Business loan leads are the lifeblood of any business. For those in the B2C marketplace, focusing on scaling sales is key as it is what drives more business loan leads. However, for those in the B2C space, finding business loan leads doesn’t always result in sales. There’s a lot of reasons this might happen, and today I’m going to discuss why this happens. Business loan leads vary in nature just like any type of lead, but there are a few big things you should keep an eye out for when determining your sales strategy. This article will walk you through a few common traits of business loan leads to help you predict sales outcomes, so don’t skip a word.
Are you searching for the best way to find business loan leads or generate business loan leads? Business loan leads are increasingly challenging to source, with many lenders preferring to work with known and trusted suppliers. But sometimes your clients don’t want to use big corporate lenders or they just can’t find what they need. In these cases, how can you find business loan leads?
Wouldn’t it be great to have more people trying to get a business loan from you? The good news is that finding business loan leads is completely possible and there are ways to make it happen. My goal in this guide is to help you find business loan leads and to help you generate business loan leads. I’ll also give you some examples of how to get more business loan leads. It’s all going to work out fine if you follow my lead…
In order to find business loan leads, you need to understand what makes up a lead. A lead isn’t just someone’s name, it is a compilation of information that can be used to start the business loan process. Most businesses find themselves in need of additional funding from time to time. Banks and other financial institutions can offer assistance with funding when there is an established relationship and a file full of valuable information about the company.
Business Loan Lead Generation for Loan Brokers
The #1 most important thing your brokerage needs is clients. It doesn’t matter if you’ve just started your brokerage business or have been operating for decades, you won’t get anywhere without them. So, how do you get clients? First, you need business loan leads. A lead is a potential client who is a good fit for your brokerage, can afford to buy, and is interested in your business. Generating business loan leads is your first step in the sales process. It’s your job to take these leads and convert them into clients.
There are several ways to generate leads and not all leads are created equal. It will take some experimentation to determine your personal best way of getting business loan leads. However, you can start with the broad strokes and gradually hone your technique to make it efficient and nearly effortless. Your method will evolve as your brokerage grows and must change to keep up with your target client. You’ll know your method is working when potential clients initiate the relationship with you versus you having to do all the leg work.
As you progress, it’s important to measure which lead generation tools are working best. Keep track of how you generate commercial business loan leads using your analytics tools. Get rid of the marketing tactics that aren’t working for you so you can concentrate your time on the most effective. In time, you’ll be able to strike a balance between quantity and quality that suits your brokerage.
Without further ado, let’s dive right into the basics you need to know to generate commercial finance leads, small business loan leads, mortgage broker leads, and just about any other type of commercial business loan leads. https://www.youtube.com/embed/sIyVW3Helts?feature=oembed
Quality vs. Quantity
In an ideal world, you would have a high quantity of high-quality leads. Most of the time, however, it’s a tradeoff between the two. On one end of the business loan lead spectrum, you have a high quantity of poor-quality leads. On the other end, you have a low quantity of high-quality leads. The trick is to strike a balance between the two. The closer you can get to the middle of that spectrum, the better off your brokerage will be.
A high-quality lead is one you have a good chance of closing. These leads are more likely to become paying clients and may even generate more high-quality leads for you. They fit your demographic and geographic requirements, have already engaged with your brokerage either on social media or through your website, and match your target audience.
Poor quality leads are those who are interested but don’t fit your brokerage. They may be outside of your service area, have insufficient means to qualify, or are curious but not ready to buy yet. While some of these lower-quality leads may eventually become more of a fit, they shouldn’t be your top priority when looking to convert. Consider referring them to another brokerage that has agreed to send leads your way in the future.
On any lead list, there will be a mixture of both. But, depending on how you go about generating your business loan leads, you can reduce the chances of getting a list loaded with poor-quality leads. For example, using your personal network to get referrals will generate high-quality leads. These leads are very likely to buy but probably won’t generate a large number of leads unless a targeted strategy is in place.
On the other hand, leads that are based on subscriptions to your website or blog may generate a larger quantity of leads, but they often won’t be as interested or qualified. This tradeoff is why it’s important to use many lead generation methods. Once you’ve got the leads, it’s a good idea to employ metrics that help you sort through them to determine which deserve more of your time.
