this great information on the By Referral Only Message Board:

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