Do you remember your first car, your first teacher or even the first person you kissed? I reckon most people do and, as a result, some of these are used as online security questions – often because they are intimate or individual to each person making them harder to guess.

Why do we remember them so clearly and distinctly? It is because such events imprint themselves into our memory or, at the time, there is nothing to compare against when we truly experience it for ourselves.

This highlights the importance of ‘getting there first’. The ability to establish a unique connection, something that enables a deep relationship with the opportunity to meet and exceed expectations.

Of course, just like kissing, there’s a chance for it to go horribly and disastrously wrong, making it indelibly memorable – but for all the wrong reasons. Believe it or not, this connects to the mortgage world and how ‘new new’ business comes to a broker.

Our own (preliminary) research into lead generation highlights that the number of methods used by brokers falls into two camps: qualified and unqualified leads – or warm and cold. Word of mouth is a common method and a shining example of what makes the advice world so strong. In fact, it is no surprise that good brokers love and cherish five-star reviews and testimonials and often display them so prominently on their websites, social media and email signatures. This opens a window of unbiased acknowledgement into what they do and how they do it.

But what about introducers such as estate agents and new-build developers?  We all know that people buy houses not mortgages, but how do we ensure that the actual moment of introducing the actual mortgage product to enable a property purchase is successful?  How do we guarantee that the clutch isn’t released too early and the car doesn’t crash into the garden wall or, in our kiss analogy, we haven’t got popcorn stuck between our teeth?

It’s all about getting that ‘first time’ right and doing something that takes the cold and makes it warm in a situation the broker cannot control. Certainly, technology and process can do its bit – for instance, passing the client’s details over email, providing a business card, having the client peruse your website or even filling out an enquiry form. But these still drop into the advice process colder than a dead penguin in a freezer.

Getting leads warm is about controlling the process and stamping your presence and expertise into a scenario where you cannot physically be available, either because you’re busy or it’s out of working hours.

It is digital on-boarding that bridges that divide. This is where the introducer passes the client a tablet, with a pre-loaded form, that takes five minutes to complete, and provides an indicative mortgage score that integrates product, criteria and affordability directly to the client. We’re now heading into warmer climes as digital on-boarding qualifies the broker, qualifies the client and, more importantly, adds value for the introducer and client at a crucial point of the house purchase journey.

Through our Burrow system, digital on-boarding is now a reality supporting a variety different introduction scenarios. Already we have businesses providing tablets to prospective clients at new build developments allowing the prospective house buyer to enter their details. This will then provide an indicative mortgage report that highlights the client(s) affordability amount; it will also instantly show up prospective products, having already dovetailed with applied criteria checking.  Behind the scenes, that information is used to create a qualified, inserting all the details of the lead into the broker’s back-office CRM.

When a client visits your website, digital on-boarding changes the traditional web enquiry form into an experience that intelligently captures significantly more information and rewards the visitor with valued and qualified information.  t also presents the broker with a qualified lead with all the prospective client’s details automatically placed into their CRM before they’ve even spoken to the client, all ready for the adviser to engage with.

This controls and structures the client’s mortgage journey. It nurtures the enquiry without any jarring move between introducer or lead generator into the broker.

We’re talking about the equivalent of mirrors, signal, manoeuvre or a tactical breath mint.

We’re talking about making that first time memorable and a fundamental success because if you control the conditions, truly wonderful things happen.

By Melanie Spencer, head of MCI Club