Is your higher ed CRM putting you at legal risk? Find out if your CRM can help you attract new students without violating the latest regulations.

The difference between a CRM that allows you to confidently enroll thousands more students each year and a CRM that costs you thousands of dollars in regulatory fines lies in one simple word: 

Compliance.

A compliant higher ed CRM will help you recruit and enroll hundreds of new students month after month, while ensuring that every interaction between your staff, students, and applicants stays well within the current regulatory requirements.

But unfortunately, not at all CRMs care about compliance.

So, how do you know which CRM will bring you more students, and which one will put you at risk?

In this article, we’ll review the major compliance requirements for education organizations and show you exactly which CRM features you need to help your recruiters and staff stay compliant no matter what. 

Table of Contents

• Why A Compliant CRM Is So Important In Higher Education

• Compliant CRM Check #1: Federal and Provider-Based Marketing Regulations

• Compliant CRM Check #2: Misrepresentation Policies

• Compliant CRM Check #3: Verification Policy

• Compliant CRM Check #4: Student Discrimination Regulations

• Compliant CRM Check #5: Student Data Privacy

• Compliant CRM Check #6: GDPR and International Student Admissions Compliance

• Will Your CRM Be Compliant Tomorrow?

Why A Compliant CRM Is So Important In Higher Education

There are at least 281 education-related regulations in the US alone.

As if that weren’t enough, there are numerous other telemarketing rules and guidelines that regulate how recruiters contact potential students via phone, email and SMS.

Higher education universities that recruit students need to follow them all. 

Here are just a few of the repercussions you could face due to non-compliance:

• Hefty Fines. Do Not Call Registry violations and robocalls can amount to $10,000 fines per call, with some companies being sued for millions.

• Government Funding Withdrawal. Student privacy data violations can result in withdrawal of government funding. 

• Fewer students enrolled. Higher ed organizations become so overwhelmed and confused about compliance regs, it paralyzes their recruitment process and enrollment suffers.

That last item is perhaps the biggest drawback. With so many regulations in place, universities and privately held higher ed organizations are understandably anxious about their recruitment processes—but they don’t have to be. 

A robust, reliable and compliant CRM can take a lot of the weight off your shoulders so that you and your entire admissions staff can safely, effectively and confidently recruit more students for your school.

How exactly? Let’s take a closer look at the major regulations universities and colleges need to comply with throughout the student recruitment and admissions process, and how the right CRM system can help you stay legit, no matter how big your enrollment goals are. 

Compliant CRM Check #1: Federal and Provider-Based Marketing Regulations

Some higher ed CRM vendors heavily market themselves by promising unlimited texting, emailing, robocalls, and omni-channel dialing. And while the promise of ‘unlimited’ anything always sounds great in theory, a total disregard of compliance practices can quickly put your entire organization at risk. 

As soon as your recruiters pick up their phones and start calling prospective students, this activity falls under the purview of at least two different federal commissions: the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). 

Add to that regulations for SMS and email marketing, and you’ll soon find yourself in a complex world of telemarketing compliance rules where one seemingly minor misdeed can cost thousands or even millions of dollars in penalties. 

If your school is a non-profit organization, you are likely exempt from most telemarketing regulations. But for many proprietary colleges and privately held higher eds, you’ll need to pay close attention to make sure your CRM is compliant with FCC and FTC regulations.

Here’s what to keep in mind in order to keep your enrollment marketing compliant:

• Pre-recorded promotional calls (a.k.a. robocalls) are bannedunless you have a prior written consent from a receiving party

• Promotional SMS texts require prior written consent in cases where you have had no previous interactions with a potential applicant

• The Do Not Call registry applies to for-profit entities, but doesn’t apply to non-profit universities

• The FCC has established strict timelines for all marketing-related calls and texts between 8 am and 9 pm

• Telecom providers have their own guidelines recruiters need to follow. If you do not follow these guidelines, providers can flag phone numbers and web domains and block all outbound text messages and emails.

Important: if a contact has already reached out to your organization and you use email, text, and phone calls to nurture that existing relationship, that does not qualify as a telemarketing activity and therefore is not subject to penalties. 

It can often feel impossible to navigate the complex web of telemarketing regulations, especially considering that every regulatory entity rarely coordinates their efforts with others. Fortunately, a smart, compliant CRM can do most of the hard work for you.

