BONUS EPISODE: Top-ranked female broker reveals all

Tune in to find out how the Victoria-based broker generates leads, why she integrates insurance into her offering and how the diversification of applications and keeping up with the latest knowledge and policy products from the banks got her to the top.

We reveal:

• How she balances home loans and insurance needs
• The impact of word-of-mouth referrals
• Why her clients are “gold”

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Articles of interest:

Grow and diversify your business with Reverse Mortgages
ASIC on broker remuneration and ‘good consumer outcomes’
REA lacks ‘competitive advantage’ in broker channel
Opinion: Commissions are great for consumers

Full Transcript

Speaker 1: Welcome to the Elite Broker podcast with your host James Mitchell.

James:            Hello and welcome to a very special bonus episode of Elite Broker. I'm going to be your host for today. My names James Mitchell and I'm the managing editor of mortgages here at Momentum Media, and we obviously cover the advisor and mortgage business as well, but today we're going to be having a chat with Hannah Nguyen. Hannah is a loan market broker based down in Melbourne, and she is the highest ranked female broker in our elite business writers ranking this year. And we talked to her a little bit about how she finds working with loan market under a branded group and some really interesting stuff about how she manages her work and life together. Some very interesting insights to come out of this interview so do dial in if you're on your commute to work and check it out.

            Basically I just want to get a bit of comment from you about the figures in terms of the ranking this year so you rank number twenty in this years elite business writers and you were the highest ranked female broker this year.

Hannah: Yeah, that's correct. So I was at number twenty-one in the national at loan market between New Zealand and Australia last year. And this year I am number ten in the national top thirty in New Zealand and Australia.

James:            That's for loan market awards is it?

Hannah: Yeah, loan market awards.

James:            Excellent.

Hannah: And in Victoria, in digital leads, I'm in top three and I'm the only female broker in the top three.

James:            Wow.

Hannah: So they have two other guys who is ahead of me and then I would be number three.

James:            Would that be Josh Bartlett? Was Josh Bartlett be one of the brokers as well?

Hannah: That's correct. Josh Bartlett is number one.

James:            Yeah, that's right.

Hannah: And I'm number three.

James:            Yeah, he's made it onto our list this year as well as another loan mark broker. Who's definitely, he's in the top three of our list as well, and pretty impressive figures. But I just wanted to delve in to your story so how long have you actually been broking?

Hannah: Yes so I started mortgage broking seven years ago. With Aussie home loan for a year and then I moved to loan market six years ago so I have been seriously in mortgage broking for six years.

James:            Okay.

Hannah: And the whole time was with loan market.

James:            What made you move to loan market from Aussie six years ago?

Hannah: Aussie is a good model for someone who needs a lot of training but then loan market as some of the flexibilities that I like, such as better commission structure. That is number one and also I generate my own leads then I can get paid more compared to Aussie model.

James:            That makes sense, yeah.

Hannah: And also, and the name Aussie is a good name but loan market is a good name as well, but in the end it is about commission structure that fit my business better.

James:            Yeah, well I mean in terms of generating leads you know, like you said a lot of brokers struggle to generate leads and they really need that support from a big branded group. You say that you're actually able to generate your own leads. How do you go about that?

Hannah: Okay, so with my business is pretty much 95% to maybe 99% of the leads, I generate myself without receiving leads from Loan Market. So, what I do is, the principle is each time we look after a client, we make sure that the quality of the service is second to none. And then keep asking for referrals from each clients that you work with, so that they understand that that is where we help them get the loan, we help them to give them good service, but we also want some support from the clients as well.

            So, clients, we ... It’s gold for me, it’s gold. So every single client is like growing a tree, you need to make sure that you look after it, grow it and then you will get more fruit from that tree, and also with referral partners we need to make sure that we look after them in the way where we provide them with quick response. If we say that we can do the deal, especially the risk agents, we need to make sure that we need that we have good knowledge, so if they send us a lead, number one, we have to respond to the lead very quick. Number two, we need to make sure that if we can't do the deal, we say we can't do it. So for me, if I can't do it, I say I can't do it. If I can do it, then I tell them I can. So that gives the confidence in referral partner referring more and more business.

            So, I just do everything in the way that is honest, that is looking after my clients, looking after my referral partners and keep improving my service, then the leads just come through. But it has to be ... It took some time, however, if we follow the same process, customer service, knowledge and quality of the service, then the leads just keep coming and growing.

James:            Yeah.

Hannah: Then the leads just come through but it has to be ... It takes some time. However, if we follow the same process, customer service, knowledge, and quality of service, then the leads just keep coming and growing.

James:            That's really good so word of mouth referral very important.

Hannah: Yeah, that's correct. So, for example, last year, 80% the loan that I settle are coming from incoming calls from the clients' referrals. So, that is really, really important, the word of mouth.

James:            Yeah, yeah, and in terms of your figures its sort of broken down obviously the bulk of your business is coming through residential mortgages. There's a bit coming from other business but also, insurance. It looks like there was decent number of insurance that you wrote or that you offered your clients over the last sort of twelve months or so. Tell me a bit about the insurance offering in terms of how long have you been offering insurance to your homeland customers and how did you integrate that into the whole process?

