Russ Morrison spent 25 years as a mortgage broker honing his lead conversion strategy, and the last three and a half building a software program that can do the same for others.
Now his creation, Tactical Mortgage Solutions, is available to brokers across Canada. The digital tool helps brokers present clients with the full spectrum of borrowing options, offers a road map for all client interactions and strategy sessions, and organizes it all into a robust client management platform.
“This is a calculator, yes, but mostly it’s a process, and what it does is it increases the chance that a broker will be successful,” says Morrison, who is also the owner, founder, and senior mortgage broker of the Morrison Mortgage Team.
“The platform is unique and personalized to every subscriber; the dashboard consists of five strategies, which are all related to why consumers seek advice from mortgage brokers.,” he added.
Those strategy sessions include home purchase, home sale and purchase, home refinance, mortgage renewal/transfer, and rental property purchase. “Each one creates a strategic plan for Canadian consumers to make sure they’re making the right choice,” Morrison says.
Within each subheading is a series of session outlines to guide conversations with clients, provide key data based on their unique needs, and offer side-by-side comparisons of various financing options, along with other key information.
Brokers can now sign up for a free trial and Strategy Sessions are currently available to users in British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario. Morrison says the software will be updated to include tax and regulatory scenarios for all remaining provinces before the end of the quarter.
Growing through strategic partnerships
Tactical Mortgage Solutions has also established a licensing agreement with TMG The Mortgage Group — via its technology provider, Unison Software — which will soon provide a version of the software through its Hurricane platform.
“It creates a record of the discussions that you would have had through the various scenarios, so that you could get the client to a point that made financial sense to them with a plan before you started the application,” says Paul Taylor, the President and CEO of Unison Software, which owns and operates TMG’s Hurricane platform.
Taylor says that when Unison purchased Hurricane from TMG and leased it back to the broker network in 2022, the organization surveyed TMG’s members to explore the kinds of functionality they wanted to see in the future. The number one request, according to Taylor, was a scenario builder.
“When I started talking to Russ, it was pretty apparent that the product that he has managed all of that, and even did a few other things,” he says. “It was a tremendous time saver and just a really good tool to assist broker and client communications — and the life journey of the transaction — because it puts everybody on the same page right out of the gate.”
Tactical Mortgage Solutions will be fully integrated into the Hurricane platform as soon as it is ready to manage client scenarios from coast to coast, which Taylor anticipates is imminent.
At that point brokers in the TMG network will be able to utilize its functionality as part of the Hurricane platform, rather than a standalone tool.
Morrison adds that he’s hoping to partner with other broker networks in the future but emphasizes that anyone can access the tool on their own.
His hope is that Tactical Mortgage Solutions ultimately enables Canada’s broker community to better compete with the big banks.
“If we can align ourselves with our clients and create a deep and professional experience we can grow our market share; that’s my goal,” he said. “I love educating, I love coaching, and this is something I hope and feel strongly will help brokers be more successful, because it has worked for me.”