TruFinCo is an alternative and all-inclusive finance company that helps business owners secure funding outside traditional banks. Acting as a concierge service for startups, real estate investors, and beyond, they walk clients through the process of securing funding, while offering stellar customer support along the way.
‍

This year, TruFinCo has been impressing clients and lenders alike in their industry with how fast they’re moving new clients through their pipeline.

According to TruFinCo's CEO, it’s all thanks to texting.

Here at Salesmsg, we met with Sara Weldon, president and CEO at TruFinCo, to see how she and her team are using texting (and our texting platform, Salesmsg) to 2x their revenue and increase lead engagement like never before. 

SMS opens new possibilities

We were curious about why TruFinCo sought out texting in the first place. We asked Sara what problem they were trying to solve by adding text messaging.

She says, "We were already using HubSpot, which is very powerful. We were sending out workflows, but it was all emails. Now, these are beautiful emails, but people don't live in their email inboxes. I'm also noticing that less and less people look at their emails."

"So, we could have the best HubSpot workflow in the world, but if people aren't opening emails, then people aren't going to see it. This was negatively impacting show-up rates for appointments. Not because our emails weren't good, but because people simply weren't checking their emails." 

Sara continues, "From my own life, I have my phone glued to me, so it was an obvious lightbulb moment of duh, let's try texting."

“I think everyone needs to incorporate texting into their business. Email is great, but it just doesn’t have the same impact.”

"So we started researching other companies and had a few meetings. From the get-go, Salesmsg blew the competition out of the water. Especially with the HubSpot integration. I hate platforms that don't work well together; it can become a nightmare, but with HubSpot and Salesmsg, everything is just so seamless."

2x business growth all from SMS

Looking for more detailed numbers, we asked Sara about the tangible impact that texting has had on her business.

She says, "It 2x'd our business. You can look at what we were doing before and where we're at now, and it's a literal 2x growth. It completely doubled our business in six months. It’s crazy to see such a big financial difference, just from being better at communicating. It’s truly mind blowing.”

"The biggest thing has been improving our engagement."

"One of the biggest issues we had was that people would go into the funding process and disappear. We didn't know why they dropped off. Did they have questions? Were we doing something wrong? We literally had no clue."

"So, we started what we call an offer accepted re-engagement workflow. Once someone has accepted the offer, we send out an automated series of texts. If they don't respond, then they get sent a different text, and on and on.” 

"Even the lenders we work with are impressed. We're moving people through the funding process at record speed, all without losing people. You know you're doing something right when your lenders ask, ‘What are you guys doing?’”

Texting reduces lead drop-off 

When it comes to moving leads through your sales pipeline, you'll never close with 100% of people. But texting allows you to plug holes in your funnel, follow up easily, and make your prospects feel supported every step of the way. 

Sara adds, "It could be something as simple as a question that's gotten them off track. The simple reminders that texting provides make it so easy to pull our prospects back in. We get a lot of responses like, "Hey Sara! I'm so glad you reached out", "I was confused about what to put down on this part of the application," or "Thanks for the reminder!"

Sara and her team only send out texts that are simple and personable, but they really drive results.

Here’s one of their best-performing automated texts:

Sara continues, "Texting is also just very personable. We have an awesome creative team. But our messages truly feel like they're coming from me. Our clients get these messages and they feel like we truly care. They can feel our presence every step of the way, from start to finish."

Here’s another best-performing text from TruFinCo:

Texting improves team's experience

Sara continues with the unexpected results that SMS delivers, "We can even see the impact in our Google Reviews. We're getting feedback that they really feel like we have their back the entire time. It opens up a channel for us to communicate with them anytime, and it's made such a big difference." 

Having a shared inbox also elevates the customer experience. Here’s what Sara said, "I'm the account owner, so every message gets sent through me. But, we have our team on the account, and this just has so many benefits."

"My team loves it because they don't have to take time to hop on a call or send an email. They can quickly respond to a text, even while they're busy, and that client still feels like we're taking care of them.” 

“The entire team loves it because it’s cut down their busy work and made everything so much better.”

