Technology provides a brand new approach to managing leadsBill RiceMortgage lead management
Not so long ago, during the refinance boom, mortgage
professionals were seemingly overwhelmed by the sheer number of
leads pouring in from the Internet. In more recent times, however,
the market has shifted with many in the mortgage business finding
themselves struggling to find clients. For the average mortgage
professional, this means that he must keep the clients he does have
and turn leads into closed business.
Unfortunately, though, too many mortgage companies hinder their
own chances for success by relying on customer relationship
management (CRM) software as a system for gathering leads and
transforming them into customers. CRM applications only present
mortgage professionals with an organized list; they do nothing to
drive those leads toward conversion. CRM is designed to handle
existing customer relationships, not to create customers from
leads.
To be successful in the fast, competitive and often fickle
online-centered customer marketplace, mortgage companies must adopt
new technology that collects leads, assigns them appropriately and,
most importantly, keeps them in front of mortgage professionals
until they are qualified and closed. The best new technology
literally drives leads to the mortgage professional's screen so
that he spends more time selling and less time organizing
information.
In the typical shop, the individuals who are best at converting
leads consume the fewest number of them, while those who are least
successful burn up far more prospects and dollars. In one firm, for
example, I found the top mortgage professional took only 35 new
leads a month and converted a remarkable 17 percent of them. The
poorest performing one, meanwhile, gobbled up nearly 300 new leads
a month while converting less than one percent. Management was
paying $65 a lead, wasting thousands of dollars on miserable
performance.
The latest available technology, which we call "customer
acquisition management" (CAM), uses intelligent systems to evaluate
which mortgage professionals are most likely to convert a specific
lead and then pushes that lead forward. Customer acquisition
technology manages the entire lifecycle of a lead, from initial
contact to lead retention to commitment, and it does so with a
level of speed and responsiveness that previously had not been
available.
CAM software gives mortgage professionals the ability to
effectively manage 100 to 150 active leads at any point in time.
After one lead is contacted and given a status, contact information
for the next one appears on the screen so that the mortgage
professional calls the right person at the right time. Mortgage
professionals no longer need to waste time trying to figure out
what to do next during their days; the software diligently takes
them through their individual pipelines in a fashion that ensures
the best people are contacting the best leads on a regular
basis.
The impact of this technology is staggering. A mortgage
professional at a typical mortgage company makes 15 to 20 calls per
day. When a CAM system is implemented, the number of calls often
soars to 80 almost immediately.
Recent marketing studies have demonstrated that 80 percent of
sales close only after at least five contacts and 40 to 68 percent
of unqualified leads become qualified within 12 months. A CRM
system or general calendar does nothing to encourage the
persistence and continuity of contact necessary to make the five,
six or seven calls required to close a lead, nor does it push the
sales force to re-contact previously disqualified leads many months
later—leads that might simply be thrown away or ignored.
Conventional technologies may issue a reminder or alert, but in
planning his day, a mortgage professional must choose to act on
what is perceived as an old lead that comes up in a reminder or
fresh leads that he may (erroneously) feel have more potential. CAM
technology requires the mortgage professional to contact the lead
that the system places in front of him, before he can move on to
the next lead. That person cannot just pull any name from the
stack. Thus, the system drives mortgage professionals in an
intelligent, methodical way that ensures the necessary repeated
contact. In essence, it forces a behavioral shift toward efficiency
and productivity.
This methodology is a win-win opportunity for both decision
makers at mortgage companies, and their sales staff. The company
lays out fewer dollars to acquire leads, because its conversion
rate soars and it no longer needs to spin off hundreds of leads to
gain a single customer. Mortgage professionals win because their
commissions immediately rise as more leads are converted more
quickly and steadily.
Furthermore, management can much more readily identify its best
mortgage professionals and those who may need assistance. With CRM,
mortgage professionals may be flooded with leads, and management
has no idea what its people are doing with them. With CAM,
management can see in real time the leads that are being
distributed and the results each salesperson achieves. The system
distributes leads, therefore, based on performance, and management
can react quickly to the performance of its staff.
CAM offers other benefits as well. Some Internet visitors enter
fake information simply to determine current rates or may not
provide complete or authentic contact information. Newer
technologies will find and append the necessary contact information
to each lead. For example, a homebuilder who owns a mortgage
company may have previous addresses for thousands of homebuyers but
no current contact information to solicit them for mortgage
business. CAM is equipped to append the current phone numbers of
each of those homebuyers, transforming them into worthwhile
leads.
New technology is driving mortgage professionals to a new level
of success by introducing a behavioral change that enables them to
deliver better performance. With the massive volume of leads that
must be evaluated and contacted in our wired world, spreadsheets
and makeshift methods are no longer fast enough nor smart enough to
take full advantage of the potential these leads offer. Employing
the latest technology, lead-gathering organizations suddenly become
true sales organizations as conversions rise sharply. Those firms
that understand the need for technology focused on transforming
leads to customers, rather than technology tasked to manage current
clientele, are the success stories of the immediate future and the
emerging industry leaders in their markets.
Bill Rice is the CEO of Kaleidico, an Internet technology
company that provides lead acquisition, allocation and management
solutions to mortgage companies. He may be reached at (866)
667-5253 or e-mail
[email protected].
