Three Super Simple Ways to Generate New Leads!

Here we go…

Cheap Mortgage Lead Generation Tip # 1. Join an Association

People join associations for one of three reasons:

Social – they want to build or maintain friendships and influences that may have taken years to build;

Promotional – they want to offer their own products or services to others in in a cost effective and positive way; awesome mortgage marketing!

Educational – they want to see what their competition is up to, and find out about the latest developments within their industry

Grow your network and your database by joining groups of already established people. By socializing with people who have something in common with, it makes it easier to generate business. People like to do business with people they like and trust. Most people like others who have the same interests as they do.

Cheap Mortgage Lead Generation Tip #2: Use Book Stores

One of the questions I keep asking all my LO cohorts is “How can you tell if someone is getting ready to need a mortgage? What do they do? How do they act?”

This is the million dollar question. If you can answer this question, you can easily be rich in the mortgage business. By being able to identify that they want a mortgage before they start looking for one, you can get a jump on all the other loan companies. This is one area of our business that still annoys me. Most other businesses, have a way to identify when someone will need their service and can market to them accordingly. Like when someone buys a new home, they most likely will be buying furniture, blinds, home accessories, etc. So if we were selling any of these items, all we need is a list of new homeowners to market to. And that list is easily available. But how the heck do we figure out who is “thinking” of getting a mortgage?

The answer one of my dear LO friends came up with was that they might go to the bookstore or library to read books on home buying, or mortgages, or real estate in general. And that’s true. Every bookstore has a real estate section. And most of the books are for consumers who are buying and selling real estate.

So my next question is, “Now that we have identified what they do, how do we get our message in front of them?”

And my buddy came up with this simple method: Go to the bookstores and libraries and insert a business card into each book.

After doing it for a couple months, he came up with some simple observations:

First, he learned that the best place to put the card was somewhere in the front. Try for the first chapter because not everyone reads the whole book.

Second, pick the books with the best covers and graphics inside- they sell the best.

Third, not all books sell and some are sent back to the publishers.

Fourth, having a USP on the card helps boost response.

Fifth, it takes about 10 minutes per bookstore.

Sixth, he averages 3-4 calls a month, and one loan per month.

Seventh, he now has his assistant do it. And she goes once a week.

Eight, the people who call are in search of more information, so offering them unbiased advice and more resources really turns them on.
If you have the time, and are brave enough to be seen doing it, try it and see what results you get. I wanted to test it in my market. So I went to three bookstores and put in about 120 cards. I got 2 calls, and one of them is a very serious prospect. If I do it more often, I have no doubt that it would work for me as well.

Cheap Mortgage Lead Generation Tp #3: Orphan Files

When a loan officer leaves a company the clients he/she brought to the company are called orphans. These clients now belong to the company. Ask your manager to see if you can contact any orphan files in your office to see if they need any mortgage or real estate help. Be nice enough, and they will allow you to add them to your database.

Chris Hallmark