Where can I find good leads?

VerdeoFunding · Joined: 06 Dec 2005 Posts: 25 Location: Roseville, CA

Currently our company has expanded with a small sales department to do cold calling, in hopes are unique services we provide to our clients would be appealing to those on the other end of the line. We started with the free leads you can get from title company's such as 'Lead Locator Phone List' has anyone used these before?

We hired a few people with good sales backround to head up this section of our company, yet we have only gotten 3 or 4 leads a week. Now only about 1 or 2 of these each week are showing any promise. Not only is this bringing down the confidence of our cold callers, soon to be loan officers.. but it's really taken a toll on myself. We have been strictly a referall based, generating all loans of our loan officers, Website, and our free financial seminar we hold about every 6 weeks. So basicly I have little experiance in the which leads work the best? Are these title leads any good? Is there a different approach? or are there better leads? What am i missing?

Lendgo · Joined: 30 Nov 2005 Posts: 14 Location: California

I firmly believe that cold calling should be left to telemarketers. Overall moral will be killed very fast if you have LOs or soon to be LOs doing cold calling. If you want to use cold calling as a means to generate leads, the best thing to do is outsource, offshore (india, phillipines) is most cost effective...but is very difficult finding a good source. If you still insist on doing the calling in-house, buying DATA is key and you MUST have a predictive dialer that automatically makes calls out.

Data Sources:
Experian & Equifax both offer pretty decent calling data, but they seem to be getting oversaturated. The nice thing is, you can filter the data down pretty nicely with a number of different criteria, like credit rating. Trigger data is also very effective. This is data where the potential person just had their credit pulled by a mortgage company. You will be competing with another company at this point..but if your rates are competitive, this is the best way to go. Data from these sources can be pretty expensive and minimum volume does apply. If you are not experienced..don't mess with it. :?

Title data is also good but data will be less filtered..the nice thing about this data is that it's free. :P

A PREDICTIVE DIALER IS VITAL TO MAKING COLD CALLING WORK. without it...it's just too expensive and too tedious for the people making calls...especially in this market. People get calls from many mortgage companies every day.

Do Not Call Registry:
You must scrub your data with DNC before calling on your data. DO NOT MESS WITH THESE FOLKS. enough said!

Other Lead Sources:
Telemarketing Live Transfers - there are a number of offshore companies that will make cold calls for you and transfer them live. I would be more than happy to set a campaign up for you...simply shoot me an email. Price ranges from $60-$80 depending on what you are looking for. You should have a conversion of 7%-10%.

Internet leads - you can buy them or you can generate them yourself. If you buy them, make sure you buy semi-exclusive..where the lead has been sold to multiple brokers. Just make sure that they are not sold to more than 4 brokers. These leads are less expensive than exclusive(olnly sold to you) and have a good conversion...depending on where you buy the lead offcourse...I can also reccommend a couple of good sources here. If you want to generate them yourself..start a website......Hire a good SEO...and whip out some money for Pay Per Click advertising. Generating them your self can be costly...but in the long run....if you promote your site properly.....it will be much more effective. DONOT DO BANNER ADVERTISING. Its hard to convert and it's way too expensive.

I just launched a FREE mortgage link exchnage that will help you get started with traffic....http://www.lendgo-mortgage.com

Radio Advertising - Works great for a number of my clients..don't have a lot of personal experience with them

Print advertising - Direct mailers are tough these days...conversion is low..making per lead cost high...but a good means for generating leads.

Coupon Books - I have never tried VAL-PAK ...Money Mailler...but from my experience in other industries they work pretty good. $300 for 10,000 maillers is dirt cheap...all you need is 1 funded loan for that to make sense.

cheers

cyrus

themortgagehelper · Joined: 23 Jan 2006 Posts: 12

Quote: I firmly believe that cold calling should be left to telemarketers I definetly Agree, NEVER cold call, waste of time and very annoying.

Andrew25 · Joined: 16 Feb 2006 Posts: 2

I would maybe try some sort of email campaign.

