Automation has changed the solar industry for good. But is it for the better?

As a solar business owner actively closing jobs in 2020, you know there are some things on the backend you could probably be handling better—but who really has time to plan, execute and update their existing workflows?

For better or worse, automation does take time… at least, in the beginning. But there is good news, with the right systems in place, you can multiply the number of customers you serve, raise the quality of your services, and close jobs faster without hiring additional staff. 

And the best part? Setting up just one effective automation process today, will continue to help grow your business for years to come. 

But there is a catch: the solar industry can be a zero-sum game. If someone else grabs more customers with automation, someone else lands less.

That’s why it’s paramount to invest in workflows that are truly the best fit for your business—and it’s critical to do it now, before the competition catches on.

In this article, we’ll cover the main benefits of automating your solar business processes, as well as the specific workflows you can use to 10X your business.

What Is Solar Automation?

In a nutshell, solar automation allows you to run parts of your solar business on autopilot. Using the right combination of automated tools, workflows and software, you can help more customers in less time.

But the real power of automation is that it can be applied to many different aspects of your business. 

Are you struggling to consistently follow up on your customers? Set up automated email and SMS campaigns so that no new solar lead in your database is left unnurtured. 

Recipients not opening emails? Automated drip campaigns can boost your open rates by up to 80%

Is your team spending too much time on repetitive admin that doesn’t grow sales? Automate routine tasks and save up to 55% of the time employers spend on non-selling activities. 

And that’s just the beginning. Let’s take a closer look at some of the core benefits of automating your solar business, piece by piece.

Top 5 Benefits Of Solar Automation You’ll Actually Use

Benefit #1. Reduce Speed to Lead to Seconds

According to the Harvard Business Review, chances of qualifying a lead when responding within the first five minutes are 21 times higherthan when responding within 30 minutes. Yet only 26% of companies manage to respond within 5 minutes. 

You can easily outpace the competition by setting up simple automated onboarding emails and texts to instantly greet every new lead as soon as they share their contact details. 

If you have a team, automation will also help you distribute incoming leads between them so that the team member that are the most qualified are aligned with the right prospects.

Benefit #2. Consistently Nurture Your Leads

The money is in the follow up. In fact, some studies suggest that 80% of sales occur after at least five follow-ups with a prospect.

The good news is, almost every follow-up can be automated. For example, you can send highly-personalized email and text drips to your leads with a predefined cadence. This allows you to nurture relationships and build trust with customers, even before they decide to do business with you.

Automation helps you easily segment leads based on their solar needs, location, last action, or areas of interest so with the right system you can follow up with the best offer for a particular customer. 

Benefit #3. Streamline Your Process

Manual processes and endless admin add up to wasted time and less revenue. With a CRM that leverages smart automation and powerful integrations, you can accomplish more in less time: 

Google Maps Integration

View properties in real time with Shape’s Google Maps integration. Search for a location, zoom in, and see the roof from an aerial view to ensure optimal placement - all from the comfort of your office.

Site Surveys

Make sure every property has been properly inspected to prevent any pitfalls. Our responsive mobile application means even out in the field you’ll have client data and can report back to the system at any time.

Construction Tracking

Doing construction in-house? Track the progress of the job site from design to installation. Referring the project out? Track your referrals and commissions. Shape does it all!

Checklists

Use Shape’s checklist feature to build to-do lists, from the sales process to PTO, to ensure streamlined compliance and a great client experience. 

Benefit #4. Increase Your Amount Of Referrals

Ramping up referrals is one of the most powerful lead generation tactics you can employ.

But when you’re focused on construction, site surveys, marketing, and other items, keeping in touch with past customers often becomes an afterthought.

And yet60% of customer referrals happen within the first six months after the job is completed. 

Automated referral campaigns allow you to stay in touch with your past clients and increase your referrals, without lifting a finger. After a loan is closed, simply set up an automated series of post-loan emails designed to keep the client relationship strong and help you stay top of mind. 

Benefit #5. Easily Scale Your Solar Business

It’s pretty difficult to scale a solar business that has many manual workflows—and the last thing you want to do is scale your messy and chaotic systems. People make mistakes, and unfortunately, without the right system in place these mistakes will only multiply as your lead count grows. 

In other words, when there are cracks in your systems, you can expect at least some of your leads to slip through them.

On the flip side, when critical aspects of your business are automated, there’s really no limit to how many leads you can work with at the same time. 

Even if you decide to invest in new marketing channels or lead databases, you can rest easy knowing that smart automation has your back. If you want to turn your lead flow on full blast, you can easily and automatically qualify and nurture every lead.

The Power Of Smart Automation

The solar industry is changing fast.  These days, it’s all about the system and service. 

Clearly, the role of automation in separating the best from the rest will be crucial. And yes, automation does take time and effort upfront. But after you set your processes in place, it’s only a matter of making small adjustments that make a very big impact for your customers and your business as an expert people can trust.

Ready to see for yourself? Find out how an automated marketing and sales platform can remove the bottlenecks from your solar business pipeline and help you consistently generate more leads and revenue.

Sign up for your free trial of Shape today!

Article Source:- https://setshape.com/blog/how-to-automate-your-solar-business-to-win-back-more-time

They say nothing in life is free, but when it comes to software for your solar business, we’ve gotta disagree. No matter what stage your business is in, the number one tool or “hack” that is going to save you tons of time and money is CRM software to make you more efficient.

In fact, a recent study from Nucleus Research shows that for companies that use a CRM, the average return on their technology investment is $8.71 for each dollar spent. 

Not yet using a CRM? That kind of return on investment is like printing money for your business. 

This how-to guide will dive deep on the automation essentials for solar business, how the right solar software will pay for itself, and what the ideal features you need in your next CRM.

CRM Automation is Your Solar Business’s Secret Weapon

Whether it’s streamlining your process workflow, integrating all the tools you use into one central place, automating customer follow-up and marketing, or anything in between, the benefits of automation software for solar business owners are simply staggering.

Consider a recent study by Instapage around the various benefits of automating different areas of your business with software:

Closing Deals

• Automation is proven to boost sales productivity by 14.5% and reduce marketing overheads by 12.2%

• CRMs can lead to a 30% increase in deal closures, an 18% reduction in sales cycle, and a 14% reduction in sales administration time

Marketing

• 90% higher customer retention rates can come from marketing automation

• 80% of marketing automation users see increased leads, and 77% see increased conversions

• 60% of users say marketing automation has increased the quantity and quality of the leads that get passed to sales

Productivity

• 40% of productivity is lost to multitasking and task-switching

• Lost productivity and poorly managed leads cost companies over $1 trillion annually, some of which could be saved with automation software

Customer communication

• Automated emails have a 70.5% higher open rate and 152% higher click-through rate than generic email newsletter

• Businesses using marketing automation software are 2x more effective in lead generation than those using only blast email software

• Automating lead nurturing with well-timed emails and offers has been proven to generate a 10% or greater increase in revenue

How a CRM Will Transform Your Solar Business

We’ve already established that smart business owners and teams know that to stay competitive you’ve got to keep up with the latest trends and technology. We’ve evaluated dozens of solar software tools on the market and collected the top 5 reasons why you need to be using a CRM right now to transform your business into a money making machine:

1 – Save hours on administrative work every day.

