By: Dave Savage
March 17, 2026

Jessica Uphoff
 Producing Branch Manager
Homeowners Financial Group USA, LLC

In 2018, I wrote the Lead Conversion Playbook.  It became one of the most read pieces I’ve ever published, and loan officers still reference it today.

But the world it was written for no longer exists.

Consumers are now AI-powered. Many are showing up to their first conversation having already asked ChatGPT what questions to ask a loan officer. Most face-to-face meeting have been replaced by a Zoom meeting. Speed to lead has evolved into something more valuable. And the loan officers who are winning are building practices that geography, interest rates, and online lenders can’t beat.

This past week, I interviewed Jessica Uphoff. She lives in Newport Beach. Her entire practice is in Denver. Last year, she closed over 200 loans and $122 million in production, 85% of it purchase, while running one of the highest-margin businesses I’ve seen, with minimal concessions, because she delivers such a high-value advice borrower experience. 

This is the 2026 edition of the Lead Conversion Playbook. Let’s get into it.

The 4 Principles: Updated for 2026

The original playbook had four principles. I’m keeping the spirit of all four but updating them for where we are now.

Principle 1: AI won’t beat loan officers. But loan officers who master AI will beat those who don’t.

In 2018, I wrote that technology wouldn’t replace loan officers, but that loan officers who mastered it would replace those who didn’t. That’s still true, but the word “technology” needs to be updated  with “AI”. ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini, these tools are now part of how consumers research mortgages, evaluate loan officers, and make decisions before they ever pick up the phone.

Jessica said it clearly: “More and more people are trying to ask AI questions like, ‘Is this a smart move for me? ‘” Should I pay points?’ And I think AI is just muddying the waters when consumers are trying to ask it questions because the real data lives in MortgageCoach.”

The loan officer who shows up with a Total Cost Analysis that organizes the actual data: equity position, long-term cost, strategy comparison, is giving the consumer something no AI chatbot can replicate right now. Use that advantage.

Principle 2: Double down on your humanity.

In 2018, I talked about making yourself Amazon Mortgage-proof by boosting your empathy and your advice experience. That’s more true today than it was then. Jessica closed $122 million last year by doing something most loan officers aren’t doing: she helps clients feel safe and secure. That’s her north star in every conversation.

“When you actually get down to the nuts and bolts of it, they want to feel safe and secure. That’s what they want. Someone to take care of them, give them good advice, make them feel safe and secure.”

AI can give a consumer data. It cannot sit across from them on Zoom, understand their income situation for the next three years, build a strategy around their specific goals, and help them feel confident enough to write a winning offer. That’s your job. And it’s irreplaceable.

Principle 3: Speed to need beats speed to lead.

In the original playbook, I wrote about speed to lead: the importance of being first to connect with a prospect. That still matters. But in 2026, the race isn’t just to get someone on the phone. It’s about understanding their needs faster than anyone else and delivering advice that helps them achieve financial freedom through homeownership.

The loan officer who wins is the one who gets to the need first: Who asks the right questions, who understands what the client is actually trying to accomplish – not just what they’re qualified for on paper – and delivers a strategy around that.

Principle 4: When borrowers focus on rate, change the conversation to total cost over time and helping consumers optimize both debt and equity.

This one hasn’t changed at all. I wrote it in 2018, and I’ll write it again in 2026. The moment you’re talking with a client about total cost over time and how to build wild faster and achieve financial freedom faster, you’ve left the commodity conversation behind. Jessica recently showed a client that staying in their current loan at a higher rate was actually better for their equity position than refinancing into a new 30-year loan at a lower rate. That’s the kind of advice that creates clients for life. And it’s impossible to have that conversation without MortgageCoach.

The Updated Strategies

1. Educate and train your realtors, and teach them to stay in their lane.

Originally, I talked about educating Realtors about what makes you unique and training them to refer you. Jessica added something important to this in 2026: teach your partners to stay out of the lending lane.

“What the real estate agent does not understand is the minute you start talking about buying before you’re selling, if you’re not prepared to handle the immediate objections that are going to come up, the consumer is going to shut down.”

Her solution is elegant. She teaches her partners that their one job is to get the client into a strategy call with her. That’s it. Not to explain bridge loans or talk about buydowns. Just to make a warm introduction and let Jessica take it from there.

Here’s how she coaches them to do it: “Jess starts with an introductory strategy call. You don’t have to pull credit, apply online, or upload documents. Jess just wants to learn about you, your goals, what you’re hoping to accomplish.”

That framing removes every barrier the consumer has to showing up. And it positions the strategy call as the partner’s secret weapon: a tool that helps the agent convert more of their leads into confident, committed buyers.

