How to Build Affiliate Relationships with Credit Hero Troy Hitt!

Daniel Rosen  0:00  

Hey Credit Heroes, we have a very, very special guest today credit repair industry veteran Troy Hitt is here. He built a credit repair business, making over a million dollars annually with over 1000 affiliates. And today, Troy is going to share some amazing real-world examples of how affiliate relationships can really grow your credit repair business, so you better stick around. So the big question is this, how can we take our passion for helping people with their credit and turn it into a successful business without taking loans without spending a fortune by bootstrapping it from nothing? So we can help the most people and still become highly profitable? That is the question, and this podcast will give you the answer. My name is Daniel Rosen, and welcome to credit repair business secrets. Okay, if this is your first time listening to my podcast, every week, I give credit repair tips and advice on bootstrapping your business from nothing. So be sure to click subscribe now and get ready to start changing lives. Okay, let's get into this. Our most successful credit heroes, the ones who make a great living and change a tonne of lives, all have a few things in common. They all know the power of affiliate relationships and how to use them to grow their business. Troy Hitt ran a hugely successful credit repair business for many years, he has designed countless sales funnels, and he's an expert at building affiliate relationships. In fact, he is so smart and so talented. We hired him, he now works at Credit Repair Cloud. He's our Head of Customer Success here at Credit Repair Cloud. And that's how I know you are going to love this interview. So welcome to the podcast. Troy.

Troy Hitt  1:54  

Wow, what an intro. I love it. Thank you so much been so excited to come on this podcast. 

Daniel Rosen  2:01  

We've been excited about it too. And because this is about marketing, I also invited Keenan here. So come on in, Kenan, because he's responsible for all the marketing we do here at Credit Repair Cloud. So Keenan, thank you for traveling all the way from your office next door. Of course, we want to know all about affiliate relationships. And you're the king of that. But can you start by telling us about your background and a little bit about what your life was like before credit repair and what got you into credit repair?

Troy Hitt  2:33  

Yeah, that was a pretty easy story. Before credit repair, I was in the Air Force. So when it came to credit, there wasn't much talk of that. So we easily anyone who's listening out there that's been in the military knows that all a bank is concerned about is your rank and time and service. And they know when you get paid; they know how much you get paid. So they just automatically deduct it. So that was the kind of credit lines we had back then when I got out of the Air Force. There was this whole new credit world getting a house and things of that nature. So I'll never forget the first brand new car ever, but I was really excited. And a guy goes, Hey, don't worry, you can come back in six months and try to get a better interest rate. And like me talking about, and so that's when I discovered I had some dings on my credit. I'm like, I never even knew that. So that was my world before. Credit Repair is really not knowing anything about it, to be honest with you, or credit for that matter.

Daniel Rosen  3:29  

So what spurred the interest in diving into credit repair?

Troy Hitt  3:33  

So naturally is such a great segue for affiliate marketing down the road. The guy referred me to someone he knew, that helped people improve their credit situation, I had no idea what that looked like. And it was a very small office. And I was like, where's it at? Again? Like, yeah, go go talk to this person. And so I did. And that's when I'm like, what do you do now? How does this work now? And so we can start asking questions. And that's how I was introduced to the world of credit repair and what it can do for you.

Daniel Rosen  4:07  

And what did it do for you? Was he successful with you?

Troy Hitt  4:12  

Well, that person that I went to go see is, is my wife. So having bad credit got landed me the most beautiful woman in the world. So that was good. That's one of the positive things about having bad credit. She was doing it out of a little office with a friend at that time, and we saw an opportunity that, hey, this could be a pretty viable business.

Daniel Rosen  4:39  

Wow, I had no idea. That's how you met your wife. That is fantastic.

Troy Hitt  4:44  

She prides herself in that one.

Daniel Rosen  4:47  

Wow. See, I remember you because you were one of our first customers. But I only knew you. I knew you because you're the loudest customer Yes. How to support me? Yes, Tammy. I watched sometimes it got escalated from Tammy to Daniel.

Troy Hitt  5:10  

But oh, yeah, only you knew Tim was in trouble with Daniel. But yeah, it just, it started out very small it started out is, as many folks do, it starts out really small. And it's an aha moment, you're like, wow, if it wasn't even being naive, it's like, why don't you know about it? How many other people don't know about it? Like your financial responsibilities, a big thing that they focus on in the military. But at the same time, when you transition into the civilian world, there are so many golfers out there. And that's ultimately what got me in the truck in trouble. But it's ultimately what landed me my wife to

Daniel Rosen  5:43  

That's amazing. And I forgot to say earlier, thank you for your service. Absolutely.

Troy Hitt  5:49  

My pleasure.

Daniel Rosen  5:50  

How long were you in the Air Force?

Troy Hitt  5:52  

Nine years, one month in 12 days, but who was counting?

Daniel Rosen  5:56  

Wow, amazing. Now, one thing I remember about your business back then is that I was fascinated by this. You had kiosks in malls. I always thought that was really, really, really cool. And I saw.

Troy Hitt  6:14  

I thought it was cool too. So we did we literally had iPads, in malls, and people can request consultations it was it was definitely revolutionary at it during its time. But that was back when they started, you know, number one, when malls were popular, and they did get a lot of foot traffic. But that's when they really started putting those rolling advertising kiosks in the malls and started paying for those. And so we're like, Wouldn't it be cool if you know we're in a, we're in a place where people will probably run up their credit, or they just got turned down from a department store credit card or something like that. It's just the opportunity to meet him at that pain point.

