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Deal Sourcing: Balancing Inbound and Outbound Strategies
You can't rely on one single deal sourcing strategy and expect to stay afloat forever. There are important roles both inbound and outbound sourcing should play in your business.
If you've been in the commercial mortgage game for even a short time, you've felt the stress of an unpredictable pipeline. One month you're drowning in deals; the next, you're wondering if your phone is broken because nobody's calling.
This feast-or-famine cycle isn't just something uncomfortable — it can really be a business killer. The root cause? Most brokers rely too much on one sourcing strategy, leaving them vulnerable when that channel dries up.
The brokers who maintain consistent growth aren't just lucky. They've deliberately built a mix of both inbound and outbound deal sourcing tactics.
So, how can you find your optimal balance to create more predictable growth? Let's have a look at both inbound and outbound, and the roles each plays.
Understanding Inbound Deal Sourcing
Inbound deal sourcing happens when borrowers find you rather than you finding them. For commercial mortgage brokers, this typically includes:
- Content marketing (blogs, videos, podcasts about commercial financing)
- Search engine optimization (SEO) for commercial mortgage terms
- Digital platforms and marketplaces where borrowers seek financing
- Social media presence where you can establish your expertise
- Referrals from past clients (yes, this counts as inbound once you've built momentum)
- Direct outreach to property owners with upcoming loan maturities
- Building relationships with commercial real estate brokers
- Networking with attorneys, CPAs, and other professional advisors
- Cold calling/emailing targeted property owners
- Strategic attendance at industry events
- Traffic to key pages
- Inquiry-to-application conversion rate
- Time from first contact to closing (inbound leads often close faster)
- Cost per acquisition from each channel (can be tricky for SEO, but keeping track of time is a good start)
- Contact-to-meeting conversion rate
- Meeting-to-application ratio
- Referral partner productivity (deals per partner)
- Time investment per closed deal from each channel
- Monday morning: Content creation (2 hours)
- Monday afternoon: Direct outreach (3 hours)
- Tuesday: Referral partner meetings (4 hours)
- Wednesday: Platform management and lead follow-up (full day)
- Thursday: Direct outreach (morning), content distribution (afternoon)
- Friday: Administrative and follow-ups (full day)
- Average deal size by source
- Close rate by source
- Time-to-close by source
- Lifetime value of clients from different sources (referrals typically rank highest)
The biggest advantages of inbound sourcing are scalability and borrower intent. When done right, your inbound channels work 24/7, bringing you opportunities while you sleep. These borrowers typically have higher intent since they're actively searching for solutions.
The downside, of course, is that these take time to develop. You won't publish one article and wake up to a flooded inbox (if only). It requires consistent effort over months, not days. Plus, competing for valuable keywords like "commercial real estate financing" is tough against established players with bigger budgets (though I'll probably write a whole article about this in the future, given how much we've used SEO at Janover for our marketing).
Understanding Outbound Deal Sourcing
Outbound sourcing means you're proactively seeking borrowers instead of just waiting for them to find you. Effective outbound channels include:
The primary advantage of outbound is speed to results. A focused outbound campaign can generate opportunities within days, not months. You also maintain more control over who you target and can build valuable relationships in the process.
The tradeoff? Outbound is time intensive and faces higher rejection rates. It requires continuous effort — stop reaching out, and your pipeline quickly dries up. It can also feel more uncomfortable for brokers who dislike the "sales" aspects of the business.
Assessing Your Current Business Stage
Your ideal mix depends a lot on where your brokerage stands today:
For newer brokers (0-2 years), the hard truth is you need to lean heavily into outbound (I'd ballpark it at roughly 80% outbound/20% inbound). You simply don't have the time to wait for inbound strategies to mature before generating income.
For established brokers (2-5 years), a more balanced approach becomes feasible (perhaps 50/50 or 60/40 outbound/inbound) as your reputation and digital presence grow.
For veteran brokers (5+ years), you can often shift to primarily inbound (perhaps 30% outbound/70% inbound) as your content library, SEO authority, and referral network create self-sustaining momentum.
The trick is to be honest about your constraints. Limited budget? Certain inbound strategies like SEO and content can be done at low cost…but they do require time. Limited time? You might need to invest financially in platforms that generate inbound leads with less personal effort.
Building Your Inbound Engine
Creating effective inbound channels isn't about posting generic "rates are low" content. Commercial borrowers need specialized information that addresses their specific challenges:
If you aren't already, start taking notes every time a client (or potential client) asks you a question. What are borrowers confused about? What misconceptions do they have? These questions become your first content pieces, and you already know people are searching for these answers.
For SEO, focus on long-tail keywords with lower competition. Instead of targeting "commercial mortgage," try "self-storage financing in [your city name here]" or "how to get a loan for a small apartment building". Long-tail keywords aren't just lower competition, they are also (often) much higher intent.
Measure your inbound effectiveness with metrics like:
Maximizing Outbound Results
Effective outbound isn't about volume — it's about targeting. Random cold calls yield random results.
Start with a data-driven approach to identify property owners with upcoming loan maturities or acquisition needs. Services like CoStar, Reonomy, Yardi Matrix, or even county records can help build your target list.
Your referral network deserves systematic attention. Identify the top 20 professionals who could refer business to you, then create a specific plan to provide value to each. Remember, the best referral relationships are two-way streets.
Industry events are not just attendance opportunities but strategic sourcing channels. Before any event, identify 5-10 specific people you want to connect with and research them beforehand. One meaningful conversation trumps 50 business card exchanges.
Track your outbound metrics religiously:
Creating Your Balanced Sourcing Strategy
Consistency is key. Create a weekly schedule that allocates specific time blocks to both inbound and outbound activities:
For a newer broker, this might look like:
As you grow, gradually shift more time to developing and optimizing inbound channels while maintaining your core outbound activities. The transition is not about abandoning outbound — outbound has an important place regardless of where you're at — it's about becoming more selective with where you direct that energy.
Use technology to create leverage. CRM systems, automated follow-up sequences, and content scheduling tools help maintain both strategies without burning out.
Measuring Sourcing Effectiveness
Beyond simple volume metrics, dig deeper into quality indicators for each channel:
Calculate true ROI by tracking both hard costs (platform fees, advertising) and soft costs (your time). A source that delivers fewer but higher-quality deals with less time investment might outperform a high-volume but time-intensive channel.
Be willing to adjust your mix quarterly based on performance data. Markets change, platforms evolve, and your reputation grows — your sourcing strategy should adapt accordingly. Just be careful not to adjust too frequently, or you could miss opportunities for traction.
Conclusion
The most resilient commercial mortgage brokerages aren't dependent on a single deal source. They've built systems that generate opportunities through multiple channels, creating a more predictable and sustainable pipeline.
If you're just starting out, don't get overwhelmed. Begin with a heavier outbound focus to generate immediate opportunities while slowly building your inbound foundation. Even dedicating just four or five hours weekly to inbound strategies will compound significantly over time.
The goal isn't perfection in every channel. It's finding the mix that works for your specific business stage, strengths, and market. Start tracking your current sources today, identify the gaps, and implement one new strategy from the opposite approach this month.
The brokers who thrive in any market conditions aren't the ones with the biggest marketing budgets or the longest history — they're the ones who are able to consistently execute a balanced sourcing strategy that delivers deals regardless of market shifts.