Business owners are responsible for a variety of paperwork, tasks, and client interactions at any given moment. These procedures are often both complex and dynamic. A paper and pencil system no longer makes sense.

Not only does it make sense to adopt a modern, upgraded business management system - it’s what your customers have come to expect. Use a CRM to automate your daily to-do list and spend more time helping your clients.

2 – Strengthen relationships with prospects and customers.

Relationship building used to require a lot of time and energy. Thanks to marketing automation software included in CRMs like Shape, creating or improving relationships can be automated, authentic, and successful. Send perfectly-timed emails, helpful project status updates, and follow-ups to you need to get the job installed and completed on time. 

3 – Automate follow ups.

Fact: Following up with prospects helps you win more business. About 80% of sales require five follow up touch points. For busy solar professionals, following up with every lead that many times isn’t sustainable.

At least not without the right software. A proper solar software system can send perfectly timed follow-ups at any stage of the sales lifecycle. Customizable templates and automated email delivery triggers make those five follow ups a snap.

4 – Improve your intake process.

The hope most people have when they first adopt solar business software is that the program will cut down the time they spend on everyday tasks. The intake and evaluation process can be time consuming when done manually. But it’s one of your most powerful customer service tools. Automate the process with e-Signature capabilities, reminders, and status updates sent for you.

Solar businesses who automate parts of their onboarding see turnaround times shrink from weeks to hours.

5 – Score your leads by quality.

What if you could have a system that seamlessly reviewed every new inquiry, assess their needs, and generate a score based on their interest and urgency?

The right CRM will automatically score your leads based on essential data points from your company as well as any specific parameters you can set and manage at any time. Once your leads are scored you can concentrate your efforts on reaching out to those with the highest ROIs first or even automatically assign them to marketing campaigns.  

Get a custom consultation

Our solar software specialists can help you make sense of all the CRMs out there.

The Top Solar CRM Features You Need (and how they help you)

Everyone wants the biggest, baddest, most robust software that money can buy. But when considering a solar CRM, it’s most important to understand how essential certain software features are to your daily business. 

Do you get a lot of inbound leads and have trouble keeping up with inquiries? Do you use other software tools that you need to integrate with? Are you wanting to score and assign your leads to your team quickly and automatically? 

Depending on how you answer, you can start to get a fuller picture of your needs and which software systems will be the best bang for your buck. We’ve reviewed dozens of solar CRMs on the market and spoken to top firms about the most essential features you need on a day-to-day basis. 

Solar CRM Feature: Lead intake and follow ups

Why you want it: Lead intake allows you to properly collect, store, and act on leads in your database without losing track of important details you need for installation. The right intake tool will automatically follow up with new leads, create custom triggers, and send online proposals that include Shape's built-in eSignature.

Solar CRM Feature: Marketing automation

Why you want it: Whether you are managing inbound or paid leads, you want a CRM that has tons of tools to help you close more deals. You should have the ability to build and send automated drip campaigns, newsletters, SMS, and more to engage with your prospects at the right time.

Solar CRM Feature: Lead management

Why you want it: There is no worse feeling than realizing you left new leads unworked and discover they went to a competitor. With lead management tools you don’t need to worry that an influx of new leads will drag your team down. Look for a system that can auto-assign leads based on your parameters so that even when you’re on-site or with a customer, you don’t need to worry about the future of your business. 

Solar CRM Feature: Calendar integration

Why you want it: Double bookings and missed appointments can destroy your business’s credibility and lead to awful online reviews. Instead, opt for a system that offers calendar integration with seamless appointment scheduling so you can view and manage site surveys or client meetings in just a click of a button. 

Solar CRM Feature: Google Maps Integration

Why you want it: Some solar businesses really don’t understand the power of integrations. With a seamless Google Maps integration in your CRM you can view properties in real time,  search for a location, zoom in, and see the roof from an aerial view to ensure optimal placement - all from the comfort of your office.

Solar CRM Feature: Site Surveys

Why you want it: This is a CRM must have for solar businesses. Site surveys will allow you to  ensure every property has been properly inspected to prevent any pitfalls. Opt for a system with a responsive mobile application so that even out in the field you’ll have client data and can report back to your CRM at any time. 

Solar CRM Feature: Construction Tracking

Why you want it: Doing construction in-house? You need to have this feature to track the progress of the job site from design to installation. Referring the project out? You’ll also need a way to track your referrals and commissions. 

Solar CRM Feature: Reporting

Why you want it: We’ve known way too many solar business owners who do zero to analyze where their prospects come from, how much their marketing ROI is, how well their team converts, and so on. Not having data is a huge liability to your business. Your CRM must 100% include reporting and analytics tools to help you make more informed business decisions.

Solar CRM Feature: Email Automation 

Why you want it: Still manually sending every email? Get out of the 1990’s and join the wave of solar business owners saving tons of time using email automation. Send perfectly timed follow ups, build nurturing drip campaigns, automate status updates, and more. Email automation does more than just free up valuable time - it keeps your process consistent!

Solar CRM Feature: Advanced Security

Why you want it: With the latest legislation on consumer privacy making the rounds, it’s absolutely critical your team is abiding by data best practices and security measures. Choose a CRM that has cutting-edge encryption, data storage policies, and customer privacy.

Solar CRM Feature: Price

Why you want it: We saved the best and most important for last - price is always big when it comes to choosing a software tool you may be using for years and years to come. We highly recommend avoiding CRMs that offer gated services for a price or enforce long-term contracts. You want a tool that will grow with you, not hold you back, and often locking in a year-long commitment can be detrimental to a team. 

Ready to take it to the next level?

Is your solar business weighing a new CRM? We’ve got all the answers to your burning questions.

Article Source:- https://setshape.com/blog/solar-crm-software-that-will-pay-for-itself

Enrollment rates on the decline? Don’t put your school’s revenue at risk. Here’s everything you need to know to take your enrollment marketing to the next level and secure more students for your privately owned college or trade school.

“If higher education marketers aren’t paying attention to enrollment issues, they are not paying attention to job one.” 

That no holds-barred quote is from Terry Flannery, vice president for communications at American University and CASE Treasurer. And while it may sound a little harsh at first, we think Terry hit the nail right on the mark.

Enrollment marketing is one of the biggest areas for improvement among colleges, trade schools and privately-owned universities, with only 34% of institutions reporting to have met their enrollment goals in 2017.

And while the recent crisis means that trade schools and private colleges will likely see a surge of interest from potential students, the competition will be fiercer than ever. 

Let’s take a closer look at what works in enrollment marketing today by examining the leading student recruitment strategies, ideas and enrollment marketing platforms. We’ll also examine case studies from three different universities that were able to successfully reverse declining enrollment rates using a super smart enrollment marketing strategy.

Let’s dive in!

Table of Contents

• 8 Marketing Strategies to Increase Student Enrollment

  • #1. Know Your Students

  • #2. Use Social Media to Market Your College The Right Way

  • #3. Stay Ahead of the Enrollment Marketing Curve with Video

  • #4. Optimize Your School’s Content Marketing Strategy

  • #5. Go Mobile with Your Enrollment Marketing

  • #6. Don’t Underestimate Email

  • #7. Know Your Enrollment Marketing Numbers

  • #8. Don’t Be Afraid to Experiment with Your Enrollment Marketing

• Want to Be the Next Enrollment Marketing Success Story?

