Lead Generation

Quality vs. Quantity

Most financial institutions aren't lacking referrals; it's the quality of the leads that is at the forefront of frustration for most account managers.

The financial industry continues to lose market share to non-financial institutions that are providing financial services without the stringent regulations with which financial institutions must comply. As lines blur between financial institutions, brokerage firms and insurance companies, the financial industry knows it must increase the effectiveness of every branch office encounter. That includes recognizing an opportunity and getting that customer in front of the right person.

When following up on branch initiated leads, many account managers admit if the first 5 out of 100 result in dead-ends, they will conclude the remaining 95 are unqualified and ignore them. Many financial executives struggle with the knowledge that there is tremendous opportunity to expand the customer relationship with estate planning, portfolio management or even insurance products, but the customer-facing employee is often less knowledgeable in areas outside of traditional retail products.

A study completed recently by The Corporate Executive Board's Council on Financial Competition stated "branch staff can master only six products, which they will push 90% of the time regardless of the customer's interest level."

Opportunity - Taking Guesswork Out of Product Selection

Evidence has shown, for optimal success, lead qualification must incorporate the customer into the process. Ignite's service enables the financial institution to once and for all solve the cross-sell puzzle and gain quantifiable customer conversion rates. In real-time, the customer is presented the appropriate financial product based upon customer input, the predicted profile, and the financial institution's business rules. Then Ignite's lead distribution technology navigates the customer to the appropriate channel for fulfillment. No longer are account managers spending time and effort chasing unqualified leads. Instead, Ignite's technology has built-in logic to protect against such erroneous leads helping make customer-facing employees ever more productive. Using Ignite's technology replicates the most gifted sales officer. It takes the guesswork out of product selection and lead qualification.

Advantage

The financial industry can now turn to their best prospects for new accounts - existing customers. Using Ignite's Customer Relationship Guides to initiate an annual review, financial institutions can engage their existing customers in the sales process and experience the following Ignite clients' results:

• Existing customers are 250% more likely to apply for new accounts
• Engaged customers are 12 times as likely to open a new account
• Capturing an additional account from an existing customer costs 90% less than attracting a new customer.