Seasonality - it's not just volume and margins. It's a head game.

Seasonal Affective Disorder aka SAD typically impacts its victims in fall and winter.

Mortgage Sales Professionals also suffer a form of depression brought on by seasonality in our business.  I call this condition SAD/AE. It can affect even the most tenured sales people leaving us feeling anything from a bit salty to clinically depressed. And like the medical condition, if left untreated it will only worsen as fall turns to winter.

This is what the Mayo Clinic says about SAD.

Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a type of depression that's related to changes in seasons — SAD begins and ends at about the same times every year. If you're like most people with SAD, your symptoms start in the fall and continue into the winter months, sapping your energy and making you feel moody. Treatment for SAD may include light therapy (phototherapy), medications and psychotherapy. Don't brush off that yearly feeling as simply a case of the "winter blues" or a seasonal funk that you have to tough out on your own. Take steps to keep your mood and motivation steady throughout the year.  (Underline added for emphasis)

Those last two sentences speak the truth for SAD and SAD/AE. What you do throughout the year, and the “extra treatments” you take during the worst of the seasonality, can help maintain your motivation and volume in the slower months.

As with most things recognizing the problem, looking at the root causes, and consistently applying treatment is proven to have a positive impact.

While the specific cause of SAD is unknown SAD/AE has specific causes and easily identifiable symptoms. Some of you may be already be feeling the onset. The October Conference Season (over 20 options nationally from October-December) may keep us busy, but then what? Are thoughts of holiday vacations and downtime creeping in? Is it getting harder to book your business travel and meeting plans through year-end? Are you losing a little sleep about current volume and the thought of further reductions? Overall is your energy and passion for the entire business waning a bit? These are all symptoms we recognize in ourselves, our peers and our customers. Why do we let it happen every year? History tends to repeats itself but it doesn’t have to. Maybe some perspective would help.

Just as the days have been getting shorter since June 21st, mortgage applications shrink as the calendar progresses into fall. According to Tian Liu at Housing Wire,

“Home sales begin to contract in earnest in September.  Existing home sales fall by an average of 16% from August, and then fall by another 10% in November. 

The four lightest months of the year for existing home sales, which is November to February, account for 27% of an average year’s total home-selling volume.”

These natural shifts in volume can seriously impact our ability to recognize that immediate returns on our time investment are less likely in the fall and winter. But our continued investment will pay off during the spring when a full 40% of the year’s purchase volume is up for grabs. Recognizing the problem and the root causes can give us a much-needed dose of reality and help improve perspective. But we may still experience serious complications from SAD/AE and they need to be treated consistently.

Patients with SAD experience serious complications.

“Take signs and symptoms of seasonal affective disorder seriously. As with other types of depression, SAD can get worse and lead to problems if it's not treated. These can include:

·       Social withdrawal, school or work problems, substance abuse, other mental health disorders such as anxiety or eating disorders, suicidal thoughts or behavior

Treatment can help prevent complications, especially if SAD is diagnosed and treated before symptoms get bad.” (Underlined for emphasis)

The SAD/AE experiences some if not all of these complications:

Social Withdraw: Although we may be attending more parties and conferences, SAD/AE’s withdraw from one-on-one opportunities to build relationships and increase customer familiarity with their internal teams. The slower months provide decision influencers with more time to make connections and more time for education. This is the perfect time of year to bring key team members such as sales coordinators, underwriters and operations managers into the field. Let your team spend time with their team. Make this quality time. An hour or two in open Q & A or live training in the office, and then social time where the real conversations can flow. This activity will pay dividends well beyond a repeat of last year’s 30-minute speed-date at a conference. I would argue that taking high-touch team members into key accounts or key prospects is a much wiser investment than attending a second industry conference. And the relationships built between sales and ops will pay dividends when the crush of spring volume strains those ties. If you are budget-constrained modify this experience by conducting on-site forums with your accounts and then engage your remote team via phone and video.