How Shape CRM Helps Keep Enrollment Marketing Compliant

At Shape, we always aim to keep pace with the latest FCC, FTC and provider based compliance regulations to ensure that all your university’s prospecting and lead nurturing efforts stay compliant.

Here’s how we build compliance into the Shape CRM for higher ed:

• Compliance-proof functionality: Shape automatically notifies you if certain hidden limits imposed by providers have been reached. For example, Shape automatically cuts off texting functionality for any number that sends more than 95 messages in a day so that the number won’t be flagged as a fraud by your network provider. 

• Automated routing rules: Using our advanced lead prioritization system, Shape makes sure your recruiters only call students and applicants at the most appropriate time. It takes into account time zones, applicant interaction history, as well as 26 other factors to ensure your recruiters have the highest rate of success.

• Pre-built templates: With optimized templates and scripts for texts, emails, and phone calls, you can be sure your recruiters stay compliant during every interaction with new or potential applicants and students.

Compliant CRM Check #2: Misrepresentation Policies

According to the final program integrity regulations, every university is held responsible in cases where it provided deceptive or misleading information to applicants and students—and the fines may add up to millions of dollars.

This applies equally to educational programs, marketing campaigns, advertising, and recruiting efforts. That is just part of the reason it’s so crucial for universities to have all their marketing campaigns and recruiting communications in one trackable place.

How Shape Helps Universities Avoid Misrepresentation

The right CRM system will serve as a central hub for all communications between recruiters and prospects across your marketing, recruitment and enrollment channels. 

With the right CRM in place, higher education recruiters can:

• Track and analyze every interaction with applicants from one place. Recruiters can easily see every interaction with applicants from start to finish, instantly tracking down any issues that may arise during the recruitment process.

• Ensure the same high-quality standard across all channels of communication. With pre-customized templates and call scripts, recruiters can ensure their communication is compliant across all channels and departments. 

• Monitor lead sources. Education recruiters know exactly which marketing campaign or advertisement attracted a student or applicant and can further review and clarify any statements that were made prior to making contact.

Compliant CRM Check #3: Verification Policy

Running background checks on applicants isn’t something you do for the fun of it. The fact is, you’re required to by law.

For example, when an institution has doubts about the origin or validity of an applicant’s high school diploma, the 2011 Higher Education Act requires the university to have an established evaluation procedure in place to verify the applicant’s credentials.

Although necessary, this brings an additional layer of complexity to the recruitment process, making it a longer, more admin-heavy process—and one with much more room for error. 

The good news is, a well-optimized CRM can help simplify this process, making it easy to track the status of every applicant and accelerate the verification process to keep your enrollment pipeline moving.

How Shape Streamlines The Verification Process

Shape features a comprehensive Status feature to help higher eds track every step of the student’s admission process. Statuses can be created and customized to the needs of every particular university, so you can see at a glance which applicants need your attention.

A CRM with smart Status automations has at least two main advantages:

1. Easily track the status of every applicant. All admissions professionals and recruiters can track and manage the status of every student and applicant in a single system, reducing the amount of duplicate operations and accelerating the overall pipeline.

2. Trigger automatic events based on status changes. For example, as soon as an applicant receives a status ‘Pending verification’, they receive an email requesting additional details, or a recruiter receives notification to contact the applicant. 

Compliant CRM Check #4: Student Discrimination Regulations

There are several regulations and laws that protect students from discrimination based on age, gender, race, and disability. And for good reason.

With the growing number of high-profile discrimination lawsuits, universities and higher ed organizations must ensure they never discriminate against students across any communication channel throughout their entire learning lifecycle from admission to graduation.

Problem is, discrimination often happens unknowingly.

How Shape Can Help Prevent Student Discrimination

Using Shape’s pre-built customizable templates for both email and text, educational organizations can ensure their staff workers are always using compliant, appropriate language at every step of an applicant’s enrollment journey.

Here are two ways to help ensure your enrollment communication is anti-discriminatory:

1. Establish communication guidelines for staff workers. The way your staff communicates is crucial. There is a big difference between the questions: “How old are you?” and “Are you at least 18 years of age?” 

2. Easily adapt to regulatory changes. Ethics and discrimination guidelines are constantly being updated. With compliant templates in one place, you can instantly update email, text, and phone communications across departments without having to pause your enrollment efforts.

