LinkedIn is just another social networking tool. That’s what people may think, but it has the potential to be so much more. What I keep hearing from people is that they say they keep getting LinkedIn invites. That is a clear indication of how it is becoming a legitimate business tool, one that most business professionals need to more effectively leverage.

LinkedIn has over 75 million members, with a new member joining approximately every second. When you join, you create a profile that summarizes your professional expertise and accomplishments. You can them form professional connections by inviting trusted contacts to join LinkedIn and connect to you. Your network consists of your connections, your connections’ connections, and the people they know, liking you to a vast number of qualified professionals and experts.

You need to view this as a business opportunity site. In actuality, there are companies of all sizes that are a part of LinkedIn. Why so much participation by the business community? You can collaborate and share ideas on this site. This is not facebook. This is not about what everyone did this weekend. This is not chit chat about what’s your favorite food. This is a professional way to network and grow your business.

Here’s what I mean:
First, LinkedIn is a powerful networking tool that allows you to fully leverage contacts and relationships that you have built throughout the years. Professional contacts that have expertise and experience that can add value to you and your business. Continuing to develop these relationships can provide valuable industry insight and a pulse of what’s happening in your professional circles. It may even provide you with the opportunity to assist others with their career goals.

Second, it’s a way to build your credibility. If you do regular updates on LinkedIn it can keep you and your organization top of mind. It can help you to provide a wealth of information to others and make you a trusted source. Providing thought leadership in a simple and dynamic way.

Third, LinkedIn can be used as a competitive tool to see what your competitor is doing. Is a competing company hiring? Are they firing? Do you see your competitor bringing on a lot of .NET specialists? Check them out on LinkedIn and gather business intelligence.

Fourth, you can also use it as a way to gather opinions from people that you value. Let them weigh in and share best practices with you. When we talk about where things are going and how quickly things are moving, this is a wonderful tool to develop relationships. You can foster business relationships in a professional way without all that other clutter. I’d like to reiterate that talk on LinkedIn is not dialogue about who is your favorite football team, it’s about sharing business ideas.

Fifth, LinkedIn can also get you new business, and enable you to do some due diligence. Use it as a research tool. Use it to announce what you’re doing at your company. Talk about you company regularly. You can get some unexpected leads and business opportunities.

Lastly, it can be a great recruitment tool. As companies grow taping their LinkedIn network can help them find a person with a skill set. You can also search for people who are looking for a job. Who’s in the market? Would that person be an asset to your team? Without LinkedIn you might not have even known that person was unemployed.

In terms of networking with peers, there are also groups that you can join. You should find like-minded people and start a conversation. Everyone wins.

I hear a lot of people say that LinkedIn is just an electronic rolodex. I disagree. It’s a business opportunity generator when used well so get started and get linked in today.

Today’s market conditions aren’t easy, but I don’t have to tell you that. You know what’s transpired over the last year or two. The challenge to differentiate among competing companies and products is becoming increasingly more difficult. Products and services are being commoditized. Acronyms and buzzwords are used by many companies and are creating noise that can blur the lines of differentiation.

Inevitably, this means a company’s unique personality, its brand identity, has the opportunity to become a significant factor when a prospect is making the choice between one company’s products or services over another. Dynamic messaging plays a vital role in the development of a unique brand identity.

The challenge for companies to develop this dynamic messaging is magnified by the fact that often times during challenging market conditions, marketing budgets are one of the first to be cut. Therefore, when innovative product and service offerings are delivered to the marketplace, the proper positioning of the offering does not exist; creating more noise, less differentiation and even fewer sales opportunities.

When companies are fighting for their life they will invest in research and development in order to launch a new tool that they think solves a market need. But what happens? The new tool flops. It doesn’t perform as expected. Why? Because the vendor didn’t have a trusted brand behind it.

What people fail to recognize is that perception is often reality. A company’s prospective clients should immediately recognize the value proposition behind dealing with that vendor. You don’t just want to be one vendor among many, you want to be the No. 1 vendor in your space.

