Mastering Lead Management: Effective Strategies for Mortgage Lenders

To not only compete but also stay profitable, mortgage lenders need lead management strategies to efficiently manage and convert leads.

By developing a strong lead management strategy, mortgage lenders gain better visibility into their marketing and lead mix, effectively analyze sales and marketing data, and optimize conversion rates to increase revenue.

We’ll share why this is so important, how to understand your mortgage leads, the fundamentals of a strong lead management system, and the top 10 lead management strategies for mortgage lenders.

When you implement these strategies, you gain a competitive advantage and maximize the value of each lead you’ve invested in.

Grow your revenue with data-backed lead management. Schedule a demo to learn more.

Importance of lead management in the mortgage industry

Mortgage leads are precious in this market. They aren’t exactly pouring into mortgage lenders currently.

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) forecasted that mortgage origination volume could drop about 15% in 2023, compared to 2022. Refinance created major lead volume in 2021, but by the end of 2022 refinance applications were down almost 90% compared to the end of 2021.

With market shifts, leads aren’t flowing as freely. Mortgage lenders can’t afford to overlook or lose track of leads. Each one needs to be optimized. 

You need good visibility into what is and isn’t working within your marketing and lead mix. This makes implementing effective lead management and lead distribution strategies all the more valuable.

Lead management helps you collect and analyze lead, sales, and marketing data to increase the predictability of revenue.

Have a good understanding of your mortgage leads

To work leads well, start by knowing where they come from. Different lead sources and channels require different lead management strategies.

By knowing where leads come from and how to effectively engage them, you can optimize lead conversions and ultimately increase revenue.

Start by understanding what your lead sources are:

• How many leads do you buy and from where?
• How many are generated through your marketing channels and what are the channels?
• How many leads are from referrals?

You can see how this impacts working leads when you look at lead behavior. Let’s say one lead engages with you by opening an email within a campaign vs another lead that fills out a form to be contacted on your website.

The first lead might be curious about your offerings but not yet ready to pursue your lending options. You likely don’t know enough about them yet to say they’re qualified. And they need more nurturing to move forward.

The second lead is actively reaching out to your organization, looking for someone to contact them directly. They may not be ready to close on a loan, but they’re interested in starting the sales process.

Develop lead life cycles and sales cadences tailored to lead sources and channels

With this in mind, develop lead life cycles and sales cadences tailored to target each lead source and each channel where leads are generated.

Create a list of the potential journeys your leads take from their various sources. Then map those journeys from initial contact to closed loan. Note key touchpoints and the frequency of communication each lead life cycle might require for the best outcomes.

Also, track how leads move through your sales funnel to measure how qualified leads are from various sources and to understand whether their life cycles align with the journey you’ve mapped for leads coming from each source.

This gives your sales team a system for working leads, oftentimes using automation to trigger certain strategic actions and responses to leads so that you can engage with them smoothly, right from the start — and guide them through your sales funnel.

Read more: Tactics To Squeeze The Value From Every Lead

Building a strong lead management system

Once leads flow into your sales team, having an entire lead management strategy boosts the way leads are worked and converted. These strategies need to align with what best serves your team and your business.

The below fundamentals help businesses build a strong lead management system.

Centralized lead database

All leads flow into one centralized lead database that allows for tracking and measurement of each lead. This provides visibility into lead sources, ranking, status, history, etc. for all team members that need it.

It not only streamlines various factors that come with different lead sources, consumer experiences, etc., but it also provides one collection of data that you can use to optimize and measure how leads are worked and converted.

Lead scoring and prioritization

Once leads flow into a centralized lead database, strong lead management requires that the leads are scored or ranked based on how qualified they are to close a loan (based on factors like credit score, loan amount, income, etc.) This helps sales teams prioritize working the most valuable leads and can inform how leads are distributed for the best possible outcomes.

Automated lead nurturing

Many leads don’t convert on initial contact. A system that includes automated lead nurturing helps to warm leads to become more qualified, based on targeted and personalized contact with leads at specific points in their lead life cycles. 

It also saves salespeople’s time by triggering automated follow-ups and content pushes that are sent quickly, preventing sales teams from being bogged down with repeatable tasks.

Performance tracking and analysis

To manage leads well overall, tracking and analyzing their behavior, KPIs, and other data points — as well as the performance of your sales team — provides data-backed insights into whether your lead management strategies are working.

Measuring points like conversion rates, response times, and lead sources often reveals opportunities or shows you areas of improvement to convert more leads, more efficiently.

