Mortgage Firm to Mail Videocassettes With Sales Pitch to Potential Clients : BANKING/FINANCE

Looking for less hassle when shopping for a home equity loan? You will soon be able to call one company and see what it has to offer on your own television screen.

In the next two weeks, Shearson Lehman Hutton Mortgage Corp. in Newport Beach will start mailing videocassettes that describe one of its products, a home equity line of credit for the “business professional.”

The term is a euphemism for prospective clients who can afford to pay off credit lines up to $1 million.

The 11-minute cassette, which potential borrowers can play on their own videocassette recorders, is the first stage of a video sales pitch that Shearson will start using more often, said Walter P. Blass, the company’s president.

While a few companies across the nation have recently used video sales “brochures” to reach customers, Shearson Lehman figures it is the first financial firm to sell loans that way, Blass said. The cassette, sent on request, will come with an application form and envelopes to send the cassette and the application back to the firm.

The company is “probably one of the innovators” in devising new ways to market its services, said Kenneth Slezak, a marketing consultant with Vista Marketing in Huntington Beach.

“The sales pitch by VCR is one of the newer techniques,” Slezak said. “It can be cost effective if used properly.”

He said the tape can save an initial personal sales visit, which costs well over $100, and appeal to consumers, who have less time for many things, including sales calls.

“A lot of people are weaned on video,” Slezak said. “If you send a videotape, their curiosity will get them to look at least at part of it.”