Compliant CRM Check #5: Student Data Privacy

Student data privacy concerns are growing every year. 

Currently, there are two federal laws that govern student data protection: the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA).

Both laws place firm restraints around the educational data or sensitive student information that a university or higher ed organization can share without the student’s explicit consent. 

Despite these regulations, a growing amount of data breaches in the education sector is forcing universities to take a hard look at their security policies and the software they use. This is where the security of your CRM becomes a critical issue. 

How Shape Helps Protect Student Data

Every CRM vendor claims security is a top priority but at Shape, we take our security efforts to the next level.

Our infrastructure involves four distinct tiers of security:

• Physical Security: Guarded data centers located in some of the most secure facilities at undisclosed locations

• Network Security: Our provider network is gated and screened by highly powerful and certified Intrusion Detection / Intrusion Prevention Systems

• Staff Processes: Shape includes complete access control with regular security audits and updates

• Redundancy: Our security process is designed to protect your data even during system failures

Compliant CRM Check #6: GDPR and International Student Admissions Compliance

In 2018, the European Union released the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). With fines up to £500,000, universities and higher ed organizations must pay extra close attention to how they protect the personal data and privacy of every european student they recruit.

Here are just some of the items that must be on your GDPR compliance checklist:

• Ask for student consent when you start processing their information

• Allow students to easily request access to their personal information

• Automatically delete student data when your organization has no more use for it

• Enable students and prospect to easily update their data to keep it up-to-date

• Inform students whenever your institution updates its privacy policy

It’s a lot to keep track of, and it doesn't help that during the enrollment process recruiters can collect hundreds, if not thousands, of prospective applicant data. Typically, this data is then dispersed across different services, software tools, and paper documents. 

All that chaos makes following GDPR requirements virtually impossible. Unless, you have the right tools in place.

How Shape Helps With GDPR Compliance

Here’s how Shape helps universities stay GDPR-compliant while they actively recruit EU-based applicants:

• Store all applicant recruitment data in one place. With a bidirectional API integration with your SIS, Shape allows recruiters and education administrators to easily add, update, or delete student data everywhere in real time.

• Easily control who has access to student data. Managers can set up user roles and permissions to control how much student data each staff worker can access.

• Automatically inform students about policies and updates. Set up drip campaigns and automatic triggers to instantly broadcast any changes in your data and privacy policies to your students and applicants.

• Integrate Shape with SIS/LMS software. Easily manage and update student data across the entire campus from one centralized platform.

Will Your CRM Be Compliant Tomorrow?

Let’s go with the best case scenario and say your CRM checks all the compliance boxes. It allows you to safely attract new students, while following all the major regulations from federal bodies, telecom providers and your state education department.

The next question is: 

As regulations change, will your CRM stay compliant?

New marketing technologies are emerging every day—and so are the regulations that aim to guide and control them. 

At Shape, we closely monitor regulatory trends in higher education and regularly update our features, security infrastructure and support guidelines to keep our users compliant.

If you want to reach your maximum potential in attracting new students, without putting your organization at risk, try Shape for free for 14 days and see for yourself how easy it can be to keep your organization compliant. 

With Shape, there are no hidden fees. Attract more students and stay compliant with the only CRM designed specifically for higher ed organizations with big ambitions.

Article Source:- https://setshape.com/blog/is-your-higher-ed-crm-compliant-what-every-enrollment-head-should-know

Mortgage marketing is changing minute by minute and the pressure for brokers is on. Check out these key predictions from leading mortgage experts so you can generate and convert more leads now and in the future.

The mortgage business was never a cake walk. Brokers, loan officers and team leaders have always had to constantly find new ways to market and reinvent themselves in an often volatile and highly competitive environment.

But with recent demographic shifts and technology disruption, even the most tried-and-tested mortgage marketing simply won’t cut it anymore. 

This game is zero-sum. If your mortgage marketing ideas are not up-to-date, you may quickly find yourself struggling to keep your business afloat.

The good news is, there is a wealth of successful mortgage professionals who are able to keep themselves at the front of the pack, no matter what’s happening in the market. For these standout brokers, flexible tactics coupled with a consistent, systematic approach to marketing their mortgage business is what allows them to prosper no matter what.

We reached out to some of the mortgage industry’s top producers and experts to learn about the marketing strategies and tactics that can help you create a more resilient marketing plan for your mortgage business.

