Getting the Most From Your Surefire CRM Account
Learn the tips, tweaks, hacks, and content optimizations you need to make your Surefire account your most efficient employee.
Surefire is a powerful mortgage marketing tool built to support loan officers in their business. With hundreds of features and a variety of tactics to employ, Surefire offers a robust arsenal of marketing tools to loan officers across the industry. But here’s the problem: You’re busy, and learning a brand new tool - especially one that directly impacts your client experience and day-to-day schedule - is a big undertaking. Lean on us for our support in finding the best tips, workarounds, features, and content optimizations to make your CRM account a powerhouse in your business.
Making Your Surefire Account Your Most Profitable Employee
You heard that right. We like to think of tools like a CRM as an investment, just like an employee. With the right time and attention upfront, your investments pay you back in spades over time. That’s the method we take with CRMs: Build a powerful tool to launch your business into its next chapter using vetted strategies.
Getting Started with Surefire
Whether you are a one person LO or have a whole team, a CRM is a necessary component in every LOs tool kit. It makes sure you are staying in front of the right people, at the right times, with the right message.
Getting started in the platforms means adding people to send your content to. Here’s two ways you can get people’s contact information into your account:
How to Add a Single Contact In The Surefire Platform
Get the full tutorial here.
How to Import a Database into the Surefire Platform
Get the full tutorial here.
Organizing your contacts is laying the foundation to making your CRM a profitable, crazy-valuable tool for your business
How To Organize Your Contacts in Surefire
To get started, it is important to be sure to delineate your contacts in a way that is meaningful to how YOU operate. Most delineate by Contact Type and then by their Status (HOT/WARM/COLD).
HOT = BOTH Qualified and Committed
WARM = Qualified OR Committed but not both
COLD = Neither Qualified OR Committed
Most LOs utilize three different contact types:
Realtor/Real Estate Agent: 53% of purchase borrowers choose their lender through a referral from their realtor.
Cold: New partner prospects, people who don’t know, like and trust you yet. They have not been qualified nor have they committed to working with you.
Warm: People who know, like and trust you but haven’t referred a deal, but are people you want to focus on. They are either qualified or committed, but not both.
Hot: “My 40” actively referring (past 60 days) or expressed interest in referring. These are the people who are your raving fans. They are BOTH qualified and committed.
Leads: These are prospects actively pursuing or looking for more information about obtaining a mortgage
Cold: New prospects, people who don’t know, like and trust you yet. They have not been qualified nor have they committed to doing a loan with you.
Warm: These are people who will probably buy / borrower within the next 12-months. They are either qualified or committed, but not both.
Hot: This list is comprised of people who want to buy / borrow, know they want to buy / borrow, and want to borrow from you within the next three months. They are BOTH qualified and committed.
OTHER: Business Contacts, Family and Friends, Past Clients: 36% of purchase borrowers choose their lender from a past relationship or referral from friends and family. Includes: Family, Friends, Prospects, Past Clients. You are staying in front of them for two reasons: 1) in case they need a mortgage, or 2) they can refer someone to you.
How can a Realtor be qualified or committed, you wonder? Well – do they give you crap leads? Do they call after 8? Do they live in a panic? It is up to you to determine what QUALIFIES as a good referral partner and then make that determination when assigning them a status. And are they COMMITTED to the relationship? Do they actively refer?
We suggest you format your database the following way:
Managing Your Contact’s Info
Contact Information
Include addresses (home and work), phone numbers, email addresses, Facebook, Group, Lead Source, Lead Status (utilizing tags) and more.
FORD Conversations
Family: Include his name, her name, kids’ names, pets’ names, birthdays, anniversaries. Note: Everyone in your database will receive the following auto emails: Birthdays, Loan Anniversaries, and Holidays. Want to set up these emails automatically? Follow our tutorial here.
Occupation: Include where he/she works, titles, responsibilities, longevity, company information.
Recreation: Include notes on favorite hobbies, sports teams, restaurants, vacation spots, wine preferences, and so on.
Dreams: Include notes on any goals they have shared – kids attending college, house on water, ten rental houses by age forty, for example.
Real Estate
Include detailed notes on their real estate and mortgage situation.
Production
For referral partners, include how much volume the typically close.
Milestones and Lifecycles
Setting up your milestones/lifecycles for your contacts in your CRM to determine where they are in the process is incredibly helpful. Once you have determined your contact types, setting up the lifecycles/milestones is the next step. See below for examples of MAJOR MILESTONES and MINI MILESTONES within them:
Major and Mini Milestones For Your Contacts
From Lead to Application
New Lead
Attempting to Contact
In Conversation
App Sent
Qualifying
From Application to Contract
Pre-Qualified
Shopping
From Contract to Closing
In Set-Up/Disclosures
Processing
Underwriting
CTC
CD
Docs
Closing
Funding
Wanna see how to qualify your leads in Surefire?
Once you have your contacts and milestones set to your preferences, it’s time to set a cadence, set up tasks for touchpoints and content into workflows.
Make that a reality with these tutorials:
How to Create Tasks in Surefire
How To Create Workflows in Surefire.
Snag your spot now and get 5 full-length tutorial videos that will have your Surefire CRM running in no time.
Wanna learn how to create views in Surefire?
Here’s a sneak peak of what you’ll get from our Surefire course
Let’s Make Your Pipeline Fuller and Your Calendar Cleaner by Optimizing Your Surefire CRM
Get lifetime access to our Surefire CRM Training and start making your business a well-oiled machine.
Get step-by-step tutorials of Surefire CRM, including the basics of setup to the detailed features of workflows, triggers, and contact organization.
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Absolutely! This course is designed to give you the foundational skills you need to use the features of Surefire. We also provide tips and downloads to help you expand your skillsets within your CRM.
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Yes, every video is a screen recording of a live account. We walk you through the settings and adjustments you need to make to use your Surefire account.
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We can help! Book some time with Monica to get hands-on, live help with your CRM setup.