Have I Got a Lead for YOU!

Monday, 01 June 2009 19:38

Articles - Sales and Marketing

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 What is the #1 challenge you currently face in your reverse mortgage business?

If you have been watching all the changes taking place in our industry, you might say the #1 challenge is just keeping pace with all the changes that are occurring. If this was your answer, you are correct, at least partially.

In most cases you are caught between a rock and a hard place when it comes to weeding through all the governmental and lender changes. Your goal should be to stay informed, keep educated and up to date. This leads me to me our original question. 

What is the #1 challenge you currently face in your reverse mortgage business?

The Answer is: Getting Leads.

Now if you had the same answer, give yourself a pat on the back. Leads are the lifeblood of our business. Without leads we have no one to talk to. Without clients to talk with, we are out of business. 

However, getting enough leads is very challenging. Why? Because the demand for leads far exceed the supply. So, what does this mean to you! More than likely, for every lead you get, someone else has the same lead. This is what I refer to as competition. But, competition is not your only challenge. 

Defining a Lead

As defined by Wikipedia:

A sales lead is the first stage of a sales process. Sales leads come from either marketing lead generation processes such as trade shows, direct marketing, advertising, Internet marketing or from sales person prospecting activities such as cold calling. For a sales lead to qualify as a sales prospect, or equivalently to move a lead from the process step sales lead to the process sales prospect, qualification must be performed and evaluated. Typically this involves identifying by direct interrogation the lead’s product applicability, availability of funding, and time frame for purchase. This is also the entry point of a sales tunnel, sales funnel or sales pipeline.

Once a qualified lead exists, additional operations may be performed such as background research on the lead’s employer, general market of the lead, contact information beyond that provided initially or other information useful for contacting and evaluating a lead for elevation to prospect, the next sales step.

If a sales lead eventually makes a purchase, this is called conversion and a closed sale. The ratio of sales leads that convert is often referred to as the conversion rate, a way to measure the effectiveness of a sales process, sales team, or sales person.

I think defining a lead is very important, because there is a lot of confusion as to what a lead really is, as defined by others. 

List providers often refer to their list as leads. Forgive me, but a list of senior names is not a lead.

I am amazed when I speak with originators who have huge lists and they think their lists are leads. In fact, a list is merely an opportunity to get a lead. This is a struggle for everyone in the reverse mortgage business. I am sorry to say, there is no one answer. If someone says they know the answer, run like heck, because you are about to get burnt.

Now here is the really tough part. How do I know the difference between junk leads, possibility leads and qualified leads?

I think of leads in the following terms: 

Junk.

1. Yes, these are leads that you think are leads, but in reality they are junk. Why? Junk leads are those that do not qualify because of age; have no equity; home values are shortfall in order to qualify; or those who respond to your advertorial message, with no intention of ever doing a reverse mortgage, or send your response card back full of confetti. Junk leads often come from sources that call them leads, when they are merely a list compiled 

Bottom line: Junk leads waste your time and money.

Possibility.
2. These are leads that appear to be more qualified on the surface. In other words, the respondent led you to believe they were qualified, but when you dig deep into the process, you find they looked good, but don’t qualify today, but may be a possibility some time down the road. You can’t help getting some of these leads. It’s part of our business. What about the possibility lead? These are the leads that might have a chance for an origination, but will take a while to materialize. These leads are inevitable and can compile a very large portion of seniors, who do not qualify today. My suggestion is to not throw these leads away. You probably already have invested money to acquire the lead. Tossing the lead out would mean throwing money down the drain. The reality is you never know when one of the possibility leads may turn around and become an active prospect.

Bottom line: Possibility leads are part of doing our business.

Qualified.

3. These are the gems you want. These leads are the good stuff. These leads are worth their weight in gold.

These are the leads that are:

Age appropriate• 

Have equity• 

Have expressed an interest and left contact information for • you to call them or send something. 

Even a quality lead does not assure an origination because we know seniors are working on their schedule, not yours. However, we know we have a much better chance of an origination when it is considered a qualified lead. 

Bottom line: Qualified leads save you time and money. 

Survey Leads.4. My experience has revealed survey leads are junk leads. Companies who send out a survey generate these leads. The survey card contains check boxes asking several questions. One question may be, “Have you ever heard about reverse mortgages?” The box gets checked and presto, a survey lead. These leads fall into my junk lead category. I never recommend purchasing survey leads with check boxes and only one question.

Bottom line: Survey leads most often waste your time and money.

On to our next challenge, (this business is not easy). 

Getting the leads...

There are many ways for you to acquire leads. So many in fact, I can’t address them all here, however, the two basic ways are:

Purchase the leads 

Acquire them yourself 

Preferably, you want a combination of purchasing and acquiring leads. Most often purchasing requires a cash outlay. Acquiring leads on your own requires your time. Your time does not always require cash outlay, but it does require your time, which in essence translates into a cost. 

Some of you may only do one; purchase or your own acquisition. If you are comfortable with one or the other and it is working for you, I suggest you continue. 

This takes us to the importance of having an appropriate number of leads to work and fill our pipeline. For example, if you are working on 10 leads per month and 9 fall out and 1 has an interest, but is not just ready, you have 0 originations for the month. Now let’s kick it up a notch and say we want to be working on at least 40 qualified leads per month. Having more leads to work with will significantly increase our chances of acquiring more senior prospects who are ready to step up. This also eliminates the up and down swings in monthly originations. Here are some guidelines for you to follow when purchasing leads:

Define the cost per lead with supplier.

1. What are parameters that determine a lead return?
2. How are the leads paid? 
3. Are there quantity discounts?
4. How long has the company you will be using been in the reverse mortgage lead business?
5. Have the company give you a definition of what they consider to be a “lead.”
6. Get an example of a lead generation source, so you can respond relative to the senior client’s request.
7. Ask for testimonials. Specific clients who can testify to the lead source effectiveness. 
8. Read all agreements thoroughly.

Here are some guidelines for you to follow when you are acquiring your own leads:

1. Make appointments with the decision maker.
2. Send correspondence and make a follow up call to confirm appointment.
3. Join local networking and social groups within your community, be specific what you do.
4. Don’t try to sell reverse mortgages, explain how the use of a reverse mortgage can help others achieve their goals.
5. Send valuable information to other contacts and provide education to them.
6. When holding seminars or educational forums, be sure to capture all names and contact information of attendees.
7. Follow up with a letter and phone call to all contacts after meeting.
8. Set up one on one to get to know your outside sources on a  more social, but business level. During this one on one, let them know more about you. 
9. Put into place a strong referral program. 

There you have it or least part of the story. Getting leads and making sure they are qualified leads is an extremely challenging process for us all. 

A word of caution, there is no one solution to receiving and acquiring leads. You must use all your resources, knowledge, and know how to get as many leads as possible. Once you get the leads, there is another story and one that requires great attention to detail and follow through.

Good luck to you with your leads.

Remember; keep moving forward to stay ahead in reverse.