Daniel Rosen  6:49  

Sure. Was that successful? actually wasn't

Troy Hitt  6:53  

Is that successful? But I think for anything, for the business at the time, it's kind of like, it was really cool to be animal and have your sign there. I mean, we did have people visit, but I wouldn't say that we got the ultimate return on that.

Keenan Jones  7:11  

What do you learn from that experience? Like why do you think it didn't work? Or what? What do you think is ultimately learned?

Troy Hitt  7:17  

Yeah, I don't, I don't think that technology was there for it to actually sell services kiosk. We had a man somebody to be there. And when you start manning it, you start looking like that person with a clipboard that is trying to sell you something right, which we ultimately weren't. And that's one of the keys to having a good affiliate relationship, you don't sell anything. But you would get like, avoided like the plague, you know, you see nowadays and go around those people. And so I think it was this incredibly sensitive thing. It's not really easy to share in a public location. All of these factors we didn't think of when, when putting there, we just really be cool to have our name in the middle of a mall.

Daniel Rosen  7:52  

Yeah, certainly, lots of people saw it. But I know your business was very successful because you had well over 1000 clients, right? And you're making well over a million dollars a year. And like guaranteed.

Troy Hitt  8:04  

Absolutely. A couple of million-dollar years. Yeah,

Daniel Rosen  8:08  

a couple million. Well, that's amazing. So what was it that grew the success,

Troy Hitt  8:14  

I think to appreciate what grew the success, you got to start with a little bit about back to the beginning; one of the first investments that we ever made was an investment of our time to get the opportunity to improve people's credit situations. And my wife at the time. This is why they really had the office at the time, as they used to do when mortgage loans were processed. They used to do processing, loan processing, right? And they get these big old files. Sure. And they would process them well. At some point or another. She stumbled upon these turned down files. This is like she picked the wrong stack up or something, right? And it was like, Well, what do we what can we do about these? And then that's when it opened up and had that one relationship that opened up the potential of improving everyone's credit situation, but that one relationship obviously wasn't going to, you know, build a business. So we had to put our names out there. I remember we paid $300, which was a lot of money for us at the time, and we got a billboard and we put it in high traffic location. We put it in the row with neon letters on it like need your credit improved or something like that, and the phone number, and then that began our first ever marketing effort in the very early stages, but that one relationship is what allowed us to do that is to invest money back into the business. So

Keenan Jones  9:30  

Troy, I know you have a wealth of experience with affiliates. I would love to know before we get into the tactics of how to get affiliates and, like, explain a little bit from your own perspective. Like why were affiliates important? Why do they why should credit heroes think about creating relationships with affiliates before we get into tactics? Yeah, the

Troy Hitt  9:51  

the most important thing, and especially when you're starting out, is they don't cost anything but your time, but they end up being more valuable than any kiosk you can put them all in sign you can put on the road, they end up being more valuable your return on investment on an affiliate relationship is 100x. You have to start with this one. But the reason for that is it doesn't cost you any money. It might if you stay local, and you just someone's local, I mean, it might cost you a tank of gas a week to go see him and develop a relationship. But that's why I think it's so valuable for those CROs out there not only to grow but to start your business.

Keenan Jones  10:28  

The certain you get a little bit into tactics if you explain a little bit, like why it's valuable. It's really like it's cheap, is what it's like a Yeah, it's an easy way to start getting clients or start getting more clients in the door in a cost-effective way. It sounds like if someone's just getting started, they want to get affiliates. They don't know where to go or what to do. I mean, what would you tell them? What are some tactics you would you'd start giving to a credit hero that doesn't have their first affiliate?

Troy Hitt  11:00  

Yeah, um, well, I don't know about any of you. But I love donuts, probably more so than I need. And, you know, I say now like back then open up the phone book nowadays, just google and you could Google mortgage brokers or real estate offices in your area and, and get in your car and drive in, you know, spend a couple of bucks on a box of donuts, staple a few business cards to it and do this thing we like called donut drops. That was it. You just walk in, and say, Hey, I'm a local credit repair industry, and I love the opportunity to help your clients improve their credit situation, if at all possible, but we don't need to talk about it today just enjoyed doughnuts on us. And that's literally it. You know, think about those expensive billboards, think about that kiosk in the mall. Think about that sign. It's all about visibility. Well, at that time. I think those in order to establish a relationship, you're only going to be successful for your established chat in person. And you can only establish so many of those in person before you're doing things virtually. But you can create a big business, just local contact with your real estate agents and your mortgage brokers.

Keenan Jones  12:06  

Are those two categories that the business focused on that you focused on realtors and mortgage brokers?

Troy Hitt  12:13  

Yeah, the real estate agents were kind of like the feed, right? They're, you know, they're the ones they're the boots on the ground. They're out there, they're hustling, they're trying to get the cells, and mortgage brokers are the ones that have the loan officer contracts and things that nature that hold their license. So they were you're in to get to, you know, the big fish, the golden goose, however, you want to call it, they were you're in but But you always treated them the same, you treated them equally because that relationship wouldn't exist if it weren't for them. You know, but yeah, those were the two ones, you know, you think you think of that transaction, you think of that sphere. Real estate agents are like the first point of contact, and in most of those transactions, you sure you could go into a new home sales office and probably speak to somebody, but that that real estate agent, realtors are that first point of contact,

Keenan Jones  13:04  

he talked a little bit about starting that relationship, you walk in the door, give them some donuts, pique their interest, and start to give them some value. What's the next step from there? What does it look like to actually kick off that relationship? And really, get it going? What did you do that activate those affiliates,

Troy Hitt  13:24  

you have to constantly give value. And one of the biggest ways you can give value, there's no better gift to a realtor or mortgage broker than a qualified applicant. That's what they live for it. That's the lifeline of their business. So how cool is it when you look through your lens of improving someone's credit situation? Hey, it looks like your credit situation has improved. I have a realtor that might be able to find you a place in your area because now, remember, you went around, and you've got names and offices of all the people in the area. Oh, you're looking in our keys in northeast Houston. Well, I know a realtor in northeast Houston when I connect you to you, I continue to give value. And if you give them a qualified applicant who is really serious about looking for a home, there's no greater gift that you can give in, and again, you're not looking for anything return that's you're just giving, you know, the law of reciprocity will take care of itself. But you have to trust that process.