Hannah: Yeah, so, to be honest with you, I have been really, really good with mortgage protection insurance, which I now include in my process to make sure that all that clients are offered the protection, which is good for the loan book and at the same, it's good for the clients so that they know these other options available for your as a backup plan, for anything that may, unfortunate, happen to their situation. But with general insurance, we are very good with that, for home insurance and home and content insurance and even some car insurance as well. So, that one, I sell with high percentage when we ... And we've got Allianz, which is one of the most reputable insurers as well. So, that is where, as I tell you, general insurance is really good, but mortgage protection insurance, we start putting it into the process to make it regular.

James:            What's the feedback you get from your clients when you sit down and have that discussion, so you've spoken about the home loan needs and then you're talking about the insurance. Are they interested or they just want to get the home loan under way? What's the sort of reception you get from your customers when you talk about insurance?

Hannah: It depends on how you present it. If you create the needs for the client and if you believe in the product the clients will then agree and open to have the discussion. So everything with us is very much very natural. We don't sell ... just half selling. We just explain even with the home loans as well. We give them the choices, the options, and we will work with them to see which options they think would be suited to their situation and what would they like. And also with the insurance needs as well we discuss the needs. We mention to them why think that this one should be included or discussed in their situation.

            And once the clients realise the importance of general insurance, mortgage protection insurance, and other insurances then they will be open so of course there's going to be objections. It's just about how you handle the objections and overcome the clients concern and get all of their questions answered and in the end it is the clients decision. But if the more effort you put into that, the more you understand the product, the more you believe in the product, and the more you can sell.

James:            I just wanted to ask finally just before I let you go, about the last twelve months. Was there anything in particular which you found added to your success over the last year or so, in terms of ... I mean, the markets been pretty complex in terms of you know, lots of rake movements and policy changes and the interest only and the investor stuff. How did you find navigating that?

Hannah: Okay. So before we come to that question I just want to emphasise the model of my business, which is a little bit different from pretty much the majority of all the brokers out there. From the last five year, or six years, I have never travelled to any clients home. So all the clients come to see me in my office from day one when I started mortgage broking and I don't see clients on Saturday and Sunday, and my last appointment every day is at five p.m.

James:            Wow.

Hannah:         So that is the difference in my model and I know that I'm proud of being able to do that because I know that it is not easy, but I can do it. And I can still write a good amount of loans before the end and my figures just keep increasing every year. Regardless of how difficult the market is and how many changes there are. So what I have done differently is that number one, I always make sure that I update with the latest knowledge policy products from the bank. SO in the end that is the strength and the advantage that you can provide the clients so that they can see you as a specialist rather than seeing you as a sell consultant. So that is where I can differentiate myself.

            Secondly, just improving and diversifying my application. So instead of just getting yourself familiarised with only the vanilla deals, such as PAYG or low-LVR loans, we always upgrade to make sure that we can do nonconforming loans as well. We can do complex applications like multiple companies or trusts, or things like that. So that if we have ten leads, if you only know how to convert the easy deals then you can only convert lets say five. Its hard to get more but if you improve your knowledge then instead of converting only five deals, you can convert seven. So technically from that ten leads that you have you can convert ten more. By improving your knowledge, diversifying the type of applications you can do, and also understand the policy of more lenders rather than sticking to only some certain lenders. Because every lender has there only policy, there own constraints that they can offer but if you understand more products, more policy by upgrading your skill every day, then you have more to offer the clients and then the clients will be sticking to you.

            So I haven't done anything different I just love what I do.

James:            Yeah. Yeah.

Hannah: I have a passion for it and every time we have a difficult deal we don't give up. We keep working on it to make sure that we know that it's a deal. There must be a way to get it done. It is difficult, we know, but there must be a lender who can look into this. So, rather than giving up and say no, I ask my team, just do research, but it has to be quick, because the client can't wait for you for too long. So, work with the BDM, having good relationship with the BDM, having good knowledge and then analyse applications to see what we need to sort out in this situation and when we think this application will match, which lender we think that would possibly do this application and then just keep asking further and further until we have a solution. If it is ... That deal is not a deal, but we don't give up until we know that definitely there is no solution.

            So by just working hard, improving the knowledge, love what you do. That is where you just keeping selling more. So no secret.

James:            Fantastic, I like it. Just hard work and loving what you do.

Hannah: Yeah, that's correct. Hard work, love what you do, don't give up.

James:            I like it. Very good. Very well done this year. It's a fantastic result. I appreciate you taking the time to talk with us today. And we'll have to have you back on the show later on down the track, see how you're going.

Hannah: Not a problem. Thank you so much.

James:            Thanks Hannah. Alright that's all we've got time for this week. It's very good to chat to Hannah Nguyen and find out what she's been up to. Join us next time on Elite Broker and we'll be chatting to some of the top business writers in 2017, chat to you then.