The value of broker software

If you see your CRM system purely as a cost associated with writing a home loan or creating your marketing letters or processing your commissions, you are failing to notice the obvious revenue generating opportunities associated with your database.

As mortgage brokers, you understand the value of maintaining contact with your clients to ensure repeat mortgage business, but by only focusing on writing mortgages, you forego at least three other forms of revenue from your borrowers.

Aggregators are increasingly offering opportunities to their members to provide extra services to borrowers through referral programs, but how often do you take advantage of these opportunities?

This is where your technology can earn you thousands of extra dollars for every loan you write.

As cross selling to your client base becomes an increasingly popular business activity, your technology platform needs to be able to keep up with the increased demand in opportunities. For every loan written, there are a number of very obvious additional revenue streams to be earned, ranging from insurances to consumer services.

Generally, referral programs are done the old-fashioned way – you email or call your referral partner and then your partner recreates the entire data collection process with the customer.

Imagine if this is done three times (once for each referral) and then think about the quality of the customer experience: Will it be positive or negative?

Why collect the same data over and over again when your CRM system already has the complete customer dataset?

Instead of putting the customer through this type of ‘experience’, your technology should streamline the process to be as simple as clicking a button and thus facilitating an electronic transfer of data information to your partner.

Platforms such as AFG’s Flex, Stargate Group’s SymmetryCRM or Advantedge’s Podium have already made this process the norm with electronic valuations, lender’s mortgage insurance (LMI), credit checks and lender lodgement, but it seems referral partners – and a myriad of additional revenue streams – are being neglected by some of the platforms.

Let’s consider the revenue to be made from instantly referring your client to your insurance provider for home and contents insurance, income protection insurance or life insurance. And now consider how easy the process would be with a single click. Consider the first home buyer who needs to get essential services connected and imagine the revenue opportunities on offer by connecting to an appropriate supplier.

Your technology should include a ‘connected universe’, enabling you to connect to your partners so that you can provide a greater breadth of services to your borrowers. Embracing this type of technology will enable you to capture your clients for life, rather than simply capturing them for now.

Once you succeed at this, I guarantee you will change the way you look at the costs associated with your technology platform.