Posted by John Scott Smith on Mon, Apr 19, 2010 @ 01:37 PM
After what happened to me at the store, I simply had to write this article, today. Read on, and you'll understand why.
When we're working with FHA mortgage leads (or, for that matter, with ANY kind of mortgage leads), we will often arrive at a point in the conversation where the prospective customer needs something that we cannot or do not provide. It's to be expected. Maybe they want to go look at a house. Perhaps they are in need of an inspection. It may be time to go assemble their documents. Whatever "it" is, "it" is something that will need to be done outside of our office, away from us. If we have planned for this in advance, we can set up the "next, right step" and we will have a much higher chance of getting our customer back for the sale when they've completed that next step.
Here is my story that gave me the inspiration for this post. In Massachusetts, there is a deposit taken on every soda can, every two-liter bottle, and on every beer bottle to make sure that they are returned for recycling and do not end up in some landfill. It's only $.05 per bottle, but, like everyone else in Massachusetts, I build up a little inventory in the basement before I pack up the car and take them back to the store. While I'm there, I will ALWAYS spend more money. ALWAYS. Unfortunately, when it's a beer bottle, the liquor store would like me to spend my money somewhere else. How do I know this? Because if I bring a six-pack of "special" beer (like some German import that you don't find everywhere, or some microbrew) and if that "special" beer isn't sold at that liquor store, they make me take my bottles away. Not only will they not give me $.30, but they won't even let me *leave* the bottles there. In essence, over a measly thirty cents, they want to send me running over to their competitor's store where I initially bought the beer. The lack of foresight here is truly stunning..
A clever business-owner *could* instruct their clerks to give me $.30 off of my purchase and just leave the empty six-pack behind the counter. (In marketing, we would call this spending thirty cents on "market research" to find out what our customers would like us to stock, and it would truly be a bargain to be able to "buy" that kind of research for only thirty cents.) Alternatively, they could get a little creative with some kind of membership card that offers you "one-stop-shopping" so that only members could return ANY and ALL bottles without worry of having to return the errant six-pack, elsewhere. Scanning my new member card would, of course, let them make me suggestive sales offers that I might like to hear. "Mr. Smith, I know that you have been trying some small batch bourbons, lately. Would you like to see a bottle of Black Maple Hill? We just started carrying it last week, and we have a bottle in stock."
Does that sound like the kind of store that you'd like to shop at? Or would you rather hear, "I'm sorry, we can't take those bottles.."
Applying this approach to your FHA mortgage leads business plan would be simple. When your client needs to schedule a showing, pull out your "standard form" to collect some information about the real estate agent with whom they're working. Now, you've got someone to introduce yourself to. (And, of course you already know that it will be a better introduction if you can introduce yourself to that agent at a Chamber event or some other networking opportunity.) If they don't already have a real estate agent, you can hand them three different sheets, one on each of three agents whom you trust, along with an explanation about each one's strong points, about which neighborhoods they are most expert in. Same with your list of inspectors. For the mortgage lead who is at the "collecting their documents" phase, you can give them the special folder that you've had printed that lists every doc that they're going to need, maybe even with a special pocket in it for each grouping of documents.
The point is that the easier that you make it for your customer to come back to you, the more likely that they will. Whatever you do, though, have a plan.
It is the lack of a plan (and of business insight) that allows clerks to say, "I'm sorry, we can't take those bottles, here." And, it is that same lack of a plan that can send your hard-earned business right into the hands of your competitors.
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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.