Types of Business Loan Leads
There’s no one way to classify leads. Lead classification is normally associated with the ‘sales funnel’ concept. Leads are put into categories based on where they are in the funnel. Sales and marketing teams typically work together to set these criteria for their company. There are, however, a few common terms to be aware of that can act as a guide, even if you don’t yet have dedicated marketing and sales staff.
To illustrate, let’s use commercial mortgage brokers leads as an example:
IQL: Information Qualified Lead
This lead is at the top of the sales funnel. The IQL is someone who has left their information with the brokerage. They may have put their contact details into the commercial mortgage broker’s website in exchange for a free quote. They’re thinking about a commercial mortgage and testing the waters to find out about average rates, loan terms, etc.
MQL: Marketing Qualified Lead
This lead responded on social media, met with a rep at an event, or heard about the brokerage from an advertisement. They’re similar to an IQL except that where the IQL may have searched the internet for “commercial mortgage,” the MQL saw marketing materials put out by the brokerage and responded to it. One is proactive and the other is reactive. The IQL and MQL are in about the same position in the sales funnel.
SAL: Sales Accepted Lead
This is where the commercial mortgage broker leads are filtered for the first time. The IQL or MQL has been contacted by the brokerage, following up on contact information. Depending on what the lead says, they either get funneled in further or stay in the marketing loop. If it turns out that the person was looking for residential mortgage loans instead of commercial mortgage loans, for example, the sales team doesn’t follow up.
SQL: Sales Qualified Lead
If the SAL is looking for a commercial mortgage loan and has the power to act on behalf of their company, they become an SQL. This is when the brokerage actively works with the lead to convert them into a client and close the deal. Once they’ve converted, it’s up to the broker to deliver so that the happy new client becomes a source of new quality leads.
Generating Business Loan Leads
Now that you have a starting point for classifying leads, let’s talk about how to start them flowing into your brokerage. Again, it’s important to use several methods at once to get a balance of quantity and quality. As leads begin to come in, keep track of where they came from and where they end up in your funnel. You can use this data to hone your commercial loan lead generation process.
By the time you’re ready to start lead generation for business loans, you’ve already set up your entity (filing legal forms, etc.), your branding, and identified your niche. Learning who your target market is, is essential to finding out what channels potential leads are using and the best messaging to use within those channels. For example, if you’ve decided to specialize in commercial mortgages, you won’t look for commercial mortgage broker leads on social media groups for first-time home buyers.
E-mails lists can come from a few different sources, but one of the best ways to generate them is by setting up a landing page and contact form on your website. This way, you have IQLs already expecting to hear from you. It’s possible to buy lists of commercial business loan leads, but they’re not as valuable as organic leads.
- Personalize your emails. You’re 75% more likely to get a response from a personalized email than one that isn’t. It’s easy to automate this process.
- Sign your emails. Your signature section is where you can add in CTAs, banners, social media links, and event announcements. Make it easy for leads to reach out.
- Use a compelling subject line and make the message worth opening. Clean, bright graphic designs, interesting facts, and news briefs that hold the reader’s attention reward leads and encourages them to open future emails from your brokerage.
To get email addresses from commercial mortgage broker leads, use your website, sign-in sheets from events, referrals, and gated content.
Blog
Blog posts help establish you as an expert in your niche. When done right, blog posts build trust and customer loyalty. SEO will help draw an audience to your blog, but well-written content and reliable, actionable information will bring potential leads back for more. The more your audience feels connected with you, the more likely they’ll be to reach out when they’re ready to buy.
- Guest post on other sites. Find high-level sites in the commercial lending industry and look for opportunities to get your name in front of their audience.
- Answer common questions. Everyone likes to feel seen and have their concerns acknowledged. Showing that you’re listening and have solutions for them fosters a relationship with readers.
- Don’t be afraid to brag. Celebrate a successful event you attended or held, a recent award, or a new publication. You can include positive feedback, testimonials, and follow-ups.
Lead generation for mortgage lenders will look different from other commercial business loan leads. So, it’s important to keep your messages on point and relevant to your niche.