Daniel Rosen  14:22  

What about when one of these mortgage brokers or Realtors is sending a client to you? And then you get them ready maybe a few months later? Do you make sure you send it back to the very same one who sent them to you?

Troy Hitt  14:37  

100% That's a good point to bring up. One of the things is not only are you giving, but you're also establishing trust because, you know, but I will also say the biggest hurdle for some of those affiliates is actually giving us their turn downs because they look at that like it's money. They look at that like it's their client, and they look at, you know, they look at that situation like, but we make it clear to them professionally. They're nothing to you right now. They can't buy from you. So why don't you at least give us a shot at it? And so we began to talk terminologies like pipeline business, you know, we're not talking referrals, right referrals is a big name that's it's given, it's overused. And referrals are I refer somebody, and people are expecting, you know, kind of that law of reciprocity. But when we talk about the pipeline business, the law of reciprocity for them is they get a qualified applicant out of it. I didn't give them anything other than a qualified applicant. So you start talking things like pipeline business, like what are you doing with your turndowns? Do you have someone in your back office? Is someone who does that? Or you just tell them, you just tell them no, give us the opportunity to improve their credit, social, what do you have to lose, right, you don't have anything to lose. And oh, by the way, I'm going to keep them in touch with you whether they like it or not and keep you updated on their process the whole way through. So you have to be transparent with that. The big discussion is that pipeline business, and that pipeline business has a couple of customers that IT services, it's not just that primary customer. So when you start improving their credit situation, you have to think of everyone you need to keep informed in that process. So you want to keep, obviously, the primary customer, that's the one that's paying you the money to improve their credit situation, the secondary customers, that affiliate who gave you that business, and the internal customer is me, the person working there working on that file, I have to know what their status is, at any time I log into my credit repair Cloud account, right? You know, hopefully, it's not your only client one day, and you have multiples, and you need to log in and see what their status is at a moment's notice. You can give that client you can give the affiliate their update and where they're at in their process so that the pipeline business will service itself. But the big question we always used to ask, and this is what would reel him in? This is the one you got to ask the big golden nugget be like, what would one more closing per month do for you in your business? asset to a realtor? The answer is different. Yes, that to a mortgage broker, but like one's not a big deal. 100 to a mortgage broker a lot. Well, if you got 10 Real estate agents, or you have 100 Real estate agents, now I've got 100 Real estate agents, and I'm saying what would one do more deals a month do for you? Now you've got 100 of their real estate agents holding their license now, they got 100 deals more a month on people that they would have normally turned away when it's maximizing their marketing dollars because it took them money to get that applicant in the door. Right? It costs them advertising dollars to get that person in the door. And so you don't want to just set that money on fire and let it go to waste. Let us maximize your marketing dollars for you.

Keenan Jones  17:39  

With all these affiliates that they're attracting, we have the tactics of starting to get them in the door of donut drop and just going into the office and seeing them. How do you keep those affiliates engaged on an ongoing basis? Because I imagine you get in the door. You tell them hey, refer your declined applicants, we'll start working on them. But imagine that relationship is any relationship with hard work, TIG keeps it active and keep it healthy. So what do you do to keep all those relationships healthy? Once you started expanding into more affiliates,

Troy Hitt  18:17  

the first thing you have to do is set an expectation for yourself; we know that it's not going to be 100% return every time there are affiliates; that is a full-time job, it's their livelihoods, how they put food on the table, and they're definitely more Intuit intuitive as to what we're trying to serve. So prepare yourself. I don't want to say lower your expectations but prepare yourself for the outcome of your efforts. You know, I can remember at one time looking into our affiliate portal and having 1000 affiliates and an affiliate portal, right 1000. But when we did our reports for active affiliates, what we call active affiliates. At best, we may get 300 active affiliates, right? So that's 30%. So if you've got 10 relationships, you can maybe expect three of those to engage you, but it doesn't change your effort. That's how you keep them in tune. You create a process that's a consistent effort. You consistently network with them, whether there's, whether it is the donut drops, whether it's just a simple email, whether it's a client update sent from your software, like, hey, look, I just thought I'd let you know, their score increased 20 points. They might not be ready yet. But just to let you know, we're making progress. Oh, by the way, just to let you know, they establish your credit card. It's informing them and keeping them informed in the process. And it increases the likelihood of them staying engaged with you. There's no guarantee, but if it increases, I would, I would say that I would prefer to have you know those three versus none. And it doesn't take you that much more effort once you establish those relationships. And The last thing I would say to keep them engaged is don't just leave it to emails, phone calls to text, find a way to network with them, find a way to bring people into their sphere that's important in their industry, home builders, carpenters, plumbers, electricians, you know, we call it like the real estate Power team, you know, connect them, be a connector for them, and not just connect with them for business. Because if you're one-sided that way, it'll. It's just a matter of time before it'll fizzle out. It's like all, Yeah, Troy is calling again, he's one another referral, or he's one another, you know, turned down or whatever that is. And you don't want to be that person, you want to be known as something other than that. So you position yourself as a resource. My business partner, Joe, or SEC at the time, was really good at that he was just networking came right. He would be out in events, pressing the flesh, connecting, grabbing cards. And, you know, he was always a connector; he was a really good connector. And so aside from your systems and processes to keep your affiliates and form your clients informed, you got to, again, that's bringing that value, giving more value. So it's more than just closing the deal. Don't be one-dimensional. Because if you're one dimensional, if your relationship depends on this person getting a loan, you're going to fail more times than you succeed. And that's a given. It's just because that's how the process works. Not everybody is going to get approved for a home loan. It just doesn't happen 100% of the time,

Keenan Jones  21:33  

as you're continuing to network, you told me prior to the interview something around you, like your business had dominance and like the four corners of Houston; how did you get that market dominance to just have all the clients everywhere?