Watch the Uncommon LO clip “Exactly What To Say And Do With Realtors When Getting a Referral” and “A Winning Value Prop & Script With Realtors So You Get More Referrals.” 

2. Speed to need: Ask better questions.

Jessica added two questions to the playbook that I think every loan officer needs to be asking on every call.

The first: “Do you have a strong opinion about the future of interest rates?”

This question does two things. It tells you how the client thinks about the market, so you can present options that align with their beliefs. And it opens the door for them to ask your opinion, which means you’re giving your perspective at their invitation rather than unsolicited. “When they ask the question, ‘What do you think?’ now it invites my opinion to the table.”

The second: “Are there any changes to your income I should be aware of in the next three or four years?”

This one changes everything about how you structure a strategy. A client who knows they’re getting a promotion in eighteen months, or whose spouse is going back to work when their youngest starts kindergarten, has a completely different set of options than their current income suggests. You can only have that conversation if you ask the question.

Watch the Uncommon LO clips “Want better deals? Start with better questions.” and “Every Buyer Has a ‘WHY’ But Most LOs Never Ask The Right Questions To Uncover It” 

3. The strategy call as your conversion engine.

In 2018, I talked about face-to-face meetings as the gold standard for conversion. That’s still true, but in 2026 the strategy call on Zoom has replaced the in-office meeting for most advisors, and when done well, it’s just as powerful.

Jessica’s process is built around the strategy call as the first touchpoint with every new client. No credit pull or application. Just a conversation about goals, timeline, fears, and circumstances. And when it’s over, she uses the Zoom AI summary to write a follow-up email.

“I train ChatGPT to write a very nice follow-up email. It grabs what they’re qualified for, some of the things we talked about, and the follow-up items I need from them. So I can write a very eloquent follow-up consultation email to my client and CC my partner in five minutes.”

That follow-up does multiple things at once. It confirms everything the client heard. It keeps the partner in the loop. And it signals to both of them that this is a different level of service than anything they’ve experienced before.

Watch the Uncommon LO clips “Why introductory calls matter more than ever especially with first-time buyers” and “A powerful way to reframe the first buyer conversation”

4. Every client gets a MortgageCoach Presentation and the AI chatbot.

This strategy hasn’t changed since 2018, but the execution has evolved. In 2026, every MortgageCoach Presentation should have the AI chatbot enabled so consumers can interact with the presentation, ask questions, and get answers, and the loan officer receives a transcript of every question they ask.

Jessica made the point as clearly as I’ve ever heard it: “I think AI is just muddying the waters when consumers are trying to ask it questions because the real data lives in MortgageCoach.”

Give the consumer the real data. Enable the AI. Get the transcript. Then call them.

Watch the Uncommon LO clips “If you’re not presenting a Wealth Creator Option, you’re leaving impact and influence on the table” and “Breaking down how to price multiple scenarios to match what the client actually cares about” 

5. The Rubik’s Cube: Turning complex offers into confident decisions.

This is new to the playbook, and it’s one of the most valuable things Jessica shared. In competitive markets, buyers are dealing with a combination of variables simultaneously: list price, appraisal gap, commission splits, buydowns, debt payoff, and bridge loans. Most loan officers present one scenario. Jessica puts all the variables together into what she calls the Rubik’s Cube.

She described a recent transaction on a home listed at $785,000. Her client was in a multiple offer situation. Instead of just pushing the price higher like everyone else, she structured an offer that paid the seller’s full 3% commission, kept the price lower, and then went back after going under contract to negotiate a $15,000 buydown. The result was a payment close to the client’s $4,500 target, on a home that other offers had pushed to $830,000.

“I take all of that, the Rubik’s Cube, and I put it together. And then I present it to the client, CC my partner. And now my partner sees what I did in order to get the client to say, yes, I can afford that.”

The partner sees this. The client feels it. And neither of them forgets it.

Watch the Uncommon LO clips “How To Turn Hesitant Buyers Into Confident Buyers Using A Seller-Paid Buydown” and “Simple Yet Powerful 3-Option Framework That Helps Buyers Make Confident Decisions”

6. The equity conversation: Why refinancing isn’t always the answer.

This strategy didn’t exist in 2018 because the rate environment was completely different. Jessica is now having a conversation with her clients that most loan officers aren’t having, and it’s creating massive differentiation.

She’s showing clients that refinancing into a new 30-year mortgage, even at a meaningfully lower rate, can actually hurt their long-term equity position because of where they are in their amortization schedule. Starting the am schedule over means the early years of the new loan are heavily weighted toward interest, which costs them equity they’ve already built.

