The biggest mistakes loan originators make in advertising is spending a disproportionate amount of their marketing budget on lead generation and neglecting the most important stage in the marketing funnel which is lead conversion. On the surface, the thinking is this. If I spend $1000 to generate 30 leads and 3 sales, then I should spend $2000 to get 60 leads and 6 sales. Sound familiar? Although this is true, this leads to tremendous waste in marketing dollars.

If given a choice between spending an additional $1000 to market to an additional 1000 suspects vs. spending the same $1000 to convert the 27 already interested prospects, the choice should always be conversion. Our prospects have already raised their hand and announced that they are interested, they may not be ready yet, but they are interested in what we have to offer. Most loan originators stop their marketing efforts if a client is not ready today and this is exactly why you should not. In a competitive sales environment, the marketer willing to spent the most to convert a lead will earn the business 99.99% of the time. Our job is to continue marketing to each prospect until they either buy or die.

If we decide to spend the additional $1000 to convert the 27 interested prospects that equates to 37 contacts with each prospect (assuming $1/piece). Don’t you think you could effectively communicate with your prospects given 37 chances? Of course you can.

Focusing on lead conversion will allow you to be more creative and effective with your marketing and further separate yourself from your competition and their boring “me too” advertising which is the key to substantially increasing sales.

Brad Cooper is a nationally recognized mortgage expert, managing owner of LoanOfficerSuccess and Cooper Financial Solutions.