Table of Contents

• 5 Mortgage Marketing Ideas Straight from the Pros

• Mortgage Marketing Idea #1: Boost Your Online Presence with Neel Dhingra

• Mortgage Marketing Idea #2: Stand Out with an Attention-Grabbing Message with Christine Beckwith

• Mortgage Marketing Idea #3: Stop Selling to Your Sphere of Influence with Dale Vermillion

• Mortgage Marketing Idea #4: Teach Others While Creating More Demand with Brian Sacks

• Mortgage Marketing Idea #5: Stop Selling and Start Serving with Sean Herrero

5 Mortgage Marketing Ideas Straight from the Pros

Mortgage Marketing Idea #1: Boost Your Online Presence with Neel Dhingra

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

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

Even though Neel and his multi-state team have been in the top-tier in Nevada and Cali for at least a decade, he still managed to quadruple his success (and net income!) in just one year from 2018 to 2019—and for Neel and the team at All Western Mortgage, there are no signs of stopping.

With guests like Gary Vaynerchuk and Jerry West, Neel’s YouTube channel is growing by the second. For rainmakers like Neel, putting yourself out there is no longer about gaining a competitive edge. It’s fast becoming a minimum requirement for success in mortgage marketing.

And with 90.4% of millenials and 77.5% of Gen X active social media users, there’s plenty of data to back that up.

“I've gained significant market share in my market through content marketing,” says Neel, “And the overall pie did not grow. This means the additional business came at a competitors expense.”

So, yes. Online content is a requirement. But that doesn't mean you need to rush to create branded social media profiles on every major platform.

For experts like Neel, it’s less about being everywhere all the time and more about the strength of the content you put out there.

Here’s Neel on how to make sure your content works for you and not against you: “When thinking of what type of content to post online, regardless of the platform, you need to ask yourself:

"What would someone get from watching or reading this piece of content?"

“If your content marketing is helping others, then it will work,” Neel continues, “If the goal is solely to get yourself more business or make more sales, it won't work.”

It really is that simple.

Neel’s YouTube channel includes dozens of interviews with star guests from Tom Ferry to Ryan Serhant.

Mortgage Marketing Idea #2: Stand Out with an Attention-Grabbing Message with Christine Beckwith

“There needs to truly be a standout message to penetrate the masses. Or, a completely different marketing direction.” 

— Christine Beckwith, President, CCO & Master Coach at 20/20 Vision for Success

For experts like Christine Beckwith, truly stellar mortgage marketing starts with awareness—and before you do anything else, you really need to wrap your head around just how saturated the mortgage market has become. 

Because best practices quickly become the worst practices when everyone is doing the same thing over and over. 

Christine, an award-winning author, consultant, and an industry veteran with almost two decades of experience at top executive roles in the finance mortgage industry, believes now is a great time for every business who is brave enough to try new things.

And when it comes to marketing her business, this is one mortgage expert who’s not afraid to color outside the lines. She and her team have been having a ton of fun with their new lifestyle content on social media.

Christine isn’t afraid to be herself on social media. The 20/20 Vision for Success social channels are awesomely curated with relevant business and personal success tips as well some friendly content that’s just, well… fun.

“We had one post with a cute up-close pic of  cow with its head cocked sideways, the tag line said ‘Holy Cow, we have found the true path to Success’,” says Christine, “And one with a bee pollinating this enormous sunflower and said ‘Sometime the job can BEE overwhelming!’ People are really loving these ads.”

Christine takes comfort in the fact that there’s no such thing as a magic formula for marketing your mortgage business. These days, she’s all about innovating on the fly.

“With so many homeowners working from homea good old-fashioned mailer may hit the target far harder than it would have two months ago, and be far more sentimental and meaningful,” explains Christine. 

“We had begun doing this here at 20/20 VSC last year, and every 90 days our business partners and our clients receive something of value at home. We attach a note card with a cute tag line and an ask to share on social media.”

It’s a great way to take a multi-channel approach to the classic mortgage mailer.

“Marketers have to learn to stand on their heads and clap their feet. If you can’t keep the audience's attention, then that is the first obstacle that will defeat you.”

Mortgage Marketing Idea #3: Stop Selling to Your Sphere of Influence with Dale Vermillion

“Be relational, not transactional.”

