Content vs. Technology:

Driving Mortgage Sales in a New Era - Season Premiere with Roberto Monaco


MPC presents influence trainer Roberto Monaco on the topic, Market Domination through Content Creation. Roberto shows loan originators a 30-week, easy-to-publish marketing strategy leveraging video as the preferred communication for most people today.

Content vs. Technology: Driving mortgage sales in a new era, featuring Roberto Monaco from MPC on Vimeo.

For more information about MortgagePlannerCRM: Click Here

SIGN UP FOR A FREE TRIAL: Click Here

TIP #1: Automating Your Follow-up Tasks


The most common mistake that sales professionals make regarding a follow-up strategy is believing that it is not necessary because they gave great service and that has earned them the repeat business and referrals for years to come. The second most common mistake is thinking that they will remember to "check in" at regular intervals instead of setting that new client on a well-thought-out, systematic, automated workflow / follow-up campaign. The third most common mistake is giving higher priority to the transaction-related tasks over the follow-up tasks. They are of equal importance and need to be treated as such if the salesperson stands any chance of building a long-term, steady stream of repeat and referral business. Not respecting this fact, leads to a never-ending cycle of prospecting for new business.

The root of the problem lies in the personality type that is attracted to the sales profession. Pursuing the lead, qualifying the prospect and closing the transaction are all aspects of the sales cycle that appeal to the "hunter" mentality. There is a defined objective and a pay off.

Follow-up requires a different mindset that appeals to the "farmer" mentality. The farmer un- derstands that planting the seeds now and remaining diligent with regards to their care is what will produce the future harvest of sales abundance. Since most sales people are natural hunters, they will not naturally do the follow-up work that is necessary to develop repeat
business, and most importantly, the ongoing stream of referrals from past clients and partners.

The good news is that with advances in contact management technology and some good marketing materials, the entire process of follow-up can be set on autopilot. Imagine that with a click of a button, all of your new clients last month were set up to receive ongoing informative emails, birthday and holiday cards were sent, and you would receive reminders to make regular phone calls for that added personal touch. Not only will this continue to plant you firmly in the minds of your clients as a true professional, but it will secure that much-desired mental real estate that positions you for referrals when your client's friends and family mention the topic of buying or refinancing a home.

You may be asking yourself, when do I begin the follow-up and how long do I continue the process.??
The answer may surprise you.
You begin following up, the moment you receive a new lead or referral and you never stop. You follow-up until a lead becomes a qualified prospect. You follow-up with a qualified prospect until the transaction closes or doesn't close. You follow-up with new clients after the closing and you revisit timing with the prospects that failed to close until one of you leaves this world. There is one exception - The contact asks you to stop or opts out of your email list. Otherwise, you never stop.

If you don't believe it, invite the number one producer in your company out to lunch. During that hour of one-on-one time, ask the following questions:
1. What percentage of your business comes from past clients and referrals?
2. Do you prefer new leads from advertising or referrals? Why?
3. What is the longest period of time you pursued a client from lead to initial close?

The results vary from industry to industry, but top producers in the service industries typically experience a higher percentage of repeat and referral business, a preference for referrals over any other type of lead, and a surprisingly long client-pursuit matrix. I know top producers that can track new business back over 3-5 years of follow-up marketing. It may sound like too much work for the "hunter," but with a CRM that has automated workflow capability, you may only need to invest as little as 12 minutes in phone calls and voice messages over a 3-year period. The CRM software does the heavy lifting and most sales people would prepare to remain on the phone or meet face-to-face to maximize their total income potential.
If the fortune is in the follow-up, then automating the follow-up may hold the key in never letting an opportunity slip through the cracks. Some of the best CRM application providers target niche markets, offering outstanding marketing materials as well as industry-specific sales and process workflows that can transform a self-employed agent into a small business with the volume to match. This will save a tremendous amount of time and money, for a sales professional that doesn't have the resources or the desire to customize a generic platform to meet his or her specific needs.




Stay Tuned for Tip #2: How to Create a Value-added Keep-in-Touch Plan

Have you ever wondered how you managed to accumulate so many emails in your Inbox? If you ever looked at Outlook or Gmail and wondered, "How am I ever going to catch up on reading and responding to all of these messages?", then keep reading.