Troy Hitt  21:49  

Yeah. So the first focus was to dominate your zip code, right? Like, if you have an office, if you have an area that you frequent office, just dominate that zip code? Well, once we began what we refer to as dominating the zip code, we found the way; we wanted to find ways to duplicate ourselves; it's hard to do; again, those interpersonal relationships are hard to duplicate, but we discovered an organization called BNI, as business networking International, it's just a networking group. And it's across its international. And it just happened to have really good traction in the Houston area because you only have one representation from one industry in each of these chapters. Right. So if there was a credit repair person in that chapter, you could be in there, you know, there's going to be a real estate agent in there, there's going to be a mortgage broker in there, there's going to be a plumber is going to be a carpenter, there's probably going to be all those things that I mentioned. So we paid our money. It's like 500 bucks a year or something like that. We paid her money to say yes, we'll come every week. And so we were a member of four chapters at one time and began our networking process of being present. Again, we only have a certain small pool of money; when you're just starting out, you're like, Okay, well, 500 bucks each, that's two grand, that's a lot of money for all of us to do that. But we get to meet every week with our sales and marketing team for an hour and a half a day. And let them know the type of person we're looking for and what referrals we want. And in return, we get to do the same. I would say that that was probably the big catalyst that took our affiliate program to the next level; you know, there were only so many donut drops, right you can do there are so many times you can go in and pass certain things out. We still did those. You know, as we grew, we had, we had credit consultants that we hired that went out and did the same thing. They did the same activities, and we never abandoned them because we didn't want to discount what got us here. And how many referrals you could give was more important is how many you could give. And so that's why throughout this, you hear me talking about giving, we found out the importance of giving was definitely far more than receiving at that point when it comes to business relationships and affiliate relationships. If you have nothing to give value to and you can't continue to give value, then that relationship will die

Keenan Jones  23:57  

with the affiliates, you had to imagine those 300 successful affiliates are some different characteristics of how you worked with them. And you mentioned prior to this interview to get this quote, don't give your affiliates another job. Can you tell me a little bit about that? What does that mean to you? And how does that help with building a relationship with them?

Troy Hitt  24:20  

Yeah, when anytime you approach the idea of credit repair with somebody, it looks a lot like work. If anyone's ever sat down and done a credit consultation with a potential client, you can see the angst on their face like Oh, this isn't I come in and get it fixed situation. No, it's not it's an investment of your time too. So it looks not only is it look like a lot of work by the client, again, we've got three customers we're serving here. So your primary client it looks like a lot of work, but also your secondary client, your affiliate, looks a lot like work. So they don't want a job where I'm not, I'm not trying to propose a job, what I'm trying to do is, can you just bolt us onto your process, and we'll take care of everything for you? You only have so many hours in a day, and you're really good at what you do, I don't want to take away from that. All I want to do is add that you make it as easy as possible for them to give you the opportunity. And notice I didn't say easiest possible to give you their turn downs; make it as easy as possible for them to give you the opportunity because all you're looking for is the opportunity to improve one client, improve one person because once you have that opportunity, you will treat that like it's this is Is this my audition, this is my one shot, and you take it, and you run with it. And then they get to see everything that you're doing. And then they're going well, man, I wouldn't have time to do any of that. Exactly right. I'm not asking you to do that unless you know this one thing. And that one thing is just giving us the opportunity,

Keenan Jones  25:55  

talking about making that process as easy as possible for the affiliate. How did you, as the credit repair business, make it as easy as possible for them to have it as a bolt-on?

Troy Hitt  26:07  

In most larger offices, there's a front desk person and a lot of offices, right? And we develop a relationship ship with the person, the front desk because they're always using the easiest one to get a hold of. Because, again, real estate agents are out there, they're hustling, and they don't always have time to get on their phones. And like, you know, if it's Susie, hey, look, if you're doing a consultation, and you have someone that's having a hard time, give it to Susie, Susie knows what to do with it. Susie answers the phones all day, she does a lot of administrative stuff. She's not a realtor, she can help out. And she can just give us all we need. It's the bare minimum, we need a name and a phone number. And if you can give us an email, that'd be great, too, but a name and a phone number. And we'll take care of the rest. So we asked for as little information as possible. And then our introduction to that follow up on the introduction to that follow up was putting them first, Hey, Troy over at ABC mortgage, you know, just talk to you about getting the home, and we want to help you get there. We didn't tell him about you got turned down or anything like that. We'd like to help you get there may take three to six months. Are you willing to invest that time and get into your home? You know, and that's so we made it as easy as possible. And we just took it from there. And we would follow up like crazy because we didn't want to miss out on that opportunity. Because it took some conscious effort to give Suzy at the front desk that phone number and give it to us. Or make it even easier and put it online, which for some reason, was hard to do. They just wouldn't enter it in there and submit it, so it would go into our system. But you know, keep it simple. Whatever works best for you. Are you a texter who just texted us? We're fine. You know, are you heavy on email? Are you? Or would you just like to call because you can call our office? I promise you someone's gonna pick up the phone. We don't We always answer the cash register. We always answer that.

