What’s in a list & Why reverse mortgage pros struggle?
post by Sam Collins

Here’s the bottom line; No one will do a reverse mortgage with you unless they have an interest in it!   Or you are lucky enough to check in when they are having a life changing event. 

When considering a direct mail, telephone, seminar campaign, or other marketing effort, we often get side tracked and attention is deflected away from the list.  Why?  Most notably we get hung up on the aesthetics of the marketing material.  When in reality, if we focus on the wrong list, it really doesn’t matter what the marketing material looks like.  The most important part is the list.

My experience is most response related marketing services don’t truly understand the reverse mortgage business.  They get confused when you ask for equity versus LTV, they think in terms of anyone 62 or older will work, they don’t consider length of residence, or total revolving debt, and most notably can’t fully zero in on values.    Understandably,  these variables in our marketplace can be difficult, but not impossible when you go outside and actually deal directly with list and data vendors, whose specialty is exactly that, DATA.

Why deal direct with list and data providers?  Foremost, providing lists and data bases are what they do.  Secondly, once you purchase the data, always ask for the download copy of the data.  Thirdly, since marketing to the same data base over and over again, you are now in control and your cost for the really good data actually gets better the more often it is used.  For example, if you paid .25 cents for your data, mailed 10, 000 pieces as many as 4 times, then your actual cost for the really good data is not .25 cents per name, but .0625 cents, about the same you would have paid for if you purchased lousy data or got what you thought was free.

Remember, keep moving forward to stay ahead in reverse.
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