How to Close More Mortgages with Your Retail Customers

Culturally, bank and credit union leaders avoid “selling.” Banking is a relationship business that’s about listening to consumers’ needs. The common challenge, though, is the practicality of listening. Who is going to ask the question? If it is banking staff, how is that different from consumers’ poor experiences of the past? How can institutions avoid a catch-22 in wanting to ask about consumers’ needs while avoiding conversations that feel loaded? 

Thanks to advances in customer relationship management (CRM) technology, banking organizations can avoid this catch-22 by listening to consumers through their financial data. To find new mortgage borrowers from the deposit base, for example, institutions can identify consumers needing financing, and they can anticipate future consumer needs – often knowing a consumer need before they do. Data can also allow them to listen to past mortgage borrowers in order to win their return business. 

In order to use data in this way, though, institutions need to anticipate 2022 and 2023 from the consumer’s perspective. In preparing for 2022, financial institutions that offer mortgage financing face a bleaker landscape. Rate refinances, and overall mortgage volume, are forecast to decline – just as a new wave of growth-hungry fintech competitors arrive on the scene.  

Consumers, though, do not look at the market this way. These aren’t the end of boom times for them. In fact, for millions of people, this year is the “good time” to obtain a mortgage. Consider those who own a house already. They are more protected from the price appreciation of the last two years. They are also likely to benefit from the competition as sellers just as much as it hurts them as buyers. So where are they feeling urgency? It’s their mortgage rate – the one they might have to live with for 30-years – that’s on their minds. If they want their home upgrade financed at historic lows, 2022 is their year. Refinancers looking to lower their rate are in the same boat. 

The same is true for cash-out refinancers. The clock is ticking with the Federal Reserve clearly indicating rates will start to rise. Historically cheap financing is on the way out. Home prices, and home equity, are likely to fall amid rising rates. If they plan to go through with their large purchases – like buying a car or updating the master bathroom – they need to act quickly.  

A match now needs to be made by banking organizations. They have targeted opportunities to find originations in the year ahead. Those opportunities align with scenarios in which consumers have an urgent need for options as they seek to capitalize on this year’s market conditions. To find that match, banks and credit unions need to use an engagement platform, one tied to sources of industry data, that will activate marketing messaging tailored to consumers’ exact financial needs.   

Where in their data can institutions look to identify consumers who are likely to see this year as their time to move? How about those who see it as their time to renovate or refinance?  

How can banks and credit unions use this data, in combination with a purpose-built CRM-engagement platform, to overcome past cross-sell challenges?  

To find out, read our guide “Mortgage Cross-Sell Unlocked: New tech overcomes barriers to earning mortgage originations from banking relationships.”