Mind the Retail Mortgage Gap. To Close More Loans, First Close the Gap

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1 Mind the Retail Mortgage Gap To Close More Loans, First Close the Gap

2 Mind the Retail Mortgage Gap Table of Contents Executive Summary Shifting Lending Landscape An Industry Riddled with Gaps Mind the Referral Gap Close the Lost Referral Gap Maximize Your Referrals Mind the Marketing Sales Gap End Sales and Marketing Misalignment Supercharge Your Marketing Mind the Customer Attention Gap Stop Letting a Weak Line Hold You Back Strengthen Relationships with Borrowers Mind the Corporate Insight Gap Eliminate the Corporate Insight Gap Gain Ultimate Sales Visibility Mind the Marketing Sales Gap Align with Borrower Expectations to Close the Gap

3 Mind the Retail Mortgage Gap Executive Summary

4 A Shifting Lending Landscape By most accounts, 2016 is shaping up to be a solid year for mortgage lending. Large sums are being spent on marketing and marketing automation in hopes of continuing the growth in last year s sales numbers. Yet for many, much of this investment will be a waste. That s because the mortgage industry is undergoing a massive shift in how loans are sold. Today's borrowers are almost completely different from the borrowers of 10 years ago. While referrals remain an important channel for retail lenders, every year more borrowers are going directly to lenders and even greater numbers of them are going to the Internet to find them. This trend is putting pressure on retail lenders to both increase the efficacy of their referral channels and identify additional channels of business. And yet, most cannot convert more than a handful of leads from their own databases. Did you know that of higher income mortgage borrowers look for a mortgage lender online? Yes! And also that of higher income mortgage brokers obtained quotes online too! 2 Mind the Retail Mortgage Gap 2014 Fannie May National Housing Survey

5 An Industry Riddled With Gaps Frankly, the entire mortgage sales process is riddled with gaps. Gaps that affect how quickly retail lenders respond to prospects. Gaps between marketing and sales teams. And reality gaps between how companies believe loans are sold to consumers and how loan officers actually sell them. Each of these gaps represents an opportunity for leads to fall off track. It really doesn t matter whether your business comes from referrals or the Internet. If you can t convert leads because of one of these gaps, you re sunk. If you look closely enough, you ll probably find more than one gap that is stopping your production from reaching its full potential. To find out which gaps are hurting your business the most and how to fix them we encourage you to read on. 3 Mind the Retail Mortgage Gap

6 Mind the Retail Mortgage Gap Mind the Referral Gap

7 Close the Lost Referral Gap For years, real estate referrals have been the retail lender s bread and butter. Chances are your team spends significant time and resources cultivating these resources, building relationships, and maintaining high visibility. But how efficient are your sales people? How do you know? Better yet, how do they know? Frequently, lenders don t know which referral sources are driving the most business. This is not about a company owning the sales team s referral sources. It s about knowing which referrals are driving sales and making sure the sales team has what they need to stay focused on the most productive referral partners. To close the referral gap, lenders need a platform to manage and measure the productivity of all referral sources and integrate this information with marketing solutions and loan origination. This lets loan officers maintain constant visibility with all of their referral partners and identify those that need more nurturing. Technology can not only close the gap, but ensure that your referral partners are happy and singing your praises to others. More than any other gap, a referral gap can make or break a retail lender's business. 5 Mind the Retail Mortgage Gap

8 Maximize Your Referrals Lenders and real estate agents have a mutual interest in helping borrowers fulfill their home purchase goals. Velocify LoanEngage helps loan officers manage and engage with real estate partners, ensuring that referral pipelines remain full and that loans stay on track. Velocify LoanEngage keeps real estate agents updated with compliant, activity-based s and texts, automatically triggered during key steps of the loan process, such as borrowers moving to the application stage. Co-branded communications provide unified messaging that helps lenders close more loans. By tracking and measuring the performance of every referral source, Velocify LoanEngage also helps loan officers understand which referral relationships are producing the best results and which need more nurturing and attention. 6 Mind the Retail Mortgage Gap

9 Mind the Retail Mortgage Gap Mind the Marketing to Sales Gap

10 End Sales and Marketing Management Misalignment No gap in the mortgage industry is as large or troublesome as the gap between marketing and sales. Dysfunction between these two disciplines can be found in every lender, at least to a small degree. This gap is perpetuated by the fact that most lenders use disparate software for marketing, sales, and loan production that generally cannot talk to each other. To overcome the marketing-sales gap, lenders need to ensure first that their marketing efforts are targeted, safe, and effective. In essence, they need automated marketing collateral that includes flyers, s, and postcards at the pre-application, in-process, and postapplication stages. These materials should be consistent with branding and compliant with all applicable lending rules, and give lenders a way to track how prospects respond to them. Very few lenders have made the investment in targeted, automated collateral. Those that do, however, will make better use of their marketing investment and inevitably close more loans. 8 Mind the Retail Mortgage Gap

11 Supercharge Your Marketing If you re ready for true collaboration in your marketing and sales efforts, Velocify has the answer. Velocify LoanEngage, with its integration into Velma has the unique ability to trigger marketing campaigns based on dynamic sales activities. Consumer digital body language is monitored and Velocify LoanEngage notifies loan officers when a borrower looks like they are ready to engage. Once the borrower is ready, Velocify LoanEngage provides lenders with automated, professional marketing collateral, including s, flyers, postcards, and more, making it easy for loan officers to align with their lender s marketing strategy. Tailored communications with borrowers can be generated at critical points in the transaction, including pre-app, in-process, and post-app stages. Plus, Velocify LoanEngage delivers consistent, compliant branding through all of your outward communications with corporateapproved copy. Velocify LoanEngage includes Mortgage Coach, enabling loan officers to create personalized loan program cost comparisons. Once created, the cost comparison data can be leveraged throughout the loan process to deepen the advisory relationship and ensure the deal stays on track. 9 Mind the Retail Mortgage Gap

