Strategic Sales Systems implementation of SalesLogix v7.2 for Mortgage Lender’s of America helps Sage earn a 2008 CRM Excellence Award from Customer Interaction Solutions Magazine.
Kansas City, Missouri
Editors cited Sage Software for extending and expanding customer relationship management across the entire customer lifecycle, and based its award to Sage SalesLogix in part on customer Mortgage Lenders of America’s four-month, 304 percent return on investment. Those results were documented in a study by Nucleus Research.
See ROI Case Study from Nucleus Research
Mortgage Lenders of America is a private mortgage banker headquartered near Kansas City. Its retail division, with 27 loan officers, receives leads from LendingTree and works to convert those leads into new home loans.
The Challenge
Mortgage Lenders of America pays about $20 each for the hundred or more leads it receives daily, making it important to capitalize on as many as possible. As the leads came in from LendingTree, Philip Kneibert, President of Mortgage Lenders of America used to copy the list and distribute the leads to his team of loan officers. At any given time, hundreds or even thousands of leads might be in some stage of follow up, tracked on sheets of paper with handwritten notes in the margins. There was no visibility into the process for Kneibert and the rest of the management team, and should a loan officer leave the company, lead information might be lost entirely.
“We needed to see where we were converting well, and where we weren’t,” explains Kneibert. “We knew that once we got to the point of sending out a proposal, we had an excellent chance of closing the loan, but we literally didn’t have a way to know how many leads were getting to that step.”
When CRMs Compete, SalesLogix Wins
Kneibert knew the company would benefit from a CRM system, the question was which one would make the best fit. He reviewed several packages and quickly narrowed the list to Sage CRM SalesLogix, Goldmine, and salesforce.com. Goldmine lacked many of the customization capabilities Kneibert wanted, and salesforce.com began to look too expensive when adding up monthly charges over the long run. Sage CRM SalesLogix emerged the clear winner. Kneibert’s decision was bolstered by recommendations from colleagues both for Sage CRM SalesLogix, and for Strategic Sales Systems, Inc., a premier Sage CRM SalesLogix partner from St Louis, MO.
“SalesLogix adapted perfectly to our business,” says Kneibert. “Strategic Sales Systems provided customization for us — and did a great job. What we have now perfectly meets the needs of our business.”
Immediate Pay Back
The return on investment rapid and enormous, explains Kneibert, “We only had to convert an additional three to four loans a month to have the system pay for itself in less than six months.” In fact, Mortgage Lenders of America’s return was far greater than that. Close rates increased by 30 percent — more than six additional each month — an extra $118,000 a year!
Automated Work Flow
That hard-copy list of leads is a thing of the past. Strategic Sales Systems developed an automatic XML transfer that brings the data from LendingTree directly into Sage CRM SalesLogix and assigns it to the appropriate loan officer. There’s no more paper floating around, no handwritten notes, no chance of losing a lead in an in-box.
Kneibert praises the expert assistance and advice he receives from Strategic Sales Systems, “Strategic Sales Systems has come to our rescue several times. LendingTree once changed its file format suddenly, and we weren’t able to import our lead stream. Strategic Sales Systems responded immediately and was able to get us working again within 10 minutes.”
Sales Management Tool
Mortgage Lenders of America is in competition for the loans; the same information has been provided to other lenders. Timeliness is all important
— Kneibert wants his loan officers to make contact with those leads immediately.
Before there was simply no way to know if a particular lead had been contacted, and if they had been contacted, what the result of that contact was. Now Kneibert has full visibility into the lead process. At any time he can see how many leads each officer has and at what step in the sales cycle those leads are at. In Sage CRM SalesLogix, a new status is assigned to each step of the sales cycle, moving the lead through the process as each step is completed. The loan officers can record detailed notes about their conversations and schedule follow- up phone calls or emails to keep the cycle moving. Management can ensure that each lead has been contacted.
Sage CRM SalesLogix is an ideal sales management tool, giving Kneibert the ability to closely analyze both his personnel and his lead stream, making strategic changes when and where appropriate. “If I see that a particular loan officer has too many leads in the initial stages, I can stop the flow of leads until they’ve caught up and advanced those leads.”
Kneibert also monitors metrics such as the number of status changes made each day, noting for example that a loan officer has not sent out a new proposal in several days. “It gives me a better feel for who’s got momentum, directing more leads in their direction and working to motivate those without the momentum.”
Mortgage Lenders of America is helping buyers secure a place to call home. Thanks to Sage CRM SalesLogix and Strategic Sales Systems it’s helping more buyers than ever before.