Imagine for a moment that when you go out for your morning commute that there are no traffic laws, no divider lines, no signs for directions, no red-lights or speed limits to control the safe flow of traffic. What would happen? Chaos! The fact is that we are taught the rules and must prove that we have a good understanding of the laws before we are issued a driver's license.  Without this process and the agencies that patrol and enforce the laws, our roads and highways would probably get jammed up and over-loaded, just like your e-mail inbox.

As traffic has increased on the web and more users have turned to e-mail to communicate, the amount of messages in the inbox has become harder to manage. The problem is that we built and began using the technology, without establishing some basic rules of the road between the other e-motorists.

MPC has created a set of easy-to-follow, electronic rules of the road called DARTS©, an acronym for Delete, Archive, Reply, Task, Sync. These are the five options most commonly exercised when a message enters a user's inbox.
 
 


DELETE
When a new message arrives in the inbox, odds are that a large percentage are promotional or advertising in nature, so we "Delete" or "Archive" these messages for future reference. For clients that are experiencing extreme inbox overload (500+ Message), we recommend unsubscribing from all lists and RSS feeds until your Email Inbox is under control. Since there is a good chance that you are also receiving unnecessary emails from your friends, colleagues, and team members, it is a good idea to have a plan to teach those contacts how to best communicate with you.

A great way to redirect all of that non-business communication from your Outlook inbox is to request that your contacts join you on Facebook and encourage them to communicate with you there. It should be noted that your Facebook account settings should not automatically email you the newsfeed updates from your FB friends.



ARCHIVE
For the messages that are important to keep, but require no action, it's best to "Archive" the message by linking it to the sender, contact and/or transaction to whom or which the message is most directly related. Each archived message should automatically include a time and date stamp. You should also consider the subject line. Does it accurately describe the content of the email? Edit the subject line to make finding it later, easier. This will also provide the CRM user (or a team of users) a system to track all messages related to contacts, projects, transaction, etc. Tier One CRM systems allow users to mass archive multiple messages from a single sender or mass archive a series of emails about specific project.


REPLY
For messages that require a response, we recommend that you edit the subject line if necessary and it's best to "Archive" the message into your CRM by linking it to the sender, contact and/or transaction to whom or which the message is most directly related. Follow the rules of the road and do not cc other contacts on your reply message unnecessarily. The members of your team should always be able to access the message from the CRM.


TASK
For messages that require an action on the part of the CRM user, best practices dictate that the e-mail be archived into your CRM by linking it to the sender, contact and/or transaction to whom or which the message is most directly related. This should be followed by the creation of a task, series of tasks (project), or the launch of an automated workflow that contains a series of tasks assigned to multiple users.
 Each task should contain a due date, subject line, detailed instructions, priority and status. If the CRM offers an email notification, use sparingly. A good use of the email notification option would be when one or more of the team members is mobile, but is able to receive email on their iPhone or Blackberry.



SYNCHRONIZATION (SYNC)
CRM solutions may offer manual and automated SYNC options and both should be used based on individual needs. The primary benefit of SYNC is to connect multiple devices and contact management systems for continuity and to eliminate double and triple data entry. Advances in synchronization allow users to stay connected with wired and wireless option. Look for flexibility and device compatibility  when considering CRM solutions and the devices that will be able to support it.




If you would like to see an example of DARTS™ IN ACTION, check out the web video at http://www.mpc-co.com/blog/2009/10/darts-basics.html



 
 

Technology - "the practical application of knowledge especially in a particular area" and "a capability given by the practical application of knowledge". ~ merriam webster dictionary. I built enterprise software companies earlier in my career, so I am always intrigued with new products or services that have simple user interfaces and dynamic functionality.

And WOW, I have got 2 great technologies to share with you today. I'm using one technology, Jing Project, to demonstrate the second, Send Out Cards. Have fun with them both!!!

Right Click on the link below to open it in a new window. Then click on the big play button and turn up your speakers.
Click Here

Additional information on these amazing resources can be found at:
Jing Project: www.jingproject.com
Send Out Cards: www.SendOutCards.com/MPC