The Broker: How Zach Ramirez Makes Deals Happen

deBanked interviewed Zachary Ramirez to find out what makes a successful broker like him tick, how he does it, and what kinds of things he’s encountered along the way.

Title: Founder and Managing Director of ZR Consulting, LLC, a brokerage of 10 people in Orange County, California.

Years in the industry: 6

Age: 29

Number of brokerage shops he’s started: Three. The first one he created failed after only about three deals, the second one, called Core Financial (that he got in early on with 2 other partners), grew to 27 brokers before it was acquired, and this one is only two months old and has already funded $1 million.

His morning routine:

I get up at about 5:45.

I have my protein shake – banana, protein, coconut oil and whatever else I can find that seems healthy to me.

I get a cup of coffee.

I sit down at my desk and the first thing I do is look at all the leads that came in that night. Sometimes there’s as many as 80. Sometimes there’s as few as 20 or 25. I then distribute the leads to my sales team, so that as soon as they wake up, they have all their leads. After that, I focus on marketing and closing some of the bigger deals.

Ritual before he closes a deal:  

It’s a funny habit that makes me laugh but before I try to close a deal, I visualize myself closing the deal and I beat my chest. I walk around the office beating my chest like an ape, and it’s just hysterical. I get this big adrenaline rush right before I call the merchant. And when I call them, I’m just on fire. Whatever happens, I’m ready for it. And when I’m in that mode, I can’t lose a deal. It’s like impossible.    

His first deal:

It was an auto repair shop that needed $75,000 in order to add three new bays for their repair shop. I think I funded it with OnDeck. It was a very smooth deal. My buddy brought it to me. He said the customer needs the money today. And we ended up funding it the same day. It was great.

I was 23 years old and that was the first time I had seen my business capture any revenue. Finally, after a month or two months of straight working, and not finding a single deal, I finally figured out the marketing a little bit and ended up funding that one. I remember we had 10 points in it, so we had $7,500. I was a single guy renting a room, and for me that was a good chunk of money.

What it taught him:

It helped me learn about expense management because that first broker shop I started failed. I lost everything on that shop. I only funded two or three deals and I ended up spending more money than I made. I was very humbled by this. I realized that being a broker isn’t as easy as people think.  

What his best merchants have in common:    

My favorite merchants understand why they qualify for what they qualify for. We have a deep rapport. I don’t just talk about business. I’ll talk about their family. I’ll talk about trends I see in their industry. I’ll help them understand their financial situation. And my best merchants are the ones that understand that I’m a source of information for them and I can provide them with valuable insights that they might not be aware of. Things that can help them. I’ll help them with marketing a lot…I say, ‘Look, if you talk to these people, they can do this marketing for you.’ And I do stuff like that because it’s increasing their revenue which helps their business. And that can help me do bigger loans for them.

Largest deal:

It was a $2 million deal. We had three points in it, so we made $60,000.

Favorite funders:

OnDeck. Also, I really like Fundworks, Quickbridge and Kalamata Capital Group. If someone doesn’t say OnDeck, then they’ve got a problem because OnDeck is amazing.  

Why?

Because the consistency of their approvals, their competitive rates, the fast and seamless funding process. And especially, the online checkout. The online checkout is godly.

Todd Stone was a reporter for deBanked.