It’s time to take our industry’s conversation du jour beyond current market conditions. We’ve done that enough.

Saying “yes” to every last request doesn’t just hold the potential to strain resources. It also threatens to take a brand off of its mission, possibly even diluting what it does best.

I’d like to talk a bit about the etiquette of job seeking. I’m pretty particular about what I look for when I’m seeking new team members. Especially when it comes to consumer or client facing positions or sales people.

While market conditions may tamp down travel in 2023, there will still be onsite conferences, seminars and conventions. So I ask the question again, since it seems more than a few of us are asking it: why do we spend large amounts of money to attend conferences?

Now is a great time to rethink how well we pool resources and collaborate for mutual benefit. Especially in markets like this, our tendency is to cut expenses and then cut some more. While that’s a cry for even better use of technology, it’s also a great reason to explore strategic partnerships and scaled resources.

One of the best ways to gauge the true priority a company gives to client service is to deal with that company when times are good. Really good, in fact. As in, historic refinance origination volume good.

Coopertition is popping up in many forms. In spite of the withering market conditions, businesses are partnering for sales and marketing initiatives.

I’m going to take a bit of a different direction with this week’s Deeper Thoughts. But we’re now in a competitive purchase market, which means marketing and sales will be on everyone’s minds as firms compete for share. We’ll all be seeing a lot of it. Good. Bad. And ugly.

Ensuring your company is hiring from diverse backgrounds, cultures and ethnicities ensures you have the opportunity to access deep insight into local markets, making you more competitive and profitable. Let’s face it. People are more comfortable working with companies that look like and understand them.