Are Your Branch Originators Calling Leads in 4 Seconds?

At many mortgage companies, it is common practice to purchase leads from lead generation companies and dispense them to branch originators. While an originator’s primary job is to self-source their own leads, mortgage executives know that many originators don’t prospect and need to receive leads to meet company volume goals.

When you think about this, it is a little crazy because the company is not only paying for the leads (which are expensive) but they have to pay the originator for closing the transaction. However, the biggest problem with this scenario is that originators are not contacting the leads in a timely manner. According to research conducted by the Harvard Business Review, only 27% of leads ever get contacted and somewhere between 35% to 64% of leads never get called!

It doesn’t make sense to give originators millions of dollars in leads if they are not going to act quickly. Potential borrowers expect prompt, attentive service and will happily take their business elsewhere to get their needs met.

Managers who fail to monitor how fast sales teams respond to leads are at risk for losing business. If you are not monitoring progress, how do you know what is the happening to the lead? Just think if you wanted to buy a business suit on Wednesday and the salesperson said come back on Saturday? What are the chances you would return to that store?

Why does our industry think it’s okay to ignore borrowers? If a branch originator won’t call a lead then the branch shouldn’t get leads. Our customers deserve better treatment than that and senior managers need to take a stand on this issue and redirect their leads to more productive sales professionals.