8 Marketing Strategies to Increase Student Enrollment at Your Higher Ed Organization

We won’t sugarcoat it: Higher education is an industry in flux. 

Prior to the coronavirus epidemic, the average age for online students was 32 years old, and 68% of online students were experienced professionals. According to higher ed expert Seth Odell, this is set to change. “It is highly likely that we will see a dramatic increase in demand for fully online offerings from Gen Z,” says Seth.

But the rise of online isn’t the only change today’s enrollment leaders need to keep up with.

Increasing financial pressure, paired with the rising cost of digital advertising means protecting your tuition revenue is now more important than ever. 

Today’s recruitment directors and admission heads must take new, innovative and calculated measures with their enrollment marketing to ensure every penny spent is effective in bringing you the right students.

#1. Know Your Students

Before you do anything else with your enrollment and student recruitment marketing, it’s crucial to learn as much as possible about your current students so you can understand who has the best chances of succeeding at your college.

Based on this research you can develop student personas. These are fictional representations of groups of students for you to target in your recruiting and enrollment marketing.

A well thought out student persona helps you:

• Create targeted marketing campaigns for better ROI. 78% of marketers say the impact of personalization is “strong” or “extremely strong.” And it just makes sense.  For example, sending a personalized curriculum is always going to be more powerful than sending a generic welcome email.

• Know exactly where to find your prospects. By taking the time to develop a customer persona for your ideal target students you also learn which platforms potential prospects use the most. Now you can allocate marketing resources more effectively and eliminate wasting time and money due to unnecessary guesswork.

• Increase graduation rates and referrals. One of the smartest ways to bring your enrollment strategy full circle is to integrate your SIS with a CRM platform designed to maximize revenues from both new and existing students. 

With a deep SIS and CRM integration, you can see the direct connection between your most successful students, and how you recruited them in the past. Remember, the more successful students you have today, the more referrals you’ll have tomorrow.

If you’re a Shape user, you can easily give your admissions team access to key information from your SIS in real-time. Here’s how the integration works:

Enrollment Marketing Case Study: The Power of Customer Personas at Mount Mary

Problem: An all-women university, Mount Mary was struggling with declining enrollment rates and looking for ways to reach a very specific target demographic: Gen Z women. 

Solution: A thorough analysis helped Mount Mary identify a target customer persona, a young (18-24) woman living in the local area with Snapchat and Instagram as preferred social media platforms and mobile as their preferred device.

The school’s marketing team then crafted a targeted brand message that was later broadcasted to the select audience via their preferred platforms.

Results: Within a matter of months, the enrollment marketing campaign accumulated 2.9 million impressions on SnapChat and 90,947 unique user views on Instagram.

#2. Use Social Media to Market Your College The Right Way

Every article on education marketing will tell you to use social media to attract students. This is hardly surprising: 

70% of social media users hit the sweet spot for college student demographics.

But there’s an important distinction between colleges that boast high traffic and engagement on social, and those that struggle to keep up.

If you’re in the latter camp, you should know it’s not your fault. 

Many of us did not grow up with social media as part of the equation and it’s easy to want to simply rush to create a branded account on every platform, post once or twice a month, and call it a day. 

But when it comes to enrollment marketing, the default approaches to social media just won’t cut it. 

Here are three crucial tips to help you use social media to enroll more students:

1. Study every social media platform. Every platform is a world of its own. What works on Facebook won’t work on Snapchat. If you’re new to this, we recommend picking no more than two social platforms to start with so that you can give each one your full focus.

2. Be ready to keep up with frequent changes and updates. Social platforms release new features every month, bringing new opportunities for engaging future students. But be warned, there will be a learning curve with every new change or update.

3. Ensure the highest quality of content. This one is a deal-breaker. Stock photos and boilerplate memes don’t offer any real value to prospective students. Remember, you’re competing for your prospect’s attention and not just against other schools but also against content from influencers, brands, mainstream media, friends and more.

So, how the heck are you going to attract new students amid all the noise?

Start by learning everything you can about the kind of content that works on each platform—then consistently build your audience from there. 

Which social media platforms should I use for my college’s enrollment marketing?

Honestly, it doesn’t really matter which platforms you decide to start marketing with first. The only thing that matters is how consistently you’re able to show up on that platform with quality content for your audience. 

For example, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has over 116,000 Instagram followers. 

The school actively uses hashtag #TARgram to let students share their own stories about life on campus. This is a great way to redistribute some of the burden of content creation and let your students market your college for you in a way that feels more authentic for prospects.

But it’s not all about the ‘gram. The University of Michigan uses Pinterest to share research, program updates, and student life content, generating more than 1.2 million views every month, while Harvard’s Twitter account has more than 1 million followers.

Remember, there’s no one social media platform that is perfect for every university. Find the ones that work for your organization, and stick to it.

Already a Shape user? You can automatically trigger a personalized email to go out to any incoming inquiries from prospective students coming to your website from social media or other marketing channels.

#3. Stay Ahead of the Enrollment Marketing Curve with Video 

If you’re not using video content as a part of your enrollment marketing strategy, you’re missing out.

According to a report by Wyzowl, a whopping 68% of people prefer to learn about a product or service by watching a short video—which is probably just one of the reasons why, according to Dartmouth University, some 86% of colleges and universities have a presence on YouTube.

No matter which way you cut it, video marketing is one enrollment strategy that’s not going away anytime soon.

Video content provides two key benefits for private colleges and higher ed orgs. 

1. It’s easy to create and repurpose - College webinars, presentations, lessons, and interviews can all be easily repurposed into bite-sized content for further distribution across all your marketing channels. For example, simply record a video lecture, create a quick highlights reel and boom. Now, you have an Instagram story or Facebook video ad ready to go.

2. Video content brings in high ROI -  According to the Wyzowl report, 83% of marketers say video provides them with good ROI, and 81% claim video helped them generate leads.

And that ROI rate soars even higher when you use video in conjunction with other engagement tools, like email.

In fact, emails that contain video can increase your click-through rates by up to 300% and have a 96% higher click-through rate than plain-text emails.

If there is a segment of your database that hasn’t engaged in a while, a quick video email could be a great way to bring those conversations back to life.

In Shape you can easily integrate with video marketing tools like BombBomb to seamlessly add videos to your emails or even to your SMS messages, in just two clicks.

#4. Optimize Your School’s Content Marketing Strategy

Even though teens prefer consuming video content on social media, you may be surprised to learn that on college websites, 64% of college prospects would rather consume content through text and articles.

Your website, ebooks, blog posts and other written resources must be top-of-the-line to win the hearts and minds of future students.

Here are three core areas to focus on to take your content marketing efforts to the next level:

• SEO - If you're a trade school or privately owned university, optimizing for local searches could be a powerful way to attract prospects. For example, searchers looking for ‘best trade schools in Austin’ are probably likely to enroll soon.

• Website user experience - Make sure your website is as intuitive and easy to navigate as possible so potential students won’t have a hard time finding more information or knowing exactly what to do to take the next steps. If you’re not sure which parts of your website need work, use a free or low-cost usability tool to test it.

• Conversion rates - Whether deliberately or not, your website is a conversion tool. Optimize your CTAs and track bounce rates to make sure you’re converting as many visitors as possible.

