How to organize your Mortgage CRM Database for increased productivity & sales

Written by
Chris King

I want you to pick an image that personifies your CRM database...is it a highly organized system of cross-referenced data points that resembles a Swiss watch or is it more like a black hole of under-utilized information floating in cyberspace...
 
Now think of something that illustrates your state of mind during a Refi Boom or other Market opportunity that can only be exploited with a fine-tuned CRM and Marketing Database...

Do these two images align with your goals for increased LO Productivity and Sales in 2024?

Let's go through the key steps to ensuring your Mortgage CRM database is fully operational and thriving to enable your lending sales team.

Step 1: Accurate Data

This is the top priority. If you can’t rely on the accuracy of your data, we are at a dead stop. Start with your LOS data...in our 30 years’ experience in the Mortgage Industry, the data in your LOS is the most accurate. So, make sure that your CRM is configured to automatically synchronize/update with your LOS.  The next priority would be any other data that has either been imported or inserted into your CRM that’s not synced up with the LOS via your CRM’s integration.  And by the way, we're not just talking about borrowers, we're also talking about realtors and/or other contacts that need nurturing!
 
Speaking of imports, you MUST have stringent rules for which records can be inserted or imported. If the goal is accurate data, you MUST insist on accurate data imports/insertions. Any imported data needs to be accurate and de-duped to avoid duplicates.  We have a ton of experience in this area and have put literally thousands of hours into thinking this through.  De-duping data is not as easy as it would seem and there's a lot to think about to do this right.

💡Extra Credit: Consider utilizing a data scrubbing service to examine your database and ensure accuracy. 

Step 2: Data access

Accurate data is going to be meaningless unless the data access rights are set correctly.  A great example of this potential quagmire is Realtor contact records.  There's a good chance that you have multiple LO's working with the same realtors.  How do you figure out the rules for determining access if you are de-duping on that realtor contact record during your imports which is linked to multiple loan records in the CRM with unique LO's on each loan transaction?  This is where planning and experience pay off!  We've invested hundreds of hours creating formulas for assigning access rights and ownership rules for each realtor that ensure visibility for all users without starting World War III amongst the sales team!

Step 3: Marketing Plan for Automated Follow-up

Ok, so now that your Database is accurate, what's next? If the goal is to set up a totally automated marketing plan (yes, this is what you want), you’ll need to identify the data triggers that would kick off your marketing. For example – if you are going to auto-trigger a Refinance campaign, make sure you are able to set up a Database filter that looks at the current/closed rate compared with today’s rates, loan status, etc. Once the closed loan record hits a certain threshold (i.e. 0.5% delta), a marketing campaign will automatically trigger, and/or a call list will be generated.

Next, you’ll need to consider the messaging and content (email vs. SMS/text vs. calls vs. recorded voice mails). Once the campaign is configured and launched, your content will auto-trigger over the length of the campaign and stop automatically based on your campaign inclusion filters.
 
💡Extra Credit: Consider subscribing to a trigger service like Sales Boomerang. This service needs to be integrated with your CRM database so that it automatically creates new opportunities for your marketing campaigns (i.e. credit pulls, loan payoff requests, etc.).

Step 4: Call Lists, Reporting, Analysis and Awareness

Marketing can’t just be sending emails. To be more effective than the competition, you’ll need to focus on creating call lists for your sales team. You’ll also need Dashboard Reports so that your Marketing Team can analyze the progress and success of any/all marketing activity.
 
Lastly, it will be important to share these reports and dashboards with Managers and Sales Team members to increase awareness of opportunities and more easily determine whether or not someone is dropping the ball with opportunity follow-ups.

Conclusion: 

We know that all of the above won’t happen on its own. It will take a proactive approach, but once it’s in place, it becomes your Biz Dev Machine!
 
P.S. Being able to claim a completely automated Marketing Machine also makes for a great recruiting tool for new/top-producing Sales Teams.
 
Since we do this for a living, we can help you put all of this together! So, what are you waiting for...let us know when you are ready to exploit your CRM database and make it a sales and marketing machine.

Are these CRM best practices helpful for you to grow?
Let’s setup a deep dive call to discuss your implementation possibilities.