Competitive Drive Must Elevate to Survive 2023 in the Mortgage Industry
You can do a reverse mortgage on a mobile home. Reverse mortgage companies used to hate them…a lot. They used to be very small loans. FHA requirements are a bit more strenuous. The customer is a bit challenging, the process takes more time, and so it is much work for not much profit. I created a strategy to run ads to aggregate mobile home leads for reverse mortgages. Of course, my peers and leadership thought I was out of my mind, but there was a twist to my little plan. I wanted to aggregate reverse mortgage mobile home leads and route them to a vulnerable competitor. Why do you ask?
Over time, the lender that would receive these reverse mobile home opportunities would begin to collect reviews for their service, they would begin to receive referrals for reverse mobile homes, and they would organically become the GO-TO company for Mobile Home Reverse Mortgages. Thus, positioning them to work with challenging customers, decreasing their efficiency, impacting morale, and driving down their profitability.
The compliance department and legal rejected my strategy. So, I never got to do it. I was playing to dominate and be #1. I wanted to throw some punches and make some aggressive moves. This strategy is not uncommon. It is often used in insurance and other alternative financial service industries.
Negative Branding or Unbranding
Negative Branding, sometimes called Unbranding, is an aggressive strategy to reduce a brand’s reputation or create an alternative brand narrative that is not originally intended. It’s an enterprise strategy, and there are many ways to execute this type of campaign to achieve the desired outcome.
Subtly, the other reason why this kind of strategy isn’t approved is that it is considered – mean. We know whoever is at the lender. We’re going to see them at some conference or summit. We’re both involved in the same group of something. We work in the most minor, largest industry on the planet, and we all tend to know each other. At some point, a decision must be made on competing or playing nice. Competing doesn’t have to annihilate their entire business, but when selling commodities. Putting forth a competitive strategy that differentiates each other will be more necessary than ever in the coming years.
The Time to Be Competitive is NOW!
We have a few rock throwers on LinkedIn that do a good job picking fights to grab attention and drive talent to their organization. A couple of companies have put together some intense rivalries. Still, I witness many hold hands at conferences and pretend that we are not fighting for the survival of our companies, staff, their families, and our customers.
So far, almost 4% of the mortgage jobs have been eliminated this year. Reports have surfaced stating that 1000 IMBs will be no more in the next 12-18 months. A competitive marketing strategy will be the difference between those who survive and close their doors. Of course, Art Vs. Math is the king of the castle in helping companies put this kind of strategy together and execute it at the highest level. If anyone wants to dispute that or thinks they can do it better. FIGHT ME!