Enrollment Marketing Case Study: Using Content Marketing to Grow Applications by 106% at North American Trade School

Problem: North American Trade School (NATS) faced eroding ROI from traditional media marketing campaigns and was looking for new ways to attract student prospects.

Solution: After implementing an SEO audit, the NATS’s marketing agency upgraded a large portion of the school’s website content, including both blogs and landing pages. They also added clear CTAs and testimonials to raise the authority of every page and encourage visitors to take the next step.

Results: Organic visits increased by 66%, while the amount of completed applications on key pages increased by 106%.

#5. Go Mobile with Your Enrollment Marketing

Almost 75% of Gen Z’ers use smartphones more frequently than any other device and nearly 50% of all web pages on the internet are viewed via a mobile phone. 

With hundreds of intuitive apps and website builders that make mobile optimization as easy as ABC, there’s no longer any excuse for a poor mobile experience.

Already got a mobile-optimized website for your school? Cool!

Here's what you can do to instantly connect with potential students as they browse your school’s website:

• First, optimize your website for mobile experience. If you haven’t done so already, make sure your website is responsive across all mobile devices.

• Double down on text marketing. SMS messages have a whooping 98% open rate. Once prospects opt into receiving messages from your organization, use a well-timed automated text message contact strategy to help move them toward the next step.

In Shape, you can easily track all your phone and SMS outreach in one simple place. Just head to your Phone Settings dashboard to enable your SMS settings.

#6. Don’t Underestimate Email

Email may sound a little dated after all this talk about social media and video ads, but when it comes to enrollment marketing for your private college, trade school or university, email still matters.

In fact, 76% of high school students say they prefer to hear from universities via email, rather than messaging apps, phone calls, or direct mail.

With a simple (but powerful) combination of email messages and phone calls, online education provider Stafford Global turned their website into a high-performance admissions machine, increasing the number web leads by 50%, while shortening their conversion time by 58%. 

Want to replicate those results?

Here are the few tips higher ed orgs can use to get the most out of email marketing:

• Send personalized emails. Even a small personalization in your subject line can increase open rates by 50%. With a smart higher ed sales platform, you can take it a step forward and personalize entire sections of your emails based on prospect data such as study areas of interest, in-state vs. out-of-state, etc.

• Prevent emails from going to spam. Don’t overload your SMTP provider by sending thousands of emails using the same mail server. Make sure your CRM system allows you to stay compliant and distributes the workload between multiple servers.

• Automate your email campaigns. With smart automation you can send hyper-personalized email messages throughout all stages of the student recruitment and application process, making sure your university is in constant contact with every prospect at every step of the enrollment journey.

Not sure you’re working with the right enrollment tools? Check out our Complete Buyer's Guide for Choosing a Higher Education CRM.

Shape users can easily customize, schedule and send emails based on the status of each and every prospect in your database. Or, you can customize a done-for-you email from our rich library of over 100+ proven email templates.

#7. Know Your Enrollment Marketing Numbers

Enrollment marketing is no longer a game of chance.

According to the Cost of Recruiting an Undergraduate Student Report by educational enrollment agency RNL, the median cost of recruiting an undergraduate in 2018 was $2,357. 

And every ineffective marketing decision pushes that number higher.

To secure cost-effective tuition revenue, you need to know which marketing channels work best so you can keep your recruitment efforts focused and efficient. With the right data at your fingertips, you’ll always know who your ideal students are, where to find them, and how to effectively recruit them without breaking the budget.

Here are a few ways to make sure your enrollment marketing decisions are data-driven:

• Analyze your website traffic. Learn about your most effective sources of traffic to scale successful online marketing campaigns and drop the ineffective ones.

• Focus on the right metrics. It’s easy to get lost in the amount of data you can track. Focus on conversion and enrollment rates, not Facebook likes.

• Use a higher ed CRM system. The right CRM system will show you in one place all the data you need to effectively convert prospects into students and constantly improve the efficiency of your recruiters.

The right higher ed CRM will let you instantly visualize your student enrollment success across marketing channels so you know how to make the most of your recruitment budget.

#8. Don’t Be Afraid to Experiment with Your Enrollment Marketing

AI, virtual reality, chatbots—higher ed marketing innovation may seem like an overwhelming or costly thing to break into. But in reality, there are many platforms that will do the heavy lifting for you.

Here are just a few ways to take your enrollment marketing up a notch:

• Live streaming

• Virtual reality

• Augmented reality

• Interactive videos

• Chat bots

In one standout example, the Savannah College of Art and Design let students explore the campus virtually using Google Cardboard headsets, which led to a 26% increase in admissions. 

And using AI-powered chatbots, Georgia State University was able to boost graduation rates by 23%, while Bethel University increases retention rates by 4%. 

Enrollment Marketing Case Study: The Power of Using a CRM at Hawkeye Community College

Problem: Hawkeye Community College at Iowa wanted to reverse an ongoing trend of declining student enrollment that had lasted several semesters. 

Solution: As part of several enrollment marketing initiatives, the college invested in a CRM system, which allowed their admissions team to keep all the recruitment data in one place and communicate more effectively with interested prospects. 

Results: Hawkeye reversed a multi-year enrollment decline, saw a nearly 5% increase in headcount and a 1.2% increase in credit hours, all within just one year. 

Want to Be the Next Enrollment Marketing Success Story?

It’s hard to keep up with the constantly changing trends in marketing, higher education, and student lifestyle, and the truth is what worked mere months ago may no longer work tomorrow.

Don’t let it overwhelm you.

With the right enrollment marketing foundation in place, you can arm your admissions team with the tools they need to attract and engage more students, regardless of future shifts in marketing and learning trends.

There are hundreds of mortgage CRMs on the market. And they all claim to be the best. 

But once you move past the sales pitch, you’ll quickly notice that there’s a whole lot more that goes into a robust mortgage CRM software than just clever marketing. 

For starters, the mortgage market is constantly changing. What works now, won’t work 5 years from now. Second, mortgage professionals are reallybusy people (like, really busy). They don’t have time to rip and replace their existing systems so they can test drive new software every week. 

To save you weeks (maybe even months) on trialing the hundreds of various mortgage CRMs, we’ve prepared this handy guide to help you cut to the chase and find the best CRM to help you grow your business, starting now. 

You’ll learn exactly how a robust CRM can drive your business forward, the must-ask questions to think about when considering any CRM, and the must-have features to look for in your next high-octane system.

Want to see how the best mortgage CRMs stack up?
Download the free Comparison Chart now!

What is a mortgage CRM?

Customer relationship management (CRM) tools can do many things for your business. But if you want to boil it down to one simple accomplishment, a CRM system can help you grow your mortgage business and attract more customers in the most organized and efficient manner possible.

Simply put, a CRM eliminates the chaos from your lead management activities, letting you attract, nurture, and close more deals in less time. 

The right CRM will integrate with your other business processes, from pre-loan through post-close, leveraging the power of mortgage-specific workflows to help you attract more borrowers, while keeping your conversion rates as high as possible. 

But the advantages don't end there. Let’s review the main benefits that the best mortgage CRM can bring to your business.

"Shape keeps everything organized for me and saves me hours worth of work each day. It makes the job easier and more manageable. I find myself and my entire workforce more productive."

