How Ashtons turned a 26% mortgage conversion rate into 82% with Greenhouse OS

Robert Ash, Associate Director at Ashtons, shares how moving away from rigid third-party systems and fragmented spreadsheets allowed the agency to build a custom, high-converting in-house mortgage platform.

The impact

• 82% Lead Contact Rate: Jumped from just 26% to 82% lead engagement after replacing manual emails with structured digital workflows.
• Rapid Deployment: From initial idea and scoping session to a working product in under two weeks.
• 4x Growth Foundation: Created a scalable framework built to support quadrupling the mortgage team over the next 1–2 years.
• Complete Pipeline Transparency: Company-wide leaderboards track conversion by team, individual, and application stage.

Bringing mortgages in-house

Historically, Ashtons outsourced their financial services entirely. But as the business grew, the leadership team recognised the power of bringing mortgage services under their own roof, not only to unlock a high-margin revenue stream, but to retain total control over the client experience and speed up sales progression.

However, launching an in-house mortgage service from scratch created an immediate operational challenge: without a single source of truth, managing and tracking leads initially relied on fragmented software and clunky Excel spreadsheets. 

To prove the business model’s worth and scale the team, Ashtons needed a robust, transparent system to manage internal referrals, give the sales team full visibility, and track conversion at every stage.

“It was clear quite quickly that we had a few different systems, lots of Excel spreadsheets, and it was very difficult to track from a mortgage broker side, but also difficult for the teams to track where their leads had gone, how they were getting on, and how they were going to be paid.”

Robert Ash, Associate Director at Ashtons

The lack of visibility meant leads were routinely handed off via informal emails or manual reminders, leading to slow contact times and lost revenue opportunities.

The solution: Building a tailored mortgage dashboard

By working directly with the Greenhouse OS custom development team, Ashtons stripped away unnecessary complexity to build an intuitive, streamlined tool:

• Full Transparency: Clear visibility into how many leads are passed, contacted, and converted, viewable by team or individual broker.
• Structured Appointment Journey: Replaced manual “can you call this person” emails with automated text/email confirmations and reminders so clients arrive prepared.
• Agile Customisation: Added direct calendar integrations for face-to-face and Microsoft Teams video consultations.

26% to 82% lead conversion

The impact of moving from informal hand-offs to structured, transparent tracking was immediate.

“Our conversion rate from just sending a lead to a broker to them actually being spoken to went from 26% to 82%. The difference of just a bit of organisation and enabling people to structure it properly is huge.”

Robert Ash, Associate Director at Ashtons

The competitive edge: Speed of innovation

Having been with Ashtons for 14 years, Robert highlights that the biggest advantage of working with Greenhouse OS is the speed at which good ideas become operational reality.

“We struggled a lot with our previous CRM where you had ideas and were restricted by the timescales to get things done. We’ve always been forward-thinking; if we’ve got a good idea that suits the business and clients, let’s do it straight away. The turnaround was way above expectations, within a week or two it was done.”

Robert Ash, Associate Director at Ashtons

Built for scale

Ashtons is now actively recruiting to expand their in-house mortgage team, knowing the underlying operational platform is already built to handle the volume.

“Having it in-house gives us control and elevates the client experience. It supports our existing sales progression teams and existing sales process. We’re hoping to quadruple the mortgage team over the next year or two, and we don’t need to change what’s already there, it’s a platform we can grow from.”

Robert Ash, Associate Director at Ashtons

Have your own great idea? 

Book a chat with the team at Greenhouse OS to see how quickly we can turn it into reality.