Brand/Product Positioning defines how companies will differentiate themselves and their offerings in the marketplace while building value for their specific target audiences. This impacts how others view that company’s products and services. It is critical to have a dynamic brand message that clearly differentiates your company and its products and services from the competition – and one that portrays your company and your products unique identity.

Dynamic Brand/Product positioning sets the foundation for the messaging that will be used in all interactions within the marketplace. This foundation enables companies to differentiate themselves by delivering consistent messaging in all communications, whether it is on the company’s web site, marketing material, sales presentations, press release, etc. This differentiation will help drive demand in the market for that company’s products and services.

When companies look to differentiate, they often focus on features and functions that they think are cool. That’s a mistake. Why? The dynamic messaging should focus on what’s in it for the prospect not how great the vendor thinks it is. What business value is this product or service bringing to the market and why is that the best solution for the prospect?

If I’m a user I want to know how that new solution benefits me. How do I eliminate cost? How do I stay in compliance? Make that solution resonate with the prospect. Show its value.

I think that if companies applied the same innovation to marketing as they do with research and development, they’d be much better off. You need to have an effective strategy around not just how the product is built, but how it is marketed and sold.

Innovation does not just apply to products and services but also to how those products and services are marketed to their potential clients. As companies diligently work to respond to the challenges with the current economy, it will be critical for them to stand out instead of just blending in.

In the last edition of this blog I talked about the importance of returning to business basics. Like anything, once you have mastered the basics it’s time to elevate your game. It’s time to take your business to the next level. How do you do that?

You need to be aware of where things are going with technology and how it applies to your business success. One of the biggest challenges in the mortgage industry is the fact that we are slow to embrace new technology that other industries have successfully implemented often years earlier. I am not suggesting that companies have to take unnecessary risk and always be on the bleeding edge but it is critical to have a pulse of where things are headed.

Even if you’re not in the position to roll out new technology initiatives this year, you need to have a go-forward strategy in place. It’s one thing to know where you’re going, but it’s another to plan to get there. Trust me, it won’t happen by magic. When was the last time you updated your website or collateral materials? Here are some ideas to move you along.

You may ask yourself, why plan for the next five years when things change every five minutes? It’s important to deal with your current reality, but also have an eye on the horizon. Look at the trends. One such technology trend that is pervasive in today’s marketplace is mobile technology. Mortgage industry participants say, “Really? Mobile? How is that going to affect my business?” They don’t view it seriously. However, social media was once viewed in the same way and is now everywhere (except maybe the mortgage industry), and it’s come about in just the past few years. Mobile will permeate even faster.

Gartner predicts that phones will take over PC’s as the preferred device to access the Web. When? Not in 10 years, not even in five years. Gartner says that by 2013 the mobile devices will be the most common way people will access the Web. The study estimates that there will be 1.83 billion mobile devices in use in 2013 as compared to 1.7 billion PCs.

What is driving this trend? We live in a mobile society that wants information immediately. How do you as a lender or vendor capitalize on this significant trend? If you’re a vendor selling BtoB or if you’re a lender selling BtoC you need a mobile strategy. How do you get there? First, a lot of websites don’t view well on a mobile device. Companies need to be aware of that. You need to convert your website so that it is mobile friendly. As companies look to redefine their Web presence, they must be mindful of these mobile trends.

Also, social media is now being accessed through mobile devices at an ever increasing rate therefore it needs to be a component of your mobile strategy. How do you incorporate that into your mobile experience? Mobile experiences that must meet your prospects where they are looking for information about your company’s products and services. People are looking for content, recommendations and actually making purchases from their mobile devices, so it’s important that your go-forward strategy includes mobile. Be prepared for this new borrower looking for blogs and tweets on their phone.

If you’re a vendor it’s not just putting your application on a mobile device. All parties need to ask: Are you using these technologies to engage the population? For a lender, it’s not just about online banking. If this is going to be the most common device to search the Web in the next two to four years, you need to know where you are going with mobile.

When we talk about a competitive edge, it’s those companies that develop a comprehensive go-forward strategy which must include mobile, that are going to be ahead of the curve and gain a competitive edge. So isn’t it time that you give mobile some serious consideration?

