When most people think about customer relationship management (CRM) and the mortgage industry, they think of the most widely used solution, Salesforce, as the definition. But today, in order to be successful, CRM needs to be much more than simply tracking and reporting on leads. Nearly every large mortgage brokerage uses some type of CRM database to manage customer data. What needs to be taken into consideration now is how action can be taken on those leads to increase the number of reverse mortgages closed. The simplest and most effective way to push more leads through the sales funnel is to implement sales automation.

Sales automation should not be confused with marketing automation. The two solutions are extremely different in design and results. Marketing automation simplifies the process of sending out emails, direct mailings and social media postings by automating when these events occur. While the actual sending of messaging, such as a special offer or notification of a new government regulation that is making it easier to apply for reverse mortgage, is triggered without human action, a sales team member must still manually track a lead that results from the marketing outreach—and, more importantly, make decisions on when and how to push the lead through the sales pipeline.

Currently, it is estimated that most salespeople only spend about 24 percent of their day engaged in actively selling their products. The rest of the day is spent on clerical tasks that could be automated. For example, rather than relying on each sales rep to create outreach materials for leads currently in the pipeline, such as follow-up emails, companies need to adopt the template approach. By having a library of templates available for salespeople, companies can assure that content is approved by marketing and in alignment with other initiatives. Additionally, the potential for salespeople to be creating unauthorized messaging that does not meet legal approval will be eliminated. A sales automation program can harbor a library of sales messaging that reps can access—and, in certain areas, customize—for the recipient. The pre-approved and tailored message can be sent from within the system and instantly tracked in the lead notes.

Another key differentiator between marketing and sales automation solutions is the mentality behind the core functionalities of each. Marketing automation is focused on funneling more and more leads into the sales pipeline. Once they are there, marketing is no longer responsible. Sales automation is responsible for nurturing. It mirrors the actions and tactics of the most successful salespeople in an organization. Sales automation software drills down into the history of a lead to determine, without action on the part of a salesperson, when to follow up with a lead, the most effective way to follow up and what messaging to send.

Once a mortgage company has a basic CRM system in place, the time is ripe for engaging a sales automation solution. Lead nurturing is one of the most vital factors in determining if a lead will become an active customer. According to Marketing Sherpa, 79 percent of marketing leads never convert into sales. Lack of lead nurturing is the common cause of this poor performance. Sales reps with unknown or less-than-stellar performance records do not need to be relied on to improve their own selling skills independently. Any mortgage company can add sales automation to their current CRM tools to elevate every member of the sales team to elite performance levels without additional training or experience. The software is programmed to deliver the best results.