Before I go into a cheap way to stay in contact with your reverse mortgage leads which will help you close more reverse mortgage loans. I am going to go on a little bit of a rant.
Begin Rant:
If you do not have some sort of CRM, you are losing tons of money and closed sales.
If you have been in the reverse mortgage business for any sort of time, then you know that people’s financial situations can change at the drop of a hat. And if you have not been doing any sort of follow up they are going to forget you and your company and call that good-looking actor they see on TV instead.
If you don’t have a way to track leads, set up various notifications, milestone notifications, tasks etc., you are wasting money, opportunities and time. In other words, get CRM already.
Personally I use two different CRM’s. I use my companies, because I am required to use it. But I also use a separate CRM because if my company ever went out of business, I quit or moved to another company I want to be able to take my database of customers and referral partners with me.
Rant Over
What is this super amazing, super simple and cheap way to follow up with your reverse mortgage leads and close more loans?
Birthday cards.
Stupidly simple? Yes!
Super cheap? Yes!
Extremely Powerful? HELL Yes!
My CRM is set up to notify my 1.5 weeks in advance of someones birthday. This is perfect because it gives me some leeway in time if I have other stuff that needs to be taken care of, I’m out of stamps etc.
I personally buy my birthday cards from the Dollar Tree. Hallmark actually has a card rack in their stores now. At least they do in the one in my area. I buy birthday cards in bulk for $.50 each.
In fact, I am sure the lady behind me in the check out lane was pissed as they scanned all 100 birthday cards, one by one. Beep, beep, beep, beep………
But sending out birthday cards to my reverse mortgage leads is expensive…
If I send out a Birthday card to lead for 10 years. I am out a whopping $10.50. Fifty cents for the card and fifty five cents for postage.
Think about all the time you spend networking, going to functions, cold calling, doing classes to generate leads. Think about all the money you spend on advertising to generate leads. Why wouldn’t you spend $1 a year to send out a card?
If I sent out 200 cards a year, that is only $210.
What if I only closed one loan from those 200 cards every year?
Ummm, that is going to be a pretty good return on investment.
On average, I send out about 15 to 30 birthday cards a month to leads and clients that I closed a loan with.
Without fail, I either get a call from 1 of the leads or a referral from one of my past clients.
Plus I get calls from past clients as well just to say thank you for the birthday card. That is pretty amazing as well.
In fact, I was inspired to write this blog post today because I sent out some cards last week and I just got a call from a client that I met with 2 years ago. She called to say thank you for the card and that she was ready to move forward. That is a deal I may not have gotten if it weren’t for the $2 in birthday cards and postage.
Sending out birthday cards to reverse mortgage leads has an added side benefit. It helps clean up your database of leads. You will get a return to sender if they have moved or no longer live in the home. I have only had this happen once, but I had a lead ask me to stop sending them birthday cards. Whatever, they were deleted from my CRM.
But I don’t know what to write in a birthday card…
Listen, you don’t need to write some long personal message. Keep it short and simple.
I hand write a message, usually something like:
“Hi Name,
I hope you have a terrific birthday and all your wishes come true.
My Signature”
And I always include my business card.
Super easy right?
Some of you will not like the following…
I am probably going to piss some people off with the following statements.
First, if you think sending out birthday cards to your reverse mortgage leads and past clients is “too much work” or “it’s too expensive”. You have bigger problems to deal with and probably should just get out of the business.
Second, don’t be the cheap and lazy reverse mortgage loan officer that sends an email. Seriously! Don’t do it. It’s tacky and impersonal. Plus your email has less than a 15% chance of getting opened vs. the birthday card which has a 100% of getting opened.
Third, don’t think sending a “personal” video is any better than sending an email. It’s not. If you are going to take the time to make a video, you might as well send a card and pick up the damn phone and wish them a happy birthday personally.
In conclusion
Send out birthday cards. You can buy cheap cards at the dollar store. If you send out cards, you will close more reverse mortgage loans, simple as that.