As underwriting guidelines were loosened and exotic loan products designed for a very specific borrower were extended to 25% of the population, the mortgage industry prospered in the short term at the expense of the long term. Now we’ve returned to basics with a conventional, a-paper market with very strict underwriting guidelines. Some think this new market limits growth, but I’m here to tell you that it doesn’t have to.

As we all know too many lender prospects are sitting on the sidelines. Why? They’re nervous about what technology to invest in and how to market their services. When sales were coming in left and right during the boom times it was more about order taking and less about true selling. That strategy doesn’t work in today’s highly competitive market. However, new market conditions are calling out for automated solutions and vendors have to respond to that by returning to basics themselves. Here’s what they need be focusing on:

1. Don’t Forget Business 101. Companies need to get back to basics to grow in this environment. Basic concepts such as cross selling to current clients, proactive lead generation, selling value instead of features and functions and understanding how to maximize trade shows must be properly executed. Some companies have these principles in place and are having no trouble adapting, but others are too used to leads just falling in their laps.

2. Your Client Database Is Your Friend. Everyone has a client list but many companies lack a comprehensive database that sales & marketing can easily access to cross sell and market to those clients. Why is this important? For example, if your company rolls out a new product all of your existing clients should know about it and be using it. It’s amazing to me how many existing clients aren’t using their vendor’s newest product or full suite of services.

3. Lead Generation Matters. Everyone that hopes to grow in any market needs a process for lead generation. A lot of companies haven’t focused on developing specific parameters to develop a dynamic database or have not scrubbed their database recently. They are using past trade show lists, old prospect lists and excel spreadsheets which include many companies that are no longer in business. They don’t have rules to target specific lists. They don’t know who their target market is. When there isn’t a good CRM tool and strategy in place there tends to be poor follow up and the company can’t track campaign results and seize sales opportunities.

4. Outdated Pitches Don’t Work. Companies need to review their marketing materials and website. You’d be amazed at how many companies have old materials that are no longer effective for today’s market conditions. What worked even just two years ago doesn’t work today. What does work? The prospect cares about what’s in it for them. They don’t care about all the features and functions, which vendors do a good job of articulating. Instead vendors need to better articulate their value proposition, what differentiates them and what need they are filling.

5. Trade Shows Aren’t A Silver Bullet. It surprises me that companies spend a lot of money to go to a trade show and have no plan to get traffic. You should never go to a show without pre-booked meetings. Is this a show to get leads or to strengthen partnerships? Gone are the days when trade shows will bring in thousands of lenders so you have to have a clear strategy going in.

In short, companies need to focus on the fundamentals first. Cover the basics and move forward from there. You’ll be pleasantly surprised with your results.

Trade show season is quickly approaching. As both lenders and vendors seek to maximize their return on investment from trade shows, they may want to turn to social media technology. Social media technology uses the Internet and Web-based tools to encourage and facilitate online communication and social interaction.

Many companies are unsure of how to effectively use social media, especially for their trade shows. It all begins with a strategic plan. What are the company’s objectives for the trades show? Is it to meet current customers, launch a new product or service, create brand or product awareness, lead generation, create media attention, and form strategic partnerships or some combination of all the items listed above?

Social media allows companies to build a community of followers. This community allows them to gain insight into their prospects’ wants and desires. It also can be used to proactively influence people and their decision making, act as a medium for advertising and a powerful tool to drive web traffic for their products and services.

Utilizing social media technology effectively requires strategy to be successful. Companies need to know what it is they want to achieve at the trade show (clearly defined goals and objectives). Companies need to have an in-depth knowledge of their target audience(s). This is critical because different social media technology appeals to different target markets. Once this has been clearly defined, companies must be able to clearly articulate their call to action. How do you want your target audience to respond? Is there anything that your competitors are doing that you can improve upon or leapfrog them with this social media strategy? Lastly, it is important to have a quantifiable way to determine if the social media efforts have been successful.

