Without this kind of basic reporting it would be hard to tell which set of leads were better. On one hand Channel 1 has a total lead cost of $9,000, where Channel 2 has a total lead cost of only $5,000. But look how the number of funded loans from the first channel generates a far superior CPFL as compared to Channel 2. This kind of reporting is a minimum for institutions that are consuming 10 leads a day or more. If you are not performing this absolute minimum analysis, please feel free to contact us and we will show you how you can do so with little effort.
Not Power-Routing Leads. One of the best ways to make your lead dollar go farther is to make sure your best loan officers (L/O’s) are working the leads. We all know that there is a spectrum of success (from terrible to great) that ranks our pool of loan officers. One powerful way of improving your Lead Cost per $1 in Margin (LCPM) is to give more leads to the better L/O’s. We use a very successful method called the “Power Router” that routes more leads to the officers that are more successful. So, instead of 100 L/O’s each getting 20 leads (where they each might close 2) we allow the top 20% of the L/O’s to get 40 leads and the bottom 20% to get only 10 leads (with an average close rate of 2.3).
This does three things:
In a sliding scale allotment program, the winners want to stay winners and the less fortunate want to leave the “bottom rung” of the ladder – which they can only do by showing better performance. The Power-Router program is incredibly powerful at improving performance. I have personally seen 10% - 14% improvement by using this system. If you currently handle 75 leads a day (or more) and are not using this Power-Router system, contact me and I will give you a 5-step plan for implementing it.
Missing the “Processes Alignment” boat. One of the biggest banks in California had me in to help them fix a “never-ending problem with poor lead quality”. At least this is how they described their problem. As it turned out, the quality of the leads had little to do with the problem. Their problem was that they didn’t know how to handle (process) the leads they were buying. Their whole department was accustomed to face-to-face selling. Consequently they treated their internet and live-transfer leads the same way: They “closed on” a face-to-face meeting which took a lot of hours out of their days. Once we explained the process of the sales cycle, qualifying the lead and efficient scripting their “problem” of poor quality leads went away.
You make money by efficiently closing thousands of loans. When you look at the whole process, much as a manufacturing plant would, you can easily spot inefficient areas. By aligning your processes, and stripping out inefficiencies, you can improve your bottom line significantly. If your company consumes 100 leads a day (or more), please contact me for more information on our free 2-day on-site process review.
Not “Scripting for Success”. I’ve always believed in getting into the trenches with my clients. So, it was no surprise that I spent several hours listening in on telemarketing calls from India (“Live lead transfers” as they are often called). This particular Wednesday I was listening in on 100 calls and ensuring that the scripts they were using were top-notch. What I found out, and have learned several times since, was that the scripts my Indian clients (who operate call centers to generate mortgage leads) used were great… but once the call got transferred to the U.S. quality dropped. I was sent in to improve the first half of the call and ended up realizing that the second half was the one in need of fixing.
If you buy live lead transfers (where the customer is on the phone live and ready to buy) then you need to have the best scripts and training possible for your people. Don’t let great prospects slip through the crack because your team doesn’t know the best way to handle them. Tight, efficient and effective scripting is a must for any company processing live leads.
A large call center / verification center that generates 600 – 700 leads a day uses a system that we found to be very effective. They taught their L/O’s to “AIM High”. The acronym stood for: Attitude, Inflection and Manner. They taught their loan officers to project a positive attitude, display a tone of voice (and inflection) that expressed an interest in the customer and professional manner. They not only taught a script, but a way of acting. This was (and is) a company that has incredibly high close rates. Don’t make the mistake of not “Scripting for Success”.
Not Following the Rules. It doesn’t take a rocket-scientist to know that you can’t buy live leads from a non-DNC compliant company. All it takes is a batch of $10,000 fines to make your CEO second-guess hiring you. DNC (do not call) compliance is sticky and you should only buy leads from DNC-compliant companies. Work with credible lead houses that deliver a consistent high-quality product and avoid this basic (and costly) mistake.
Our firm delivers world class lead flow analysis and specific recommendations for large U.S. mortgage originators. Please feel free to contact us with any questions you may have.
