Are you familiar with the word doldrums? In our modern lexicon it describes a slump, loss of motion, lack of productivity, or listlessness. For sailors the doldrums were no laughing matter before the advent of steamships and diesel powered vessels. Mariners used the term to describe a windless and potentially deadly zone near the equator where ships could get stuck or days, weeks, or longer as the sails hung slack. 

Today many mortgage and real estate professionals are in this windless limbo and consequently may find themselves with empty sails feeling uneasy, bored, or fearful.

So how do we start paddling back to where the wind can fill our sails? Here are five strategies for your consideration.

1. Be Consistent

Habits and routines may seem boring but they can serve us well. Practice consistent routines for outbound sales calls, mining your client and prospect data in a CRM, and meeting with area professionals who interact with potential borrowers. To ensure you don’t fall off the wagon schedule each of these as recurring events on your calendar. 

2. Use the Stockdale Paradox

The Stockdale Paradox embodies two elements: confronting the brutal truth of your current situation while maintaining an unwavering faith or belief that you will prevail in the end. This principle is named after Vietnam prisoner of war James Stockdale who was imprisoned in the infamous Hanoi Hilton where he developed several psychological tools of survival. Take stock of where your business stands today and boost your perseverence by envisioning where you want to be.

3. Adjust your message

Is your typical sales approach effective with homeowners? Is your marketing producing results? If not, take the time to dive deep into what motivated your past clients and take the pulse of your local market. Have conditions changed? Is the standard pitch of eliminating required mortgage payments working? If not, work to develop a relevant message.

4. Keep the essentials

There are some expenses that should be eliminated and others that shouldn’t. If you find yourself with fewer closings and less income resist the temptation to fold the tent. Folding the tent is eliminating those key services and tools that are essential to you continuing to market, engage, and followup with potential borrowers.

5. Stay in touch

When business slows take advantage of your time by getting on the phone. Professionals across all industries find that the more personal contacts they make the more likely they are to find a deal. Call your past borrowers and check in on how they’re doing. Ask for a referral. Meet a local advisor or realtor for coffee. No matter what- keep building relationships.

What do you do during a slow business season? Share your experience in the comment section below.