The most obvious way to grow your title company is to increase your clients – however, as title companies sell the exact product as their competitors, that’s sometimes easier said than done.
One way to grow your business is by expanding the services it offers. At the 2017 National Settlement Services Summit (NS3) in San Antonio, during the session “Opening doors to drive business,” two industry experts discussed both approaches to growing title businesses.
The session’s speakers were Aaron Davis, CEO, Florida Title Agency Network; and Greg Wright, president of The Wright Track Consulting Agency.
Wright told attendees that while title companies have a plethora of tools at their disposal, nothing beats face-to-face dialogue with Realtors and lenders when it comes to growing their businesses. The main conduit for driving this model is appointments with Realtors and lenders who aren’t using your services.
Many title companies are constantly pitching their services to such groups, but Wright said some are not successful because they are not pitching enough people and aren’t persistent enough. “We don’t have enough mathematics on the sales side in order to accomplish our goals,” Wright said. “How many face-to-face appointments do you currently have with Realtors who don’t choose you now? How many people are you seeing regularly?”
Wright suggested setting a goal of six appointments a day, four days a week, for three weeks. He also said the easiest folks to set appointments with are not always the decision makers you need to contact, as the top sellers are always the most difficult people to solicit.
He speculated that it usually takes 12 contacts with each person before a conversion. However, many outside sales representatives give up after three or four touch points. “We’re giving up a third too early before it’s time to do the conversion. If you stay on them, you’re building traction and you have a really good shot at converting them,” Wright said. “The name of the game here is persistence. Don’t give up. I strongly encourage you to take a look at what your mathematical template looks like.”
Wright said the biggest hurdle for getting new business is usually the same for all sales representatives (previously established relationships with other companies), the sales representatives are really competing with each other to see who is more persistent.
Another way to grow your title business is by expanding the services it offers. Davis said adding a new line of business to your title company can help consumers view it as a one-stop shop. “We’re the guys who know who moves into a neighborhood first. We’re the ones that record information in public record. So now there’s even more value to what we do,” Davis said. “What’s that worth?”
Davis said title companies looking to grow can do so by partnering with ancillary companies to offer multiple services to its clients and more ancillary products, such as notary service signing services, tax certification, surveys, 1031 exchange services, home inspection, mortgage protection policies, term life policies, etc.
“Every single closing needs other stuff. Every closing needs a title search. Every closing needs a property and casualty insurance policy,” Davis said.
Davis said title company owners should research ancillary options carefully before charging full steam ahead, as sometimes the cons heavily outweigh the pros with each business venture. On property and casualty insurance, Davis said “every client needs this. It’s required for closing. [And] property and casualty renews every year.”
In the case of property and casualty insurance, Davis said the cons include time and money toward continuing education requirements and large initial investments with little or no ROI for the first few years of business. He said adding a notary signing service, or any other vendor managed service, requires carefully monitoring the people performing the service. Business owners must be prepared to make sure each company and its employees meet industry compliance standards, which can take large amounts of money and time.
“That signer who shows up is an extension of [your company]. So, we need to make sure that we’re doing business with very professional people,” Davis said.
He also noted that there’s a shortage of surveyors. “You should develop a one-stop shop mentality…One stop shopping is very attractive to [millennials],” Davis said.