Social Media
While commercial loan lead generation is possible without social media, if you’re not tapping into this resource, you’re missing out on a lot of potential business. Billions of people everyday access social media and advertisers have become well aware of the power of social media marketing. It’s a wasted effort, however, to blanket every social media platform with your brokerage’s content.
- Find out where your target audience spends time. A platform like Facebook will attract a different demographic than a platform like TikTok. Information on the average user of each platform is easily accessible with little research. A good place to start is the platform’s home site.
- Timing is important. It may seem like online content is evergreen because it’s never truly gone. However, the longer a Twitter tweet or an Instagram photo sits in someone’s feed, the more it gets pushed out by other content. Research when your ideal lead tends to access their platforms and release your content accordingly.
- Keep a close eye on incoming messages from your audience. If someone has posted a comment or asked you a question, reply as soon as possible. This shows that you’re listening and care about what people have to say. It also helps you stay ahead of any negativity before it grows out of proportion.
Commercial business loan leads will come in faster and with less effort when you use targeted social media campaigns. Be sure to keep your branding consistent so that it’s recognizable across platforms.
Social Responsibility
More and more, consumers are looking at how companies impact their communities. Over 70% of consumers care about the social responsibility of the companies they buy from and 50% say they’re willing to pay more for a product if there’s a positive social impact. You can leverage this interest to generate business loan leads.
- Sponsor a charity event. Find a cause your target audience identifies with and supports. Adding your brokerage’s name to the sponsor list not only gets your name in front of everyone at the event but also shows you care about more than your bottom line.
- Volunteer at events. You and your employees can lend a hand at food drives, park cleanups, and school fundraising events. This puts you in front of the other volunteers and sponsors. Document the event and turn it into a blog post to grow your impact.
- Show off your sustainability. If your brokerage has a low carbon footprint, a green roof, or policies that benefit the environment, make sure to let everyone know. You can also show how you make social and environmentally conscious investments.
Don’t underestimate the power of doing good. Companies are under intense scrutiny as consumers are becoming more aware of the broader impacts of their buying behavior. A small investment in your local community can have a huge return.
In-Person Networking
For all of the focus on online and social media commercial loan lead generation, it’s not to say that in-person networking isn’t still very effective. Making a personal connection to “Centers of Influence” (well-connected people) generates direct referrals. Direct referrals are where the highest quality opportunities come from. Make a great impression on these people and you’ll be top-of-the-list when they talk to their peers.
- Start with your current network. These are people you already know and have a reputation with. You can partner with friends that have the same networking goals and cover social events together.
- Ditch the business cards. Think for a moment about what you do when handed a business card. Does it go into a drawer never to be seen again? Chances are, that’s what your audience does with them too. Merchandise like pens and magnets stay in front of your audience daily, keeping you top-of-mind.
- Prepare your elevator speech. When you’re at an event, you might only get a few minutes to make an impression before you’re interrupted by distractions. Get a 30-second to two-minute pitch ready in advance to quickly and effectively get your point across.
In-person lead generation for business loans is more time-consuming than online lead generation but can result in a higher quality lead. Mortgage loan lead generation especially benefits from face-to-face contact that encourages trust.
Measuring Business Loan Leads
Are your leads coming from your email campaign or your social media strategy? How many leads make it to the bottom of your sales funnel? Do the messages you’re sending hit right with your target audience?
It’s nearly impossible to make improvements to your strategy if you don’t measure your leads. Analytics tools are massively helpful when measuring your effectiveness and progress. Without them, keeping track of leads and results can easily get out of hand. Commercial mortgage broker leads, for example, can come from many different channels, have various costs, and have distinct levels of effectiveness.
Here are the key factors to keep track of when developing your metrics:
Marketing Channels
This is as simple as identifying where your efforts are going. Each channel needs to be tracked separately, although your messaging should be cohesive across platforms. A channel could be your email newsletters, your blog posts, your landing page, or your in-person appearances.
Success
What does success look like for your brokerage? If you measure by the number of deals closed, how many deals equals a successful effort? Will a certain revenue amount be your marker for success? Decide on your benchmarks that will determine what you consider a win for your brokerage.