Joe Kahwaty · Guest

I would be interested in an email campaign and other ways of gererating leads.

Joe Kahwaty

carlo@GetLeads · Posted: Tue Apr 11, 2006 5:38 pm Post subject:

Give me a call and we'll talk.

mamoore · Guest Joined: 06 Apr 2006 Posts: 18 Location: il

I DISAGREE!!!! I telemarket. I also do a bunch of other things to get business. I have always been a top producer. All of the other great Broker/Loan Officers I know , do the same thing. 1st off, you have to have a script that works. Also the leads that you call have to be filtered as the script is different. For Example, I dont think I would ever call renters all day long and I dont think if you had a good script that it would work. However, if you were to call a list perfect timing leads that have preepays comming up, then you will take a ton of applications. Same as if you were to call all adjustable rate mortgages. You have a powerful script and you will do very well. What ever type of leads that you like , call them. Ok, I am not saying go out and by leads from a lead company. I am saying that all of this information is available at the county clerks office and you can market and cold call these people and have a huge success rate if you have a powerful script. You dont even need to call all day. Just call 50 leads a day. Make sure you scrub them on the Dnc. Follow the TCPA laws, and you will be fine. Dont get me wrong, I do a ton of other things to get business. I do mailings every monday, I have A GREAT CONTACT MANAGER, I get business from Realtors and referrals. I get business from online. There are so many ways to get business and Cold calling is by far the BEST. If you need some help, just let me know. I dont mind at all.

zsouth · Guest Joined: 09 Jan 2006 Posts: 18

I agree with mamoore once again. :lol: Cold calling is the best way to go, although it is probably not for LOs. Hire some telemarketers, give them a list to call manually and get to work. One of the most important things is getting a good list. EVERYONE can get title lists and credit bureau lists. The people on these lists are getting 5-10 calls a day from people trying to get them to refinance. Try a list company that can give you people coming out of ARMs in the next 6 months, people that have high interest debt, people that have been actively looking for credit. I gaurantee you that you will generate more than 1-5 leads a week. On average a telemarketer should generate .5 a lead per hour (if the list is good). Do the math, if you have 6 telemarketers calling 8 hours a day that is 120 leads a week! If you have more questions PM me I will be glad to help.

Haplo · Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 4:54 pm Post subject:

Zack,

Would you mind fixing your signature to comply with our signature policy please? (Posted in the general forum.) Also, please do not post your phone number or offsite links until you've been a part of the community for a while :) Thanks!

Welcome to the forums!!

mamoore · Guest Joined: 06 Apr 2006 Posts: 18 Location: il

zack

I 1st want to thank you for agreeing with me. It seems as though you are a lead company. I know the math that you were showing and it seems as though you know how to add and multiply. However..... If you have paid people 8 dollars and hour and you had 6 telemarketers.....that is 2k on payroll. And then you get applications from 8 dollar an hour employees. I think that the quality would be bad. Even if I bought someone else's telemarketed leads. The quality is poor. The Only way to do it, is by yourself. Hire Loan officers and have them make calls , they will soon find out that taking a poor application is a waste of time. So you were saying that you could generate 120 leads a week. Leads are leads. It is a numbers game and the more you throw to the wall will stick.But time is more important. I use Gold calling and can spend $100 for a weeks worth of calls and have 100 people call me back. MY ROI is much better. Also I can weed out the crap and only deal with people who are really interested. That way I am not wasting my time on irates and non buyers. I will also know that the leads I generate are exclusive because I am the one who originally generated the response. I hope that makes sense.

Haplo · Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 8:45 pm Post subject:

It's kind of neat to see Zack and Carlo and Mark in this. All three with proven systems, all three who are certain theirs is the best!!

It kind of falls back into my point, which is simply that each individual sells differently. There is no 'best system' that works for everyone. However there are many things about each system that work great, and that are common denominators.

The best thing about having a little competition like that is because if you open your mind to your competitors, you might just learn something or get a new idea to improve your own business, even if it's just a slight tweak.

