Columbia-based mortgage lender, Veterans United, just keeps growing.

When Josh Pemberton joined Veterans United Home Loans in 2007, he became the 68th employee of the then-five-year-old company. At the time, the Veterans Administration (VA) mortgage lender was closing about 100 loans a month from its sole office in Columbia, Missouri.

Fast-forward 16 years, and Veterans United is now Columbia’s largest private employer, with satellite offices in Kansas City and Springfield, Missouri, along with more than a dozen branches located near military bases and an appraisal subsidiary that operates nationwide. Its more than 5,000 employees have collectively closed more than 500,000 VA mortgage loans, making it one of the nation’s largest VA mortgage lenders.

"The secret to the company’s giant growth spurt? It begins with effective marketing."

“As an online mortgage company, we live and die by leads,” explained Pemberton. Targeted ads on real estate websites, credit reporting agencies and other adjacent online businesses have made Veterans United the top lead generator in the mortgage industry.

But sales leads only takes a company so far. Turning leads into satisfied mortgage customers require a knowledgeable workforce, efficient business processes and a culture that incentivizes innovation and success. All are traits that are interwoven into the company’s DNA.

Turning AP into a profit center.

Consider the company’s accounts payable activities, which Pemberton supervises. When he joined Veterans United, the company had a few purchasing cards from a small local bank. But change was in the air.

Following a bidding process, the company selected Commerce Bank in 2017 to implement a purchasing card program for about 20 employees. “This was before we had opened any branches,” Pemberton said. “Our staff was traveling more, and we needed cards for their expenses, as for borrower appreciation gifts and other small purchases.”

Pemberton appreciated how easy it was to reconcile card purchases using a third-party website. But something else caught his attention: the cash rebate the company received, based on monthly spending. Soon he and others were looking for opportunities to grow this revenue stream. That included finding ways to use cards to pay the company’s growing online advertising bills.

“Over a relatively short period, our revenue share really shot up,” said Pemberton. Still, some larger online vendors were unequipped to accept virtual card payments. Some required the company’s AP team to go to their individual websites and make card payments manually. It would be easier to pay these bills by check or ACH. But for Veterans United, that would mean lost revenues.

Then Pemberton had an idea. “To capture this revenue, we needed to motivate our AP team to find vendors who would accept payment by card. In other words, we needed an incentive program.”

He devised a bonus system that would award the AP team a portion of the revenue share they collected for the company. His strategy worked. Even with the bonuses, the AP function now operates as a profit center.

Today, Veterans United processes 700 to 900 invoices each month, two-thirds of which are paid by card. The remainder are paid using ACH or check. “Our goal is to have less than 10% paid by check,” Pemberton explained. “We’re getting there.”

Growing together.

The growth of Veterans United card program reflects the continued growth of the company itself.

The company’s original 20 purchasing cards has now grown to nearly 1,000. Commerce Bank also supports Veterans United with a Line of Credit, Lockbox and Merchant Services.

“Commerce supports us 24/7 and has made it easy to increase credit limit, cancel cards, turn them back on — whatever we need — in minutes. While the company’s accounting operations have grown far more complex, reconciliation of accounts remains relatively simple.”

“When we implemented the program six years ago, everything went smoothly,” recalled Pemberton. “We were small then, and Commerce was an easy company to work with. Today, with 5,000 more employees, Commerce is STILL an easy company to work with. Whenever I need anything, they bend over backwards to help us out. It’s a great partnership.”

Also See:

• Ensuring Strong Supplier Relationships with AP Card Payment Methods
• Three best practices for Accounts Payable departments