The social media technology tools that are most frequently used include: Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Facebook to name a few. The key is using these tools in three distinctive phases, Pre-Show, During the Show, and Post Show activity.

Pre-Show activity should revolve around generating a buzz for the show and your booth. Companies can provide information about their booth, info and expertise of the staff attending and reasons that they chose to exhibit. For instance, tweets can be sent out prior to the show to build a personal connection between your company and trade show attendees. The sales staff can set up appointments with potential clients using LinkedIn and offer incentives or promotions to visit your booth via twitter. Your company can use Facebook to create excitement for the event.

During the show these tools can be used to update your community on the actual show and the key events as they are happening by using twitter to send out tweets. What are you seeing, hearing and doing at the show. Companies can post pictures of booth visitors to their Facebook page or use YouTube to deliver messages from the trade show floor.

Post-show activity should focus on the most memorable moments of the show. Don’t just focus and talk about your company’s products and services, instead discuss highlights of things that happened at the show that only people who attended the show would be aware of. Recap the show experience through tweets and Facebook updates, continue to engage potential clients and build your social community.

As you can see there are a number of ways to maximize your trade show results through the use of social media technology. Does your company currently engage in any social media activity? Do you plan to use social media for the upcoming trade showsl? If so, what tools do you plan to use? Share with us your thoughts on social media and if you think these tools can maximize trade show ROI.

There has been great a deal of focus and articles written on maintaining constantly changing rules and regulations in today’s mortgage market. While this continues to be a top priority for most lenders and technology providers, one surprising technology that is being referenced much more frequently today, is mortgage specific CRM. Yes, you heard me correctly, CRM.

“Customer relationship management is a broadly recognized, widely-implemented strategy for managing and nurturing a company’s interactions with clients and sales prospects. It involves using technology to organize, automate, and synchronize business processes—principally sales activities, but also those for marketing, customer service, and technical support. The overall goals are to find, attract, and win new clients, nurture and retain those the company already has, entice former clients back into the fold, and reduce the costs of marketing and client service”. [1]

Previously these tools were generally limited to contact management: monitoring and recording interactions and communications. Most industry participants viewed CRM as a useful tool that was not a game changer or significant component of their overall market strategy.

That may all be changing if the current buzz about mortgage specific CRM has legs. But the real question is why? CRM solutions such as Salesforce.com, Goldmine, ACT, and Sugar have all been around for quite some time. From a technology perspective, “perhaps the most notable trend has been the growth of tools delivered via the Web, also known as cloud computing and software as a service (SaaS). In contrast with traditional on-premises software, cloud-computing applications are sold by subscription, accessed via a secure Internet connection, and displayed on a Web browser. Companies don’t incur the initial capital expense of purchasing software; nor must they buy and maintain IT hardware to run it on”. [2]

In addition to the technology used to host CRM’s the functionality has also significantly been enhanced over the past couple of years. No longer just limited to contact management, many of these systems include: sales force automation, marketing services (i.e. email campaigns, drip campaigns etc.), customer service and support, social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.), and analytics. Technology providers and lenders are now looking to apply this technology in a mortgage specific manner to seize market opportunities.

The technology and its functionality have been significantly enhanced over the years. While these are contributing factors as to why there is so much talk about mortgage specific CRM, is the real reason because technology providers and lenders understand that as we work to rebuild the mortgage market, the new battle will be over the borrower?

With origination volumes slow to pick up momentum even with historically low rates, industry participants are beginning to realize the importance of the relationship with the borrower. The companies that can best solidify the relationship with the borrower are going to hold the key to market share moving forward.
Mortgage specific CRM solutions hold the promise of the technology that will best enhance the borrower relationship. Is that why a number of the LOS providers have added CRM functionality, are looking to build CRM functionality or partnering with mortgage specific CRM providers?

Share with us your thoughts on the move to mortgage specific CRM’s? Is this just another fad or will it truly enhance the battle for the borrower? Is the battle for the borrower relationship what is truly driving the buzz around mortgage specific CRM’s?

Are there current solutions that already provide this type of functionality or does it still need to be built? We look forward to hearing your thoughts on this topic.