Daniel Rosen  27:56  

Amazing. You had such a successful business? I'm curious, what percentage would you say of your clients came from affiliates?

Troy Hitt  28:07  

I mean, it was a huge percentage. You know, last I can recall, it was probably in the 30 to 40% 30 to 40%. Around that came from referrals; we could always attach it to somebody, you know. And we were very diligent in tracking that. If they weren't directly referred to us by, you know, Suzy at the front desk or whatever. But Hey, how'd you find out about us? We, you know, as a business, you want to know that. And there was always a name that popped up. And then we would load that in there, we would make sure that we load that in there because we want to be able to track that. Because it wasn't just a one-person job to maintain those affiliate relationships. We needed to know who our biggest referral, you know, who's one of our biggest fans out there and take care of it. And sometimes they don't even know, right? Hey, Tom, did you know you sent us, you know, 11 people came over last month? Looking further, Chris? He's no kid. Like, yeah, man. Hey, we're looking to take out for lunch. And what's your favorite joint?

Keenan Jones  29:05  

So it sounds like affiliates were a component of the business. And I'm curious just to help people understand what it was like working with a client that comes came from one year of realtor mortgage broker affiliates compared to someone that came from the internal marketing of the business; well, what was the sales process? Like what was? What was? How different of experience was that for the credit repair business to work with someone that came from a warm affiliate?

Troy Hitt  29:38  

Yeah. Well, the closing percentage was a lot higher. I could tell you that that's definitely the first telltale sign even though our sales consultant's sales process was really good, and they were really good. It didn't always come out that way. But the sale was going to be a yes more so than it was going to be a no, so that was the first step. We always knew that those warm referrals were because we were borrowing from their credibility. So They're a good person again, you know, oftentimes it's those folks that are hustling out there, they can see that their clients can see that. But it is also the reason why I think it was more successful compared to the others, and I'll tell you the biggest difference, the reason why I was more successful is that we help educate our affiliates on what to say. It's not a bad thing like either was a negative connotation when it came to credit repair credit improvement. It's like, you have two choices, you can continue to accept no, or you can accept me not yet and try this process. We want to help you out. We're just here to help you out. Yes, we don't do it for free it is, it's going to cost you a little bit, but it's definitely going to save you money in the long run. And so we gave them this little script with just a little three, four liners to say hey, look, it's not a no, it's not yet. I've got some great relationships with this organization, they've helped out many of my clients, and they've helped many others, and I want them to have an opportunity to help you out. Just go talk to him. It doesn't cost you anything. And so that was it. And so we kind of they teed it up for us, so anytime they dropped the name, we knew that we could, we wouldn't approach it any differently. But we had a different expectation versus the tire kickers, it was just calling that the window shoppers, oftentimes they are looking for that quick fix that is, that is the biggest difference is when someone's looking to seek credit repair out, they're looking for immediate gratification. And that's what you would find a lot of if they weren't referred over; you'd find those people looking for that immediate gratification. You can't anyone who has been in the space, even a week knows you can't do that, we would take the opportunity to fire our clients in advance. Like, you know, this is your that's what you heard me mention three to six months. Well, when you tell someone that it might take you three to six months to buy a home, that's worth the weight. When you tell your people, it's three to six months before you can get approved for a Macy's card. That's not worth the weight.

Keenan Jones  31:47  

Love to know a little more about another note I took beforehand, which is you mentioned that you had a crazy eight follow-up process with these leads coming in, I'd love to learn a little bit more about how the affiliate sends over a lead. You want to treat this lead really well and obviously convert and really help them. So what was that process look like?

Troy Hitt  32:09  

I can already see my business partners when they see this podcast. They're gonna be rolling their sleeves. They know all about it, I used to give that thing as a free download to it again. It's, it all goes back to maximizing those opportunities. There's a book I read by Chris Smith called conversion code back in the day; it kind of opened my eyes up to a follow-up process and how key that is to convert leads. And in his book, he talks about that sixth attempt and how successful that is, and how you can look at that. So I said, Well, we can do better than that. Let's do eight; we had a system and a follow-up process that we put into our CRM at the time that CRM was Credit Repair Cloud, we put those tasks, reminders, and appointment reminders, and our credit consultants would come in every day, and they would have a list of follow up tasks. And the cadence of our follow-up was really simple. And I'll tell you some of the tactics we use, but it was always an I love a good steak. I love a good marinate. And I used to always say just let your leads marinate. The more they marinate, the better. They will be a promise, right? Or if you let them marinate too long, they'll just go back. So one or the other, right? But at least you'll know because you tried. So we used to do day one, day three, day five, day seven, day 14, day 30. And then 60 and 90, like we never let them die. I mean, we'd surprise them 90 days out, and you'd be surprised. But we had, we basically had eight touchpoints throughout that process. And they were all pretty much the same, except sometimes we would send out a text. And that would be it. But we'd usually have usually a phone call, email, and text. That's usually the primary three that we would do. If you go back to the beginning of who you're servicing when you're affiliated. And this is noted in our system when we do these things. When your affiliates see the effort that you're putting you want to receive for your work. Because again, when you're walking into their office and say I want the opportunity, they don't want to see that you squandered it away. Right? Troy, I've sent you 100 People you haven't converted any? Well isn't a lack of trying. Have you looked in your affiliate portal and seen all of our notes and our attempts to follow up with them? So you want them to see that effort? It's one thing to have the words come out of your mouth, but it's another thing to be able to show him that effort. And that's what we did. We got a receipt for our work. We showed them how hard we were working for them, even even if it didn't pay off for us. Because if it didn't pay off for us, there was no chance it was going to pay off for them. And it would kind of put their mind at ease as an affiliate and go, okay, well, I guess they weren't ever going to close on it. Whatever it is, the home at that time. If they were tied to affiliate, we'd say hey, look, you know, do I need to let Kenan know that you're no longer interested in purchasing a home that way, we can take you off the follow-up list, kind of that take away again, tying the credibility then went to go see Kenan for a loan and tying the credibility I say hey, look, I just check On behalf of Kenya, and if you're still interested in the home, you know, I'll take you off their follow up process, you know, won't bug you anymore? situation,