Text at every step

We were curious about how far texting has spread into TruFinCo's business, so we asked Sara which parts of the customer journey she uses texting?

Sara says, “We’ve integrated texting into every single aspect of our business. From pre-qualification, to our sales process, the entire funding process, and post funding. I don’t think we have a single area where we don’t use it.”

Literally, the moment a lead enters their world, they’re getting a text message. Best of all, this happens automatically. Like Sara says, “It’s just so helpful and once you set it up, the workflows just run automatically.”

You can easily text outside of workflows too. Sara says, “I personally really like the one-off messages too, outside of the workflows.” 

“Since I’m so busy, it can be so much easier just to text the person and move things forward instead of being pulled away from working to hop on a 10-minute call.”

Borrow TruFinCo's SMS strategy

Want to get results for your business just like TruFinCo? Below, you'll find a few of the core strategies that they used and how you can apply them to your business:

1. Add texting to your HubSpot workflows.

Simply relying on emails and phone calls to get your leads to attend meetings, show up for appointments, or take the next step in your sales funnel is an uphill battle. 

Instead, you can create SMS workflows that'll get sent out automatically to move your leads through your sales process easily. 

TruFinCo has created several different automated HubSpot workflows that help to keep leads engaged. These simple messages check in with leads, answer questions, and help address any concerns that might be stopping them from moving forward. 

With Salesmsg and HubSpot you can create automated SMS workflows that get sent out based on certain triggers, like a lead filling out a form, appointment reminders, time-based drop campaigns, and more. Watch our video below for a few ideas on how to get started.

2. Send texts to pre-qualify your leads.

Are you using forms on your site to capture leads?

Instead of following up with emails and phone calls or trying to respond to each lead manually, you can use automation instead.

By adding an automated SMS message, you can quickly qualify leads to see if they fit your business. Instead of your team wasting time and having to schedule a call, you can have them self-qualify over text.

To start texting your leads, you'll need to collect your lead's phone number when they fill out a web form. To get permission, add a “consent” box under the phone number on your web form.

Add the specific compliance language you need to get permission. The words you use matters, so we suggest you copy what you see below and tweak it to match your business. For example, you might say "10 messages a month” instead of “Msg frequency varies.” Also, be sure to link to your terms of service and privacy policy.

To be fully compliant, this box should include a checkbox like you see above. It should begin as “unchecked.” This means your leads have to click on the box to give their consent to texting. You should also set up your web form so that leads can submit it without clicking that texting checkbox.

This way, texting truly is your leads’ choice.

3. Better customer experience: Use two-way texting and shared inboxes.

Do you have a hard time reaching your prospects and getting them to respond? Or maybe you want a communication channel that feels more personal and supportive.

Two-way messaging lets you engage with your leads in real time and opens up a channel for them to reach out or follow up on their schedule. 

TruFinCo uses two-way messaging to easily get in touch with prospects and answer their questions. This channel makes their prospects feel supported since someone is always just a text away.

The shared inbox feature built into Salesmsg makes it easy for your entire team to respond to multiple prospects. If you're too busy, another team member can respond to help support your leads. 

4. Textize your entire business.

All of this works together to textize your business.

When you “textize your business,” you’re adding text messages to every step of your customer journey.

• You text leads when they sign up for your web forms to qualify them.
• You text those leads to nurture them into customers.
• You’re texting to close deals and turn leads into customers.
• Finally, you text to care for customers with stellar customer support. 

That’s exactly what TruFinCo has done.

TruFinCo added SMS to nearly every aspect of their business from the moment a lead signs up to after they secure funding for the client. 

Like Sara said, "I don't think we have a single area where we don't use texting."

All of this works together and helped them 2x their business in six months. 

The simplest way to add texting to your business is with Salesmsg. You can easily create automated workflows inside HubSpot, send personalized messages, engage your leads via text, and drive more sales while improving your relationships.

It all starts with a simple text.

Want to see how Salesmsg works in real-time? Click here to request a demo to see how Salesmsg can work for your business.