Before HubSpot, Accord Mortgages didn’t have a single dedicated CRM system making it hard to connect directly with brokers that weren’t already their customers. They didn’t have the tools to build a fluid database of prospects or practical means to contact them in a relevant, useful manner. The same was true for their existing customers.
Accord Mortgages’ Strategic Business Performance and Operations Manager, Nick Piper, explains, “We didn’t have a way to treat our customers, our brokers in this case, in a way that focuses on their needs as individuals. It’s effortless to treat every broker in the UK the same way, but this is such a diverse group of people with bespoke needs and requirements. We needed a system that will help us serve them better.”
To accelerate their growth and the number of brokers they’re working with, they had to reach a wider audience of brokers. Marie O’Reilly, Marketing Planning Manager at Accord Mortgages, says, “We wanted to do something that no other lender in the intermediary marketplace was doing. The goal was to offer content and tools that will help brokers grow their business. As a result, they would trust us and consider doing business with us or, if they were already our customer, do even more business with us.”
Accord Mortgages searched for a platform that would become their single source of truth, providing a cross-functional overview of all intermediary data. Not just that—it had to be a secure platform suited for a highly regulated industry like financial services. With this, marketing and sales could spend less time finding the right data and more time doing work that moves their company forward. HubSpot stood out from a range of options Accord Mortgages considered. “It’s easy to use and intuitive, and the value we could get from having everything logged into HubSpot was instantly clear,” adds Nick. They’ve signed up for Marketing Hub Professional in early 2018 and added Sales Hub to the mix a year later.
The initial implementation of Marketing Hub was fast and smooth. Accord Mortgages joined forces with ClientsFirst, a top-tier HubSpot Solutions Partner. ClientsFirst was the ideal agency choice thanks to their previous experience with brokers. Marie explains, “Implementation was impressively quick. We launched Growth Series, our inbound marketing campaign, in about two months. Tutorials and videos from HubSpot helped our team learn what they needed, too.” In the months that followed, Growth Series went from being a pilot program to always-on and turned into a growth library for mortgage brokers. Content that Accord Mortgages creates with HubSpot includes blog posts, professional guides, podcasts, videos, and checklists. They maximise their impact with a range of HubSpot tools, including lead workflows, forms, lead scoring, email marketing, and other pages. Automating manual marketing tasks saves the marketing team many hours every week.
Adding HubSpot CRM to the stack aligned efforts between marketing and sales. Until then, sales reps had become accustomed to keeping details from sales conversations in their head—particularly outside sales reps. “Thanks to HubSpot’s mobile CRM app, reps who spend their days on the road transformed the way they work. The app gives them quick access to all the conversations with a person, including phone and webchat. They use voice recognition to log their notes after visiting a prospect, which saves time later on. This also means that marketing gets updates about a lead quicker, so they can send more relevant messages,” explains Nick.
The focus on creating a personal touch is another advantage Accord Mortgages’ sales team gained from HubSpot. “The idea is that the prospect or the customer doesn’t deal with just anyone from Accord Mortgages. They deal with the Business Development Manager that provides a one-on-one service and helps the broker do their job well. It’s crucial for the BDM to instantly react to an opportunity instead of picking it up days later,” adds Nick. Real-time data in HubSpot helps the marketing and sales team demonstrate they care about the client with clear, definable actions.
Traditionally, Sales people relied on notepads and various spreadsheets to review their last meeting or engagement with a prospect. They also couldn’t track their success, follow up with critical brokers at the right time, or continue the conversation exactly where another colleague left off. With HubSpot, the sales team uses the Dashboard & Reporting Add-On to report on performance, “tasks” to improve productivity and Meeting Scheduling Software calendars to avoid the back and forth when organising a meeting.
In less than six months from starting with HubSpot, Accord Mortgages reached more of their target market than ever before and transformed their sales process so they can focus on their best prospects.
Results that Accord Mortgages have seen with HubSpot so far speak volumes. Growth Series, their content series, generated more than 6,000 broker signups, capturing more than 10% of the UK broker market. Their top landing page has an 83% conversion rate.
HubSpot has helped Accord Mortgages maintain their Net Promoter Score at over 80 for over a year, which places them at the top of their industry. The genuine personal connection sales teams establish with their brokers is a huge component of that. They’ve managed to do that at scale, logging close to 7,000 meetings in just over a year. The team has also reduced the time spent on sales reporting by 25%.
Going forward, Accord Mortgages plans to get even more specific and sophisticated about the way they segment their broker database and personalise their communication. They’re always on the lookout for the most intelligent way of fulfilling commercial ambitions through their ability to tailor and refine individual relationships. Marie finishes by saying, “The best thing about HubSpot is that it gives me a choice. We don’t need to rely on paid advertising or other expensive strategies if we don’t want to—our reputation and organic reach has become effective enough, all thanks to HubSpot.”