Welcome to “Build Up Better,” a new blog series from the mortgage experts at Shape, which will help you emerge from 2020’s unpredictability with the essential tips, tricks, and best practices needed to make 2021 the best year ever for your business.

Although we’re making our way through the first quarter of another record-breaking mortgage market, it’s never too late to invest the time to set your business up for success. Whether your goals for 2021 are growth, saving more time, or just cashing in on the influx of new and refinancing borrowers, much of your focus needs to point toward making your lending workflow more efficient.

In this post, we’re going to cover 3 easy ways to automate the frequent, everyday lending tasks you waste countless hours a day on with a customer relationship manager (CRM). But first, why does this even matter?

The benefits of automation for mortgage brokers:

  • CRMs provide brokers with $8.71 ROI for every $1 they invest in one

  • Mortgage teams that use CRMs and automation tools are 50% more productive

  • CRM automation boosts individual sales rep revenue by 41%

  • CRMs help brokers retain 27% more clients

When used correctly, software automation can unlock new growth opportunities for your mortgage business, allowing you and your team to focus on building the human connections you need to compete in today’s market!

Tip 1: Stop Wasting Time on Your Calendar

Studies show it can take up to 52 touchpoints to convert a mortgage prospect, and on average, it may take as many as 4 separate attempts (think back and forth emailing to land on a scheduled time to meet) just to book a meeting with them. If you’re not using a CRM or other calendar automation tool, this is wasting you over 8 hours a month per teammate!

Instead, when you use a calendar automation tool, you can provide prospects with your real-time availability and automatically sync your appointments with your calendar.

MORTGAGE STATISTICS

  • Studies show it can take up to 52 touchpoints to convert a mortgage prospect
  • On average, it may take as many as 4 separate attempts just to book a meeting with them.

The benefits of calendar automation for mortgage brokers:

  • Keep availability real-time for prospects and clients

  • Always be up-to-the-second on your meeting schedule at the office, or on-the-go

  • Reduce manual email scheduling time to zero

  • Shorten the lead sales cycle and boost client satisfaction

Tip 2: Clean Up Your Database

The cost of dirty data for brokers isn’t just disorganization: bad data has led to 12% of businesses losing revenue, 28% suffering email deliverability issues (rendering their marketing dollars useless), and 21% experiencing reputational damage. In a business where reputation is extremely important, you can’t afford to have a sloppy Excel database or lose track of important client details because you rely on manually updating your database.

Collecting and maintaining a quality database is a business best practice, and for mortgage brokers, the power of a CRM that can help organize and automate the collection and syncing of prospect and client records to other systems (like your LOS), can’t be overstated enough.

Think about how beneficial it becomes when a lead enters information on your website, and that data automatically syncs to your database, creates a client record, can fire off a welcome email, and kickstart the relationship all within seconds.

The benefits of an efficient client database for mortgage brokers:

  • Have “one source of truth” where client data is always up to date for your team

  • Drastically reduce time spent on manual data entry into multiple systems

  • Ensure marketing emails and other communications will always be delivered

  • See higher customer loyalty and referrals

  • Automate your marketing campaigns and drive more revenue

Tip 3: Automate Your Email Outreach and Marketing

If you’re still sending manual emails because you think it shows clients that you’re a real human: stop!

Research shows that not only do most consumers not recognize when a seemingly well-written email is automated, but the cost is too great for manual sends: Automated email marketing generates $38 for every $1 spent!

We get it, the mortgage business must provide soft touches, and you need to form a personal connection as you’re building new client relationships. New buyers want to be reassured you’re providing them with the best rates and best service because there’s no shortage of competition out there. But you can’t focus on building a relationship
when you’re knee-deep in your inbox!

The benefits of email marketing automation for mortgage brokers:

  • Using a tool with tokens can make your automated messages look human, genuine, and personal: the latter leads to a 50% boost in open rates

  • Meet your clients and prospects where they want to communicate: 72% of consumers say that email is their preferred method of communication

  • Cuts down dramatically on time you spend responding to every email in your inbox: automated drip campaigns for your FAQs save your team tons of time while simultaneously educating the buyer and building their trust, which is great for your brand!

Want to get started with calendar, email, or database automation for your mortgage business? We’ve helped thousands of brokers build more efficient workflows that have helped them grow revenue and save time. It’s not a secret; it’s CRM science.

Schedule a chat with us to learn how we can help grow your mortgage business

Try Shape Today!

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