Any Mortgage Brokers using GTD?

[Chads]

As a producing manager of a small mortgage brokerage, I have run into a small snag in my GTD implementation.

For normal projects, GTD works fine. Where I have come into a bit of a quandry is all of the potential clients I come in contact with. Technically each one would be a project were it to turn into an actual client, however an initial call is just an inquiry that requires some research on my end before I am able to determine if this turn into a client. Granted, they should all be projects, however the process for creating a project for each one, some of which go nowhere and are cancelled within 24 hours seems like more work than benefit. I use the GTD Plug in for outlook, and creating the project in Outlook, creating the NA of "Research Options for Mrs Jones" to then cancel the project fairly quickly when there are no options for Mrs Jones, seems like a lot of tracking & cumbersome.

I am curious to hear thoughts from others, Mortgage Field or not, that deal with a volume of inquiries and how they implement GTD digitally. In busy times, I can receive 3-5 inquiries a day, so not tracking them in some form is not acceptable either.

Thanks!
Chad

 

[Linada]

First off i am not familiar with outlook, so not sure how much could be improved there.
I think you are right in making projects. Don't forget that even if an inquiry doesn't become a client, you have still dealt with it successfully, not canceled it. Give yourself a pat on the back for those too

Creating projects and tracking them shouldn't be so much work that you start to resist it. Would it help to split inquiries from clients? Maybe have a checklist: prospective clients. Have the research NA as a single action without a project. Once you have determined whether someone can become a client, cross them off the checklist and make projects for those who become clients. It would mean only one checklist to manage instead of 3-5 new client projects a day.

 

[notmuch]

I "cheat" the project list all the time with small 2 or 3 step projects. I use the ">" character to distinguish the NAs.

In your example the task description might look like this:

Mrs Jones > Call > research options

When each step is complete I just delete the text, and change the context if necessary. Of course, if Mrs Jones becomes a client you go through your normal project process.

 

[gtderik]

Not exactly digital, but same kind of thing...

I am curious to hear thoughts from others, Mortgage Field or not, that deal with a volume of inquiries and how they implement GTD digitally.

Chad, I am pretty quick on using Outlook, but for sales inquiries, for my job, I use a paper based approach to phone calls/inquiries. For each, I take notes on a legal pad, take any action that might need be (research, fax a proposal, etc), and then "tickle" the piece of paper in my tickler file for 1 day, or however many days later. This offloads my brain, gives a systematic follow up process, and at least gives me a trigger, an option for handling the "smaller" stuff.

These reminders also come in handy when they remind me that I am waiting on pieces from people, but havent received them. I could throw it on WAITING FOR, but sometimes its just simpler to "tickle" the notes in my file.

 

[gtderik]

Creating projects and tracking them shouldn't be so much work that you start to resist it. Would it help to split inquiries from clients? Maybe have a checklist: prospective clients.

I like this idea too. Maybe just create a "Projects-Potential Clients" List in outlook for these to keep an eye on.

 

[TexasEx94]

I "cheat" the project list all the time with small 2 or 3 step projects. I use the ">" character to distinguish the NAs.

In your example the task description might look like this:

Mrs Jones > Call > research options

When each step is complete I just delete the text, and change the context if necessary. Of course, if Mrs Jones becomes a client you go through your normal project process.

I like this idea!