– Jedd Lara, Assent Mortgage

The top 4 benefits of a mortgage CRM

Mortgage CRM Benefit #1: Attract More Borrowers

As a loan officer or mortgage broker, your window of opportunity is small. 

According to the PwC home lending report, 46% of purchase borrowers consider only one lender during their search and not only that—the majority of borrowers won’t switch the lender they chose. 

That means that for most mortgage professionals, the opportunity is lost before it even begins. Bottom line? You need to be proactive. Luckily, the right mortgage CRM can help you double your lead gen efforts and build a healthy pipeline for your business.

Here’s how the best mortgage CRM will help you attract more leads:

• Get full control over your lead sources. With the right mortgage CRM, you’ll get to know your marketing channels inside and out. Invest in the marketing activities that give you the best results, and drop the rest.

• No more wasted cold calling. With a smart mortgage CRM you no longer have to guess who to call or what to say. Consider the phrase “Hey, it looks like you’re interested in lower refinancing rates, correct?” vs. “Hey I’m with ABC lender.” Your CRM should make your conversations better.

• Automate your marketing wins. With tailored drip campaigns and templates, your mortgage CRM should help you attract new prospects on autopilot. Personalized newsletters with info about homes, loans and refinancing options, combined with smart lead prioritization ensures that everyone in your database gets the right info at the right time. 

“If you don't exist online, you are losing opportunities and credibility.” 

— Neel Dhingra, mortgage banker and branch manager at All Western Mortgage>

Mortgage CRM Benefit #2: Close More Loans

In the mortgage business, there are two crucial metrics that separate the best from the rest: 

1. Speed to lead 

2. Customer satisfaction

With 80% of borrowers expecting a response from their loan officer within one day, and 40% within one hour, you know you have to be fast.

Plus, millennial consumers now dominate the mortgage market. They expect excellent service and ongoing communication—millennials literally wantto be contacted more often. Don’t let them down.

Here’s how the right mortgage CRM can help you close more deals in less time:

• Reduce your speed to lead to seconds (not minutes). An agile mortgage CRM automatically distributes the right leads to the right reps so that your team is always ready to act on every incoming request.

• Prioritize your leads the smart way. Mortgage CRM systems with smart lead prioritization ensure that you’re focusing your efforts on the leads with the highest chance of converting. And the best part? It does this automatically so that all you and your team sees is a list of pre-prioritized contacts ready for your call. 

• Ensure ongoing communication across all channels. With all text, emails and phone interactions stored in one central place you can effortlessly pick up any conversation right where it left off.

“Be relational, not transactional.”

— Dale Vermillion, mortgage expert, author and founder of Mortgage Champions

Mortgage CRM Benefit #3: Increase Your Productivity

Most employees waste up to 55% of their time on administrative tasks, and loan officers are no exception. Preparing financial documents, qualifying borrowers, or reviewing loan agreements takes a lot of time, and generating new business only adds to an already full plate. 

Here’s how a well-optimized mortgage CRM system drives productivity across the team:

• Smart automation. A smart mortgage CRM can help you automate your most repetitive and mundane tasks so you can spend more time creating real relationships with your leads, customers and referral network.

• Integration with your favorite tools. The best mortgage CRM system can integrate with your other systems so you never have to waste time switching between screens or wondering where to find the data you need.

• Team productivity reports. The right mortgage CRM ensures that your business is data-driven, and not chance-driven. Real-time performance reports help you see which of your loan officers are performing at 100% and who needs some coaching to get back on track.

CRM ROI = (Gain from Investment into CRM – Cost of investment) ÷ Cost of Investment

Mortgage CRM Benefit #4: Get More Referrals

The majority of loan officers agree that referrals are one of the best sources of new business. 

There are two major ways mortgage professionals obtain referrals: 

1. Previous clients

2. Current referral partners

And these partners both value very different things in the originators they choose to work with.

Here’s how a well-balanced mortgage CRM can help you acquire more referrals from both groups:

• Get more referrals from past clients. A mortgage CRM allows you to constantly stay in touch with all your clients during and after the loan process. Armed with a system to alleviate the admin and provide personalized closing experiences, a CRM increases your odds of bringing in new referrals simply by providing stellar service.

• Boost referrals from Realtors and partners. Realtors value speed, efficiency and authenticity in their mortgage partners. With smart automation and ongoing communication, your partners will eagerly recommend you to their clients.

“You should have a company ‘referral plan’ but it should be created to support your individual loan officers and their referral generation efforts.”

— Stacey Brown Randall, coach and best-selling author of “Generating Business Referrals Without Asking”

Ready to find out if your CRM is bringing you a healthy ROI?

These simple formulas will help you find out fast.

The Best Mortgage CRM Software: How To Choose The Right One For You

The thing most mortgage software shoppers don’t realize is that not all mortgage CRMs are created equal. While there are many types of mortgage CRM systems to choose from, each one will typically fall into one of three main categories.

Category #1: All-In-One Mortgage CRMs

In a nutshell, all-in-one CRM systems are a generalized version of a CRM system—they have all the basic functionality you need to attract and nurture leads, but lack specific functionalities for core mortgage business workflows.

For example, they might have unlimited emailing but lack mortgage-specific templates, offer no integration with loan origination software, and don’t fully support your intake workflows. 

Pro: All-in-one CRMs are created with larger, or enterprise-scale, companies in mind so they typically have a good infrastructure and UX. 

Con: The main drawback with this type of CRM is that it doesn't offer done-for-you workflows for your mortgage business. Another common complaint is that all-in-one CRMs often feature extra functionality that loan officers don’t necessarily need, but still have to pay for.

Category #2: Built-In Mortgage CRMs

Loan officers typically use loan origination software (LOS) to manage every stage of the loan process, such as pre-qualification, risk assessment, or compliance checking.

Although LOS systems are not designed to nurture leads, coordinate team efforts, or grow a mortgage business, they do offer some CRM functionality that can come in handy.

Pro: Some LOS platforms may allow loan officers to contact clients, others may even offer some lead management reporting features. 

Con: Unfortunately, any CRM functionality built into a system that was created for the purpose of loan origination will be limited. If you need to process a large or growing volume of leads, you’ll probably outgrow this type of system fast.

Category #3: Best of Breed Mortgage CRM

A devoted mortgage CRM has all the features lenders need to grow their mortgage business.

They have features to grow the customer database and at the same time seamlessly automate the core mortgage workflows, so that you can focus on growing your business.

Here are three main reasons why you may want to choose a best of breed system:

• Done-for-you mortgage workflows. For example, in Shape you can calculate payment amortization to boost client satisfaction and at the same time optimize turnaround times.

• Seamless integration with other loan processing tools. When integrated with your LOS, the right mortgage CRM can help loan officers streamline the entire loan process and create the end-to-end solution to expand the business. 

• Great value out of box. Given its strong focus on the mortgage industry, the best of breed mortgage CRM system doesn’t require complex adjustments and can provide immense value to loan professionals even with little customization.

Ready for a CRM that won’t lock you down? Try Shape today

What Is The Best CRM Software For Mortgage Brokers? Here’s What To Look For

How do you choose the best mortgage CRM system? Here are the critical aspects that will help you make the right choice.

Automatic Lead Prioritization

The current problem with mortgage leads isn’t quantity. It’s quality. 

With digital marketing and plenty of lead distributors to choose from, loan operators can quickly fill up their databases with hundreds and thousands of prospects.

