The Telephone Is The Broker’s Best Friend

As we enter the second week of November 2015, we are indeed continuing the Year of The Broker, which I believe will not end on Thursday, December 31st at 11:59 p.m., but instead will continue into the year of 2016. As a result, I plan on remaining right here with deBanked to continue the Year of The Broker discussion throughout the entire year of 2016. The mass entrants of new brokers into our space will surely not slow down any time soon, even though only a small percentage of new brokers will actually have some sort of career longevity. For these mass new entrants, they will surely have available a number of different Marketing mediums, but only one (in my opinion) might serve to be the most efficient considering time, costs, access and productivity.

#1.) Indirect Marketing Mediums

– Strategic Partnerships: Will be difficult to establish for new entrants due to established players already having agreements and integrations in place with a lot of the main players. Strategic Partnerships include organizations such as Banks, Credit Unions, Associations, Merchant Processors, etc.

– Mom and Pop Network: Will be difficult to establish for new entrants as there’s only so many sub-agents that could exist at any given time, and they usually (by this point) have already built up close relationships with their Funder Networks and larger Brokerage Houses.

– Indirect Ads and SEO: Will be difficult to establish for new entrants due to the high marketing costs and lower percentage of quality leads that are generated. The fact is that this medium attracts a ton of companies that won’t even qualify for our product, such as a lot of start-ups. Plus established players have pretty much already sealed quality positions and placements with high marketing budgets.

#2.) Direct

– The Mail: Won’t work for most new entrants due to the high cost of postage and packaging. In combination with the low response and conversion rates, for many this medium might not be profitable.

– Email: Only works after speaking with a client and serves as a good form of follow-up, but not good for initial contact as the emails will usually be filtered off as “spam” and one should be very mindful of national and state spam laws in relation to using this medium.

– Fax: Only works after speaking with a client and serves as a good form of follow-up, but not good for initial contact because the medium for initial contact is illegal.

– In-Person: Works decent, however with high gas costs, traffic jams, and other inefficiencies, this should not be used for initial contact, but can be used in conjunction with the Telephone.

……And speaking of the Telephone…….

The Telephone is going to be the most efficient medium used by new entrants and smaller broker shops today due to the following:

• Ease of Access: All one needs is a web based Predictive Dialer from the likes of a CallFire, YTel or Five9.
• Cost and Structure Efficiency: You can pay by the hour usage or pay a flat monthly fee for an unlimited monthly call volume. By the dialer being web-based, there are no IT specifications that you have to control on a daily basis.
• It’s Still Legal For B2B: It’s illegal for B2C in terms of the initial contact, but as of right now, it’s still legal for initial contact on the B2B side.
• Mass Productivity: It’s a great medium where one can work a 10 hour day from 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. EST, covering the East, Central, Mountain and West coast time zones. Over the course of these 10 hours, one can complete about 40 – 80 meetings with decision makers, as well as leave about 200 – 250 messages for said decision makers with employees or via voicemail.

Telephone Conversion Analytics

Over my time of directly selling both the merchant cash advance and alternative business loan products, I’ve found the following conversion analytics to be in place for new deals, and the following can assist you with your ROI planning:

• For every 15 decision makers that you speak to on a cold call, you should get 1 interested lead, or let’s say a conversion of 6.7% to leads. For a clear definition of a lead, refer to a prior deBanked article of mine here. Calling SIC generic listings can be considered a “cold call”.
• For every 15 decision makers that you speak to on a warm call, you should get 5 interested leads, or let’s say a conversion of 33% to leads. Calling UCCs can be considered a “warm call”.
• For every 15 leads, you should get 3 completed application packages, or let’s say a conversion of 20%. A complete package includes the application and 3 – 6 months of bank statements.
• With an efficiently constructed Funder Network based on Paper Grades of 1-2 Funders for A+, A, B/C, and C/D, you should be getting approved files of about 40%, with a closing ratio of 30%.

Final Word

What will happen if B2B Telemarketing becomes illegal for initial contact just as B2C Telemarketing currently is? Would that likely be the final death blow to new brokers and smaller broker shops in terms of their ability to market efficiently and profitably?

I’m not sure, but as of right now, it’s the most efficient form of Marketing medium for new broker entrants and small broker offices. If it were to ever be taken away (become illegal), I think it might be much harder (if not impossible) for smaller broker shops to survive.