Just ask Chow, she and I talk about stuff all the time on how to do things better ;)

mamoore · Guest Joined: 06 Apr 2006 Posts: 18 Location: il

Travis,

I will never stop one of my Loan Officers from buying leads, I will never stop looking for more weapons for my aresanal. I have things that work for me and I have others who do things differently and it works for them. I just cant see the point of paying a bunch of money for leads and get results. Lets face it there are companies out there that sell junk. There are people out there that sell great leads, however your having to deal with 5 others telling them that they have the best rates. All I care about is ROI and closed loans. I have done so many different things its not even funny. I once took a new Loan officer to a walmart parking lot. We had stacks of business cards . WE would follow people walking in and out saying" sir I found your wallet"or "heres your wallet" LOL it worked. The loan officer that I showed that to, still does it today. I thought of it and tried it and it worked. people laugh and some get mad. But for someone who is a good salesman ..... run with it.
I know if someone gave me a list of names and numbers.... I would have success. I DONT DO THAT, I just want to make a point. This is a very profitable business and Attracts some great sales people. It also attracts some sales people who shouldnt be sales people. Why? because they were told how easy Our industry is to make money. They are happy making 50k , much more than their previous job. That is why I am carefull on who I hire. Mortgage brokers should be able to make 500k or more by the 3rd year. They need to try things for themselves and decide what works and what doesnt. If they are looking to buy a system or a bundle of semi sweets or live transfers or exclusive leads it shouldnt be about the money , if it is then dont buy them. And if they have the money to buy them , it only takes a few times getting burned and they stop buying. I tell my people , never put all your eggs in one basket. Have a wide range of tools that will generate business. Have a favorite lead source , but do everything you can to get business with a ROI. EVERYONE WILL TELL YOU DIFFERENT THINGS THAT WORK AND DONT. MAKE SURE THEY HAVE TRIED IT BEFORE THEY OFFER ADVISE!! too many people claim to know our industry and sell all sorts of things, bottom line is ..... if they knew Our industry then why are they selling other crap? Like Tommy boy once said" you can get a good look at a T-bone by sticking your head up a Bulls ass, but wouldnt you rather take the butchers word for it"?

mamoore · Guest Joined: 06 Apr 2006 Posts: 18 Location: il

hey not that I am advertising Gold calling. But I did just get off the phone with them and they are offering a million leads with the system if you buy it today and I may be able to get it extended for tomorrow. I have also been told that there is a new release for Mortgage Brokers that make it easier to understand and how it will impact your business. I have been getting over 100 calls a week from gold calling.

On another note, here is something that I have tried and I have got a huge response, More than I have ever thought was possible. The ice cream truck rides. LOL I am not sure if I mentioned this here or not. I pay the icecream driver to ride in his truck. I buy all of the icecream and I choose the citys and towns and I give away free icecream. He announces me and my company and kids get free icecream. Moms and dads are pleased and sometimes I get people wanting to do business right there. I take thier info and f/u with them later. Now I have done this a few times on the week ends. I guess what has happened is that its so different that people are talking about it and I am getting calls left and right. I have spent some money in order to do this and I knew going into it I may loose money. However, its all about how you market yourself.
I think for the 4k I have spent doing this, I will have made 20k or more. And I had fun doing it and will most likely do it again and again.

zsouth · Guest Joined: 09 Jan 2006 Posts: 18

Whoa Mark. I didnt mean to get in a pissing match with you. I was just stating that cold calling has worked the best for us and our clients. And yes I agree that having Loan Officers on the phone cold calling is good but you will have a revolving door of LOs. Loan Officers are there to write and close loans, not cold call. Why not hire some loan originators and give them 20-30% to do all the work (get 1003, docks, etc) and then you close it down and the loan goes under you. This has worked best for me since I am an LO as well. I give up some of my split so that I can basically sit back and close loans. But, as Travis said, whatever works best for you is the route to go.

Haplo · Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 11:06 pm Post subject:

Wow, now there's a neat idea!! I'll have to find out what that would cost around here ;) Gives me a couple other ideas to try out here too!! heh

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