But what good is a large database if you can’t physically contact everyone in it?

This is where a great mortgage CRM system comes in. With smart prioritization in place, your loan officers never have to guess who to call next. Shape includes a deep prioritization algorithm that automatically organizes and ranks leads based on more than 28 indicators, such as time zone, status, activity, and more.

Full Compliance

The mortgage industry is notorious for its red tape. There are hundreds of laws and regulations every broker must follow, not to mention a growing number of telemarketing laws and guidelines to stay on top of.

Unfortunately, some CRM systems just aren’t equipped for those kinds of compliance demands.

With promises of unlimited text messages, omni-channel calling, and extensive broadcasting features, many mortgage CRMs forget to mention that these kinds of practices may result in devastating fines and legal fees.

The best mortgage CRM will help you grow your business, without putting it at risk. For example, Shape will automatically notify your team members when they exceed the daily limit of email sends so that your network provider doesn’t label your emails as ‘spam’.

Open Architecture

A futureproof mortgage CRM will integrate with a wide range of LOS systems and other loan processing tools.

Look for a CRM that offers bi-directional syncing with your LOS so you can automate the time-sucking admin tasks and engage with your prospects every stage of the process. 

For example, when a client moves from the pre-approval to the loan application stage, your CRM should be able to update the status in your LOS in real time and automatically send an email, launch a personalized drip campaign, or alert your team to contact the client. 

Smart Automation

We’ve already discussed how automatic lead prioritization can help you close more business, but what about your other workflows?

When choosing a mortgage CRM, it’s important to think about the key workflows that keep your business moving today, while leaving room to change and adjust to whatever happens in your business tomorrow.

What if you decide to open a new branch in another city? What if you need to hire more team members, or increase marketing budgets and attract more leads? 

Does your CRM make growth easy or painful?

With the right mortgage CRM, you scale your revenue—not errors and inefficient processes. 

The Right Integrations

You shouldn’t have to stop using the tools you already know and love, just so you can have the CRM you want.

Make sure your mortgage CRM offers deep integration with key mortgage systems, including (but not limited to) the following:

• Lendingpad

• Encompass

• Mailchimp

• BombBomb

• Zillow 

• Leadpops

• And more

If you’re not sure a CRM integrates with a certain tool you and your team already rely on, be sure to ask. The last thing you want to end up doing is completely rewiring your entire business system just to keep your lead streams flowing.

Mobile-friendly

The mortgage business is anything but sedentary and with today’s borrowers wanting to be contacted more than 11 times on average by their lenders, responsiveness is key to getting ahead.

Choose a mortgage CRM that offers a robust mobile app. No matter where you are, you need to be able to help move clients from A to B—even if you're standing in line for coffee.

Ease of Use

The goal of a CRM system is to help you save time, not add more to the chaos. 

Unfortunately, some mortgage CRM systems boast dozens of intricate features, but are almost impossible to navigate. If you constantly have to contact technical support to perform even basic functions, it’s time to find a better CRM.

Here’s why your mortgage CRM MUST be easy to use:

• You will be using the CRM system to its full potential.Mortgage professionals often neglect certain CRM features if they’re too complicated or take up lots of their time to use. With an intuitive mortgage CRM they get the best ROI for their dollar. 

• New loan officers can learn how to use it quickly. Save time training new reps with an easy to use system that empowers them to add value to the team from day one.

• You are a reflection of your systems. If you’re constantly disgruntled with your CRM, sooner or laters this dissatisfaction may project out onto customers, taking a serious toll on your number of deals.

We realize that trying new software, or changing your existing system, is a daunting task—but it doesn’t have to be. 

Here’s a simple test. Try a mortgage CRM for a brief period and see for yourself if it meets your criteria. Don’t let the CRM vendor dictate the demo. Get your own hands-on experience with the mortgage CRM system as soon as possible so you can see how it really fits into your business (or not).

At Shape, we offer a free 14-day trial that includes all the features you need to start growing your mortgage business today.

Ready for a CRM you can trust?

Mortgage CRM: The Complete Feature Checklist

Use this list to quickly assess whether a mortgage CRM has all the features you need to optimize and expand your mortgage activities:

Attracting new borrowers

• Email & SMS integration and automation

• Inquiry tracking

• Inquiry management

• Prospect routing & interactive voice response

• Contact management

• Referral tracking

• Inbound & outbound calling

• Status tracking

• Call recording & call scripts

• Integrated dialer

Increase team productivity

• Prospect filtration

• Duplication management

• Customizable reporting and analytics

• Support chat & intra-company chat

• Automated tasks & actions

• Role-based permissions

• Customizable user permissions

• Invoicing

Improve borrowers’ and lenders’ experience:

• Automated borrower status updates

• Automated drip campaigns

• Fannie Mae 3.2 File export

• Bi-directional LOS integrationIntake forms

• Team chat

• Calendar and email syncing

• Payment amortization calculators

• Mobile support

• eSignatures

• API support

Why Choose Shape?

If you’re like any ambitious broker, you want to make sure that for every dollar you put into your mortgage CRM, you get at least ten in return. We get it.

With seamless LOS integration, smart lead management, and a beautifully simple user interface, Shape gives you repeatable workflows to grow your mortgage business. And with full compliance features, you won’t have to worry about stacking up fines on your way to your dream business. 

If you’re looking for a flexible, best-of-breed mortgage CRM, you’ve found it. Try Shape for free for 14 days and find out how a powerful mortgage CRM solution can help you grow your business.

The mortgage industry is not for lazy performers. In fact, loan originators often work harder than anyone else to achieve their goals. 

But to become successful in this industry, working harder isn’t always enough. It’s about working in the right direction. 

And who knows better about helping you achieve your goals than mortgage coaches, who’ve been there and done it all? 

The mortgage industry boasts dozens of experienced coaches and trainers. The problem is, how do you pick a good coach? When there are more mortgage coaches in the market than ever before, how do you find the one that can really help you bring your mortgage business to the next level? 

In this article, we’ve curated a well-vetted list of premier mortgage coaches who don’t simply preach success to others—they actually did the work themselves first. 

We’ll dive deep into the unique strengths of their coaching programs, so you can decide who will bring you the most value for your business.

Here are the best mortgage coaching programs worth your time and commitment.

#1. Mortgage Champions with Dale Vermillion

Mortgage Champions was founded by Dale Vermillion, a leading mortgage industry trainer, speaker, and consultant. Over the course of 25 years, Dale and his company have trained more than 1 million loan originators and consulted more than 600 organizations.

Mortgage Champions currently provides three distinct training solutions to address the specific needs of teams of different sizes.

Saleslyft is a sales-focused fast-track program for small companies with up to 12 members that equips teams with a proven and systematic approach to sales in just under 4 hours. The program costs $249 and contains a library of tips, techniques and strategies that you can instantly start using to enhance your sales process. 

Saleslyft is available online and can be accessed from any device on-demand within 30 days of purchase. Plus, the program actively uses gamification to make the learning experience engaging and increase your knowledge retention.

MC Onlineis a training solution for bigger teams that want to improve their performance across several dimensions and includes modules for sales training, new hires onboarding, process-based management, operational performance, and service. 

The program aims at systematic improvement of team performance by establishing effective processes and workflows that will grow your business for years. 

