Where should you start when setting up your CRM? by Michael McAllister for HousingWire

HousingWireHousingWire

How many times have you invested in a CRM, only to abandon it a few months later? You’re not alone. Most mortgage pros give up because they skip one crucial step: having a clear plan. Here’s how to finally set up your CRM the right way.

First off, we need to establish your goals with your CRM. For most mortgage producers, your goals are likely a combination of the following:

• Deliver a consistent client experience.
• Market to prospective borrowers more effectively.
• Market to prospective referral partners more effectively.
• Market to prospective recruits more effectively.
• Streamline workflows by consolidating tech tools and communication.
• Engage with a high volume of leads as efficiently as possible.
• Keep track of tasks and responsibilities for loans in process.

This list isn’t comprehensive, and you may have additional or alternative goals. However, in my experience, most loan officers’ needs fall within these categories.

Depending on how many goals you’ve identified, you may need to prioritize them before moving on to the next step:

Mapping your pipeline stages

Some systems allow you to create an unlimited number of pipelines. This means you can manage all your efforts across Recruiting, Prospecting (for both referral partners and borrowers), and Loans in Process.

However, if you’re using a CRM that either doesn’t support a “pipeline” view or only allows a single pipeline, you’ll need to get creative. You can use “Status” fields or custom fields to manage your pipeline stages instead.

We typically recommend setting up distinct pipelines based on your goals. For example:

• Leads
• Loans in Process
• Referral Partner Prospects
• Recruiting

Some variations can occur. For instance, clients working with a high volume of internet leads often break up their “Leads” pipeline into two segments: “Pre-Application” and “Application Received”, in addition to their “Loans in Process” pipeline.

Defining pipeline stages

Once you’ve decided on your pipelines, define each stage you want to track within them. Here’s an example for a Leads pipeline:

1. New lead received
2. Attempting contact
3. Ghosting/Re-attempting contact
4. Appointment booked
5. No-show
6. Application pending
7. Application received
8. Working to qualify
9. Pre-approved
10. Shopping

You may need more or fewer stages based on your workflow. If you find yourself with more than 10 stages, consider splitting your pipeline into multiple pipelines (if your CRM allows it). The more stages you have, the harder it becomes to view your pipeline holistically, which undermines the core benefit of pipeline visualization.

Creating your automation roadmap

After setting up your pipeline stages, it’s time to map out your automations, tasks, and workflows. I recommend building pipelines first because the easiest way to create workflows is to list what you want your client, prospect, or recruit to experience at each stage.

Let’s use the Leads pipeline example to demonstrate this:

1. New lead received
   • Review lead details and associate with a referral partner.
   • Attempt contact via call, text, and email.
   • If no contact: Move to “Attempting contact.”
   • If contact is made: Disposition the lead appropriately and update the referral partner.
2. Attempting contact
   • Add the lead on social media.
   • Follow up using email, text, social, and phone.
   • If no contact after 12 attempts in 3 weeks: Mark as “Abandoned.”
   • Follow up once every 2-3 weeks.
3. Ghosting/Re-attempting contact
   • Follow up 15 times over 4 weeks using varied communication (texts, emails, social messages) with two calls and a video message.
   • If no contact by the end of 4 weeks: Mark as “Abandoned.”

You get the picture.

This seemingly simple but powerful process creates a clear list of:

1. Tasks you need to automate.
2. Follow-up campaigns you need to create.
3. A framework for manual CRM execution until automation is in place.

Avoid the common pitfall

Too often, mortgage professionals dive straight into CRM integrations and automations without a solid plan. This approach leads to burnout and abandonment of the CRM before it even gets off the ground.

Whether you’re new to CRM setup or a seasoned pro, I encourage you to try this method. It will help you take your CRM implementation to the next level and set you up for long-term success.

Michael McAllister is the founder and president of Empower LO.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of HousingWire’s editorial department and its owners.

To contact the editor responsible for this piece: zeb@hwmedia.com.

​