10 tips to beat the credit crunch

To survive the current market conditions you need to speak to more customers and earn more money from every customer you talk to.

Things are going to get tough for a few months but there are still plenty of opportunities for brokers and IFAs. Without much effort, there are a number of things you can do.

1. When times are tight you need to squeeze every penny out of your marketing budget. The most cost effective way to source new business is lead generation. At the touch of a button you can be speaking to the customers who want your products or services. Choose a lead provider where you can filter your leads by postal area, loan amount, credit grade and maximum LTV%.

2. Use the credit crunch to your advantage. As the market falters, an increasing number of your customers will have too much debt to get a mortgage. Rather than turn them away, partner with a Debt Management company and earn a referral fee for every case you refer.

3. Make sure that when you speak to a customer you increase your likelihood of closing the sale. Sales permeates all aspects of business and should underpin everything you say and do when communicating with customers. Having an awareness of sales theory will help you make the most of each and every customer conversation, giving you a framework for what you want to achieve, what to ask, how to respond, and how to close the sale.

4. Prioritise better. Concentrate on your lead sources that will close faster and have more value. Make sure you have a sales pipeline that you are constantly updating and that allows you to contact the freshest leads first.

5. Beat the credit crunch by getting into new markets. For example if you currently sell mortgages, why not diversify into secured loans? As well as supplementing your current business, lead generation can enable you to enter new markets quickly and at minimal cost.

6. Go back to basics. How well do your know your own business? Do you know your cost per acquisition targets? Do you know your average commissions? Do you know what percentage of ancillary products you sell? If the answer to any of these is “no”, now is the time to work them out. This will enable you to plan better and work out exactly how much business you need to make money.

7. In the current climate, you need to be selling more than one product to a customer in order to make money. If you don’t currently sell protection, or general insurance etc. then make sure you have a relationship with a company that can. There are many companies that will pay you referral fees for business you pass onto them.

8. A great way to generate your own leads is to start a free blog which you can use as a platform to discuss the issues relevant to your business. The more you post, the more people will find your blog when searching online for the issues you cover. There are many companies that generate a lot of businesses from blogs so if you don’t yet have one then you could be missing out.

9. Don’t pay for bad leads. Make sure you choose a lead provider that enables you to return invalid leads. This should include things such as disconnected phones, wrong numbers, etc. This will increase your overall return on investment from buying leads.

10. Communicate with your current customers. Do you have a newsletter? Do you send SMS reminders? The more help and support you give your customers, the more business you will win and the easier it will be to close the deals.

So stop worrying about the credit crunch and start doing more business today!

Justin Rees is marketing manager at LeadPoint UK Ltd

The views expressed in this blog are those of the individual and not necessarily the company he represents.