1,2, ^ a b Gartner, Inc. (6 June 2009) What’s ‘Hot’ in CRM Applications in 2009

We have found that these percentages should be switched if your organization is serious about successfully influencing your prospects and closing more deals. The presentation should begin with focusing 75-80% on the “why” and then concluding with 20-25% on the “what”. Provided below is a brief outline which focuses on the “why”:

Recommended Change in Sales Presentation Focus

Title slide needs a dynamic statement that engages prospects and target audiences instantly.

Inside slides need to focus on the prospect. Why should the prospect be interested in your presentation? What is in it for them? What issues, challenges, or opportunities does your product or services address? What value do you bring to the prospect?

Slides should directly address the issues, challenges and/or opportunities and the value/ benefit you bring to their organization instead of just listing features and functions. It is important to put yourself in their shoes. Give them a very strong why!

Once the ground work has been laid as to the issues, challenges, and/or opportunities, it is critical to establish value. Differentiate your products and services from the other potential solutions in the market.
Why are you different, better, the leader, etc and more importantly, how does that impact the prospects business?

Lastly, provide specific corporate information i.e. number of years in business, clients, etc. If you have done a proper job of explaining and demonstrating the “Why” this section can be held to a minimum by only focusing on key corporate statistics.

Final slide should always end with a strong call to action. What is the next step? What is the desired outcome that you are trying to accomplish?

Clients have seen a significant increase in their closing ratios and overall sales presentation effectiveness by making these simple changes. More credibility can be established by focusing on the prospect and truly understanding their challenges, objectives and opportunities rather than beating your hands on your chest and telling the prospect how great your company is.

Executives, it may be time to sit in on a sales presentation to determine if your sales team is more focused on the “What” or the “Why”.

Selling is not easy. To be an effective salesperson, you have to be persuasive so that you can influence your potential client into purchasing your products or services. Today’s prospects are now wiser and more savvy when sitting in on the typical sales presentation. To continue to grow your business and add new clients your company’s sales presentation must effectively differentiate your products and services from the competition.

How effective is your company’s sales presentation? When was the last time you actually sat in on a sales presentation? We, at NexLevel Advisors work with numerous customers to improve their sales effectiveness and closing percentages.

Most sales presentations begin with PowerPoint slides that focus far too much on the “what” and spend very little time on the “why”. The “what” is typically all about how great your company is, how long you have been in business, number of clients, names of premium clients. A laundry list of your product features and functions is typically provided in excruciating detail. This is usually followed by a number of slides on the knowledge of your staff, its expertise and how your customer support is the best in the industry. In most sales presentations this takes up as much as 75-80 % of the presentation, leaving only 20-25% on the “why”.

The “why” is the reason that the prospect should listen to the presentation and more specifically, what is in it for them. How would their company benefit from your products or services? What challenge or opportunity are your products or services specifically solving for them?

Check back for Part II of How Effective is your Company’s Sales Presentation

In today’s marketplace websites need to be built faster and easier so that companies can deliver more content to their prospects and clients. Whether it is potential borrowers going online to shop rates, collect information or actually begin the origination process, consumers are online looking for answers. The same can be said of lenders searching online to find the next fraud solution, compliance update, or workflow automation tool. Today’s buyer expects to obtain information online where and when they want it. The challenge is in finding an easy and fast way to deliver and constantly update content without extensive IT resources.

Companies are turning to Content Management Systems (CMS) to address this challenge. A CMS is a Web application that uses a database to create, edit and store content in a manageable way. Content is created and edited in the administration area of the application, typically referred to as the backend. The resulting content is then displayed to the viewers on the website which is the frontend.

The main reason for using a CMS is to make creating and editing of content simple and easy. Content doesn’t just include text, however. Sometimes the content you need on a site is a contact us form, request for a demonstration form or user authentication. The key is to implement a CMS that provides this functionality without sacrificing ease of use. A good CMS will allow you to spend more time focused on delivering content that your prospects and clients are looking for on the frontend instead of spending excessive IT resources on the backend.

