Posted by John Scott Smith on Thu, Nov 05, 2009 @ 10:50 AM
Before you answer that question, answer this one: do you like to receive handwritten notes? How about those "thank you for helping me get my mortgage" letters? We especially love the ones that people send with a picture of their family in front of their new house. Those get posted in your cubicle. We love it!
Relationships are what get us business, and handwritten notes (along with timely phone calls, professional care, and personal concern) are what build those relationships.
The thing is that you're reading this online. Most of our reading is done online, now. Emails, blog posts, newspapers all make it faster to connect, but less meaningful. One of my favorite tongue-in-cheek business slogans comes from "someecards" where they brag,"when you care enough to hit send". Cute, isn't it?
My point is that when you want to stand out in the mortgage industry, one inexpensive but effective way to do so is with handwritten letters and cards. They really don't take much effort, but they make a significant, lasting impression.
If this is something that you'd like to start doing more often I have found a few ways to make it easy on myself. Maybe you will find this helpful, too.
- If you're having a hard time getting started, pick up a copy of "Business Notes: Writing Personal Notes That Build Professional Relationships" by Florence Isaacs There are excellent examples of short notes and letters in Isaacs' book, and she covers every business occasion that I have encountered. I refer to it often when I'm sending out my own letters.
- Pick up some stationary. There are inexpensive but nice letter-sized papers and envelopes at Hallmark, Papyrus, and even Whole Foods. Get a stash and keep it in your top desk drawer, along with a book of stamps.
- Write out holiday cards right after you close each mortgage. Make them friendly with at least one personal comment about your customer, their kids, or their pet enjoying their new home for the holiday. Collect your stack of these until Black Friday, and then drop them all in the mail to spread the cheer and remind your customers that you exist, that you're thoughtful, and that you care. (Special tip here: on the day after Christmas, I go to Hallmark with my wife. While she gets ornaments and wrapping paper, I pick up several boxes of the nicest holiday cards I can find for next year's batch. They're priced at 40-60% off, and they are sitting in my bottom desk drawer, right now!)
- If you'd like to really get into writing, you can even order special stationary or a nice pen. In order to make my letter-writing as natural as possible, I've indulged in personal stationary and a heavy fountain pen. When letter-writing is a delight (and, much more pleasant than sitting in front of the computer) it comes easily and more often.
Besides remembering and using someone's name after being introduced, I've found that sending out handwritten letters makes the next biggest impression.
So, what do you think? Too "old-school" or out of fashion enough that it works? I'd love to hear your thoughts.
If you'd like to listen to my electronic ramblings more frequently, I'm on Twitter and facebook. If you'd like a personal, handwritten letter from yours truly, become a customer! ;)
Posted by John Scott Smith on Thu, Oct 22, 2009 @ 04:04 PM
You do it. We know you do it. Let's just get this out of the way and say it: you produce your OWN leads. (Not to the exclusion of us, of course, or you wouldn't be here, but you do try.) And, that's okay. In fact, I encourage it.
For most lenders, buying mortgage leads is, and, should be, a complement to your other marketing efforts.
You work open houses with comfort and charm. You teach first time home buyer seminars brilliantly. You produce a beautiful and informative newsletter (that even other agents read!). And, you have a compelling web page where you want to harvest your own leads. So, where the hell are they??
This is where you, the knowledgeable and accomplished loan officer, banker, or branch manager will often fall down. But, it's not your fault. Really, it's not.
Lead generation is its own science. Being good at these other things does not, in any way, imply being good at harvesting leads: in fact, it's being good at those other things that is probably getting in your way. So, together let's take a step back, and let me share some of the "secrets" of mortgage lead generation.
- Don't ask too much. It's tempting to have your prospects fill out a full 1003 on your webpage, but it's also unnecessary. And, it's counterproductive. Your goal is to eventually get them on the phone or into your office. All you need for that is a name and a phone number. (And, an email address would be nice, too). Asking for more information, especially a social security number, leads to what those of us in the business like to call "form abandonment", and, yes, it's exactly what it sounds like. Shorter equals more likely to be completed. Period.
- Get found. Use long tail keywords. Yes, you read that right: "long tail keywords". (And, of course, I'll explain what that is.) The HUGE lead generation companies (you already know who they are) spend tons of cash on the most general and most difficult to optimize keywords in order to be found on the search engines. "Mortgage." "Loan." "FHA." These terms are not only too difficult for you to use and be found by, but they are far too general to be of any good to you. You don't want hundreds of leads from all over the country. So, what about having a part of your web page with the title of something like "mortgage loan for Bethalto, IL" which would look something like this: www.joesmortgages.com/mortgage_loan_for_Bethalto_IL With some decent content, our fictional friend, Joe, stands a very good chance of ranking highly for all of his target customers in Bethalto. Likewise, Joe can work on Rosewood Heights, and Roxana, IL, too. This is what long tail keywords are: longer, more descriptive variations of the big keywords, likely to get you the prospects that you want to turn into leads.
- Nothing flashy. In fact, don't use Flash, at all. I don't like it. At least, not on your page. (Nor, on mine, for that matter.) Have a basic, professionally-built webpage that looks smart and timeless. You don't need distractions. You certainly don't want music that will clue your prospects' employers in to the fact that they're surfing your page while on the clock! Your customers are there for your brilliant content and your reassuring voice. Leave the fancy stuff to the Amazons and the Mercedes of the world.
- Remember your audience. The most common mistake that I see on bankers' and brokers' sites is that they are writing their content to the wrong people. In layman's terms, describe the home buying process. Or, the mortgage application process. Or, the closing process in your target area. Mentioning "supporting documentation" and "1003's" are what we, in the business, do every day. Your customers generally don't know that language, and, more importantly, they won't respond to it.
