The #1 Activity For Loan Officers to Get Mortgage Leads in 2025

Geoff and Todd break down the single highest-leverage activity for LOs right now: proactive phone conversations with your database, structured around a short market update and multiple referral asks. Todd also details the mechanics of his 'Impact 100' challenge with Dave Savage and promotes the Modern Mortgage & Real Estate Summit (March 6). LOs who have stopped calling their past clients need this episode.

Takeaways you can run this week

• Send a pre-call text before calling past clients using this exact script: 'Hey, it's [Name], your favorite mortgage guy/gal. Do you have 3 minutes for a market update tomorrow?' — this primes them so the call feels warm, not cold.
• Open the market-update call with: 'I have a lot of clients who seem very concerned, now that [current event] is happening, about what's going on with interest rates, housing, and the economy. What do you understand about what's going on?' Then walk them through the update.
• In every database call, ask for at least 3 things — not just a mortgage referral. Todd's sequence: (1) referral to a financial advisor or other professional contact, (2) referral to your insurance partner, (3) plant the seed on HELOCs ('If you hear of anyone who needs one, my team would love to help').
• Commit to a 1-day 'Impact 100' blitz with a partner for accountability: block your calendar from early morning to your hard stop, build a physical call sheet with two columns (who you talked to / referral given or received), and pre-schedule as many calls as possible via the text script above.
• Save your contact card to past clients' phones immediately after every call with this text: 'Thanks again for your time. Here's my contact card — open and save it. Next time you need someone, just type Mortgage in your phone and you'll find me.' Label yourself '[First Name] Mortgage Guy/Gal [Last Name]' in the card.
• Host the Modern Mortgage & Real Estate Summit (or any industry event) as a watch party for agents — partner with a title rep to cover the room and food, invite 6–10 agents, and use the invite call itself as the relationship touchpoint even if they never show up.

The playbook

1. 1. Calculate your daily activity number: work backward from annual closing goal → apps needed → leads needed → conversations needed per day.
2. 2. Pull your past client list and have an assistant send the 3-minute market update text to each person the day before your call blitz.
3. 3. Build a physical or digital call sheet: left column = person contacted, right column = referral given or received.
4. 4. Start calls with the market-concern opener, deliver a brief rate/housing/economy update, then transition to personal catch-up.
5. 5. Before hanging up, ask for 3 referrals: mortgage lead, professional referral (FA/insurance/etc.), and HELOC awareness plant.
6. 6. Immediately after the call, text your contact card with the save-my-name instruction.
7. 7. Track every conversation and referral exchange; debrief with your accountability partner at end of day.

Worth quoting

“I didn't ask for one thing. I asked for three things and really made a big push.”

“You have to do the work before the work.”

Best for

LOs who have a solid past-client database but have gone months without calling it and need a concrete, same-week action plan to restart conversations and generate referrals.