Introduction
In an era of decreased loan volume, wholesale mortgage lenders are facing heightened competition in attracting mortgage broker business. The need for a more aggressive sales and marketing strategy has never been more critical. This article discusses four best practices that wholesale lenders can adopt to implement a successful sales and marketing plan.
Email Marketing: Personalization and Timely Engagement
Email marketing remains the most effective channel for wholesale lenders to reach mortgage brokers. The cornerstone of this strategy is the daily rate sheet email. However, to maximize its impact, wholesale lenders should personalize these emails, showcasing not only product and pricing information but also highlighting the account executives responsible.
Key considerations for successful rate sheet email marketing include:
Personalization: Avoid sending rate sheet emails from generic addresses to strengthen the broker-account executive relationship.
Timely Updates: Ensure rate sheet emails are triggered when updated pricing is available, providing accurate and timely information to brokers.
Real-time Engagement Notifications: Implement systems to notify account executives when brokers engage with rate sheet emails, indicating potential interest.
Data-Driven Targeting: Efficiency in Sales Efforts
Engaging with every broker nationwide is impractical. Wholesale lenders should leverage data sources to identify brokers that align with their ideal customer profile. Key data sources include:
Loan Origination System (LOS): Utilize internal loan data to identify brokers based on submission frequency, volume, and pull-through rates.
Market Production Data: Tap into external data sources like Modex, MMI, Ingenius, and Marketrac for comprehensive insights into loan officer production nationwide.
Building a Sales Machine: CRM Integration and Efficiency Boosters
Streamlining outbound sales efforts is crucial for success. A well-integrated CRM system is vital, and additional integrations can further enhance efficiency:
Phone System Integration: Integrate the CRM with a phone system to enable click-to-dial functionality and call recording, boosting productivity.
Pricing Engine Integration: Integrate a pricing engine into the CRM to streamline the prequalification process, ensuring every loan scenario is captured and tracked.
Market and LOS Data Integration: The more data account executives have, the better they will be at engaging with brokers. Integrating LOS data and market production data provides intelligence that account executives can use to their advantage. Some CRM systems can even harness this data to automate rules that highlight brokers based on loan production statistics.
Leveraging Data for Insights: Reporting and Analytics
Wholesale lenders should leverage integrated data to generate insightful reports, allowing for better decision-making. Examples include:
Account Executive Scorecards: Combine loan production results with CRM activity data to evaluate the productivity of account executives.
Broker Scorecards: Create metrics on broker production for targeted marketing campaigns or to justify better pricing tiers for higher quality brokers.
Data-Driven Decision Making: Utilize integrated data to gain valuable insights into sales and marketing operations, driving informed strategic decisions.
Conclusion
In the fiercely competitive landscape of wholesale mortgage lending, adopting these best practices in sales and marketing is essential. By embracing personalized email marketing, data-driven targeting, streamlined outbound sales processes, and leveraging data for insights, wholesale lenders can navigate challenges and position themselves for success in attracting valuable mortgage broker business.