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

Having trained more than 1,000,000 loan originators over the last 23 years, Dale Vermillion is positive of one thing: 

Now more than ever, mortgage pros will find it extremely rewarding to reach out to their sphere of influence. 

“Organic is best,” shares Dale, a renowned mortgage expert, author, and founder of Mortgage Champions, the national best-in-class training program for mortgage professionals and organizations.

Applying for a loan is stressful enough for your customers, but doing it amidst a global crisis? That adds a whole new layer of overwhelm.

Long story short: Mortgage customers want to do business with someone they know. 

“No matter how you market (direct mail, media, internet, social, ads, etc.), the best is always mining past customers and turndowns and building repeat and referral business, both through your customers, connections and third-party sources (Realtors, builders, etc.),” says Dale.

Makes sense. But here’s the crucial part. According to experts like Dale, the trick to doing more business with your SOI is to: “Be relational, not transactional.”

In other words: “Don’t sell.” 

“Investigate and educate,” explains Dale. “Know your audience and focus on education that helps them where they are at. Don’t try to ‘sell’ them on you or your services. Focus on connection and compassion in communication.”

Mortgage Marketing Idea #4: Teach Others While Creating More Demand with Brian Sacks

“Your job is to create more demand for your services than you could possibly have time for.”

— Brian Sacks, nationally-renowned mortgage expert and Mortgage Loan Originator, Homebridge

“Most loan originators believe that it’s their job to originate loan. It's not,” shares Brian Sacks, a nationally-renowned mortgage expert with over 5,325 mortgage transactions under his belt.“Your job is to create more demand for your services than you could possibly have time for.”

With decades of authoring courses for the Mortgage Bankers Association of America, not to mention several dozens of high-profile media appearances on ABC, NBS, and CBS under his belt, Brian is not only a master of mortgage lending, he’s also a master of mortgage marketing.

Even after 35 years in the industry, Brian still finds new ways to push his marketing even further. “Most loan officers suffer from fear rather than prosperous thinking,” he shares.

By simply staying focused on generating demand (not deals), Brian closed 38 loans last month, his most successful month to date, and he did it amidst a global public health crisis.

For example, every mortgage professional knows about the immense value of partnerships with Realtors. Yet, many still struggle to attract enough business from their referral partners.

“The typical loan officer does things backwards. They ask real estate agents: ‘Please give me a loan, I’ll do a great job for you!” Brian doesn’t play that game.

“When people chase you, you have an advantage,” he explains.

The top-producing broker regularly teaches seminars, webinars and other courses to help real estate agents keep up with trends in the market—and boost his business in the process.

“Give agents value to help them grow a business,” Brian explains, “The title company I did webinars for exposed me to a whole list of contacts I didn’t know—and vice versa. We got to meet each other’s people.”

Brian uses a simple three-step process to help his coaching members replicate his success in mortgage marketing: 

“Pick a niche. Become an expert. And let everyone know about it.”

“People are asking me: ‘Should I use social media? Yes! ‘Should I use email or mail?’ Yes! Use both. These are not mutually exclusive,” he points out.

When it comes to demand generation, it’s less of the means and more about taking consistent action to market your mortgage business. You can learn more about Brian’s unique approach to demand creation in his Top Originator Formula Facebook group.

Mortgage Marketing Idea #5: Stop Selling and Start Serving with Sean Herrero

“Stop selling and start serving.”

— Sean Herrero, loan expert, branch manager & SVP of Mortgage Lending

“I would rather have someone explain to me how I can buy a home with less money down since I lost money in the markets during COVID 19, than have someone market to me that they are a top producer for 20 years,” shares Sean Herrero, branch manager and SVP of Mortgage Lending in Danville, California.

Ironically, Sean IS a top producer. In his third year as a full-time loan officer, he closed $75M and today he is on track to close $100M in 2020. 

But you wouldn’t know that from his marketing campaigns.

“You have to start off with understanding the difference between marketing, branding, and selling,” says Sean, “These are thought to be the same thing, when they are entirely different.”

Here’s how he sees it:

“People want to work with people they can relate to. Market in a way that you are solving people’s problems, not marketing yourself in a braggadocious way.”

“We are not sales people as mortgage advisors. Put people before yourself,” Sean adds.

He’s got a point. With changes in the market the rule, not the exception, the only constant in your prospects life is the value you do (or don’t) deliver to them.