Companies need to stay focused on the reason they are implementing a CMS, which is easy and simple content creation and delivery. Don’t allow IT to over complicate the process. Look for a system that provides: quick and easy installation, simple administration, and user friendly templates.

There are thousands of CMS’s on the market. Here are a few of the most commonly used systems: Drupal is an open source CMS that allows for editing of content directly on the page, and is easily extended through modules. www.drupal.org. WordPress started out as a simple blogging system but has evolved into a powerful CMS. Numerous plug-INS extend the functionality of the system that is in use by millions of bloggers. www.wordpress.com. There is also Joomla www.joomla.com, SilverStripe www.silverstripe.com and CMS made simple www.cmsmadesimple.org.

As mentioned earlier the list of CMS’s is in the thousands. The key is finding a solution that is easy to work with that provides the functionality and extensibility that you are looking for in a CMS. In today’s marketplace it is critical to deliver strong content that is constantly being updated. CMS’s provide both lenders and vendor a powerful and easy to use tool to accomplish that goal.

Do you believe it is critical to have an easy to use tool to deliver content to your prospects and clients? Is your company current using a CMS? If so, which one are you using? What advice would you provide when a company is looking to implement a CMS? Is there any CMS’s that you would recommend? Is there any that you would avoid?

Share with us your thought and best practices for successfully implementing a CMS.

Recently, I was involved in a roundtable with mortgage industry leaders discussing technology in all phases of the mortgage process. There were a number of great discussions and insight into technology and its role in the mortgage industry. The one question that triggered numerous discussions and resulted in a lack of consensus among the participants was defining innovation.

The mortgage industry has traditionally lagged behind when it comes to innovation. Slow to migrate off mainframes and DOS based systems and slow to adopt Windows and now web-based solutions. Often times innovation in the mortgage industry has involved taking a manual process and duplicating it in a computer program. While this has created greater efficiencies in some instances, I questioned whether there has there been enough true innovation in the mortgage industry?

As I was pondering this question I saw an interesting commercial for Dyson vacuums. What grabbed my attention was a phrase used in the commercial describing Dyson’s approach to innovation: “Solving Obvious Problems Others Choose to Ignore”.

In researching Dyson, I found that Dyson has a long history of developing truly innovative products. Their founder, James Dyson, developed a flat-hulled high-speed landing craft and, with it, his passion for engineering. Pretty soon, he also developed a new kind of wheelbarrow-one with a big fat ball that didn’t sink into mud with chunky feet for stability. All the while learning to take risks, make mistakes and using frustration as a fuel for creativity and solving problems.

Problems like vacuum cleaners that loose suction. Could the cyclone technology he first spotted on a sawmill work in a vacuum cleaner? He ripped the dusty clogged bag from his old vacuum and replaced it with a crude prototype. This evolved into Duel Cyclone™ technology and the first vacuum that didn’t lose suction.

Clearly, over the last couple of years, the mortgage industry has had its share of mistakes and frustrations. The key will be using these mistakes as fuel for creativity and solving problems. Instead of just implementing new technology or accepting the status quo, it’s time to learn from our mistakes and deliver true innovation.
It’s time to “Solve Obvious Problems Others Choose to Ignore”. Is there an easier application process that borrowers can actually understand? Is there a way to more accurately determine property values? What can be done to create better transparency and salability of loans in the market?

Can data-integrity be improved and better used to actually improve the mortgage process? Can we once and for all significantly reduce fraud? Will we use common sense when underwriting loans or will we once again chase the money? The list goes on and on.

There are a number of exciting technologies that show promise such as improved SAS models, cloud computing, Silverlight, virtualization tools, analytics, and business rules engines to name a few. The challenge is will we roll these promising technologies out and just apply them to the same mortgage process that has got us where we are today, or will we apply them to solve obvious problems that we have chosen to ignore?

Share with us your thoughts on innovation in the mortgage industry. Have we ignored obvious problems within the mortgage process? What steps can we take to not make the same mistakes this time around? What innovative products are you most excited about?