Interview with Richard Simmons, President at King Invest Solutions
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// TL;DR
Implementing a CRM for financial consulting firms helped King Invest Solutions streamline their business process and achieve 50% annual revenue growth.
Background
King Invest Solutions is a financial consulting company that offers various wealth-building options, investment strategies, and financial expertise. Their company provides assistance with residential & commercial real estate financing, business funding, personal lines of credit, and capital procurement.
Richard Simmons, the President of King Invest Solutions, has a background in financial services. For 50 years, he was a loan officer, and throughout his career, Richard made many connections and established a nice network of resources. He explains how it all started: “My wife and I decided six years ago to start a company and make it a one-stop shop.”
His primary role is running King Invest Solutions: obtaining new clients, managing clients, and managing business processes.
King Invest Solutions is a financial consulting firm offering wealth-building options, investment strategies, and financial expertise.
Find out more about King Invest Solutions.
Richard emphasizes that the company helps people looking to purchase their first home and provides them with all the resources. “If the people need credit repair, we help them get their credit up to par. If they’re looking for financing, we help them structure and package their file to qualify for whatever type of loan or purchase they want.”
In addition to that, King Invest Solutions helps individuals to become investors. “We help them access other types of funding after they get their primary residence, whether private capital, hard money, unsecured funding, or commercial lending. We also help our clients get access to contractors and attorneys.”
With his huge network of collaborating partners, Richard says, “I’m like the liaison between the client and the collaborating partner, and I’m providing them support along the way.”
The goal
Regarding the company's goal, Richard says, “My mission is to create homeowners—many people are afraid, especially within my community. I'm African American, and I want to help.” He continues, “I want to help people who don’t have the resources and don’t have access to information. I want to help them understand that they can do anything.”
“My mission is to create homeowners — many people are afraid, especially within my community. I'm African American, and I want to help.”
Richard explains that since many people fear what they don’t know or understand, giving them confidence is one of the most important factors. “We provide them with confidence first because we believe that if you have the confidence, then it’s easy to provide the resources.”
“I want to help people who don’t have the resources and don’t have access to information. I want to help them understand that they can do anything.”
Although the company aims to help create homeowners, it also helps people start businesses. Richard adds, “We’re trying to build up certain impoverished communities. We're looking at starting developments in Inglewood, California, certain areas that may be underprivileged, and so forth.”
The challenge
When Richard’s business started to grow, tracking all clients via Google products became difficult. “I had a young lady come in, and I paid her to organize my company,” he explains, adding, “Although she told us about Google Sheets, Google Calendar, and so forth, we had a lot of paper documents, tons of files and things.” He explains, “I wanted to streamline the process more. I wanted to be able to have a handle on my clients. I wanted to increase my level of service.”
“I wanted to streamline the process more. I wanted to be able to have a handle on my clients. I wanted to increase my level of service.”
What was more challenging was keeping track of clients. “I realized that you drop the ball and you forget things. I could forget the client because I would meet someone else right after I met them,” Richard explains.
In search for a CRM for financial consulting firms
One of Richard’s associates knew about Kommo and introduced it to the company. This is when Richard decided to take a look at a CRM for financial consulting firms. He shares his first impression: “When I saw amo, I’m like, ‘wow,’ I can pretty much mimic what I was trying to do with Google Sheets.” He adds, “I can have different pipelines in different stages within the pipeline. It was a way to be able to see things.”
“When I saw amo, I’m like, ‘wow,’ I can pretty much mimic what I was trying to do with Google Sheets... It was a way to be able to see things.”
Moreover, Richard acknowledges, “I was extremely blessed because I think I’ve had Kommo maybe for two or three years now.”
“I was extremely blessed because I think I've had Kommo maybe for two or three years now.”
How King Invest Solutions achieved 50% annual revenue growth with Kommo
#1 Acquiring leads via amoFORM
As in any business process, it all starts by acquiring leads. Richard explains that the company gets leads by directing most clients to their website with a form. “We have a form on our website. You click it and upload your information. It all goes right into your CRM as incoming leads.”
“We have a form on our website. You click it and upload your information. It all goes right into your CRM as incoming leads.”
He continues, “I like that the client can just go to my website, plug in their information and then it appears in the CRM as incoming. Whatever comes up in the CRM — we see it coming.”
#2 Tracking process through several pipelines
Once the lead appears in Richard’s Kommo account as an incoming lead, he explains that they fill out the information needed for the client, including their goals. From there, the tracking process begins. The lead moves to the pipeline known as “Prospect.” At this stage, Richard explains that they do a consultation with them and identify what help the leads are looking for. This could be getting their credit review done or financial planning. Once it’s done, the leads are moved to the next pipeline, which they call “Intake.”
The King Invest Solutions team
Richard clarifies, “Intake is when we’re onboarding the client, and they’re providing us with whatever documentation is needed. If they need credit repair, if they're looking for FHA financing, whatever that is, we're requesting the documents. So we're tracking that process through our Intake.” He adds, “I can track the process with this CRM. It definitely makes it much more efficient and more streamlined. And I’m not even at the peak of efficiency yet.”
“With this CRM, I can track the process. It definitely makes it much more efficient and more streamlined. And I’m not even at the peak of efficiency yet.”
Once they gather all the client's documents, they move from “Intake” to the “Credit” pipeline. “Once it’s through the end of the ‘Credit’ pipeline, we know automatically that this person is ready for financing. Now we can move them to the FHA financing pipeline.” Richard continues, “Kommo is a good way to bring and track your leads. It has taken off a lot of the pressure for me.”
“Kommo is a good way to bring and track your leads. It has taken off a lot of the pressure for me.”
#3 Managing leads via different tags
Even more useful than pipelines, Richard finds tags. Adding a tag to a lead makes it even easier to manage leads in Kommo. He provides examples: “If someone comes in as a prospect and wants credit and they're looking to get a home, I'll put a ‘credit’ or ‘FHA financing’ tag.” Richard explains, “I'm in the Intake pipeline right now. And I can look at any client and see everything they want to do in the tags.”
“... I can look at any client and see everything they want to do in the tags.”
The result
Although Richard acknowledges that he hasn’t utilized most of Kommo’s features yet and uses 5% of its capabilities, as he explains, he has already achieved some incredible results. “In 2018, we had a growth revenue of $180,000 - 200,000; last year it was $400,000. In 2020, we were looking to add a million,” he says, revealing, “There is no way without this CRM I could think about bringing a million dollars in revenue. That’s our target for this year now.”
“There is no way, without this CRM, I could think about bringing a million dollars in revenue. That’s our target for this year now.”
A CRM for financial consulting firms couldn’t be more useful. Richard adds, “I’m not just saying it; Kommo is a great software, and I would definitely recommend it to a lot of businesses.”
“I'm not just saying it; Kommo is a great software, and I would definitely recommend it to a lot of businesses.”
Richard plans to use more of Kommo’s features. From now on, he will start automating his business process and using email templates. He does not doubt that by doing so, his revenue will increase even more with Kommo. “Next forecast? $5 million to $10 million revenue,” he says.
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