“Rates are a commodity, so what are we selling? We are advisors. Give data and analysis to help people make educated decisions,” Sean continues.

For him, it’s simple. If you want to generate and convert more leads for your mortgage business you need to “Stop selling and start serving.”

Once you’re clear on that, Sean sees flexibility to be one of the key advantages in today’s market: “Be nimble. What was working yesterday may not work today.”

“Analyze your business, the market, and the current needs of the people you serve and be willing and able to turn on a dime.”

And whatever you do, keep moving forward.

Article Source:- https://setshape.com/blog/mortgage-marketing-5-leading-brokers-on-how-to-close-more-business-in-2020-and-beyond

Are you a loan officer marketing to Realtors? Here’s how to position your mortgage business so that real estate agents actually enjoy sending clients your way.

Every loan officer knows that real estate agents can be a goldmine of client referrals. In fact, up 21% of all mortgage referrals come from point-of-sale advisors, including real estate agents.

Problem is, it’s not easy to get a steady flow of Realtor-generated referrals coming your way.

Taking real estate agents out for lunch and exchanging business cards just won’t cut it anymore. The competition is too fierce, and agents are getting tired of the same old generic approaches.

So how do you attract referrals from Realtors who get approached by dozens of loan officers every week? 

In this article, we’ve gathered the most actionable and effective strategies to attract referrals and build a network of agents who are actually eager to refer you to their clients. 

We’ve also reached out to the original ace of referral business, best-selling author and coach, Stacey Brown Randall. In her first year of business, Stacey attracted 112 referrals. Today, she helps dozens of businesses do exactly the same thing. 

If you want to create a steady stream of loan referrals for your mortgage business using the most actionable advice to date, then this article is for you. Let’s dive in!

How to Get Mortgage Referrals from Realtors

In this article, we’ll reveal both specific tactics and broadly applicable tips to help you build a referral network that is:

• Sustainable. Getting an avalanche of referrals one week and then getting almost nothing for months is not something you want for your mortgage business. You want your stream of referrals to be steady and reliable no matter where the market is.

• Business-appropriate. Not every referral will work for your company, and not every real estate agent will be a great referral partner. This article will show you how to gain referrals that are the best fit for your mortgage business.

• Scalable. If you want your mortgage business to grow, you need to make sure your referral network can grow with it. The tips in this article will help you identify opportunities for referral growth and create a referral plan for the whole company. 

Here are seven tips to help you build a sustainable and scalable referral network of real estate agents who love to consistently send new business your way.

Tip #1: Generate Loan Referrals From Realtors Without Asking

“When a loan officer applies the ‘prospecting hustle’ mentality to their referral efforts, it's a recipe for disaster.”

— Stacey Brown Randall, a best selling author, a national speaker, and a coach-founder at Stacey Brown Randall Coaching

Stacey Brown Randall is a mortgage marketing genius. She’s helped dozens of businesses and hundreds of professionals build referral generating plans and triple their number of referrals within mere months. She calls it the “referral explosion”.

The jaw-dropping twist? 

Stacey attracted these referrals without even asking.

Loan officers are constantly prospecting for new clients. But when you apply the same approach to generating referrals and start chasing down Realtors for more business, the results are often underwhelming.

“The ‘hustle for business, always be prospecting and closing’ mentality is stronger than ever which puts us in a particular frame of mind when it comes to lead gen and sales,” Stacey explains. 

Instead, Stacey advocates for building lasting relationships with your referral partners.

‘‘My philosophy and methodology shifts the way you think of referrals,” Stacey adds, “It gives you a roadmap to follow where you focus on the referral source (or partner) relationships for long-term success.”

Here are just a few tips that will allow you to build deep, lasting relationships with agents and get a steady stream of referrals without even having to ask:

• Research agents. Before you initiate a convo with any real estate agent, try finding some information about them. What are they good at? What do they like? What do you have in common? How can you help them?

• Drop the sales perspective. Realtors are not your end clients, and you’re not making a close. You are building a relationship—agents send referrals your way when they like you. Strive to find things in common—don’t talk business all the time.

• Make it about them. Every agent knows why you’re calling. You’re not the first loan officer to take them out for lunch. Your only objective during the first meeting should be to learn how to help this particular agent. Don’t make your ask too soon.

• Plant referral seeds. Never directly ask about referrals, but send soft signals that you're open to them. For example, instead of asking “How many referrals can you give me?” you can share how many referrals you’re getting and how you’re helping those clients.

