Pulling credit is arguably the most important step in increasing your conversions when partaking in mortgage lead generation. Unfortunately, this step is typically where you’ll face the most resistance.
Usually, there will be hesitation centered around negative effects on their credit score. Others will argue that they’ve already pulled their credit through a free service. Meanwhile, some just don’t know enough to trust the process.
As a result, we’ve witnessed many loan officers struggle to get past this point in the process. Learning how to handle these objections could be the difference between winning and losing with mortgage lead generation.
Don’t worry, you’re not alone. We’ve put together some little known secret hacks for pulling credit.
Be Patient & Earn Their Trust
We get it, you want to prequalify your lead to measure whether or not it is worth your time. In order to do so, you’re asking to pull their credit right from the jump.
DO NOT do this. The opportunities you will miss out on are far more valuable than the time you will save.
Start out the conversation by building rapport with your lead. You can go about this by asking questions casually, while still collecting important information. For instance, you’ll obviously need to ask questions about their employment history, residence history, any debts they may have, and income. Ask these questions before you ask them anything about their credit score.
By asking relevant questions, you are also demonstrating your knowledge of the loan process. Which in the consumers’ eyes, makes you a valuable resource.
Once you have earned their trust, and information is flowing freely, then it is time to ask about pulling credit.
Credit Score Impact Response
We often hear that prospects are fearful of the impact that running a credit report will have on their credit score. This typically happens at one of two points in the process.
1. In some cases, it is the first thing we hear out of a prospect’s mouth.
In this situation, we want to make sure to acknowledge their concerns. Make sure you commend them for taking steps to protect their credit.
Then you want to quickly shift their focus elsewhere. As mentioned previously, we can use this time to collect other useful information and establishing that rapport we talked about.
If we push too hard on pulling credit here, we run the risk of losing the deal.
2. In other cases, we may get this objection even after we have collected all the data.
At this point, you have to use what you know to win them over. Leverage the information you have already gathered to change their perspective.
Help them understand that pulling their credit can do far more good for them than bad.
Make it known that…
- Pulling credit is the only thing standing in their way of seeing what they pre-qualify for.
- Worst case scenario, you are able to create a road map of everything they need to accomplish in order to qualify.
- Pulling credit allows them to get in front of any potential issues sooner rather than later.
- It allows them to narrow their home search, giving them the most accurate idea of their price range.
Educate Yourself to Educate Others
In order to enough trust to pull a prospect’s credit, you must be able to demonstrate your trustworthiness and value as a resource.
How do we achieve this?
To put it simply, you must educate yourself in order to educate others.
Scoring Models…
Being knowledgeable and open about other credit scoring models can give you the upper hand when you are faced with credit pulling objections.
For example, Credit Karma uses VantageScore as their scoring model. No mortgage lender uses this model, and it is completely useless to the mortgage process. In fact, VantageScore can be anywhere from 20 to 100 points off base.
Knowledge like this can be leveraged to show your customers why pulling their credit is a necessity.
Why we NEED to pull credit to be successful with Mortgage Lead Generation…
Pulling credit allows you to provide the customer with a score simulation (assuming you have access to this tool). Assuming they don’t qualify, this allows you to give them a road map of the exact steps they can take to qualify.
AUS requires an official credit report and will accept nothing less. We all know there are too many risk factors with a loan in most scenarios for us to give anything more than a general range and an IF you qualify… That is, without us running an AUS. Get the credit report, and you can tell them exactly what they qualify for.
Once you’ve pulled the credit, the customer has more than likely committed to using you as their mortgage loan officer. In fact, this is THE ONLY level of commitment that you can collect from a customer in most cases. Since nobody charges application fees anymore, pulling credit can create a level of commitment that your initial conversation wouldn’t have been able to.
Hacking the headache of pulling credit will become second nature with these on hand. Taking the time to build rapport, acknowledge objections, and apply the appropriate hack(s), could be the difference that takes you from good to great as a mortgage loan officer.
As always, thanks for reading, and we’ll see you at the top!
If you’d like to learn more about how our conversion specialists can help you leverage high-quality leads and scale your mortgage business, just click this link, book your live demo.