“Look at how your equity position gets worse by X. It’s not because of the cost of the loan; it’s because of starting the am schedule over.”

She recently showed a client that staying in their current loan was better than refinancing at a full point lower rate. That’s the kind of advice that builds trust for life. And it’s a conversation that only happens when you’re using MortgageCoach to show the numbers side by side.

Watch the Uncommon LO clips “How to Reframe The Conversation To See The Bigger Picture of Wealth Through Homeownership” and “Great advisors don’t just talk rates; they talk real life money”

7. Train your Realtors on how you’re different, because they’re the ones introducing you.

Jessica made a point about the AI-powered consumer that every loan officer needs to hear. Consumers are showing up to their first conversation having already asked ChatGPT what questions to ask a loan officer. They’re coming in primed to talk about rate and fees because that’s what AI told them to ask about.

The real estate partner is the one who introduces the consumer to a different model. “The real estate partner is really the one that introduces them to the concept that this is what’s unique about my partner.”

Which means your realtors need to understand what makes you different. Not in a vague way. In a specific, repeatable way that they can communicate in thirty seconds when they’re making a referral. Your job is to give them that language and remind them to use it.

Watch the Uncommon LO clips “A powerful positioning script you can use the moment a Realtor introduces you” and “How to Build Instant Trust and Deeper Realtor Partnerships”

8. Operational excellence is your number one marketing tool.

This is a new principle that wasn’t in the 2018 playbook, and Jessica articulated it better than I’ve heard anyone say it.

“If I always have docs to title three to five days before closing and my client has their number and they feel confident going into closing, these partners are going to experience contrast out there with other lenders, and they will value me even more. I never run into this with Jess.”

She talked about a credit union banker she’s used for a decade. Her team doesn’t love the relationship. But the banker always closes on time. And that operational excellence keeps Jessica coming back over and over again. She looked at that dynamic and asked herself: ” Am I delivering that for my partners?

In a market where teams have scaled back and capacity is tighter, the loan officers who close clean and close on time are going to stand out in a way that no marketing campaign can replicate. That reliability becomes your reputation.

Watch the Uncommon LO clips “Stop Losing Loans And Getting Ghosted By Prospects” and “Every Homebuyer Wants To Feel 3 Things Before They Say Yes” 

9. Deliver a mortgage review within 30 days of closing, and make the client for life promise on day one.

This strategy was in the 2018 playbook and it belongs in this one too. Jessica’s version of this is built into the strategy call. She tells every client from the first conversation that her job doesn’t end at closing. She’s managing their mortgage over time to make sure they’re always in the right loan at the right time.

That promise changes the nature of the relationship from the very beginning. The client isn’t just getting a loan. They’re getting an advisor who will be with them through every financial decision that affects their mortgage for the rest of their lives.

The 30-day mortgage review is the first delivery on that promise. Do it consistently, and it becomes a referral machine.

Watch the Uncommon LO clip “A Powerful Strategy For Helping Homeowners Get Clarity On Whether To Sell, Rent, or Buy Before They Sell”

10. Build your personal brand for humans and AI.

This is new to the playbook. In 2018, I talked about digital friends: the importance of being connected to your clients and prospects through social and mobile. That’s still relevant. But in 2026, you’re also building your brand for AI.

When a consumer asks ChatGPT or Perplexity to recommend a loan officer who specializes in creative financing for move-up buyers in Denver, the answer is being pulled from your online content. Your LinkedIn articles. Your YouTube videos. Your Google Business Profile. If AI doesn’t know who you help, how you think, and what you specialize in, you don’t exist in the conversation that’s happening before anyone picks up the phone.

Do a GEO audit: Generative Engine Optimization. Search for yourself in ChatGPT and Perplexity. Ask it to recommend a loan officer in your market. See what comes back. Then build content that fills in the gaps.

Watch the Uncommon LO clips “How To Use IG Content To Create Warm Leads And Build Trust with Realtors and Clients” and “The blueprint for becoming the Uncommon LO in your market”

Your Assignment

Jessica closed $122 million last year by doing a few things exceptionally well. She has ten core realtor relationships. She runs every client through a strategy call. She delivers a Total Cost Analysis on every transaction. She asks better questions than anyone else in her market. And she delivers operational excellence that makes her partners never want to work with anyone else.

The playbook hasn’t gotten more complicated since 2018. If anything, the loan officers who are winning have gotten more focused, not less. They know who they serve, how they serve them, and they do it the same way every single time.

Pick two or three strategies from this list that you’re not executing consistently right now. Write them down. Build the habit. And measure the results.

Watch the full interview from last week’s sales meeting on the MortgageCoach YouTube Channel.