Plan, process, direction

Data from the Mortgage & Finance Association of Australia (MFAA) shows the level of new brokers under the age of 30 has fallen from 11 per cent two years ago to just six per cent today.

While there has been talk of offering new brokers base salaries as an incentive to enter the industry, little is done to focus on how brokers can make money when they first begin – until now.

Over the last few years, Loan Market has spent time and resources perfecting its Broker Academy program.

The program is structured in such a way that it empowers brokers with the practical skills and qualifications they need to run a successful business.

The academy consists of many short stages to help brokers start writing loans sooner.

Loan Market’s business development manager and NSW/ACT academy manager, Zarko Jokic, says the program helps brokers build their foundation for the future.

According to Mr Jokic, one of the biggest problems facing new-to-industry recruits is a lack of sustained support.

“Brokers are thrown into the industry and forced to sink or swim straight away,” he says.

“Once they have obtained their diploma and Certificate IV, they are thrown into the deep end of the pool and expected to write a good volume of loans from day one. Without the necessary support, they drown.

“In this industry, brokers don’t earn money from day one. In fact, it can take months for them to start seeing the dividends of their hard work.”

This problem is exacerbated if they are not given the appropriate support.

“At Loan Market, we understand the value of ongoing support and we provide our new recruits with just that,” says Mr Jokic.

The three-pronged approach

Mr Jokic says Loan Market’s Broker Academy takes a “three-pronged” approach to business support: plan, process and direction.

In the first instance, Mr Jokic says it is vital that brokers entering this industry don’t do so blindly.

“They need to know what they are getting themselves into and understand the commitment they are about to undertake,” he says.

It is for this reason that Loan Market requires all of its new recruits to have a business plan or strategy in place before they even enter the Broker Academy.

“We have really in-depth conversations with our prospective brokers during the recruitment phase,” he says.

“We want to know they have a sound business plan in place and we want to know the details of that plan.”
According to Mr Jokic, the broker business plan must detail the ways in which brokers will generate their own leads.

In addition, the plan must include a formula explanation of how these leads will result in business being written.

Finally, the plan, which is no more than 90 days in length, will identify three professionals the brokers are hoping to establish referral partnerships with.

“We then take these plans and work on them with the broker,” says Mr Jokic.

“We show brokers how they can turn potential referral relationships into a good source of leads. They must also understand that to receive leads, they must be willing to give. No relationship works if one person is doing all of the giving.

“In this industry, you must give to receive. And, in the first few months, you must be willing to give more than you get, as this will establish a sense of ‘good will’.”

Ultimately, every plan is massaged and critiqued for the broker’s benefit.

“I guess you could say 70 per cent of the plan is theirs and 30 per cent is ours,” Mr Jokic explains.

Once the plan is in place, Mr Jokic says Loan Market provides brokers with the processes needed to make their plans come to life.

“We provide them with direction and scripts to help put their plans into practice,” he says.

“In this instance, you could say 80 per cent of the processes are ours and 20 per cent are theirs.”

To establish the various processes, Mr Jokic says each broker gets a one-on-one consultation with their business development manager (BDM) each week.

In those meetings, the BDM and the broker touch on the ‘process phases’.

Planning the process

The process phases include referral strategies, local area marketing and pipeline management, to name a few.

“All in all, there are 12 steps in the sales process,” Mr Jokic says.

“The weekly catch ups allow us to help our brokers implement each step successfully into their processes, so they can achieve high conversion rates from day one.

“We want our brokers to be successful enough to have money coming through the door from the first month onwards.

“To do this, we know we need to provide them with a high level of support in the first instance. We not only teach them what the sales processes are, we help them integrate them into their business and then review their loan applications before they are sent to the lender.

“By reviewing the broker notes and supporting documentation our brokers are preparing to send off, we can ensure declines are low and brokers settle loans early on in their career.

“We like to think our help is pushing our brokers in the right direction.” And it seems Mr Jokic couldn’t be more right, judging by the level of success the program has already achieved.

According to Mr Jokic, most of the Broker Academy members will settle just shy of $3 million a month – not bad when you consider most of the academy participants are new to the industry.

“They come from all walks of life,” he says.

“Some will come from a banking background, while others have come from a corporate background and are looking for a new challenge.”

While the brokers do come from different career backgrounds, Mr Jokic says they all have a few things in common – drive, determination and the power to influence others.

According to Mr Jokic, writing loans can be taught. What can’t be taught is a good attitude and a determination to help others into their dream home.