Don’t wait to automate

Originators and lenders have caught onto the fact that a database holds a ton of untapped opportunity, and that continued engagement is critical at this point in the market cycle. What many people haven’t caught on to, however, is the fact that it’s not that hard to enable automation, regardless of the size of a business.

At the Power Originator Summit on April 4th, a panel will explain how automation can help acquire new leads, re-engage a dormant database, and manage those leads effectively.

Josh Friend, a panelist and the founder and CEO of mortgage CRM Insellerate, said that although lenders and originators have been having more and more conversations around database engagement and the promise of automation, many originators are surprised to discover the breadth of services that are currently available. Even those people who are implementing some process automation are really only doing a fraction of what’s possible.

“The lenders we talk to and customers and clients that we sign up, maybe 20% of these people have one channel that they're using automated marketing. There’s probably very little of it out there,” Friend said. “Technology has gotten to a point that the average lender person, can easily implement it and be successful with it. We’re 20, 30 years into this technology revolution; it’s not what it once was. It’s way easier now to be successful with these things.”

It’s not an all-or-nothing approach, which the panel will explain. Some businesses, for example, will simply be too small to be a right fit for certain CRMs, but that doesn’t mean that they can’t deploy the same sort of systems that these larger programs are putting in place, and get some of the advantages that larger lenders are getting. Friend says that Facebook custom audiences can be done manually, for example, are a great way that originators can target specific clients. Even implementing one or two tips can result in a lift in business.

Although Friend recalls doing a lot of these processes manually back in his days as a lender, today, Insellerate is forging ahead in the tech space. They recently launched an engagement platform, which has taken off rapidly. Even more promising, however, is their AI bot, which will launch to handful of lenders in Q2 before being available more broadly in Q3. The point isn’t to replace the loan officer, even though the conversation is meant to use conversational language and mimic talking to a person. The point, Friend says, is to help with both initial engagement as well as continued engagement. If the borrower doesn’t connect with a lender within a couple of weeks, for example, they’ll get a message asking how the home shopping is going, starting a conversation that will close the loop between the borrower and the originator.

“Loan officers, they can’t follow up with everyone. So our engagement platform right now automates email, direct mail, social media like Facebook, ringless voicemail, text message, and phone calls, and it's all built in a pattern so you're constantly staying in touch with customers, and the AI bot will come in and create human conversation for you as well.”

Getting very specific to where customers are in their home buying journey will lead to higher conversion rates and closed loan volume, and consumers who receive true value will be eager to build a relationship. All lenders extol their own virtues but many stop there, and there’s no inherent value in simply advertising services. Those lenders and originators who look to find out what the consumer wants are the ones who can hone on that and not waste time with borrowers who aren’t ready to buy.

“You’re the most valuable asset to people you've already spoken to, and if you can stay engaged with them, you can compete and build long term business, and you can do well,” Friend said.

For more ways to generate new leads and improve conversion rates, come to Anaheim on April 4th for our free Power Originator Summit session: “Got Leads? Grow your pipeline with leads that are ready to act.”