Botsplash May Webinar Series Recap

You probably saw us promoting and may have even received an invite to the Botsplash May Webinar Series last month. If you attended, thank you - we appreciated the conversations and your participation during the session. For those who could not attend, due to time zone and/or schedule conflicts, we are planning to host our future webinars at a later time in the day to accommodate multiple time zones. We will provide more details in the coming days, please follow us on LinkedIn for updates!

Now, to the recap of our webinar sessions! We've laid out discussion pointers and a summarization of each event for your reference. Hope you enjoy it.

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Session 1: Sales Management

Our very first guest and presenter was Kevin Benner, from SDP Solutions. Our topics of discussion - Lead Ownership Strategy, Contact Strategy, Opportunity Prioritization, Technology Stack, and more. A lot of topics were covered, to be sure! Some highlights and best practices:

1. When does a salesperson take ownership of the lead, and when does it stay sticky? Speed to contact is very important and consider "lead ownership" at first contact rather than lead creation. In a shared lead model, you have to be quick to respond and #BeThereForYourCustomer

70% of funding (closings) happens with the first lender/merchant the consumer engages with

65% of conversions are going to come based on the first engagement intent (positive or discouraging)

2. Display and mention your brand - on call, by email, and through text. Have the agent's name and put it in the messaging so the prospect feels encouraged to reply and connect with an actual person.

3. Set KPI baselines and monitor them. Create A/B tests for the scripts and message templates. Monitor SPAM rates and engagement responses.

"The company owns the lead but the agent owns the lead locks rate or closes." - Gary @PureFunding

4. Don't KILL the lead with over communication. Maintain and monitor phone number reputation and keep your SPAM rates low. Secret shop your experience often, to relate to what the consumer engagement experience looks like.

There's a 40% lift in response rate if the brand is seen on the call and/or text

5. Stay ATDS compliant (Automatic Telephone Dialing System)! All states, except Florida and Oklahoma, allow contact between 8 AM to 9 PM with written consent. Florida and Oklahoma follow mini-TCPA of 8 AM to 8 PM and restrict how many dials within 24 hours. Stay tuned for later TCPA news from TCPAWorld.

6. What is a "perfect" tech stack?

TCPA - ActiveProspect / Jornaya

Point-of-Sale - BeSmartee, SimpleNexus, CloudVirga

Pricing Engine - Mortech

Lead Scoring - ProPair

CRM - Velocify, Total Expert, Ricochet, Insellerate

Multi-Channel Engagement - Botsplash!

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Session 2: Marketing Management

Moderated by Bruce Walker and team Botsplash. Marketing - the fun, growth hacking and viral nature of it all! Discussion topics were very diverse, exploratory, creative and constructive. Check out the highlights of the session.

1. The Social Generation : The primary audience today are Millennials and Gen-Z - they are independent decision makers, multi-channel dependent, influencer driven (reviews + trends + impulsive), mobile & messaging first, gamify or automation influenced generation.

Digital Engagement is REAL

Digital Relationships are REAL

Instant Response is MUST HAVE

2. Website Must-Haves : Well labeled CTAs, easy navigation and responsive design on all devices, relevant branded landing pages and you must have unique identifiers, quality and relevant content for SEO boost and to drive website visitor stickiness, social media links (remember your audience is a 'social generation') and Privacy Statements.

3. Social Network Effect : Brand Awareness, Identity, Recognition - maintain content consistency "Post at regular intervals". At Botsplash, we post content on our LinkedIn Page and video releases via Botsplash TV. Consider merchandising your Zoom and wear branded clothing!

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Session 3 : Technology Management

Our guest was Kamelia Dianati, an executive leader in technology and product roles. In this session we discussed technology decisions on "Build vs Buy", and if you have not watched the Meta Conversations Conference, watch it today and understand the world of consumer B2C / DTC engagements. - Watch Now.

1. Build it - if it is the core competency of your business (you are a lender and have a proprietary decisioning algorithm, build the algorithm in-house). Buy it - if it is a commodity for your business needs (you are a lender and need dialer system).

2. Who owns the data? Learn the terms and conditions of vendor partnership, details related to data storage, ownership and control. Is the vendor managing your data? Are they SOC 2 Type 2?

3. B2C (Lead Buyer) vs B2B (Lead Seller) - make consumer experiences seamless. Branding | Collection of Data | Expectation Setting | Process Transparency

4. Influence of social media - what is safe and compliant? #BeWhereYourCustomersAre but run it by compliance to ensure the checks, balances, and monitoring are put in place.

5. Need to cut tech budget? Re-negotiate contracts for longer term and reduced payout, think of variable cost with consultants in place of fixed cost hiring, manage good relationship with mutual trust and respect.

Always tell the truth as fast as you can.

6. Key Tech Trends: Blockchain and Web3 - watch out for it, specifically in lead consent / decentralization of data. Automation and Intent Detection - model your responses and conversations.

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Session 4 : Legal and Compliance Management

Our guest was John Henson, General Counsel Consumer Affairs. Highlights were TCPA consent, digital channel compliance, ECOA and fair lending.

1. Make sure to follow and subscribe to TCPAWorld for all latest TCPA news.

2. Nine-part TCPA consent language structure. Look for these things when buying leads and displaying disclosure on lead gen sites. (ATDS - Automatic Telephone Dialing System)

3. Set clear expectations and explain the process, so they can make the best decisions. Explicitly inform about any "on-behalf-of" party consent.

4. Consumer Review Takeaway: If you operate a website or platform that features reviews, have processes in place to ensure those reviews truly reflect the feedback received from legitimate customers about their real experiences. Read up the Fashion Nova case.

CONSIDER EVERYTHING THROUGH UDAAP (Unfair, Deceptive, or Abusive Acts or Practices).?EVERYTHING.

5. ECOA and Fair Lending: CFPB notice: you can use AI/algorithm, but you should understand and be able to explain what goes into it. What are the variables and how are they weighted? Read more here.

Adverse Action Notices required for customers with existing credit

Adverse Action Notices required for all credit decisions including “black box” “The adverse action notice requirements of ECOA and Regulation B, however, apply equally to all credit decisions, regardless of the technology used to make them.”

So much information! We strive to provide important and relevant content for our clients and community. Follow us on LinkedIn, and subscribe to our newsletter to hear the latest platform news, announcements, and upcoming webinar information. Stay tuned!