Tracking Expenses
Keep track of how much time and money goes into each channel. You might be using free marketing channels in terms of dollar amount, but don’t forget that your effort is currency too. If you’re spending hundreds on an ad campaign that’s not hitting your benchmarks for success, consider dumping it and moving in another direction.
Impact
A channel like your social media account might bring in a lot of leads but what if those leads are mostly dead ends? Measuring the impact of your campaign means noticing how many leads make their way to the bottom of your sales funnel. This goes back to the quality versus quantity factor at the top of this article.
These are the key metrics you’ll want to measure, but don’t have to be the only ones you use. Other possibilities include short and long-term impact, secondary lead generation, revenue growth, and brand awareness. Keep an eye on your metrics and you’ll be able to reduce costs while boosting the effectiveness of your lead generation for business loans.
1. Pick a Target Market
One of the hardest things to do is the comment to a target market. You can’t be everything to everyone. The key to generating your own business loan leads is to create separation from the big guys like Paypal and Wells Fargo. You can do this by dominating the target market. When it comes to business loan leads the best way to choose a target market is by industry type. Examples would be coffee shops, auto detailing shops, or sawmills.
2. Pick the right audience
After you pick a target market, you need to make sure you can find the audience that needs business loans. You can research on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google to find the audiences that you can market to. If you can’t find the audience then it’s not going to work, so do your research up front and avoid any headaches down the road.
3. Use the tribe methodology
This is going to be an essential mindset to have. The tribe mentality works, probably too well. You only have to look at today’s politics to understand how effective this is. People want to do business with others that are like them. An example is when a coffee shop wants to work with the coffee shop financing expert rather than a big bank. Use this to your advantage when you are picking your target market and creating the content for your business.
4. Focus on solving a problem
Most lenders like to brag about how fast they can fund a loan or how much money a business they can get can get the business. You have to be different and create separation from the rest of the lenders out there. You can do that by solving the borrower’s problems.
The truth is the business owners you talk to don’t care about you; they care about themselves. They have problems that need to be solved, and if you can give them a solution, you will win the business.
An example of a problem is getting the money for equipment so they can win a bid for a government contract, or perhaps it’s to purchase new furniture for their restaurant. Whatever the case is make no mistake about it the borrower is not going through the loan process because they think it’s fun, they are doing it because they have a problem that needs to be solved.
5. Customer focused website
We have already talked about solving a problem, and now it’s time to create the content around that concept. You simply make the website about your customer and not about you.
Many lenders brag about how they have been in the business for a long time, all of the significant accomplishments they have achieved, and all of the outlandish loans that they have done to people with only one name. How fast and how much they have done. Really it’s just bragging and promising, that no longer works.
Make your website about how you will serve the customer and how you will solve their problems. Do that, and you will have created a position in the market that separates you from all the other lenders out there with websites that focus on themselves and not the customer.
6. LinkedIn for free leads
Linkedin is one of the best places to make connections, and you can do it for free. If you have followed the steps before this one, you will have content and a website that is focused on solving your target markets problems.
Now you can start to build your LinkedIn profile, so it reflects your customer focused lending business. You know what problems you can solve and whom you can solve them for, right?
Search for people that fit your target audience and start to invite them to your network. Not all will except but the ones that do send a private message telling them what problem you solve and how you can help them if they ever need a business loan.
7. Create a CTA
Nothing good is going to happen if you don’t have a call to action.
First, what is a call to action? Its when you ask a visitor to do something or take an action. Simple, right!
Not so fast. You are going to find many people out there telling you that you need funnels and popups and fancy stuff that takes money and time. Please don’t spend much time at the beginning on all of the plugins and expensive software solutions to a simple problem, getting a visitor to give you their name, email, and phone number. You can start MailChimp and a few free plugins and accomplish what you need to achieve.
You could take it one step beyond that and ask them to schedule an appointment with you using a free Acuity Scheduling program.
8. Use the bulls-eye framework
What is the bulls-eye framework? It’s straightforward, work on one or two, no more than three, marketing tactics at one time. Let’s look at an example. Let’s say you want to generate business loan leads from LinkedIn and Facebook. If you are following the bulls-eye framework that is as far as you will go with marketing tactics.
