The following was saved from the old blog.leadcritic.com website, just in case anyone was looking for it (Source: archive.org):
Recently key players on the Quicken Loans team who were instrumental in the marketing and lead buying strategies of the company have departed, in one way or another.
Brian Stapp, former CMO, Chris Meerschaert, former Director if Bus. Dev and Jon Moises, Senior Bus. Dev. Manager have all exited the confines of the Quicken Loans community. This is all the while Quicken Loans, like many other mortgage companies are feeling the pain of a declining market.
I find this all interesting because the big player in the space is losing key players of its team for one reason or the other. Now I don’t know if they chose to move on, were asked to move on or let go but I don’t think it really matters.
Yesterday there was an interesting article by the Detroit News Online that included a few interesting comments and quotes on a similar issue:
The company also has temporarily stopped hiring new loan writers, called mortgage bankers, to focus on retraining its staff on the new products and how to sell in a tough environment. As a result, Quicken has 160 fewer mortgage bankers now than it did in mid-August, but has avoided layoffs, company executives said.
160 fewer mortgage bankers than the month before without laying anyone off? Were they all fired? Further along on the article, Gilbert say this is their normal attrition rate.
Some former Quicken mortgage bankers, however, say they aren’t that impressed with how the lender operates. Eight ex-employees told The Detroit News that unrealistic sales goals, in a tough mortgage market, led to their dismissal or decision to quit in August and September. They say the goals were laid out in an “Opportunity Letter.”
“I got a letter saying they wanted me to write 10 loans by the end of the month — superstars were doing five or six a month,” once the market took a dip, said Steven Campisi, a mortgage banker who worked in Quicken’s Cleveland office. “I knew what they meant: They wanted me to go.”
Now the article recounts situations specifically dealing with mortgage bankers, but it does make you wonder if they also apply the same tactics to middle and upper management. I am sure they do. I guess you would have to ask yourself, “What’s the Diff?“.
The man rumored to replace these gentlemen, on some level, will be Quicken Loans insider, former Chief Information Officer and the current VP of HR Todd Lunsford. Todd has quite an eclectic resume building.
I will keep an eye out for any movement with these three guys and I wish them good luck in what ever they do. I hear that Brian Stapp may be involved with a start-up and I look forward to hearing more about it.