Keenan Jones  35:07  

man. That's really cool. Yeah, with that crazy follow-up process. So it's eight touchpoints over 90 days. Was it an email, text, or phone call at every one of those? Is that what it looks like?

Troy Hitt  35:22  

Those are the standards. And later on, we started some LinkedIn situations, we started some Facebook messages. Because a lot of folks were fans of our Facebook page, we start to branch out in social media because I believe in Chris Smith thing he used to say three, three to the left and three to the right, even Xerox days. If you look at Xerox and how they got launched, they used to kick three doors down to the right and kick three doors down to the left. That was their motto; that's when they were those Xerox guys in the red shirts. That's how they would sell copiers. We just kept that in place. And I mean, it was without fail. We just enhanced it with other touch points and maybe other automations it was it was later on that we got some automations in place that would help us fulfill those. But yeah, it was at least three touchpoints every time

Keenan Jones  36:09  

no excuses have reached them anyway, you could basically

Troy Hitt  36:13  

basically, yeah, basically without, you know, we stayed within those. They know the nuisance of it. I mean, if it finally got a hold of them and they say quick to call me, we're like, cool, no problem, we'll call you. I'll let Kenan know that you're no longer interested in buying a home. I will never I can't tell you how many times they would say like, well, no one a week that that to mean that I was like, hey, well, that's only that's the only reason I'm here. Just let them know that. And then they would, they would either come back in for a second consultation, but we just never let them die on the vine. Our conversion rate was really high. I don't remember what it was. But it's, it was really high.

Keenan Jones  36:46  

Was there anything else you systemized in really helping that affiliate program scale?

Troy Hitt  36:52  

We had one person that was designated, and they had the golden egg. And that's what we called it around the office, they had the golden egg, and what a golden egg was, and this was like, like, hey, you know, we have someone in the seven hundred, or we have someone in the 620s or 650s, and they are looking to buy a home? Who do we call, right? And so traditionally, we'd go through, and we'd sort out our affiliates and our top performing affiliate, guess what they would get, they would get a golden egg. And we would refer that out to them. Again, given that it's another opportunity we have, one person doesn't, and that was their job to get all the golden eggs and farm up the golden eggs every day. And again, just distribute those. And that's why one of the qualifications for a lot of our affiliates is to be responsive. Because if they don't pick up their phone, they're not going to pick it up for our clients. So you know, that was a big temperature check for our

Keenan Jones  37:52  

affiliates. Awesome. It's some great motivation. So they were that part of the sale initially that hey, if you give us some, and you're good to us when we get back to you, that hey, we may send you over some people ready to buy homes are ready to buy. get mortgages.

Troy Hitt  38:09  

Yeah, absolutely. And you know, again, we it's like we have relationships all over Houston, I would love to put you on our list for people who come in; they get, you know, mortgage qualified. That's it. That's a term we use. We mortgage qualified. They come on attached, I love for you to be one of those people that are on our the top of our list. We said everything we were going to do, and then we delivered that was the most important part of it. We had sit down with some really large mortgage brokers to systemize their process. And you know, what's crazy is their systems are not really that efficient; coming to them with a bolt-on situation like this is all I got to do. Yeah, so all you got to do,

Keenan Jones  38:47  

I think this is a little more on the client management side. But I'd love to know a little more about your five-factor update system because I think it touches the affiliates too. So can you tell me a little bit about that? Like what that process was like in the business.