Why? Because if you focused all of your marketing efforts on a small set of tactics, you would get terrific at those tactics. If you took the opposite approach, say you advertised on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Google PPC, and sent postcards, passed out flyers at the local chamber of commerce, and ten other things, you would be jake of all trades and a master of none.
9. Create a Business Page
You are going to need a business page on Facebook and LinkedIn. These two platforms are a must for small business. Facebook is a necessity because everyone is on it and many business owners will want to communicate with you through Facebook.
LinkedIn is also a must. It’s known as the social media platform for business. Some people will look you up on LinkedIn to see if you are a real person with an actual business page. Don’t let this step go undone. It’s essential for credibility and generating leads.
10. Market on Facebook
This is somewhat obvious, and we already talked about how everyone is on Facebook, well not everyone, but close.
This is where all the hard work you have done so far pays off. If you made sure you could find the audience on Facebook and built everything around that, then you are good to go here.
Take some time to learn the AdManager platform and start to create ads and test them out. Keep in mind it is a learning process, and it will take a little grit and determination to master the art of Facebook ads.
11. Use Google PPC
If you have been around a while, you already know that Google PPC is out of reach for most business lenders. The cost per click on head terms for business loans can be 50, 75, or even 100 dollars.
However, you are not like the rest of the lenders out there. You have picked a target market and are focusing on an industry. When you use a modifier the cost per click drops, a lot. What is a modifier? It’s when you take a major keyword, like business loans, and modify it to your target market. Her is an example, if your target market were used car lots, the keyword would be business loans for used car lots. “Used car lots” is the modifier, “business loans” is the head term.
When you use modifiers, it drives the cost per click down to the point where it could be very profitable to run a PPC campaign.
12. Create a sales script
Don’t forget to create a sales script. I know what you may be thinking, “I’ve been in sales all my life, I don’t need a script to talk to people.” If you take that approach, you will most certainly lose out on many sales.
Take some time and create a script, and then practice it. Keep track of what works and what doesn’t. Believe me; this can make all the difference in how successful you are in this business.
13. Track everything with GA
GA stands for Google Analytics. It’s a free program and is vital to keeping up with how your website and conversions are going. You will want to do this before you start to advertise.
If you are not accustomed to using analytics, start by keeping things simple and learn as you go.
Keep in mind that even if you never look at the numbers, someone in the future will. Not having this analytical setup and tracking could cause you headaches down the line.
14. Set up a CRM
Let’s be clear; you need this!
If nothing else you should have a way of storing everyone that has filled out a form on your website so you can send emails to this list. So many lenders don’t send out newsletters or keep in contact with potential borrowers that it does affect the bottom line.
An email list should be your bread and butter, a way to generate new leads from work you have done in the past. When things get slow, and they will, you will have a list of past customers and potential borrowers that you can reach out to for next to nothing that will generate interest.
What Does A Lead Generation Company Do?
Lead generation companies help businesses become more efficient by delivering warmed up and qualified leads directly to them. Such companies will normally work in partnership with a number of businesses or websites in which they advertise your service.
In the digital age we live in today we only have to enter a few keywords into a search engine to bring up a whole wealth of businesses advertising that yes, they hold the solution to our needs.
We may find these sites by using a search engine or we may see an online ad on a social media platform.
We click for more information and land on a site where we more than likely enter our information into it such as an email address.
This contact form is then forwarded to someone who will then verify this information. The leads are then sent onto the relevant company ready for their sales force to close.
Lead generation needs a multiple pronged attack. It does require you to nurture lots of lead sources and with many channels they each need their own individual strategy.
Having a successful small business now a days is even harder with the digital era. Many will experience a shortcoming in obtaining a continuous flow of new leads. So it isn’t any wonder why many are now turning to lead generation companies to help them
Conclusion
Maybe you’re looking to get into SBA loans, but don’t have the money required to start the business. This is a common problem because many are not aware that they can find business loan leads and apply for financial assistance. However, it’s critical that you look into these sources because finding business loan leads and applying for financing when starting a new business is an essential part of the process.
Business loan leads, if generated in the right way can be a very hot and profitable business. The advantage of generating loan leads is that you are serving people who are looking for money, not just consumers. They are actively seeking information about loans and loan rates. You don’t have to do much convincing to get these people to use your loan services.