Technology Boosts Mortgage Lead Conversions

Marksman Mobile is being launched by Mortech, company officials told MortgageDaily.com Thursday.

The service combines features of Marksman, which is a product and pricing engine that includes customer relationship management features, with a mobile platform that is linked to mortgage lead provider data. The technology works with Smartphones, PDAs, Blackberries, Palm Treos and iPhones.

Doug Foral, vice president of sales for the Lincoln, Neb.-based company, explained that the quick-loading product enables originators use their mobile devices to manage mortgage leads, access customer and pipeline data, and obtain and send current pricing. It integrates seamlessly with the Calyx Point loan origination system.

Foral noted the company is tied in with more than 35 Internet lead aggregators and is the preferred pricing partner for LendingTree’s network of clients.

Mortech President Don Kracl said the goal of Marksman Mobile is to allow loan officers to always be in touch with their pipelines without being chained to their desks.

When they are viewing customer contact data, the phone number is hyperlinked — enabling users to dial the number without having to key it in. E-mail addresses are similarly hyperlinked, Kracl added.

“The consumer wants that personal contact,” Kracl said. “That’s really what our focus has been, is how can we get the loan officer in personal contact with that consumer as quickly as possible.”

He noted that among originators they work with, the ones who are most successful converting leads are those that immediately make contact with loan prospects. But loan officers who don’t treat leads with the same level of urgency have a worse track record.

He said the key to the CRM aspect of the service is the ability of the originator to contact the loan prospect instantly with the best information possible.

“We know that the longer these leads go stale, or changes occur, that the loan officer doesn’t get in touch with the consumer, the less likely that consumer is to actually do something positive with that company or loan officer,” Kracl stated. “We think that if they’re to be successful, they need to be able to get in contact with that person as quickly as possible.”

He added that while a tremendous amount of money is being spent on mortgage leads, most of them “fall flat on the floor — they don’t get touched, they don’t get worked and they’re just throwing money away.”

As Marksman Mobile evolves, Kracl said he hopes to see more intelligence built into it so originators can better utilize product searches to help steer borrowers in the right direction earlier in the process. He expects that future incarnations will include more detailed customer information.

“A lot of times, consumers are looking for a product that are not in their best interest,” Kracl stated. “We would really like to see the whole process be streamlined a little bit, from the intelligence point of view, so we can get these people to the closing table a little bit faster.”

Sam Garcia worked in mortgage lending for twenty years prior to becoming publisher of MortgageDaily.com.

e-mail: mtgsam@aol.com