Using business consultant coaching to grow

Grow Your Lending Business Through Zillow Group’s Business Consultant Coaching

You’re filling your pipeline with online leads, but do you have the tools and processes in place to truly nurture these leads to find success? That’s where Zillow Group’s business consultants come in. They are a free added benefit of the Connect lead generation program, and they arm lenders with the information they need to find greater success.

Most retail loan officers receive no coaching whatsoever on how to pursue a lead. When they buy leads online, they have to figure out everything on their own, including what works and what doesn’t. This lack of formal guidance extends to determining the appropriate language to use, how to best communicate with potential clients and how to understand the unique expectations of different consumer populations they may be working with, such as millennials.

Coaching best practices
Zillow Group’s business consultants, whose services are included with the Connect lead generation program, offer a better approach. Business consultants coach lenders on best practices to generate and pursue online leads.

The coaching is tightly focused on pathways to success when following up on internet leads. This is not about training loan officers on how to close loans — something they already know how to do — but it is about effective strategies for lead nurturing and management. This includes suggestions for language to use on the phone with online home shopper leads, and info about what email strategies work best. Some of these coaching topics are straightforward and others are more subtle, but in all cases the practices have been rigorously evaluated. In contrast, lenders buying leads online from other platforms typically have to find out what works on their own. They follow an ad hoc, trial-and-error approach to pursuing leads, which can result in missed opportunities and poor conversion rates.

For example, let’s consider how to work with millennial home buyers between the ages of 24 and 38. These buyers have unique expectations and demands. The Zillow Group Consumer Housing Trends Report 2018 notes that, for millennial home buyers, “their ideas of home are sometimes significantly different than those of their elders, and the ways they search for a home are influenced by technology.”

According to the same 2018 report, “online resources and agents remain central to the home-buying process, and large majorities of buyers rely on both: 79% of buyers shop online, and 74% work with an agent.” The overwhelming majority of buyers recognize the value of agents and see them as an essential part of the complex buying process. The same can likely be said for other professionals involved — for example, these home shoppers also expect their loan officer to be their “trusted advisor” along the way. Buyers’ communication preferences are also distinct: They expect instantaneous communication, often on nontraditional platforms. Specifically, the Zillow Group Consumer Housing Trends Report 2017 found that baby boomers (25%) show the highest preference for email interaction, while millennial and Generation X buyers are slightly more amenable to texting (20% of millennials versus 25% of Generation Xers). While these nontraditional methods of communication are becoming more popular, the phone still reigns as the preferred method of communicating with agents among millennial, Gen X and baby boomer buyers.

Connect business consultants can offer loan officers coaching on how to best pursue millennial leads and position themselves as their “trusted advisors.”

Accountability … and results tracking
Accountability and results tracking underpin the coaching in the Connect program. The two concepts are highly intertwined. When a client signs up for Connect, they will receive weekly follow-ups with their dedicated business consultant coach for a month, and then additional follow-ups as needed to make sure they are effectively implementing the new techniques they have learned.

Results tracking can quantify loan officers’ behaviors, as well as the program’s effectiveness. Zillow Group works with the lenders participating in the Connect program and suggests they track the following key metrics:

• Overall contact rate
• How many borrowers from the program submitted an application
• Conversion rate (how many loans were closed)

Traditionally, in the loan industry, loan officers aren’t really given the tools necessary to succeed in clear and quantifiable ways. They just have to produce, with no other metrics to measure their performance. There is no precise tracking of their activities or what steps they could be taking to improve outcomes. In another words, there is no useful quantitative feedback. What Zillow Group’s business consulting team offers to participants in Connect is a way to make sure that loan officers are measuring their performance throughout the entire process. This provides accountability and immediate feedback. The results show what’s working and what isn’t, and what steps they could take to improve lead conversion rates. Results tracking and accountability can add to the effectiveness of a coaching program.

Long-term business development
The Connect coaching program can be helpful for long-term business development as well. Business consultants can produce a positive feedback loop, where loan officers who become more successful as the result of coaching have greater resources to buy more leads. Business coaching can help loan officers make these leads profitable by increasing their conversion rates. Loan officers will have the resources to acquire even more leads, which in turn drives more growth for their business.

Connect’s business consultants can help drive this “scaling-up” process so loan officers can start building out their teams. Through coaching, loan officers may find they are now able to attack new markets and develop their business for the long term in ways they had not imagined.

Next steps you can take
Zillow Group’s business consulting differentiates the Connect lead generation program and can differentiate your business. Many other advertising platforms won’t give you the help you need, beyond providing the leads you have purchased. In contrast, Zillow Group helps you figure out how to best nurture and pursue leads. Business consultant coaching can help achieve the long-term business development you’re seeking.

Want to find long-term success by partnering with Zillow Group’s business consultants for strategic planning and ongoing support? Call us today at 877-661-3172 to start the conversation and learn more.

****

Testimonial

Jessica Rosenberg
Caliber Home Loans | NMLS# 1475226

“I had extreme luck and good fortune when Stephen was assigned as my Zillow Group business consultant. At the time, I was a new lender with only three months in the industry, and with few connections or referrals to drive business. Stephen encouraged and guided me from the beginning with my advertising and helped me set up my area for local leads, while stressing the importance of reviews that would allow me to be successful on the platform. I could tell that he had worked with a lot of mortgage consultants and that his advice was sound. I applied every bit of advice he handed down to me and it all worked. This was a game changer for me. My success on the platform was immediate … I had three closings within the first 60 days! I doubled my production in the months following, when I started using a CRM. I had six closings as a result (about $700,000 worth of closings by my fourth and fifth months). I did so well that I got a job offer (and raise) from a competing mortgage company, where I formed a team — just six months into being a loan originator. Now, I can attribute 70% of my business (well over $1 million a month) to Zillow Group, either directly or indirectly. I am so very grateful to have been paired up with Stephen when I was a new mortgage consultant.”

*****