As Stacey shares, the relationship-based approach can have a profound effect on your entire company. “The more you spend time focused on building and maintaining relationships, your whole perspective changes on how you want to run your business,” she says.

You can learn more about generating referrals without asking, plus get specific workflows to engage real estate agents and plant referral seeds from Stacey’s book Generating Business Referrals Without Asking: A Simple Five Step Plan to a Referral Explosion or through her referral generating coaching program.

Tip #2: Utilize Private Facebook Groups

Many loan officers use Facebook pages and groups to market their brand. In recent years, more LOs and brokers have opted to make their pages or groups private to boost engagement and trust by making the information you share feel exclusive and community-oriented. 

Here are some tips to turn a private Facebook group into a referral generating machine:

• Provide unique information. Your posts should be both highly relevant to agents’ business goals and unique. Create content that is hyper-focused on your location or niche, or join real estate groups to learn about the industry’s hottest topics.

• Follow a regular posting schedule. No one likes dead-weight Facebook groups. Make sure to stay on top of agents’ minds by regularly popping up on their Facebook feed with new updates and posts. The best way to do this is to develop a content plan and stick to it. Tools like Buffer, Hootsuite and MeetEdgar are also great options for automating your social media updates.

• Show some personality. Your goal is not to sell agents yourself. The goal is to do business with agents that like you. So don’t be afraid to record videos, take stances on something important to you, and be yourself! It’s all about building up that know-like-trust factor.

• Engage with everyone in your group. Make a point of replying to all comments in your group. This allows you to develop deeper, more meaningful relationships with friends and group members

Tip #3: Teach Continuous Education Classes

Education is one of the best ways to provide value to Realtors upfront, while demonstrating your loan expertise to agents in an organic and non-intrusive way.

And you don’t have to look too far for success stories. 

Just a few weeks back, we interviewed Brian Sacks, a nationally renowned mortgage expert and speaker who also happened to close 38 loans in just one month after getting referrals by teaching seminars and webinars to real estate agents and helping them understand the current market trends.

But if you want to take it to the next level and have a steady stream of agent referrals, why not let the system help you? Become an NMLS-accredited continuous education (CE) provider. 

By teaching CE classes you get regular access to an audience of engaged real estate agents who need to learn in order to keep their licenses. 

There are many CE providers, so here’s how to make sure your CE classes stand out and attract more referral-driving agents for your business

• Change your program periodically. If you keep teaching agents the same thing over and over, they won’t regularly get back to you and you won’t have a chance to build a lasting relationship. 

  • So add a twist to your classes from time to time. You can: 

• • Invite new presenters

  • Change the format

  • Hold a Q&A session

  • Or simply add new information

No one will supply you with referrals simply because you teach CE classes. Make sure your courses are engaging and full of valuable knowledge, and never use them as a selling platform.

• Work on your branding and marketing. Treat CE classes as a strategic business investment, rather than an obligation. Track your attendance rates and conversion. Make sure to follow up with your attendees to nurture the relationship and maximize your conversion rates. You may also want to take some time to work on your branding in order to stand out from a myriad of other CE providers. Establish an online presence, work on your logo and slogan, and convince agents why they should attend your classes and not someone else’s with a strong marketing message.

• Leverage technology to boost attendance rates. Almost all loan officers utilize a CRM to work with their leads, so why not use the same approach to boost your referrals? The right mortgage CRM will help you automatically follow up with your participants and keep in touch with them after the course ends. But above anything else, a CRM can help you boost attendance rates.NMLS-accredited CE providers have access to a local database of Realtors, including their emails. Simply import the contact details into your CRM and schedule a drip-campaign to go out anyone who is interested in your courses. From there, all you have to do is keep the conversation going!

Tip #4: Define Your Perfect Referral

Sometimes you get referrals that simply don’t work—they take too much of your time, or they’re not ready to do business just yet. For whatever reason, they don’t feel like a referral at all. 

You might call them “bad” referrals, but the thing is there is no such thing as bad referrals. 

But there are poorly defined referrals. 

Let’s boil it down to the essentials. There are two defining characteristics of a referral:

1. A referral is a client directly introduced to you. Either through a shared email or conversation. In this scenario, a real estate agent introduces you to a potential client directly. A non-direct introduction, such as giving out your business card, is not a referral. It’s more like a warm lead.