Enterpriseconsulting addresses the particular challenges of enterprise clients and largely involves Dave's personal consulting and experience as both an ex-C-suite level mortgage manager and trusted consultant for several hundreds enterprises.   

Pros:

• Variety of online, on-premise, and hybrid programs

• Strong focus on sales and crisis management

• Vast C-level consulting experience

• Specific role-based training modules for new hires, service workers, and management

Pricing: 

• $249 per learner for Saleslyft

• $899 for Mortgage Champions Online™ 6-week program

• Individual pricing for enterprise consulting

#2. CORE Training by Rick Ruby

Rick Ruby, Reeta Casey, and Todd Scrima founded CORE Training back in 2001. Since then, their program has become one of the most referred training programs for loan originators.

The program focuses primarily on keeping mortgage professionals accountable for their success and provides trainees with a plan, accountability partner, community, and competitive environment.

CORE Training has three levels of loan officer coaching. 

Level 1, or entry level, is a 12-month commitment program that includes an elaborate plan and access to group coaching sessions. The program also pairs trainees with accountability partners from CORE’s wide network of experienced mortgage professionals who guide Level 1 participants through instructional videos and audios.

The Level 1 program promises to double your mortgage business and contains a 12-step approach aimed at elevating agent’s performance:

• Step 1. Initial Contact

• Step 2. Tracking and Knowing Your Numbers

• Step 3. Basic Lists and Target Marketing

• Step 4. Building Rapport

• Step 5. Basic Organization

• Step 6. Basic Time Blocking

• Step 7. Mastering the Close  

• Step 8. Reading and Mastering Guidelines

• Step 9. Basic Setting Up and Turning in a Great File

• Step 10. Basic Follow Up

• Step 11. Psychology & Emotion of the Business

• Step 12. Goal Setting and Business Planning

To access Level 2 and Level 3 coaching tiers you need to meet income requirements and visit the Summit event that is regularly held by CORE. At these levels you get access to top producing mortgage and real estate coaches, greater accountability plans, and devoted Facebook groups.

Pros:

• Strong “DO IT” mentality

• Individual performance boost

• Community events for networking opportunities

Pricing: 

• Level 1 coaching costs $500 per month

#3. High Trust Coaching with Todd Duncan 

High Trust Coaching was founded by Todd Duncan, an award-winning trainer and consultant with almost three decades of experience in the mortgage industry. Todd Duncan is also the author behind the New York Times bestseller High Trust Selling: Make More Money In Less Time with Less Stress.

The coaching features three different levels:

Producer Level Coaching focuses on elevating productivity for loan officers through business discipline and measurable results. It includes bi-weekly coaching calls, a performance dashboard tracking system and also grants discounts to High Trust events. 

Master Level Coaching is designed for accomplished loan originators, branch managers, and team leaders and focuses on strategies to build long-term scalable business. The coaching level also grants access to quarterly master classes from Todd Duncan.

Elite Level Coaching is a one-year membership for a small selection of qualified candidates. The coaching is designed and curated by Todd Duncan and covers high-end areas of business development such as market share growth, self-leadership, management of high performance sales teams, and brand development. 

Pros:

• A selection of programs for both entry-level LO’s and established mortgage professionals

• Strong focus on measurable results and self-accountability

• Custom enterprise solutions

Pricing:

• Flexible pricing model: several hundred dollars for entry programs and thousands of dollars for elite coaching

#4. Building Champions with Daniel Harkavy

Building Champions coaching has a sharp focus on leadership training and mentorship. The case studies mostly revolve around helping companies establish highly performing teams, strengthen their cultures, and overcome particular enterprise-level challenges. 

The coaching has a wide roster of executive-level mentors and coaches with unique skills, and you’re free to select any coach to address the specific needs of your company -- from crisis management and professional growth to effective communication and mission development. 

Currently, there are six coaching options available with Building Champions:

• Leadership coaching

• Small business coaching

• Executive coaching

• CEO mentor

• Focused 360 coaching

• Mortgage leadership coaching

Mortgage leadership coaching programs include customized team experiences for better team alignment and on-site workshops for bringing the training to your team.

Pros:

• Sharp focus on building leadership skills and strengthening high-performance company culture

• A wide selection of C-level coaches

Pricing:

• Customized proposal for every organization

#5. Performance Experts with Tim Braheem

Tim Braheem entered the mortgage industry in 1992 and since then has been recognized several times as one of the top fifty producing loan originators in the US. 

His coaching company, Performance Experts, offers coaching programs for both loan originators and team leaders. 

Performance Excelerator is a 12-month program that pairs trainees with an experienced coach, providing tips and best practices from top industry producers while granting quarterly access to Tim Braheem. 

Leadership 360 is a one year long business and life coaching program that provides accountability and support for building both sustainable business and transforming life experience. The program is exclusive to only 9 members a year. 

Referral Partner Success is a fully online step-by-step program offering insight and advice on building deep relationships with partners and growing your business through referrals. 

Team Workshop Mastery is a two-day workshop aimed at training high performing teams by unveiling team dysfunctions, facilitating effective team communications, and aligning team members around shared goals. 

Pros:

• Cohesive approach to transforming both business and life experiences

• One of the top producing loan originators in the states as a head coach

Pricing:

• $899 for online Referral Partner Success program

• $3,495 for Team Workshop Mastery

#6. 20/20 Vision For Success with Christine Beckwith

Christine Beckwith is an award-winning coach with a long history of success in the mortgage industry as both a top producing loan officer and experienced executive manager of a national fintech platform. 

She’s a wealth of practical knowledge on all types of topics ranging from mortgage marketing to the future of disruptive tech in this industry.

Christine’s company, 20/20 Vision for Success Coaching, offers sales-accelerating coaching programs designed to help participants develop successful strategies for increased sales, expanded networking, and superior execution. 

Currently, Vision for Success has three distinct coaching programs:

Gold Sales Accelerator is a 12-month coaching program that includes a full virtual training curriculum, one-hour coaching session per month, live support training and advanced quarterly sales classes. 

The Elite Platinum Sales program includes everything from Gold Sales Accelerator as well as at least one hour long coaching session monthly, accountability checks with Christine, virtual training for up to five, and access to a Mastermind group with peer participants.20/20 Vision Elite Division provides top industry leaders with coaching on business scaling expertise, leadership, sales, and marketing. The program also includes custom events for participants.

Pros:

• Sharp focus on sales excellence from both an individual and technological perspective

• Christine is deeply involved in all coaching programs to ensure a successful outcome

Pricing:

• Available upon request

#7. Mortgage Marketing Coach with Doran Aldana

Doran Aldana is the lead coach and founder of Mortgage Marketing Coach, a personalized mentor-style coaching program that aims to help mortgage professionals close more deals regardless of market conditions.

What sets Doran’s program apart from many other training programs is his strong focus on marketing techniques and measurable outcomes. 

His coaching revolves around high-impact modern marketing solutions developed specifically for the mortgage industry-- and for three consecutive years he’s been awarded the “Best Service Provider” title by Canadian Mortgage Awards. 

To achieve best results, Doran partners with his clients as a mentor and aims to achieve measurable results in income growth or market share growth for every partner.