12 Mind the Retail Mortgage Gap Mind the Customer Attention Gap

13 Stop Letting a Weak Line Hold You Back If you ve ever gone fishing, you d know you won t catch anything by using a line that isn t strong enough. It s the same in mortgage sales, where the fishing line is anything that is used to bring in borrowers once you capture their attention. As in fishing, a weak line is a major cause of failure in the mortgage business. Every year, retail lenders waste significant time and effort because they can't maintain a prospect s interest long enough to take an application. And with 48% of high-income home buyers finding their lender online, another lender is one click away, making it more crucial to understand how to hook borrowers. In lending, you create a strong fishing line by how fast, how consistently, and how well you re able to communicate your value with prospects. Studies show that increasing the number of phone, , and voic touches with a borrower will greatly increase conversion rates. Though consistent outreach is critical, the quality of content shared is just as important and can set you apart from other lenders. This is your key to creating a virtually unbreakable fishing line. Without those impactful touches or the tools to ensure they happen you ll never have much of a catch. 11 Mind the Retail Mortgage Gap

14 Strengthen Relationships With Borrowers Tired of seeing potential borrowers disappear? Velocify LoanEngage provides complete sales lifecycle management for every borrower from the very first contact, so sales teams can make strong, lasting connections. Velocify LoanEngage provides frequent and compliant follow-up communications with borrowers based on where they are in the home buying process. It also helps loan officers know how to follow up with borrowers and referral partners alike. 12 Mind the Retail Mortgage Gap Velocify LoanEngage allows loan officers to share highly customized and visual Mortgage Coach Total Cost Analysis presentations to promote the stickiest possible engagement in the pre-app stage. These presentations can be shared with borrowers in real-time on any device, further improving the quality of the connection and bringing loan officers closer to closing. Velocify LoanEngage sends out automated reminders at all points of the transaction, even after closing, helping lenders develop customers for life.

15 Mind the Retail Mortgage Gap Mind the Corporate Insight Gap

16 Eliminate the Corporate Insight Gap In any business, efficiency is critical. In mortgage lending, efficiency has always been a challenge, and therefore is always at a premium. Truth be told, most mortgage executives have no idea how inefficient their marketing and sales operations are. That s because there is no real insight into the sales lifecycle from referral management to marketing, lead management and pre- and post-close contact strategies. What they need is visibility into all key sales performance metrics. And to protect themselves, they need historical records of compliant marketing and communications from all stages of the process. Recently, new innovations in sales technology are providing mortgage lenders with the opportunity to close their corporate insight gap and create a more efficient sales process and better results. Whatever technology you use, identifying and eliminating the corporate insight gap is invaluable for improving results. 14 Mind the Retail Mortgage Gap

17 Gain Ultimate Sales Visibility When it comes to your ability to generate new business, don t be left in the dark. Velocify LoanEngage can illuminate your organization s sales efforts, so better decisions can be made at the corporate and loan officer levels. Velocify LoanEngage provides instant visibility into all borrower and referral activities, and produces invaluable performance and productivity metrics whether by loan officer, branch, or referral source. It also provides security by capturing a historical record of all communications at any stage of the process, throughout the entire borrower relationship. Velocify LoanEngage provides instant visibility into all borrower and referral activities, and produces invaluable performance and productivity metrics. 15 Mind the Retail Mortgage Gap

18 Mind the Retail Mortgage Gap Conclusion

19 Align With Borrower Expectations to Close the Gap Retail lending has never been easy. It takes work to cultivate referral partnerships and effectively market one s business in an increasingly competitive and regulated industry. Yet so often the time and money invested is wasted. If there is no collaboration between your marketing and sales teams, if there is no way to target the most motivated prospects quickly and keep them engaged, if there is no way to determine the effectiveness of your sales strategies, the results will never be as good as they can be. In addition, today s borrower is digitally driven and more likely to find a lender, or request a quote online than they were even two or three years ago. Technology is transforming the behavior of today s borrowers. That means technology must be part of your response. In fact, retail lenders are coming to this conclusion on their own with a growing number planning to invest in technology to increase sales performance. As the purchase market continues to heat up, the lenders that succeed will undoubtedly be those that use technology to find and close their gaps, wherever they are. Will you be among them? Lead Management 1 Analytics 3 Knowledge and skills required for success Referral Partner 2Management 4Marketing Automation Software Lenders with retail channels and high purchase volume plan to increase technology investments in lead management, referral partner management, analytics and marketing automation software in that order. - Mortgage Technology Survey, 2016, Velocify, Mortgage Coach, Velma 17 Mind the Retail Mortgage Gap

20 Get Started Today! Do you have the technologies in place to successfully adapt to the changing mortgage market? Learn how the latest mortgage technologies can help you close more loans and rise above the competition. Get Demo Like this ebook? Share it. Velocify is the leading sales acceleration platform. The company helps more than 1,500 sales teams sell more by bringing speed and control to the entire sales process. Velocify helps sales teams prospect with more precision, accelerate lead engagement, and implement optimized workflows, ultimately helping sales teams find and convert more leads. Velocify has recently been recognized as one of the fastest growing companies in North America by Deloitte and Inc. and a Best Place to Work by the Los Angeles Business Journal. For more information, please visit velocify.com or follow the company on Call: sales@velocify.com Web: velocify.com Blog: velocify.com/blog VELOCIFY.COM