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Getting a toll-free phone number for your business is beneficial in a variety
of ways. Your customers can reach you more easily, potential customers are more
likely to choose a toll-free phone number to inquire about services, and it
makes good business sense. However, there are also creative ways to use
toll-free numbers that you might not have thought of in order to help increase
sales.
Atleast that’s what Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corp. realized when
they decided to offer a toll-free phone number to its brokers and
correspondents. The whole point of the offering was to help them get leads for
home-purchase loans.
As reported in American Banker, here’s how it works: the Ocala,
Fla., wholesale lender provides three toll-free numbers to an originator, which
in turn gives two of them to real estate agents that supply it with leads. It
keeps the third to market properties that are for sale by the owner.
The realty agents and the originator are able to display the
numbers in all their advertising. The phone numbers of prospective homebuyers
who call the toll-free line and the extension in the ads are immediately sent to
the real estate agent or originator.
The service is free for the first four months, after which it costs $2 a day.
Cheri Galvan, Taylor Bean's Western regional manager, said it is offering the
service so that originators "refer" customers to her company for their
mortgages.
The results? In a recent press release, the wholesaler said early adaptors of
the system have had increases of over 400% in closed sales in just the first few
months. With results like that, creative ways to use toll-free numbers can mean
big sales for small businesses.
Source: American Banker, November 2006
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