Lead Follow Ups & Conversions = Way More Than Being “Hungry”

Back during my loan officer deals, agents used to tell me they loved sending me referrals because I was “hungry.”

They all assumed my relentless follow ups and high conversion rates were a result of me being “hungry” for more business.

But, my follow up skills were less a result of me being hungry and much more a result of me just being highly organized and disciplined.

I used my notebook, CRM and calendar to make sure I followed up relentlessly.

As I got busier and busier, however, my system became ineffective because I was unable to stay on top of all my leads over time.

My referral partners didn’t realize this though because I remained very aggressive and was in fact “hungry.”

But my conversion rate would have been much higher if I had employed technology more effectively.

I only realized all of this once we set up our own highly customized and personalized lead follow up system in Salesforce.

JVM’s Lead Follow-Up System

The below is a loose description of JVM’s lead follow up system.

• 5 different and highly personalized “sequences” – optimized to convert (a “sequence” is a set of automated follow-up steps including a mix of calls, emails, and texts set to a specific cadence for every lead).
• Each JVM sequence includes 14 touches including additional calls, text messages and emails spread out strategically over 90 days.
• Our messages are a balance of friendly communication, valuable information and compelling Calls to Action.
• We also employ sophisticated A/B testing and monitoring to continually enhance our sequences. We closely monitor:
  • Opens
  • Clicks
  • Replies
• Our sequences are of course integrated closely with our entire website, our online forms, our CRM (Salesforce) and our Loan Origination Software (Encompass).
• After 90 days, every referral gets a monthly email pretty much forever.

It took us months to fully build out and customize our complete system, and I am certain that we now have one of the highest lead conversion rates in the industry.

The key is customization I think because we demoed numerous CRMs with out-of-the-box sequences, and each one was stunningly awful because the sequences were so canned, cold and impersonal.

Key Points & Takeaways

There are two points to this blog:

1. Agents should make sure their lenders have customized and highly sophisticated lead-follow up systems in place, or they are likely losing valuable deals; and
2. Agents themselves should never underestimate the value of setting up an air-tight lead conversion sequence.