Work Problems: When afflicted with SAD/AE your vision is impaired. We tend to see what we don’t have, more clearly than what we do possess. We get busy spending time with co-workers and peers focused on lamentations instead of developing and presenting what have. Worse, we do the same with customers! (Imagine if you had 1mm in volume for every conversation you shared about volume being down and margins being thin.) Why carry worry with you, when a briefcase of gratitude and inspiration is in demand? Your customer doesn’t benefit from confirmation that times are tough. They need inspiration to carry them through. Your co-worker doesn’t need to be convinced that you have a key product missing. They need your insights for successfully selling what you have. Fall and winter are the seasons of gratitude. Spread gratitude (maybe some full-on Joy) for every dollar spent by your customers to maintain a compliant, producing origination machine. And gratitude for your employer for every staff member, product, tool and piece of technology you are given. Finally, avoid being distracted by “opportunities” with companies that say they have greener grass (they might just be using more fertilizer). That is not to say that all opportunities are a waste of time. But before you allow any distraction from the work at hand ask yourself this simple question, “If I invest in my current role the way I would need to invest in a new role, would I even have a need to look or listen?”. The potential of a new job may be exciting and feel like a shot of B12. But you are more likely to experience the benefits of long-term employment and deep relationships if you find that energy in actively building your current role. Remain grateful, positive and present and the complications of Work Problems will subside.

Anxiety: Are you waking up with feelings of dread or symptoms of anxiety? Excessive worry, emotional distress and irritability are all symptoms of anxiety. The Anxiety and Depression Association of American have many tips for dealing with anxiety. My favorite - “Do your best”. That is literally tip number 8, “Do Your Best”. Move forward, work your daily routine, do your best work. Others will fall out of routine at this time of year but doing your best will set you apart. Doing what you know should be done will actually reduce your anxiety. So much is written about a consistent morning routine being a key component in the lives of successful people. Patients battling SAD use special lights to help stave off symptoms. According to Columbia University, a SAD light used in the early hours of the morning for treatment is most effective.  Their Q & A on Bright Light therapy goes on to explain, “What is important is to orient the head and body toward the lights, concentrating on activities on the surfaces illuminated by the lights, and not on the lights themselves.”  The patient receives the positive impact of the light over time as they focused on activities. Likewise you can overcome the anxiety associated with SAD/AE by maintaining a daily routine as if you were in the midst of the peak buying season. Review your sales activity report from your CRM or calendar for March and April; a time when you were probably feeling great. Your sales cadence should be just as crisp. Your focus just as clear. If you want to move into spring ahead of your competitive peers set a cadence that exceeds last spring’s activity. Then bright lights will be shining on you come Q2.

(I won’t address substance abuse or suicide and hope that no one reading this is suffering to that degree. But just in case, if you are in crisis you can text “Hello” to 741741 and you will reach a counselor – you are not alone.)

Fight the effects of SAD/AE now and continue your treatment through 2019. If you can smooth the ups and downs of your volume while improving your mental state you will set yourself apart from the competition and earn a clean bill of health in just a few months.

I am offering a free SAD/AE check-up to the first 3 readers that request it via www.topwaterstrategy.com . I will spend 30 minutes with you each week through January 2019. During that time, you will receive sales strategy advice, coaching, an energetic brainstorming partner, inspiration and maybe even a sticker if you don’t cry. (Who am I kidding? Sometimes a good cry is just what the doctor ordered!)

Sources

                  Liu, Tian. “Here's Why Seasonality Matters in the Housing Market.” HousingWire.com, 2016, www.housingwire.com/blogs/1- rewired/post/36855-heres-why-seasonality-matters-in-the-housing-market.

                  “Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).” Mayo Clinic, Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 25 Oct. 2017, www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/seasonal-affective-disorder/symptoms-causes/syc-20364651.

                  “Understand the Facts.” Anxiety and Depression Association of America, ADAA, adaa.org/understanding-anxiety.