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How to Maximize Your Efficiency When Using Static and Hot Transfer Leads.

By Jim Sarazin

With the refinance boom all but over, many brokers and banks are looking for ways to keep the phones ringing and the loans closing. One popular marketing strategy are leads generated through telemarketing. These leads are generally live transfers or static leads. Hot, or live transfers, as the name implies, are prospects who are called and screened by the telemarketer, then, if qualified, transferred directly to a loan officer. Static leads are prospects who have been screened, but who don't get transferred live. Their names are delivered promptly to a loan officer by fax or email.

This kind of lead generation has enormous potential. The problem is, too many times loan officers will not adequately work the prospect, and the lead will never go to funding. I have worked with hundreds of clients, and over the course of these collaborations I have found that there are some very distinct patterns relating to the success or failure of the programs.

Smaller companies do better than the larger companies:

One reason is, the relative investment made by a small to mid-sized company is so much greater than a large firm, that the lead is worked harder.

Another advantage smaller companies have is the increased visibility of the loan officer to management. In a three person shop, for example, when leads are distributed equally, it becomes clear very quickly who is successful and who is not. If any member of the team is failing to produce, he or she can be pulled from the rotation and replaced by a more productive loan officer. This applies to both live and static leads.

Large companies seldom have this level of tracking. Usually, although contact logs are generated by the loan officers, they are not reviewed by management. The only measure of success is the fund rate. Problems at the loan officer level are not identified and addressed with the same facility as in the small company.

One large company I am familiar with, ordered a test of fifty static leads which resulted in no funded loans. They had no process in place to identify the problem. The call center had done its due diligence, and knew it had sent good leads. Sensing a systemic problem, the call center investigated and discovered the loan officers had no training in handling these sorts of leads. Many of them were intimidated, made no calls, and falsified the contact logs. The problem was soon corrected with training and a short callback script, and funded loans began to appear.

Hot Transfers have a higher fund rate than static leads:

There is no acceptable reason for this disparity. There are brokerage houses which enjoy a high success rate with static leads, but that is the exception, not the rule. There secret should be self evident. Those houses enjoying high success rates with static leads know that success begins with the understanding that the clock is ticking, and they use that understanding to aggressively work the leads. If the lead sheet says the best time to reach a particular customer is 5:30, and there is no answer at that time, a call must be made every 30 minutes until contact is made. Most leads are not aggressively handled, and opportunities are lost.

All too often the focus is on the result, and not the process. If the sales process for static leads is executed properly, there is no reason results can't be as good as they are with hot leads.

Well disciplined and prepared loan offices have the highest success rates:

It should be no revelation that a successful plan will yield positive results; and that plan begins with training. Offices that have invested time, money and energy into training their loan officers in telesales do better than offices that do not make that investment. But training is only the beginning of a three element process. Good training alone will not ensure success. Preparedness and execution are the other two crucial elements of the equation.

Preparedness includes not only knowing the product, but knowing the sales process. Execution is a blending of training and preparedness that must be present at the highest level on every call. Most calls will fail. When this happens, the natural inclination is to doubt the process. But it’s the process the ensures success, so management must ensure the staff remains faithful to the sales process, thus maximizing the fund rate.

What funding rates are normal on a hot or live transfer campaign?

When normal filters are in place, and a decent list is purchased, funding rates are as follows: If there is no preparation on the broker’s end, as described above, the fund rate will be from 0% to 10%. When the loan officers has a consistent opening script, following the hand-off from the call center; a thorough knowledge of the sales process, and executes it properly, the fund rate will be 10% - 20%. If the sale is worked hard, all follow up calls are made, and the loan officer keeps his customer well informed and is quick to respond to the customer’s needs, a fund rate of 30% or better can be attained.

I hear claims of funding rates in the 40% to 70% range but they are extremely rare. The highest funding rate I am aware of was 75%. This was achieved by the owner of a brokerage who received one lead per day then drove the following day to personally meet the prospect and make the sale.

Which is better, pay for performance or hourly dialing?

With pay for performance the call center provides the list. The customer knows the qualifying lead criteria and how much each lead will cost.

With an hourly dialing campaign the client provides the list. Because there is a greater volume of leads with an hourly campaign, there are more opportunities to close loans than with pay for performance campaign.

Call centers prefer hourly work because the cost per lead is fixed. Mortgage brokers prefer pay for performance for the same reason. The trend is moving to hourly work.

Final thoughts:

The investment in your loan officer’s training is more important than the investment in leads. You must insure that when a call is transferred, or a lead comes in, your team knows precisely what to do.

Track each loan officer’s performance. Which loan officers have an opening script; is it being used; how is the loan officer accepting the call; how many packages is he sending out; how many packages does he get back; how many loans go to funding. You will see patterns develop, and it will become apparent who is performing and who is not.

Review recordings of loan officers interacting with prospects to identify who is following a sales process and who is not. This can also be an invaluable tool in training.

When selecting a call center to place your work, ask questions.

1. Will you send me a sample recording so I can listen to the quality of the TSR that will be calling on my behalf?

2. How much experience do you have in the business?

3. What is the average fund rate with your leads? Be cautious of a company which quotes extremely high fund rates. Many call centers can not answer this question because that information is not shared with them by their clients.

4. What is your lead replacement policy?

5. What is the percentage of disputed leads which results in a replacement lead?

6. Explain how your quality control is set up.

7. How much experience does your average TSR have?

8. How long is your training program is? (One to two days is about average)

9. Will you allow me to monitor the calls live from my office? Most companies will not allow this. If you do get a company that agrees, be prepared to listen to many hang ups.

10. Will you send me a copy of the transfer script? It is important for you to know what will be said just prior to the transfer. This information will help prepare your loan officers to have a more productive call.  

Send mail to info@sandkgroup.net with questions or for general information.