2. A referred client has a specific problem that you can solve. Ideally you should be presented as a solution to someone’s problem. If a prospect has no specific problem that you can help with, again, it’s more of a warm lead for your business—not a pure referral. 

When you have a clear vision of what your ideal referral looks like, you can inform your partners of the best ways to refer you to others.

Take time to crystalize the definition of a “referral” as it pertains to your particular mortgage business. Who are your ideal clients? What’s the service that you’re best at? Identifying your ideal client will help you communicate to your agents and other referral partners the type of clients you’re after, and why you’re the best option to help them. 

This approach benefits you, the agent, and the customer—which results in even more referrals. 

Tip #5: Host Custom Events For Realtors

When it comes to building relationships with real estate agents, many loan officers think only of a 20-minute lunch, a handwritten postcard and then a series of neverending emails.

Of course, every now and then a great opportunity comes through the traditional way—like a shared community event or local masterclass. But why wait for an upcoming community event when you can host it yourself?

Knock your competition out of the park with custom events created exclusively for your real estate partners. Done right, you won’t have to spend  much money on these events. In fact, some of them will cost you nothing but your time.

Here’s how to earn extra points with agents through custom events:

• Provide unique value. If everyone is writing about the ‘3 hidden challenges of underwriting a loan’, how about spicing things up by inviting an underwriter for an interview and then live streaming the event in your Facebook group?

• Make events memorable. The best way for agents to remember you is to create something they’ll never forget, and a face-to-face client appreciation dinner is much more memorable than a handwritten note or a generic email newsletter. 

• Engage your agents. Whether it’s a webinar, a party, or a masterclass, make a point of engaging with your guests and audience. Reply to comments, spark conversations, and always look for ways you can help agents with their current struggles. 

Tip #6: Identify Your Top Referral Sources

Not all your partnerships with agents will be equally beneficial to your mortgage business: inevitably some agents will refer more clients your way than others.

Identifying your top referral sources is important for two main reasons:

1. Real estate partnerships don’t last forever. Real estate agents engage with many loan originators and are constantly being poached by new ones. That’s why you should never rely solely on existing partnerships. Consistently work with your top referrers to develop new ways to benefit their businesses in order to keep the partnerships fresh and mutually beneficial over a longer period of time.

2. Scale partnerships that work. After you identify your best referrers, you can understand what kind of agents you’d like to build relationships with going forward and how to build new relationships that are just as strong. Additionally, learning what works for you and your team allows you to save time and resources on building relationships that you don’t want.

Tip #7: Building Referrals As a Team

“People refer people, not companies”

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

Referrals are a great way to grow your business and build up a clientele, but can you use referrals as a business strategy for your whole company?

Stacey's reply is a resounding “Yes”—but with a twist:

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

Simply put, each loan officer on your team needs their own referral plan and referral source relationships. “The company plan starts with educating them on how to generate referrals without asking,” Stacey explains, “then having them create their own referral plan to follow.”

Here are a few tips on building a sustainable referral network for your whole company:

• Support your loan officers with resources and accountability. Share your connections, use your CRM system to help your LOs identify their best sources of referrals, and follow up by setting clear accountability workflows and referral targets.

• Get your team members in front of Realtors. Don’t be a bottleneck for your company. If someone on your team is great with certain tasks, don’t hesitate to introduce them to your partners to demonstrate their value. 

• Market your team to real estate teams. Indicate that as a mortgage team you provide complex services with many people working together to help every client. This is something real estate teams can directly relate to, and thus feel more comfortable sending clients your way. 

Agent referrals can be a powerful source of clients for your mortgage company, but don’t leave this stream of business to a chance. Make a conscious effort to build lasting relationships with agents by providing excellent service, giving value up front and planting referral seeds along the way. 

If you want to see how an easy-to-use mortgage CRM can help you attract referrals in a systematic and consistent way, try Shape.

Through smart automation and lead distribution, Shape reduces the amount of time loan officers spend on routine tasks and allows them to spend their time on what’s really important: helping clients and building relationships.

Try Shape free for 14 days and see how our smart CRM can help you grow your mortgage business on autopilot.

Article Source:- https://setshape.com/blog/loan-officer-marketing-to-realtors-check-out-these-7-insider-tips-for-skyrocketing-your-referral-business