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Properly managed, your referral network can be your greatest asset. However, your referral partners are only as valuable as the relationships you maintain. Here are five common referral partner management mistakes to avoid in referral partner management.

1. Using the Wrong Partners

Not all referral partners are created equal. If you’re not connecting to the “right” partners, you can miss out on referral opportunities that can build your business.

Focus on referral partners that align with your unique niche. If your lending practice offers programs for new home buyers, you might want to partner with local realtors. But if your specialty is refinancing, it might make more sense to partner with financial planners.

2. Not Communicating Your Unique Value Proposition

What makes your brand unique? Why might referral partners want to work with you? One of the most common mistakes lenders make is assuming that partners understand their business model. The more you can carve out a unique niche, the more local partners will want to work with you.

You might consider designing educational materials to communicate your vision and values to prospective partners. That way, you’ll be better equipped to tell your story and invite others to partner with you.

3. Lacking a Clear Way to Submit Leads

Forging a relationship with a referral partner is great. But to maximize the value of this relationship, you need a clear way to submit borrower referrals.

Email is great, but that places the responsibility on your partners. Lenders can simplify the process with a customer relationship management platform. The best mortgage CRMs offer a partner portal that partners can access through a mobile app.�

Having an app empowers your partners to drop referrals into your borrower pipeline as they receive them. That can be perfect when your partners meet potential clients on the road or at a networking event.

4. Failing to Regularly Communicate

No relationship is truly permanent. Don’t just assume that today’s partners will be there tomorrow.

Instead, make it a point to regularly communicate with your referral partners. Some CRM platforms offer referral partner management tools to make staying in touch with your partners easier. Facilitating communication will help you avoid friction in the partnership and keep the relationship positive.

5. Not Tracking Your Success Rate

How valuable is your referral network? The only way to answer this question is through hard data. A mortgage CRM’s referral partner management tools can help you track the number of partners you have and the number of referrals they submit.

You can track this data to determine how valuable each referral partner is. Tracking data also lets you determine the best practices for your unique business and adjust your partner relationships accordingly.

Your Best Referral Partner Management Tools

A mortgage CRM enables you to manage your relationship with your customers and referral partners. The BNTouch platform offers a partner portal and other features for managing your partners and borrower pipeline. To see these features for yourself, contact BNTouch for a demo.

To learn more or schedule a demo, contact BNTouch today.

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Many lending practices have some type of mortgage referral partner program. These allow other individuals or businesses to refer potential borrowers.

However, you may not know if your mortgage referral partner program is working. With that being said, here are five key metrics for evaluating your referral partner program:

1. Referral Rate

One of the most basic metrics is your referral rate. It simply refers to the number of referrals you receive in a given time period. Its true value may actually be in comparing the leads you receive from outside your business to the leads generated by your internal marketing strategies. In doing so, you can determine how much your referral partner program is contributing to your leads as a whole.

2. Conversion Rate

While your referral rate indicates how many referrals you receive, your conversion rate indicates how many of these referrals become borrowers. For instance, a low conversion rate means that you’re not convincing new leads to commit to the borrowing process. That might prompt you to redesign your introductory emails to better communicate your unique value.

3. Referrals Per Partner

A customer relationship management (CRM) system can measure the number of referrals you receive per partner. That can be helpful in showing what type of partner is the most effective. For instance, if most of your leads come from a real estate partner, then you might focus on developing more real estate relationships in the future.

Similarly, you can use that data to re-evaluate partner relationships. If you’re seeing a low referral rate from one partner, you might address points of friction or even consider severing that relationship altogether.

4. Customer LTV

A mortgage CRM system can also help you evaluate your customers’ long-term value (LTV). For mortgage lenders, that translates into how much revenue they generate per referral.

You can compare these numbers to those generated by your internal marketing efforts. Determine how much actual cash you are generating through a referral partner program. These figures can help you decide whether it’s more profitable to invest in your marketing efforts or lean more heavily on your referral partner program.

5. Customer Experience

The final metric is qualitative rather than quantitative. You can use a mortgage CRM system to request customer reviews and testimonials. Discover the kinds of experiences your referrals are having. See if there are ways you can improve the customer journey.

That can be challenging since there are no numbers attached, but customer reviews may highlight specific areas that you can improve. They can also allow you to maximize any features that customers find particularly helpful.

Make the Most of Your Referral Partner Program

Make the most of your mortgage referral partner program with a mortgage CRM platform. BNTouch offers partner management tools that can put your most valuable data at your fingertips. You’ll also better connect with partners through your online portal. To see these features for yourself, contact BNTouch to set up a demo.

To learn more or schedule a demo, contact BNTouch today.

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Referral partners can add value to your lending practice. They can connect you to a wider range of potential clients, but the true value depends on the quality of your relationship. 

Here are the best ways to build your referral network and nurture relationships with your referral partners:

Identify the Right Referral Partners

You start building a referral network by connecting to the right referral partners. Common types of referral partners include the following:

• Past clients
• Other real estate professionals
• Financial planners
• Attorneys
• Builders and developers
• Other local businesses

Your referral network should be built around your industry’s niche. For example, if you focus on first-time buyer programs, you might partner with real estate professionals. If you focus on refinancing, you might partner with financial planners instead. The point is to design your referral network around your unique business offerings. Proper referral partner management will also make it easier to market your value to other potential referral partners.

Build Relationships Through Networking

Once you identify your ideal referral partners, you can come up with ways to connect with them. One simple way involves attending local networking events. Business conferences and meet-and-greets can put you in contact with other local professionals. There, you can begin a relationship with like-minded businesses and real estate companies.

A mortgage customer relationship management (CRM) platform can assist in the process. A scanning feature will make it easy to capture business card info and store it to follow up on later.

Communicate Your Unique Value Proposition

Ask yourself what makes your lending practice unique and what you might offer to a potential referral partner. Answering these questions will make it easier to “sell” yourself to future partners.

In some cases, a partnership can be mutually beneficial. For instance, you might send referrals to a real estate agent. They may send some your way, too. It just depends on who makes the first contact.

Technology can also add to your value. If you use a CRM system to build a borrower pipeline, partners may be more eager to assist a lender with a well-organized system.

Offer a Partner Portal

A mortgage CRM system makes it easier to manage your referral network. Your referral partners can connect with you through an online portal. That not only streamlines communication but also empowers referral partners to submit referrals online.

The portal is available both on your desktop and through a mobile app. The latter gives partners the ability to submit referrals from anywhere in the world. If a real estate professional meets a new buyer at an event, they can instantly drop their information into your borrower pipeline.

A partner portal will also collect data on your referral network. You’ll be able to see how many referrals come from each partner, as well as the end results of each new lead.

Manage Your Referral Partners With a Mortgage CRM

A CRM platform makes it easier to connect to your referral network. The BNTouch system offers marketing tools, a partner portal, and other features to augment the quality of your lending services. To schedule a demo, contact BNTouch today.

To learn more or schedule a demo, contact BNTouch today.

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