How to Delegate Effectively as a Mortgage Broker
Sam Panetta shares his methodology for what to delegate first, what to delegate next, and how it plays out in a mortgage brokerage.
Sort every task by time and difficulty. Delegate the easy, time-consuming work first, and keep the hard but quick work, the broking itself, until last.
1) Build the quadrant
Start with two scales. Time runs from slow to fast, and difficulty runs from hard to easy.
- Time: slow to fast.
- Difficulty: hard to easy.
2) Four quadrants
Put the two scales together and you get four quadrants. Any task in a brokerage can be allocated to one of them.
- Hard and fast.
- Hard and slow.
- Easy and fast.
- Easy and slow.
3) The order of delegation
When it’s time to choose what to delegate, go in this order.
- 1. Easy but time-consuming.
- 2. Easy and quick.
- 3. Difficult and time-intensive.
- 4. Difficult but quick.
4) First: easy and slow
Packaging applications and compliance take time but aren’t difficult to train. You’d typically bring on a para-broker, train them up and get this off your plate first.
- Packaging applications.
- Compliance.
- Train a para-broker.
5) Second: easy and fast
The approval process, getting conditions done, and lining everything up for settlement are still relatively easy and not too time-consuming. A para-broker can take these on next.
- Approvals and conditions.
- The settlement process.
6) Third: difficult and time-intensive
Credit assessment and helping with client proposals need a higher level of skill and take time. Put your best people on these.
- Credit assessment.
- Client proposals.
- Your best people.
7) Last: the broking
The last thing to delegate is the broking itself: your marketing and your selling. That’s the broker’s job, and it’s when you start to hire brokers.
- Marketing and selling come last.
- That’s when you hire brokers.
8) Start easy and slow, end hard and fast
Start with the tasks that are really easy but really time-consuming, and finish with the ones that are really difficult but relatively quick.
- Easy and time-consuming first.
- Difficult and quick last.
The simplest version of the playbook
Map every task by time and difficulty, hand off the easy, time-consuming work first, and keep marketing and selling until you’re ready to hire brokers.