- Use a pay per click (PPC) campaign. ALL of the pros are running PPC campaigns. Every single one of them. And, most amateurs, too. With Google, it's shockingly easy to get your own campaign started. AdWords at Google will walk you through the whole process of getting your account set up. A couple of quick suggestions which I can add (which may well evolve into an entire other post): choose which page on your webpage that you want people to land on, set a low daily budget, remember what we said about long tail keywords by picking as many of them as you can think of (and, as Google can recommend) when you get started, and (in the name of all that is RIGHT!!), don't ever, ever forget that your campaign is running! Costly mistake. Been there. Done that. Would rather have bought myself something nice...
There you have it. As I read this over before hitting "publish" I fear that I may come across as preachy. I apologize in advance if I do. Instead, I would like to be helpful and approachable.
So, what are your thoughts? How is your own lead generation coming? What other questions do you have for me? Ask, and I'm happy to share what I know.
(As I've said before, you are welcome to follow my constant "stream-of-consciousness" updates on Twitter and facebook .)
Posted by John Scott Smith on Tue, Oct 20, 2009 @ 01:11 PM
I admit it. I'm on Twitter. I'm on facebook. I read and comment on blogs. Struggle that it is, I try to send only "good" Tweets, and avoid contributing to the pointless babble with which these networks are wrought. I do all of these things with the stated goal of promoting my business, but, mostly I do it because it's fun!
Traipsing through the Internets, it will seem that everyone talks about how invaluable these services are to business. Many real estate agents and loan officers out there saying that social media are important to them, too. But, how are they important?
The very best description that I've heard of the usefulness of social media for most of us was from an interview with legendary social media expert, Chris Brogan, when he spoke on HubSpot TV. Brogan explained that social media was a great place to keep people (leads, customers, prospective customers) warm between meetings with them. That's it.
My thoughts are that Twitter, facebook, et.al. are an excellent way to interact, lightly and occasionally, with your leads and customers, but probably not a very good way to get new customers.
What do you think? How are you using social media for your mortgage business?
(By the way, if you would like to read my very own brand of pointless babble, I can be found on both Twitter AND facebook.)
Posted by John Scott Smith on Thu, Aug 27, 2009 @ 09:35 AM
What is the difference between a loan officer who closes 4% of their leads and one who closes 5%? It could easily be twenty-five thousand dollars per year, or more, and the methods can be simple and painless.
Every day I speak with lenders who are looking for leads. And every day, I ask them the same set of questions. How do you manage your leads? Are you using a CRM (Customer Relationship Management program) like Leadmailbox, Leads360, or Kaleidico? What do you do with your prequalified leads if you don't have a real estate agent to send them to?
The vast majority (over 90% of our customers and prospective customers) do not, yet, have a plan for leads that are not ready to pull the trigger.
Designing answers to these three questions can bump up your closing rate, your gross revenue, and most importantly your commission by having a short, boilerplate "treatment plan" for each type of lead that you encounter.
If your lead is ready to move forward, you already know the drill. We don't need to discuss that because that's why you're in this business, and why you make money at it. That's your 4% closing rate in our example. What we are going to focus on in the next couple of paragraphs is how to drive that number up to a 5% closing rate or higher.
We've all missed deals because we didn't get back to someone soon enough. Or, because the lead lost our phone number. Or because we got busy and didn't follow up. Think of all of the reasons that you DON'T get a deal with a lead, immediately, and put those reasons into simple categories. Yours may well be a variation on these: purchase, no property; not enough money for downpayment; not working with one of "our" real estate agents. Let's discuss.
Treatment plan: keep track of all leads.
Bill Rice, the CEO of the mortgage CRM, Kaleidico, freely shares that the most simple lead management tool that you need in order to improve your closing rates is a pen and pad next to your phone. Setting a legal pad and pen next to your phone will ring the cash register. Keeping track of who calls and never abdicating that job to your memory or scraps of paper is going to make sure that you don't let leads fall through the cracks.
Treatment plan: figure out a next step, and commit it to your calendar.
Your first contact with lead can be a very rudimentary pre-qualification. Now, your next step is to pull credit and make sure that things are as they seem. Before you leave, they leave, or you hang up the phone (depending on how this conversation is taking place) get a commitment and an appointment to meet, if appropriate, or schedule your next phone call. If your lead is supposed to call you on Thursday at 2 pm, then ALSO put in your calendar to call THEM some time after that appointment, in case they don't follow through. By making sure that you have a clear, next step in your appointment book, you ensure that you do not lose track of someone who could be one of your next deals simply because they forgot to call you back at their appointment time. Do this at each and every step in the process all the way to the closing table, and you will free yourself up to focus on the work at hand. Your calendar will become your guide telling you what to do, and when to do it.
Treatment plan: set up a real estate agent referral system.
If you already have a real estate agent in your zone of influence to whom you can send your prequalified lead, of course that's your next step. But what about when the lead is looking in an area in which you do not have a real estate agent to send them to? Relocation programs can drive more business back to you and your branch. Set up a relationship with a relocation program so that when you need it, you can send your lead to the program and they will take care of getting your lead set up with an agent.
Here at MyFHA, we can provide that relationship for you with our relocation experts at Cartus. In utilizing the service, you send over a short form saying where the lead is looking and how much of a purchase price they are qualified for, and Cartus takes care of the rest. Further, Cartus, and many other relocation services have a reciprocal agreement set up so that the agent is bound to send the leads BACK to you to get the mortgage once an offer has been accepted. This step with save you time and make you more money.
When you invest time developing lead management strategies, you will have an easy time actually managing those leads: put them into your systems, and do the next, right thing.