Pros:

• Highly-impactful individual mentorship for mortgage professionals

• Focus on modern marketing solutions and strategies

• Strong focus on the revenue growth outcome

#8. AMPLIFII by Rene Rodriguez

Rene Rodriguez is a keynote speaker and a world-class sales expert with a history of advising leadership teams at Coca-Cola, Microsoft, and Bank of America. Additionally, he’s been named in the 40 under 40 list for 7 years straight.

Over the years, Rene and his company, Volentum, have trained over 100,000 people in behavioral psychology to tackle some of the toughest challenges in leadership, sales, and change. 

Yet AMPLIFII, Rene’s workshop, is not your typical mortgage training program and Rene Rodriguez won’t be teaching you how to prospect or follow up on your leads. 

Throughout a three-day masterclass, Rene teaches small groups of professionals how to become more powerful presenters, communicators, and influencers. 

The masterclass helps mortgage professionals easily present their ideas in public, strike a chord with their clients from the get-go, and become inspiring leaders for their teams. 

Pros:

• A fast-track to becoming a powerful presented and negotiator

• An extremely personal approach with a small group of participants

• Acquired ability to present ideas under huge stress

Pricing: 

• $4,995 for a three-day event

#9. Personal Coaching with Dan Trinidad 

Dan Trinidad is a 30-year mortgage industry veteran and a CEO of a highly successful company in Partners Mortgage.

A large part of Dan’s coaching strategy involves sharing his personal triumphs in turning around bad luck and establishing several successful businesses in the highly competitive mortgage industry. 

He offers personal coaching and consulting services to mortgage professionals, helping them get unstuck, recover from loss, and achieve lasting success through growing profitable and meaningful business. 

Pros:

• A one-on-one mentorship with one of the most successful industry practitioners

• Great fit for agents recovering from personal and professional losses

#10. XINNIX System with Casey Cunningham 

Simply put, there are very few things that Casey Cunningham didn’t do throughout her 30-year-long career in retail mortgage banking.

Casey has served as Executive Vice President of a $4 billion mortgage company, was named one of the Top Female Entrepreneurs by Atlanta Woman Magazine, and won yearly awards with the National Association of Women in Real Estate Business.

She’s also a national keynote speaker and the founder of one of America’s most acclaimed mortgage sales and leadership training academies in XINNIX.

The XINNIX coaching program features two training options:

The Performance Training Option includes multi-week performance programs with business development strategies, program specific accountability, and access to dedicated performance specialists throughout the program.

The Performance Coaching Option is a 6-month or 12-month coaching, training, and accountability program aimed at helping you find the unique strengths of your business and scale them to grow your success.

Pros:

• Unique training methodology to unveil your strengths and play on them in achieving successful results

• A wide array of supporting leadership, conversion, and performance-boosting modules for all-around training experience

Choose The Right Mortgage Coaching Program For Your Mortgage Business

There’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all training program. Having choices is crucial when it comes to deciding on the best mortgage coaching program for your business. Take time to think deeply about what you really want to happen in your business and find the coach and program that’s a genuine fit for your team.

Once you’ve gotten the coaching, our platform makes it easy to do the rest. Shape CRM will help your agents consistently follow up on their leads, automate routine, non-revenue generating tasks, and address compliance issues before they start affecting your bottom line.If you want to see what a well-optimized mortgage CRM can do for your business, sign up for our 14-day free trial today!

Article Source:- https://setshape.com/blog/mortgage-coaching

It’s official—Shape Mortgage now integrates with video platform BombBomb to make all your prospect and client communications more personal than ever before. Built on top of the powerful Shape Software platform you know and love, the seamless BombBomb integration allows you to add videos to your outbound emails and SMS in just a click. 

Are you struggling to break through the noise in the digital mortgage era?
Finding it hard to differentiate yourself or your services in a crowded marketplace?
Want to kick off client relationships on the right foot—and keep them that way?

The Shape + BombBomb integration can do all that, and more!

With this update, all Shape Mortgage users can now:

1. Seamlessly create and send captivating video messages via email or SMS directly through Shape with the click of a button

2. Add a more personal touch to your client communications to build stronger relationships

3. Stay in touch with clients and prospects, even when you can't meet in-person

4. Show off your brand personality to create more consistency and add back in a human element to digital communications

It’s time to leverage the personalization of BombBomb and the power of Shape Software to drive and close more deals than ever before.

Ready to take your client communications to the next level?

Article Source:- https://setshape.com/blog/bombbomb

Loan officers and mortgage teams looking to simplify and supercharge their end-to-end workflows in this new digital mortgage era have a powerful combo in their toolkit—Shape Software (CRM) with it’s digital Point of Sale (POS)!

Now, more than ever, lending teams need adaptive and efficient tech that improves their workflow and simplifies the day-to-day admin. Borrowers are wading through historic changes in both the economy and market, and you need tools that can help you nurture prospects on the fence and keep relationships going with existing clients. 

Shape CRM + Customer Portal does this and so much more. 

With this powerful combo in your tech stack you can eliminate countless other costly software tools and instead rely on an industry leader to simplify your origination and mortgage processes in this new landscape where speed and building relationships is key!

Meet Your New Workflow…

With the Shape Software Customer Portal addition, you’ll get access to the ultimate mortgage POS and CRM automation workflow all in one solution. Using this best-in-class combo, loan originators can now seamlessly offer a secure document management system directly within Shape to maintain all important borrower documentation and correspondence in a single location.

No more tabbing between systems, no more manual data entry and exporting—just a simple, compliant, and easy process every single time. In a world where everyday seems unpredictable, rely on Shape to consistently deliver an amazing experience for you and your clients.

Other Benefits Include:

• Secure Customer Portal

• Document Hub

• File Request and Task Management

•  Milestone and Status Updates

• Marketing Automation Tools

• Appointment Manager

• In-App Chat and Instant Messaging 

• Click-to-Call Dialing 

• Text Messaging 

• Task Scheduling, Automation and Activity Logs

• Analytic Reporting

• Customizations and API

• E-signature

   

  Article Source:- https://setshape.com/blog/adapt-attract-convert-with-shape-floify

Loan officers and mortgage teams looking to simplify and supercharge their end-to-end workflows have a new combo in their toolkit—Shape Software now offers a digital Point of Sale (POS) and mortgage automation solution.

With the Shape Customer Portal, loan originators can automate their mortgage processes and manage their lead & customer database while offering a secure document management system directly within Shape to maintain all important borrower documentation and correspondence in a single location. 

Benefits of Shape’s Customer Portal

• Create new leads from loan applications

• Get online 1003 applications

• Provide a secure customer portal to borrowers

• Synchronize uploaded documentation

• View all communication

• Trigger Shape notifications when loan milestones are reached

No more tabbing between systems, no more manual data entry and exporting - the Shape Portal is going to be a game changer for not just your clients but your lending teams, too! 

Ready to add the Shape Portal to your Shape account?

About Shape Software

Shape Software is the only sales, marketing, and CRM automation tool designed for lenders as an end-to-end solution to take your team from pre-loan through post-close. Close more deals than ever before with Shape's intelligent lead distribution and scoring features, build and send secure online documents in a click, manage and assign tasks to your team, get a complete suite of sales pipeline and marketing automation features like drip emails, newsletters, and SMS, generate custom reporting on any metric imaginable, and so much more. Try Shape free for 14 days and experience the difference!

Article Source:- https://setshape.com/blog/shape-software-floify