Troy Hitt  39:02  

This is one of those things that we found early on one of the challenges, this is really before credit monitoring services. And this is where the five-factor kind of birthed from you can't let your clients control the story. You can't let your clients control your results. And back in the early days, what did we wait for we waited for the responses from the bureaus; they would bring them into the office, we'd go through the report, and then we'd update the dispute, and we'd send it out time and time again. I can't tell you how many calls I had. They were like, Hey, I haven't got any results. I wouldn't apply for this, and I'm still not approved, and I'm like, Larry, we haven't seen you in two months. Did you get anything in the mail? Yeah, I got a stack of these things. You know. And so very early on, we knew that that was a big part of the business and that we can't rely on the customers for credit monitoring services we would we would do blind disputes. And just let you know, antiquated, weren't they back then? We said to draft the letters and we'd send it to them this time. I, literally back in the early days, we'd send the letters out to the side. So rather than waiting on them to come in, bring the results, and look at that time, we print the letters and have them sign right there in the office; we would send them to them. And so we started doing them on a regular basis, even when they didn't come in. So that was kind of the birth of we can do this without them, they'll still get the result results is all they're looking for. And so fast forward, you know, when, you know, we started adopting software's for credit repair, and then started adopting systems, we took that same approach, and not only do we send out what we would deem as blind disputes, right, but we would update their file with everything revolves around the five factors of your credit score, you know, whether it's a mix of credit via, hey, look, we noticed you didn't open that secured credit card, you know, we need a good mix of credit, you don't have anything on here, you need to open it, you don't have any payment history, you need open that. So we would give this five-factor update that went around, it went with inquiries, the hey, these inquiries are bad on your credit report, you need to stop, we have inquiries while we're trying to get qualified for this mortgage. So this five-factor update went around all the five factors it takes to impact your credit score, and we would put that into their file. And that would go out to them simultaneously, not only to them, so the round of disputes would go out, the update would go out, they would receive the update the affiliate would receive the updates. So they feel it knows now what this client needs to do to be mortgage ready. And if I'm saying that they don't have any established credit, that affiliate knows, they're never gonna get qualified if they don't go out and get a secured credit card or whatever they need to do to establish some credit. Or if they catch up on their car payment, like they're late on their payment history, right? They would know the good, the bad, and the ugly about every client that they referred to us. And that's how, again, getting a receipt for your work. Even though we're not, you know, pulling FICO scores for everybody every day and putting a hard quiet, a hard inquiry on there. Now, you know, fast forward, we have monitoring services, when we say, hey, look, they started out was that a 600. They're now to 670. I know this is a vantage, but it definitely is going up. So you may want to take a look. And so we just show the receipt for that work every month, month in and month out, I think we had our ticker set at 35 days. And so, for our ticker 35 days, we sent another round of disputes with login credentials for their monitoring service that wasn't available. Again, every communication, I would say every communication, but certain communications, we would include the affiliate on like, hey, need this person to something some or whatever, you know, but yeah, it's it was just painting that getting a receipt for that work showing that effort. Like we're not squandering the opportunity to improve this person's credit situation. And we don't want you to be blindsided when they come into your office and say, Hey, Troy said that I'm ready. It'd be like, it's not what I heard. I heard I heard that you still got some work to do. But you know, tell me something different. I'm listening. So we keep them informed the whole time.

Keenan Jones  43:04  

In summary, it sounds like this five-factor update, you're letting the client know the factors that would if they're on the right path or not to success, and you're letting the affiliate know that too at the same time so that everyone's on the same page, everyone that you have relationships with really understands where this person is at. And so it sounds like they could I think, take their own responsibility, too, whether it's the affiliate nudging the client or the client, knowing that they have a responsibility in the process, too.

Troy Hitt  43:35  

Yeah, absolutely. It's amazing how in some, in some instances, you know, an affiliate would reach out and say, you know, John, it's been three months, and you haven't established a credit line yet. I thought you were serious about buying a home, you know what I mean? Like, sometimes they they they invest in that they put some investment into that. Because they that may be an affiliate who's already seen the benefits of that pipeline business that they've been giving us. And so they're, they're helping us out a little bit, right, because we've, we've got a strong enough relationship. And we may be proven that we're not just saying stuff for the sake of saying stuff at all mean, something. The team was amazing and of delivering that. And again, not every affiliate responded as they should, but the ones that did well definitely benefited from that process.

Keenan Jones  44:21  

I want to make sure I get all the golden nuggets out of each, right? Because you're amazing. So those 300 active affiliates you had, what made them different than the other 1000 you had in the system? Was there anything else that you were doing with them that really made kept them engaged and active or made you pick them successfully that made them the engaged affiliates that they were?

Troy Hitt  44:46  

Yeah, I think more so they picked us. Right? That was the key we would give everyone an opportunity. Right? And I think those ones that were more engaged and more at Tiv picked us because we proved ourselves, I will say that we, again, going back to being a resource and being a connector, I can remember, you know, a couple of the higher end, you know, affiliates, some, maybe some big builders and some big loan officers have like that they would, they would sponsor events and, and we'd sponsor them with them, like, Oh, this is important to you, we would sponsor, we began more of an affiliate relationship, it more gradually grew into a partnership, if you're sponsoring a new homebuyer seminar, we're sponsoring it with you. There's a networking event, your sponsor will sponsor it with you. Because we wanted to show that we're, you know, we're not a fly-by-night organization, we're in it for the long haul, we want to, you know, support you and whatever is important to you. Do you know what that was? Charity isn't necessarily a networking event. So I think some of those more active ones understood the process. And then they picked us, they said, you know, what, team, this is our CRO, this is the one we're going to, it wasn't like we signed an agreement with anybody, right? It wasn't like, are you exclusively whatever, like, one of the large mortgage companies said something like, Hey, look, this is who I recommend, this is who you should use if you use anyone else that's on you. Yeah, it's on you. Like, I'm like, awesome. And this is, you know, this is you're talking about a company that probably had 100 Plus real estate agents. So it was good, but I think how we picked them is more so that after overtime, they picked us,

Keenan Jones  46:30  

Well, sounds like it's a little bit of a numbers game to each, you got to get out there and got to get a lot of affiliates, and some of them are not going to work out. But some of them that pick you will end up working and have a good relationship.

