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We caught up with Lendi Group CEO of Distribution, Brad Cramb, to discuss why now is a great time to become a broker, and how the Group is supporting brokers to scale new heights.
Can you tell us why you think there has never been a better time to become a mortgage broker, and what is attracting people to the broking space?
The latest data from the MFAA indicates that market share of home loans in Australia written by brokers is now over 71%, an all-time high. The sector continues to grow year-on-year which is expanding the opportunities available for brokers.
The property purchasing journey can be daunting, and after multiple consecutive months of rising interest rates, there is an extra layer of considerations for customers. Many people require help to understand what this means for them, so they’re looking to brokers for support and expertise. The growing share of loans settled by brokers is evidence that customers are voting with their feet and seeking out brokers more than ever to help them navigate their options.
Another motivating factor is the fantastic lifestyle that brokers can enjoy. In a largely commission-based industry, brokers are ultimately remunerated based on what they put in, and the sky is the limit. At Lendi Group, our top quartile of salaried brokers are all earning in excess of $200K per annum, our top 50 Aussie mobile brokers are earning in excess of $300K in commissions per year, and our highest 50 performing retail stores are earning more than $1m in commissions annually.
While the earnings can be lucrative, the common theme among successful brokers is their desire to be part of something bigger than themselves. Brokers get to help customers with what is perhaps their most significant life move – purchasing a property. The opportunity to be involved in the progress of people’s lives and make an impact in the community is a huge factor in driving people to the profession.
What do you believe are the key factors to success in the early stage of a new broker’s journey?
The only way to get started quickly is to have a great support model around you, so selecting an aggregation partner with training, systems and support designed to facilitate growth is vital.
It’s also important for new brokers to consider how an organisation aligns with their values culturally, and what pathways and opportunities exist to build scale.
Tell us about the Lendi Group and your approach to supporting new brokers?
Lendi Group was born from the merger of Australia’s largest retail mortgage broking network, Aussie, and Lendi, Australia’s number one online home platform. 18 months on from the merge, both new and established brokers are harnessing the collective benefits offered by these two powerhouse brands.
We pride ourselves on the sheer scope of pathways we offer for brokers to enter the industry, which include salaried broker, mobile broker, store broker, store owner and franchisee. Our Associates pathway presents another opportunity for prospective brokers to learn the tools of the trade, with many of our Associates ultimately becoming top performing brokers in the Group.
Through belonging to a network of over 1300 brokers, new joiners can connect with leaders in the industry and tap into the success of countless years of combined experience. Our wonderful culture was on full display at our recent Lendi Group Conference, where over 800 brokers converged on the Gold Coast and fully embraced our ‘Stronger United’ theme.
We’ve recently overhauled our Grad Program which is dramatically reducing the time to earn for new brokers. Brokers joining Lendi Group can expect to be transacting with customers from week two, and our recent grad cohorts are averaging eight submissions in their first eight weeks.
Our unique support model is designed to facilitate productivity and scale. Company generated leads are fielded by our in-house team of Associates, who prequalify the customer before directing them into an appointment with a broker or into a bespoke nurture journey for specialised contact until they are ready to transact. The Associates also assist with collecting and uploading documents, meaning brokers step into their appointments equipped with the information they need to build meaningful relationships and have solutions-driven conversations with their customers.
Our brokers also receive loan fulfilment support from our team of Client Solutions agents. These team members are subject matter experts for specific lenders and processes, which means the support provided is highly specialised, resulting in RMIs at half the industry average.
Our Lendi brokers are all enrolled in the fully supported model, and they are some of the most productive in the industry. Some of our salaried Home Loan Specialists are regularly submitting 30 deals a month, and we have ambitions of seeing our brokers across every channel in the Group writing a deal a day, and we truly believe it is achievable via the productivity measures in place.
Our Aussie mobile brokers began rolling onto the support model back in May, with all new starters since that time being enrolled. Our Aussie franchisees will be invited to opt-in to the fully supported model in 2023, and expressions of interest are already over 80 per cent.
What is the secret to writing high volumes while still delivering an exceptional customer experience?
Again, it comes down to support and systems. The benefit our support model has on our broker’s businesses, is that time intensive tasks like lead nurturing and processing paperwork are handled by centralised teams, allowing the broker to focus on what they do best – directly interacting with their customers. The reduction of operational burdens and increase in productivity enables our brokers to build scale.
These processes benefit customers too, with fast-tracked speed to lodgement and turbocharged timeframes to unconditional approval.
The key enabler of our support model is the proprietary technology of the Lendi Platform. Typically, brokers are reliant on offline processes and the average loan could take 20 hours of work to process, with the customer facing weeks of uncertainty. Platform’s digitisation of the home loan journey decreases lodgement speed by up to four times.
Platform’s intuitive design and functionality is powered by our extensive team of engineers, and continually enhanced based on feedback from user experiences.
Our Associates and Client Solutions agents work on the same Platform as our brokers, and customers can also login to upload documents and have visibility on the progress of their application.
Platform also powers Lendi Group’s pioneering Approval Confidence technology, which currently integrates directly with nine lenders, providing a real-time indication of whether a loan will be approved.
Since the merge in May 2021, our experts have been working tirelessly on getting Platform ‘Aussie Ready’, and Aussie mobile brokers have now commenced rolling onto the system. All brokers joining the Group in the mobile channel from January 2023 will have access to Platform, with rollout in the retail channel also scheduled to commence in 2023.
If you are a prospective or established broker and would like to learn more about how Lendi Group can help you scale new heights, click here to get in touch
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