Full Transcript is Below:
– Welcome into NFM TV. I’m your host, Greg Sher. I have been very excited since meeting this person firsthand, face-to-face, about a year ago to get a conversation going with Alex Kutsishin. He is the Co-Founder of TrustEngine. He was also, and the CMO, and he was the Co-Founder of Sales Boomerang. Sales Boomerang and Mortgage Coach recently joined forces to create TrustEngine. And Alex is a brilliant marketing and business mind. And now he’s with us on NFM TV. Alex, how are you?
– I’m doing great. Thanks for having me on, Greg.
– You know, you really energized me when we were in Vegas at the DigMo Conference, sitting on a panel together, talking about Gen Z, talking about this next wave of homeowners that are entering the market. You know that NFM has an influencer division and that we have our own unique perspective, but I want to know yours. I wanna know what you think this business looks like. Is it gonna still be dominated by the real estate agent who hands the LO a lead, or could it be the other way around?
– Yeah, I think it’s gonna become more 50-50. As a matter of fact, I think you might start seeing more towards the lending side. There’s a real interesting reason why, and actually, it’s part of the reason why we named the company TrustEngine. Because one of the things that’s missing right now in the financial industry is trust. And we wanted to start putting that back into the financial industry, right? So social media has become this really unfiltered reality TV. If you’re recording dozens and dozens of videos, your true personality shows up. You cannot hide it. And that is the type of thing that we’re attracted to, right? Getting to know people. You spend time with them, you get to know them, you start to trust them. This is a window into somebody’s life, into their personality. Once you start to show who you are, I can choose to follow you. Nobody’s forcing me. I can choose to engage with you, nobody’s forcing, nobody even knows I’m looking at your stuff. So it’s my choice, which is kind of how we all like it, isn’t it?
– We’ve seen ourselves, you know, as close up as anybody can see, having dealt with so many people that have come in through our influencers’ videos, how early on in the funnel we are getting in front of people. And so, mortgage companies, they’re accustomed to handling somebody that comes in, who’s ready to transact in the next 30 to 60 days, by and large, unless they’re buying a, you know, new construction. A lot of these people, half of them are six months and out. And so, your opinion on how to meet those people where they are, and if you think the mortgage industry has the bandwidth to do that?
– You know, I think, if you’re a mortgage advisor, you’re gonna be fine. If you’re starting your conversation with, “What’s your current rate? Let’s pull your credit.” You are not gonna survive the six month process. If you’re starting the conversation, “Why are you here today? What are your goals? What would it mean to have this home? Why now? What’s your goal for moving forward?” Then you’re gonna be great. You’re gonna be more than great. You’re gonna have a line of customers, because it’s gonna take time, and they want you to work with them.
– If someone signs up for TrustEngine today, what kind of experience can they look forward to that will be delivered to their consumers?
– “No Borrower Left Behind.” The entire mission there was to make sure that the consumer knows that we know what they need. You know, we’ve reframed this entire concept of “speed to lead.” What we’re moving towards right now, and it’s being rolled out as we speak with many of our lenders, is “speed to need.” What did we identify? What’s relevant? But then, if we pull the curtain back, and we see that this family just had their second child, they live in a two bedroom home, they’re likely gonna be looking for more space, maybe a little cash out to build some more space or a new home. All of a sudden, that’s no longer a mortgage inquiry. That is a family in a pretty stressful situation, just had their second child, living in a two bedroom. Emotions are gonna be high. Should you be calling with rates and products? Probably not. You should be talking about, “Hey, growing families should be making smart financial decisions.”
– Are they all past consumers? Do you have to have closed a loan for it to really work? Or in the case of what NFM is doing, where we have influencers making video and people raising their hands who have never bought a home before, from us or anyone, is there a place in TrustEngine for those people?
– Yeah, so it’s your database, but it’s not but your database isn’t just your past customers. Your database is your leads. Your database is your pipeline. Your database is your turndowns. Your database is your realtors, right? All of that makes up your database. So what we’ve started to do is, when we identify someone in your database that is is ready for a loan conversation, we are actually creating content and engagement. We are engaging them, and getting them to respond and raise their hand, but point, right? A lead is somebody that raised their hand and shakes it. When you get a hand raiser from your influencers, they’re raising their hand and they’re pointing to the loan officer like, “Hey, you help me. I’m interested in working with you.” That’s what we’re doing on the TrustEngine side, but not through influencer marketing, but through channels like email, SMS. We’re finding everything in your database that is ready for a loan conversation, and then we are suggesting how to engage with them, how to open a conversation, what the potential offer might be, using the Total Cost Analysis from Mortgage Coach as a teaching tool, as an advising tool.
– Are you saying that you’re putting marketing collateral in front of those consumers, as well as identifying that they’re somebody that’s ready?
– Absolutely, yes. We have a sophisticated marketing automation team that works on rewriting content, and following up, and A/B testing, and all that good stuff. And everything is automated. We don’t expect our loan officers to sit and do nothing but pound the phones from these notifications. They have to meet with realtors, they have other things to do, so we create opportunities for them. We create inbound.
– What’s the best way people can get more information?
– Well, you can go on LinkedIn, find me on LinkedIn. You can go to trustengine.com. That’s the best way, is trustengine.com.
– Great name, TrustEngine.
– If you’ve seen the logo, the colors, and we’re talking about, “Let’s be bright. Let’s be honest. Let’s be transparent. Let’s let borrowers know they can trust us.” Again, they can shake our hand and know that we’re going to deliver on the promises we discussed, and you can say something like, “Hey, we subscribe to a system called TrustEngine that is a non-biased platform that lets us know when you could benefit from a loan.” And if you can’t benefit, TrustEngine doesn’t make the suggestion.
– Alex Kutsishin, Co-Founder and CMO of TrustEngine. Thank you so much for your time. Really appreciate it. Hope to check back in with you here as we head towards the end of 2023 and into 2024, continued success.
– Thank you so much. Same to you, and congratulations on all your success as well.
– Hope you’ve enjoyed this. I’m Greg Sher from NFM TV. We’ll see you next time.