The current mortgage and debt market is one full of inquiries and few approvals. This will (should) change your marketing and sales strategy. As we see lending rates dive and applications soar, originations remain flat.
What does that mean for your marketing and sales strategies?
I think that means you need to get a lot more efficient. In order to stay profitable in your lending business you need to create more opportunities.
Better Value from Marketing
Marketing is always a challenging spend. You are funding an expense that will “hopefully” bring you sales leads. That fact is why I am always surprised by what people invest in–Yellow Pages, newspapers, diner table mats, grocery cart placards, bus stop benches??? How many sales leads do you get from these? Why aren’t you buying leads?
Obviously, I am in the Internet lead business, but buying an eager inquiry seems like the most efficient way to start a sale. Ultimately if you calculate (or can even measure) the ROI from these other sources you will see that the return undercuts any investment in this type of marketing.
I think more efficiency in your marketing budget is this simple:
- Buy leads–customers who have already made mortgage or debt finance inquiries
- Look for lead providers with an interest and investment in quality control
- Try buying aged leads–you may be amazed by the lift you get in ROI
In all cases measure your marketing spend and make sure the ROI works for your business. Then target increasing the value you get from every dollar spent. Some of that value will come from marketing partners, the majority with come from sales.
More Volume from Sales
Now that you have the right marketing plan you have to get it right in sales. Chances are you are going to have to do a lot more to get a sale. Build that into your new sales process.
Here are some fundamental questions:
- How do I get more leads for less? (aged leads are a great option)
- How do I contact and follow-up more efficiently? (consider lead management)
- What do I do with credit challenges?
- What do I do with equity challenges?
- What do I do with loan modification candidates?
Now that you have a process for each of these challenges it is time to get to work. Volume is certainly the name of the game in the 2009 market. You need to make a lot of calls and send a lot of emails. The more efficiently you process that volume the more deals you will win.
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(photo credit: MikeSchinkel)
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