Dive deeper, read: Executive Guide to Lead Management Systems + 5 Ways They Benefit Businesses

Top 10 lead management strategies for mortgage lenders

Let’s break down lead management strategies even further and look at the top 10 ways mortgage lenders can optimize how they work and convert leads.

1. Fast response times

To keep competitors at bay and navigate this challenging market, prioritize quick follow-ups with leads to show you’re ready to provide the solutions they need. Afterall, the company that responds first to a lead gets 35-50% of sales.

Make use of automated responses, callback scheduling, and other tools that make this manageable and sustainable for the sales team.

2. Personalized communication

Make a connection with each lead and show them you’re here to serve them. Tailor messaging to individual prospects. Make sure any automations are segmented in logical ways so that leads only see content and follow-ups relevant to them.

Use new technologies and tools for targeted outreach to leads that show certain behaviors or differing levels of readiness to close.

3. Consistent follow-up

Stay top of mind by establishing regular touchpoints with leads. This is a simple yet crucial part of mapping lead journeys.

Build a system where you employ a variety of follow-up methods, from emails, calls, texts, and voicemails to reach leads. Keep in mind the unique purpose of each contact method to know when it makes the most sense to use a text vs an email, etc.

4. Cultivating relationships with referral partners

How you manage referral relationships is another part of your overall lead management strategy because referral partners help you generate highly-qualified leads.

Identify potential partners, like real estate agents, financial planners, home services, etc. Build and maintain your relationships with each partner, knowing referrals can be passed between them and your company.

Consider using tools like automations and tracking interactions (as you would with leads) to boost how you build relationships with these referral partners.

5. Leveraging technology and automation

Many of these strategies are enhanced by relying on trusted tools. Implement CRM and marketing automation tools to streamline how you collect, track, and nurture leads. 

Rely on automations to make sales teams more efficient and give leads a better experience. And through it all, use these tools to track and analyze lead and sales data. Technologies like artificial intelligence are evolving and enhancing how we get our work done.

6. Lead scoring and prioritization

Use a lead management system that assigns scores or ranks to leads, based on factors such as loan size, credit score, and readiness. Scores can be assigned before initial outreach and help with lead distribution and prioritization. Some tools even allow for continuous score updates as lead behavior changes., especially those that use AI.

Sales teams use scores to focus on high-priority leads to optimize conversion rates.

7. Multichannel marketing

Don’t rely on phone calls from the sales team to move leads initially. Multichannel marketing needs to be in place to engage leads through various channels, including email, social media, and content marketing.

Create a consistent brand experience across your website and landing pages, digital ads, social media channels, blog, email marketing campaigns, text messages, and anywhere else that leads might interact with your business. It helps you stay top of mind and reach more people.

8. Data-driven decision-making

Beyond actually working leads, get strategic about how and why you’re using certain lead management strategies.

Use tools that analyze lead data to identify patterns and trends. Tools that offer AI and machine learning can even provide predictive values that help see what factors increase the likelihood of converting more leads.

Intelligent decision support helps to reveal opportunities based in the data you’re collecting. Make informed decisions based on the performance metrics of leads and your sales team.

9. Ongoing training and support for sales teams

It’s easy to obsess over leads and technologies for improving your lead management strategy. But don’t forget about the team that makes it all possible. Provide resources and guidance to improve sales skills among your sales team.

Encourage a culture of continuous learning and improvement. Make sure salespeople have access to the tools and data they need to be empowered to perform at their best. Encourage the team to look for and share new solutions and opportunities to improve lead management from their point of view.

10. Measuring and optimizing performance

Taking all of the above strategies into account, their benefits are limited if you can’t measure their success and make adjustments to optimize performance.

To help with measuring their success, establish key performance indicators (KPIs) to track core areas of the lead management process. This could include KPIs such as conversion rate, lead response time, sales cycle length, lead engagement, referral rate, etc.

Read more strategy specifics here: 5 Lead Management Strategies To Beat The Competition

Take control of your revenue with an optimized lead management strategy

As a mortgage lender, you know your business can make major shifts as markets change. But these outside factors don’t have to determine how much revenue you’ll make each year.

Proven lead management strategies help mortgage lenders take control of the leads they buy and generate, optimizing them for conversions and ultimately increasing revenue.

If you need help with lead management, Databowl provides lead generation and management, as well as custom enterprise solutions.

Unlock your growth by automating and streamlining how you collect, work, and convert leads from start to finish. Maximize lead value and team performance to grow your business with confidence. 

Schedule a free demo with us to learn more.

We’ll work with you to see if we can meet your lead management strategy needs.