Owners of mortgage companies, please forgive me. I’m about to let your employees in on a little secret—they have to option to leave you at any moment. And, many of them will.

New career opportunities are abundant in the mortgage industry. And unless you start treating your top producer’s differently, they may look elsewhere. The loan officer not satisfied at your company today—may be the loan officer working down the block at your competitor’s firm tomorrow. It’s the sad truth that the mortgage industry can be cut-throat—even inside the office!!!! But then again…that’s business. ;-)

Company owners, should really re-evaluate the way they treat their employees. Make a goal this year to grow your mortgage business, instead of just trying to replace the people who have left for greener pastures. During my consulting practice, working with company owners, I’ve seen this happen time and time again. Loan officer retention is always a problem, and keeping your top producer’s happy is an ongoing process.

Think about it. How much are your top producers REALLY worth to you? How much do they produce for you per month? How much of your bottom-line is attributed to the top 20% of your office? What would happen if these people left you? How much money would you REALLY lose? Write this figure down. I think you’d be surprised.

All too often, employers view their employees as nothing more than liabilities…draining their company assets. Employers change commission structures, reduce benefits, increase working hours, implement new rules and make changes to suit the profit margins of the business. But they don’t realize that this short-term thinking to increase profitability, has detrimental long-term effects and can actually harm their business! With changes like these, it’s no wonder why loan officers leave in response.

Remember, these people are what I like to call your “producing assets”, and over the lifetime of their service to you, are worth many hundreds of thousands of dollars to YOUR company’s profits.

In business, you may have heard of the “lifetime value of a customer”. It’s a common phrase used in marketing and it is extremely powerful. What “lifetime value” means is how much is your customer truly worth to you in terms of money, over the entire course of their relationship with you. It’s a quantifiable figure. It what your customer base spends with you.

For example, if you know an average customer will buy X amount from you, and they’ll stay for a certain length of time and re-purchase or buy other items from you, it’s how much they are worth to you in total. This figure gives you the lifetime value of the customer. It also tells you exactly how much you can spend to attract that customer to your business, and still make a profit (based on their future purchases). The lifetime value of your employees is no different.

Think about it. How many employees do you have? How long does the average loan officer stay with your firm? How much over the life of their relationship with you, did they produce in commission income? Now, how much did the top producers in your officer produce in commissions, before they left? Write these figures down. Then do the math.

For example, if you know that for every new, qualified producing loan officer you hire, that they stay with you an average of 8 months, and their average commission income to the firm is $22,000 per month (gross), you know that their lifetime value to you is $176,000. That’s a big future revenue stream.

Add another qualified producing loan officer, and you’ve effectively added another $176,000 to your bottom-line. Get your current loan officers to stay with you for an extra average month, and you’ve increased your profit another $22,000 per month per loan officer. Can you see how powerful this is?

Of course, not all loan officers are created equal. You’ll notice that I used the words “qualified” and “producing” before loan officer, meaning that the person is strongly motivated to succeed, willing to make the necessary phone calls, and has the educational background and sufficient industry knowledge to sell and close a loan effectively. That is what a fully qualified producing loan officer is. The definition of a top producer is one who is willing to do all the above yet go the extra mile to get the deal closed. They never stop. They are relentless. As every loan officer should aspire to be.

The lifetime value of your employees is a quantifiable figure that tells you exactly how much your “loan officer assets” are truly worth to you. Company owners, when you stop looking at your employees as liabilities, and start treating them like investments, it’s a powerful paradigm shift that can explode your company’s growth.