Troy Hitt  46:43  

It's networking one on one when you think about it, you know, there's a honeymoon stage. They gotta get to know you gotta have a cup of coffee. And next thing, you know, you're, you're going out to events together, you're having dinner together. And you know, and next thing, you know, you got a long-term relationship, you have to be patient, and let that process happen. But if you just sit back and wait, while it's never gonna happen, you have to be engaged, you have to be active in we have that presence to do that. And, you know, speaking of a number of games, the affiliate pipeline is a number of games too. And you know, those expectations, you know, you send me 100 People, I'm not saying I'm gonna give you 100 back, they're gonna be mortgage ready. There are too many variables for me to control. As a matter of fact, I don't control any of them. But I just want the opportunity to control this one little piece of what makes him qualified. We understood what it meant to be mortgage ready. You know, we talked to him about down payments, what you would be prepared for a down payment; it wasn't all credit driven. Right? It talks about down payments, like, Hey, are you working? Saving down payment looks like gonna have to have 3000 towards closing costs. That's what John over ABC mortgage told us. So are you working towards saving that up? Yeah, man, I got, like, 300 towards that awesome; good, that's on the right direction. You know, so we knew what it taught what it meant to be mortgage ready. And so before we grabbed a golden goose, a golden egg, we knew what it took to be mortgage ready. Like they checked all the boxes, but like, hey, like we knew what it took to be mortgage ready. So I think one thing I did mention is, like, no one knows their industry better than they do. But it definitely helps if you know, too, you're not an expert, but you just have an understanding of how things work. That way, when you're going out and making those relationships and people are talking about, like, that doesn't add up. I don't think that's the way it works. But yeah, so knowing the industry you're going after and the state of that process helps as well.

Keenan Jones  48:30  

Is there anything else you think credit heroes should know about mortgage brokers and realtors that make them sound more knowledgeable and

better informed as they go into those conversations, to potentially partner with someone to make them feel like feel more comfortable as they get in that room with the potential affiliate,

Troy Hitt  48:54  

this is probably the best understanding you'll need when it comes to anyone in the mortgage industry, there are only focused on the people who are qualified. That's the only place they want to spend their time. So respect that. Because that is the only that's the only thing that puts food on their table. And that's the only thing that pays their bills is the qualified people. You have to respect that as you're trying to get into the door. And you can even say it aloud, say hey, I respect the fact you are only interested in closing qualified deals. But I also respect the fact that they're not all qualified. Right? So just know that it is really in take advantage of any time you get with them to sit down with them, acknowledge their pain, provide a solution that helps ease their pain a little bit and make their process better. But just know that they're only focused on qualified people. Yes, they are looking for qualified people for you to give them back. But just know that that's all they're concerned about. That really is it, and it's okay. That's their job. And you just want an opportunity to do yours. That's They're

Daniel Rosen  50:01  

awesome. That's really, really, really good advice. Lots and lots of gold nuggets. I knew he was gonna pull them all out of me. He's good at that. Okay, so I want to switch gears now. And I want to ask you a few rapid questions. So answer with the first thing that pops into your head. ready? I'm ready. What is your business superpower?

Troy Hitt  50:29  

Process?

Daniel Rosen  50:31  

Awesome. What's your business? Is Kryptonite the area that gives you the most trouble?

Troy Hitt  50:37  

Design graphics? I can't even make a pretty slideshow.

Daniel Rosen  50:42  

What did business ownership mean to you?

Troy Hitt  50:46  

Learning endless learning opportunities.

Daniel Rosen  50:49  

Hmm, good one. What drives and motivates you?

Troy Hitt  50:54  

Impact, specifically the impact that I do have on my family?

Daniel Rosen  50:58  

And what's your definition of success?

Troy Hitt  51:02  

I think I share this vlog, folks. It's freedom.

Daniel Rosen  51:05  

Awesome. And last question, if you could go back in time to tell yourself one piece of advice? What would it be?

Troy Hitt  51:18  

As I take a breath, just take a breath and take it all in because it's all you can learn from every experience. And it does go by so fast. As I was getting ready for this. I was like, it's been 20 years. It's, you know, in since I've first touched this industry, and now it's come full circle. And now I feel like I've finally had an opportunity to appreciate all that. And so it was really cool to bring it all back out.

Daniel Rosen  51:48  

Amazing. Yeah, really. This is a full circle moment for me to just have this conversation with you. This is really, really wild. Well, this was so much fun. Thank you so much for your time today. Troy, we sure appreciate you. This was a lot of fun, wasn't it? Kenan? Yes, definitely. Thank you for all the golden nuggets. Yes, thank you for anything. We're so glad you're part of the team here at Credit Repair Cloud. And thank you, Kenan, for being here. And for everyone out there watching or listening. If you're finding value in the things that we share on this podcast, click below to subscribe and follow. Also, do me a favor, give me a five-star review, or share the show and help us to change more lives. If you'd like to read the show notes, they're posted on my blog. If you have a question or a comment, drop it down below because I read each and every one of them, and I would love to hear from you. And I'll respond soon. If you don't have a Credit Repair Cloud account. Check it out. It's software that most credit repair businesses in America run on. And you can get a 30-day free trial at creditrepaircloud.com/freetrial. And if you want to learn more secrets to growing a successful credit repair business, check out my episode top five credit repair affiliates. So take care of Credit Hero and keep changing lives. 

Hey, everybody, it's Daniel again. And really quick, I'd like to invite you to join what I believe is the best thing we have ever created inside the Credit Repair Cloud community. And it is a challenge that we call the Credit Hero Challenge. If you're just planning out your business, or you're just getting it started, and you dream of having a successful business of your own. So you can quit your nine-to-five and fire your boss and have financial freedom or you can add another revenue stream to your existing business. If that's your dream, you need to get into this challenge. We created this challenge to help you to create and launch your very own credit repair business to build a proper foundation for a really successful business. This challenge is going to help you to understand the strategy, the tactics, and all the things you need to be successful at credit repair. It really is the greatest thing we have ever built, and it will change your life. So I recommend you do it right now. Stop everything, pause this audio go online, and go to creditherochallenge.com That's creditherochallenge.com and join the next challenge, and there's a challenge that starts in just a few days. So go get started right now at creditherochallenge.com